Originally published February 21 2006
Toyota seeks to bring voice commands to cars
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Toyota has partnered with VoiceBox to allow people to speak conversationally to operate electronics in their cars. VoiceBox recently signed a deal to add the voice-search capability to XM Satellite Radio.
"There's fairly significant demand for 'button intensive' features in the car (like) dual climate zones and satellite radio," which has more than 120 channels, said Jim Pisz, national manager for partnerships at Toyota.
"The future for us is in the ability to control all of these features by voice."
Of course, it may be a few years before mass-production vehicles synchronize electronic devices for voice control, but momentum is building for features that let people ask for driving directions or call a friend without using their hands.
Last week, for example, Toyota partnered with a relatively unknown voice-search specialist, called VoiceBox, in Bellevue, Wash.
In development for roughly three years, VoiceBox's technology differs from established voice tech on the market because it allows people to speak conversationally to operate car electronics, rather than having them memorize and deliberately sound out commands.
VoiceBox recently signed a major deal with XM Satellite Radio to add voice-search capability to its channel-rich service, which is available to more than 6 million people in the United States, many of whom listen in the car.
Many high-end to midrange vehicles like Lexus and Honda's Acura include voice command features for driving directions.
But those technologies have long delivered a frustrating experience to consumers, thanks to a limited vocabulary of commands or poor recognition of synonyms and accents.
It was founded in 2001 by Bob Kennewick, a Harvard University associate professor with degrees in economics and computer science.
For example, a request like: "Let me hear Cisco" could translate to the technology as a request to hear the singer Sisco, get a stock quote on the company Cisco Systems, or listen to the Johnny Cash song, "Cisco Spilling Station."
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