By Monica Alleven
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
You could say Nuance Communications is on a roll. The company's music search and destination entry speech technology are now featured as part of the BMW 2010 model series.
Nuance's speech technology has been integrated as part of BMW's new navigation system, dubbed Professional. The system is available in various languages and will be introduced throughout the United States and Europe beginning this month.
Speech technology has been available for many years in BMW's infotainment systems to support voice dialing and destination entry in the conventional multi-step approach. However, the latest technology advancements from Nuance enables a more "conversational dialogue" between drivers and BMW navigation and entertainment systems.
Drivers can search for music by voice and enter an entire destination address in one spoken command, ultimately reducing the distraction posed by manual input and limiting visual confirmation.
While debate continues over how much a conversation distracts a driver, Nuance says that surveys it has commissioned have shown that controlling in-car systems by voice is one of the most important features to reduce driver distraction.
Yesterday, Nuance and Verizon Wireless detailed how Nuance's technology is being deployed in the Samsung Rogue. Samsung Rogue users can access and launch applications and services with voice commands and have the ability to dictate text messages.