Evernote adds text-to-speech to Clearly Chrome extension, for Premium members only

DNP Evernote Clearly offers texttospeech to its Premium portfolio

If you ever wanted to catch up on your online reading while on the treadmill or puttering about the kitchen, Evernote now offers you the ability to do so without actually, well, reading. The online brain dump has introduced text-to-speech functionality to its Clearly extension for Google Chrome, a plugin that clears out ads and other distractions for a clean reading experience. While the Clearly extension itself is free, the text-to-speech feature is only for Premium accounts, each of which costs $5 a month or $45 a year. Words are highlighted as they’re read, and you can pause and skip as you like. The feature launches with support for over twelve languages and is powered by iSpeech, which has worked with BlackBerry apps and connected homes in the past. Just don’t accidentally blast TMZ articles during your next conference call, ok?

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Source: Evernote

iSpeech brings voice control to your home appliances

iSpeechIf the thought of walking across the room just to turn off the lights in your house sounds like a tiring job, voice activated controls might be just what you need. Well, the folks over at iSpeech think they have a solution, they recently introduced their voice command and control platform for connected homes. While it’s not a product by itself, iSpeech is a library of speech commands and contextual interpretation technology that home gadget makers can embed into their devices or access through iSpeech’s API.

It wasn’t announced which companies will be making use of iSpeech’s technology, but they hope to target OEMs like Samsung, Nest and GE’s TVs, smart thermostats and washing machines. Eventually iSpeech plans to invade the whole home, linking all your appliances together so you can easily perform a string of commands with just one phrase – i.e. “I’m going to bed” will turn off your lights, close your blinds and turn off the TV. Sounds like a great idea, but first we’ll need companies to adopt iSpeech in order to make it happen.

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By Ubergizmo. Related articles: LG’s 84-inch 4K HDTV now on sale – limited quantities available, AlertMe launches Iris,

iSpeech’s New Voice Recognition Platform Wants You Talking To Your Household Gadgets

ispeech-home

Newark, NJ-based iSpeech may be best known for its DriveSafe.ly app and the mobile SDK it launched last summer, but now the company plans to bring its speech expertise to a different environment — your home.

Today iSpeech announced the launch of a new voice recognition platform called (what else?) iSpeech Home for hardware manufacturers and OEMs to integrate into their household gadgetry.

“Speech is the user interface of the future,” said iSpeech COO Yaron Oren, who was quick to cite Siri as an influence.

Oren and the iSpeech team seem to take umbrage with the complex and confusing interfaces that have a habit of appearing in household electronics. Should iSpeech’s vision come to pass, users will eventually be able to issue verbal commands like “record ‘Doctor Who’ season premiere” to their televisions, or “turn off the lights in the dining room” to their home automation system.

Sure, voice controlled home automation isn’t exactly a new concept, as more than a few companies (not to mention plenty of devoted hobbyists) have put together their own solutions in recent years. The difference here is that iSpeech’s platform is capable of capturing and interpreting more natural voice commands, as opposed to simply relying on a preset list.

It sounds like potentially wonderful stuff, but as usual, it all comes down to adoption. If the voice recognition platform doesn’t pick up any steam among OEMs and hardware manufacturers, then there goes the ball game. That said, iSpeech already seems to have made some progress on that front. According to Oren, the company has already met with nearly a dozen companies (though he wouldn’t specify which ones) about iSpeech Home, all of whom are in “various stages of evaluation.”

Given that major consumer electronics players like Samsung and its eternal rival LG have pushed to make the living room smarter with a host of voice-recognizing televisions, it comes as little surprise that iSpeech’s platform has gotten the most attention from other television manufacturers. Makers of thermostats, security systems, household appliances have also expressed their interest in the platform, and with any luck we’ll soon be chatting with our dishwashers with wreckless abandon. Be prepared for a bit of a wait though, as Oren expects to have iSpeech Home-friendly devices trickle into the market within the next 6-12 months.


iSpeech intros voice recognition platform for connected homes, enables vocal control of TVs and appliances

iSpeech intros voice recognition platform for connected homes, enables vocal control of TVs and applicances

We’ve been seeing the growing trend of peculiar services like Cupertino’s Siri, Samsung’s S Voice and Google Now on mobile devices, but up until now, we have yet to spot something similar in the world of connected homes. Having previous experience in the text-to-speech department, iSpeech is hoping to be able to do just that with the world debut of its voice recognition platform for smart households. With iSpeech Home, the company’s aiming to give OEMs and manufacturers a canvas where they can implement voice recognition software into TVs, home entertainment systems, lighting, refrigerators and even washers and dryers — which would, according to iSpeech, open the doors to natural language commands such as “Watch ESPN” or “Turn off the lights in the living room.” As exciting as it all sounds, the company’s COO Yaron Oren did tell us there aren’t any official partners on board at the moment, but that he does expect to have iSpeech Home-powered products within the next 6-12 months.

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iSpeech intros voice recognition platform for connected homes, enables vocal control of TVs and appliances originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 12:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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