Tag Archives: voice recognition

Human Interaction Under Threat from NINA

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Nina stands for Nuance Interactive Natural Assistant and was launched on the iOS and Android platforms last August, allowing businesses to integrate the sophisticated voice recognition and natural language engine into their apps.

via Human Interaction Under Threat from NINA – the Virtual Assistant – IBTimes UK.

This sounds like an interesting development offshoot from projects like IBM’s Watson (the computer that beat the best humans on Jeopardy).  Then there’s this.

The days of human behind the counter or at the end of a telephone line at coming to an end. As voice recognition and natural language engines become ever more sophisticated, it may soon be hard to distinguish between an automated system and the real thing.

I am not looking forward to this day.  Perhaps this is what HAL tried to warn us about in 2001 A Space Odyssey.  Very prescient indeed.

iFlyTek’s YuDian—the “Chinese Siri”—is available to anyone with a mobile phone in China.

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iFlyTek has developed a series of text-to-speech (TTS) products and, more recently, speech recognition and the cloud-based speech tech platform, called Voice Cloud. Over the years, accuracy rates steadily improved and the technology found its way onto an ever-wider range of products.

Its Voice Cloud platform supports speech recognition, speech synthesis, and speech-input applications, and as of March of this year, speech understanding and “iFlyTek YuDian”—dubbed the Chinese Siri—to anyone with an Internet-enabled mobile phone.

via iFlyTek’s YuDian—the “Chinese Siri”—is available to anyone with a mobile phone in China. | MIT Technology Review.

Finally, its extensive network of 10,000 partners and developers has ensured the tech is available via a wide variety of devices, channels, and applications. The world’s largest network operator, China Mobile, recently took up a 15 percent share in the firm, further expanding its reach.