New Voice-Powered Search App Uses IVR System for Directions

In an effort to make it easier for the citizens to find what they are looking for, the speech technology expert Nuance (News - Alert) has come up with a new voice-powered search app, called Dragon Go! With the new app, the citizens will no longer need to ask the strangers about the way to the nearest supermarket, bank or café; their smartphone will do the job for them.

A search asking for directions for a specific venue will automatically launch the Maps app along with the route. According to the press release, the app can predict a user's intent and then displays side-by-side results from various content sources ranging from search engines to shopping sites and music sites. Interesting to note that the app supports over 180 content providers,

Designed initially for the English speaking users, Dragon Go! is currently only available in the United States in English. Plans are underway to release the app in the other markets, Dragon Go! sources revealed. Nuance is also forging ahead with plans to increase the breadth and depth of speech commands, officials said.

“We want to make it easier for you to go to your favorite site or app, and then interact in the way you're accustomed to,” chief technology officer of Nuance Vlad Sejnoha noted in a statement.

In the press release Nuance claimed that since it was released earlier this month Dragon Go! has received a positive reception on the Web. It also earned rave reviews from some popular technology sites. Users also gave favorable response, the company claimed.

The app has been criticized for making too many assumptions on user intent. The app does not understand queries, a portion of the users maintained. Issues relating to loading results have also been reported.

Despite short comings, this new app from Nuance is likely to give competition to Siri, another voice-powered personal assistant app that Apple (News - Alert) purchased in 2010, that uses speech recognition technology from Nuance.

“You might ask a specific question like,' What are the closing hours' for a particular business?' We are working on technology that can extract that kind of information, so when users ask for it they just get the answer”, Sejnoha proudly claimed.

This week Nuance Communications (News - Alert) announced the winners of its 'I Speak Dragon!' contest, which encouraged users of Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking and Dragon Dictate software to share their personal stories about how Dragon has enhanced and transformed their lives.

Madhubanti Rudra is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Juliana Kenny