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Nuance gets jump on voice activated TV

By | January 9, 2012, 5:50am PST

Summary: Nuance’s move is notable as chatter about Apple delivering a TV connected with its Siri software heats up.

Nuance Communications, the leading voice recognition software company, is jumping into the TV market.

The company said Monday—at the International Consumer Electronics Show—that it will launch Dragon TV, a voice and natural language platform for TVs, devices and set-top boxes. The idea is that Nuance’s software would be included into these devices. Nuance’s move is notable as chatter about Apple delivering a TV connected with its Siri software heats up. Nuance appears to be going for broad partnership in multiple devices approach.

Also see: CNET’s CES coverage, ZDNet roundup

Dragon TV, the name of Nuance’s system, will be designed to allow voice to replace remotes and connect couch potatoes to content, Tweets and Facebook.

According to Nuance, Dragon TV will allow viewers to navigate listings, ask questions about content and timing and find genres to watch. Dragon TV aims to integrate social applications and communication tools, connect to listing and allow for messaging. Nuance’s Far-Talk technology will be able to hone in on your voice.

On the business front, the TV market is another key vertical for Nuance to exploit. The company is dominant in the auto, mobile and healthcare markets.

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Topics

Voice, Nuance Communications Inc., TVs, Tv & Home Theater, Telecommunications, Personal Technology, Home Entertainment, Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

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Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

Talkback Most Recent of 2 Talkback(s)

  • Voice control of TVs is just plain........
    STUPID!!! Just like a touch interface works for some applications and not for others, voice is fine for some, but not for others. And controlling a TV with voice is one of the applications of voice that makes zero sense. I will be very disappointed if the rumors that the new Apple TV whatever is voice controlled are true. I believe Apple has more good design sense than to do that!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Userama
    9th Jan
  • RE: Nuance gets jump on voice activated TV
    @Userama

    Agreed! I think it's more gimmicky than anything else. I certainly don't want to be yelling at my TV or set-top box from across the room.

    I could understand using Siri on your iPhone or iPad occasionally to command certain tasks on your TV ("Find ESPN" for instance), but I just don't see it as the killer feature of 2012.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    dave95.
    9th Jan

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