Nuance

Company profile and core competances:

Nuance, Inc. is the leading supplier of imaging, speech and language solutions that are used to automate a wide range of manual processes - saving time, increasing productivity and ease of use and improving customer service. Speech recognition and text-to-speech solutions for embedded systems are one of the company’s core business areas. .

Nuance is headquartered in Peabody, Boston, with major development centers of embedded speech technologies in Aachen, Germany, for ASR and in Merelbeke, Belgium, for TTS. The European, multinational team does main product developments and the generation of languages. B-to-B operations with major European Tier-1 automotive suppliers for voice-activated navigation systems, audio control and car kits are running. The Aachen team coordinates Philips projects as well as mobile/cellular business activities. The teams in Peabody, Dallas and Taipei support worldwide operations.

Embedded Solutions

With millions of units deployed, Nuance leads the industry in providing embedded speech recognition and text-to-speech solutions that employ the latest technological advances. Combining best-of-breed technology and over 20 years experience from Lernout & Hauspie and Philips Speech Processing, and in the future also from SpeechWorks International Nuance has considerable expertise in a variety of embedded speech technology solutions – from automotive, mobile/ cellular communications to consumer electronics.

Automotive:

Hands-free and eyes-free operations are very important in today’s automotive environment. Automatic speech recognition and text-to-speech allows drivers to concentrate on the road rather than the car, promoting safer, more secure driving.

Nuance offers customized embedded speech recognition and text-to-speech technology that provides drivers with hands-free and eyes-free communication. It allows them to control car features using spoken commands and receive audio feedback. Applications range from voice-activated hands-free dialing; to voice command & control of car features and equipment such as radio and climate control; to on-board navigation and telematics systems.

Mobile/Cellular:

Nuance’s speech solutions provide a variety of convenient alternatives to management of mobile phones, PDAs, and handheld or palm-size PCs. Voice-controlled menu navigation and audio feedback of text information offers a simple and efficient means of usage. Additionally, voice-activated name- and number-dialing functionality allows communication in a hands-free environment (when driving, for example).

Other applications include address book manipulation; the ability to create, send, or listen to SMS or email messages; and web browsing. Many functions are easily activated via an individually defined keyword, which allows maximum flexibility for the user.