No one likes a backseat griller, especially if you’ve spent years perfecting your bbq craft. But for those starting out, a little coaching can help avoid turning steak into charcoal. And Lynx’s voice-activated Smart Grill will actually ask you what’s going on the barbie so it can then recommend the perfect setting, placement, and grill times—no fathers-in-law required.
It’s all well and good being able to call upon your own pocketable Siri butler, but I don’t remember Bruce Wayne’s buddy Alfred relying on a Wi-Fi or mobile data connection before he could stitch up his crime-fighting boss.
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While we were all focused on sensors that fit on our wrists, Apple was quietly winning 38 patents for a system of sensors as big as a house.
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Adriá García of DIYMakers augmented a Wall-E toy by making it work with voice commands and giving it the means to move on its own and avoid obstacles. It doesn’t compact garbage or collect curios, but at least it can dance.
Adriá used an Arduino Uno as Wall-E’s new brain. Two infrared proximity sensors help the toy detect obstacles, actuators move its arms and head and two continuous servo motors power its tracks. Adriá used the EasyVR module for voice recognition.
AUTO, navigate to DIYMakers for more details on Adriá’s mod.
[via BonjourLife]
At the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), voice recognition specialist Nuance unveiled Dragon Assistant, a voice-activated personal assistant for Intel-powered computers and laptops running Windows 8. It’s not as smart – or sexy – as Samantha from Spike Jonze’s Her, but it’s a start.
Dragon Assistant works a lot like Siri, Kinect and other voice-activated assistants. To start using it, you just have to say “Hey Dragon.” From that point you can then use everyday language to open applications, search online and of course dictate text. The program’s voice can be set to either “British Butler” or ”American Female.” Aww man, no German Shepherd?
See that? Now we’re all Dragonborn. Nuance says Dragon Assistant is already available on various Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo laptops, ultrabooks, tablets and all-in-one computers, with ASUS and Toshiba computers to follow suit this year. Like other voice assistants, you’ll need an Internet connection to use all of Dragon Assistant’s features, although it can still execute certain commands even when you’re offline. Check out the Dragon Assistant support page for more on that.
[via Nuance via Gear Diary]
The best part of CES each year isn’t seeing the latest and greatest gadgets you’re going to buy that year — it’s seeing the burgeoning developments that are going to change how you use those devices in the future. Audience’s …
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According to Sony, the PlayStation 4 will feature a voice command system which will allow users to control the console by speaking to it—much like the Xbox One’s Kinect-powered system.
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Talking toys are nothing new, but most toys simply spout off pre-recorded sound bites. Not Supertoy Teddy. He’s a teddy bear that can actually hold a conversation, i.e. it will listen to what you say and respond accordingly. It’s like Siri, but in a stuffed toy.
Supertoy Robotics, the company behind Teddy, also made Jeannie, a voice-activated virtual assistant app for Android. In other words, these guys know a thing or two about natural language user interfaces.
I’m not sure if the toy in the video was actually working or if that exchange was staged. What I do know is that the Supertoy Teddy will work like Siri and Jeannie. And it sounds a whole lot like Ted. When you speak to it, it will connect to several servers that will decipher what you said and send back an appropriate reply. It will supposedly understand 30 languages out of the box. How will it do all of that? According to Supertoy Robotics’ response to backers, you’ll need to place a mobile device inside Teddy to make him work. The device will run Teddy’s app and will be the one to connect to the servers.
The video below, which shows Teddy’s innards, should give us a better idea of how the toy will perform in real life:
Hopefully Supertoy Robotics will give a no-frills demo of the final toy to clear up any confusion and show people what it can really do. But if you’re already sold, pledge about $64 (USD) on Kickstarter to get a Supertoy Teddy as a reward. I wonder if Teddy knows the Thunder Buddy Song.
DirecTV released their (long overdue) Android tablet app just over a month ago, and it looks like that low-key entrance was paving the way something bigger: a voice control rollout over both its iPhone and Android mobile apps. More »
Amazon has ponied up a cool $26 million for a company that builds a voice recognition app called Evi—yes, essentially a Siri clone—prompting speculation about a forthcoming phone from Bezos and co. More »
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