MANHASSET, NY -- VoiceBox Technologies, a voice technology innovator, has entered into a strategic agreement with Toyota Motor Sales to develop in-car voice products and capabilities.
Under the terms of this multi-year agreement, Toyota and VoiceBox will deliver in-car voice innovations exclusive to Toyota and Lexus brands. In addition, VoiceBox is opening an office in Japan to expand its engineering effort dedicated to research, prototyping, as well as market validation and user studies.
Toyota began to deploy VoiceBox for advanced voice capabilities in the 2009 Lexus RX and more recently in Toyota’s Entune multimedia system.
VoiceBox’s patented technology determines context and intent from free form speech to dynamically accommodate a request. These capabilities allow VoiceBox (Bellevue, WA) to develop Personal Assistant applications for the automotive, personal navigation, computer/tablets and smart TV markets.
“We are excited to work with Toyota to develop innovative in-car voice products and capabilities. Our new presence in Japan will allow us to more effectively serve these efforts,” said Mike Kennewick, VoiceBox Technologies CEO, in a statement.
“At Toyota we feel advanced voice technology, that uses not just words but context, is key to helping our customers enjoy their vehicles in fun and intuitive ways,” said Jim Pisz, Corporate Manager, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. Inc.
According to the company, VoiceBox’s Cooperative Conversation technology enables a faster and more efficient Human Machine Interface (HMI) by providing the capability to clarify actual comprehension and action. A Conversational Language Processor (CLP) and the VoiceBox Voice Search Engine (VSE) provides the understanding what is being spoken and heard.
The company explains its goal this way: Variables such as stress and distraction affect what users verbalize. Words out of the expected vocabulary, stammering, pauses, noise, accents and quality of audio paths can cause requests to be distorted or confused. VoiceBox uses context and user intent to correct such “mistakes” and will often generate a correct query under the most difficult of circumstances. As a result, users of integrated devices in the car, on the mobile phone and in home networks can speak freely and naturally.
VoiceBox’s speech technology can run on in-car systems, smartphones, ‘smart TVs’, computers, tablets, e-readers, and personal navigation devices. The company’s technology is protected by 14 issued patents, 6 notice of allowances, with 11 patents pending.
Separately, at the International CES in Las Vegas this week, the company also partnered with Pioneer in its recently launched PAIS (platform for the aggregation of internet services), a voice-controlled device portal that provides a consistent way for consumers to access maps and routing and other sevices from multiple content providers.
The company was founded in 2006 by family members Mike Kennewick, Chairman, and CEO, who has over 24 years of computer software experience, including stints at Digital Equipment Corp., and at Microsoft; Rich Kennewick, President, who has over 20 years industry experience with Interleaf, Saros, FileNET, and Adobe Systems; and Bob Kennewick, CTO, who has over 15 years of software development experience.
VoiceBox Technologies to develop car talk with Toyota
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