SingTel deF!ND, powered by Novauris voice recognition optimized for Singapore, helps iPhone and Android smartphone users find local information easily by voice
CHELTENHAM, England and SINGAPORE, Nov. 10, 2011 — Google Voice Search on Android phones and Siri on the recently released iPhone 4S have thrown a worldwide spotlight onto automatic speech recognition ("ASR"). But SingTel, the number-one carrier in Singapore, realized that for technology of this kind to work really well on that cosmopolitan island something special was needed. The unique style of English spoken in Singapore, combined with a vocabulary drawn from a host of different languages and cultures, meant that merely importing a standard English language speech recognizer would not be enough. To help develop a voice-driven app meeting the needs of its subscribers, SingTel turned to U.K.-based ASR specialist, Novauris. By working with its British partner, SingTel succeeded in launching a fully localized voice search app called deF!ND.
With deF!ND, users can get details of virtually any restaurant, shop or other business in Singapore just by speaking its name. If you're looking for somewhere to have dim sum or you wonder whether there's a Filipino restaurant nearby, you simply have to speak the words and the app searches SingTel's extensive InSing database taking its knowledge of your handset's location into account and displays on the best choices. You can even get it to call a taxi for you.
Terence Lai, Director of Mobile Advertising of SingTel, explains: "We are delighted that deF!ND has been a hit with Singaporeans. We have put in a lot of effort to ensure deF!ND is able to recognize Singapore English, and this differentiates it from other voice recognition apps in the market."
Novauris President and Co-Founder, Melvyn Hunt, explains: "English spoken in Singapore is markedly different from western forms: some of its properties are more typical of East Asian languages. For ASR purposes, we had to treat Singapore English as a new language. In addition, we had to study and incorporate pronunciations of local place names and food items as well as names from the four corners of the world. We are delighted to be working with SingTel and look forward to exploring possibilities in other countries where SingTel operates."
About Novauris Technologies:
Novauris develops core automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology for spoken access to information stored locally in mobile devices or remotely on servers. Tasks supported on embedded processors include one-shot recognition of any U.S. street address and voice access to personal information stored on smartphones. On servers, tasks supported include identification of a spoken name and address from a set covering the whole population of a large country. Our technology has been licensed by major corporations around the world. For more information, please visit .
Contacts:
U.S. – Yoon Kim
+1 408 524 3094
Email
U.K. – Melvyn Hunt
+44 1242 678581
Email
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