Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Nuance Nina - Now you app can talk too..

If your company has designed a smartphone app that requires a dialogue interface like that of Apple Siri, then here is Nina for you. Nuance, a company that specialises in Speech and dialogue technology solutions has developed Nina, a dialogue toolkit that enables businesses to design their own Siri-like apps that can talk to their customers. For instance, banks can develop apps that allows users to have dialogue interactions about their accounts, requests such as setting up a standing order or paying off a credit card bill and so on.

EPSON Moverio

Following Google Glasses, here is a competitor! EPSON has introduced Moverio, a wearable display device that doubles up as your sunglasses as well. It puts a high resolution in front of your eyes but also allows the user to see through it. It uses WiFi connectivity and works on Android JellyBean OS and there is a API for developers to play with. Costs 600 USD.


You can be a Jedi too!

A company called Thalmic Labs have come up with a new armband sensor that allows users to control their computing devices using arm gestures. A boring example would be, you can use hand gestures to control your powerpoint presentation. But imagine all the cool things you can do with it. Control your smartphone like make a call, your mp3 player, interact with your robot, etc. It may even be possible to use this alongside speech and then all you have to do is just swish your arm and chant your mantra. You wear it on your forearm and therefore it picks up hand gestures without actually sitting your palm or fingers. This reminds me of the Sixth Sense project at MIT where hand gestures are captured via a tiny camera.

http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/25/thalmic-labs-myo/

The company also provides developers with APIs to be able to explore new ways to user this sensor.