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Google's Nexus One Isn’t Afraid of Speech!

Yeah everyone’s writing about the new Google phone. I’ve heard various reports about it being underwhelming, and in-need of the marketing hype that Apple is so good at. Everybody loves to compare the iPhone with the Nexus One and talk about screen size, weight, camera capabilities, software, etc. Here’s my 2 cents on speech recognition and Bluetooth for these devices:…
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Why is it spelled "Led Zeppelin?"

My last blog was about TTS. When things aren’t pronounced right from a TTS engine, the linguists can go in and add “exceptions” so the standard pronunciation rules don’t have to apply in specific cases. Of course the easy way to get TTS to pronounce things right it to spell everything phonetically correct, then no exceptions or special rules are…
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"I talk to myself but I don’t listen" – Elvis Costello

The new Android OS doesn’t have this problem! I read about one of these devices with TTS (Text-To-Speech) built in and voice commands too, so of course I had to try one out. I put it into TTS mode where it speaks everything, hit the recognition button and it prompted “SPEAK NOW.” I said something like “Starbucks in Sunnyvale, California”…and…
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Phrase Spotting Offers New Opportunities for New products

We have had a lot of requests over the years for products that are always on and listening for a key “trigger” word. The challenge of this approach is making a “trigger” that doesn’t accidentally trigger when it is not spoken, but also doesn’t accidentally NOT trigger when it IS spoken. The trade-off between these two types of errors is…
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How Can A Consumer Electronics Manufacturer Survive???

I stopped at Walgreens last week to get some new blades for my razor. Usually when I go in to buy new blades I end up just buying a new razor with blades, since it usually costs about the same. This time was different…I bought an electric razor instead. It's an Eltron brand electric razor… a cordless rechargeable razor, which…
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