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Speech Recognition Provider Loquendo Lets Beatrice Speak Naturally

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April 14, 2011

Speech Recognition Provider Loquendo Lets Beatrice Speak Naturally

By Rajani Baburajan, TMCnet Contributor


Speech recognition solutions provider Loquendo (News - Alert)  announced it is offering voice capabilities to Beatrice, a new robot that has been employed as “hostess par excellence” at Stazione Futuro, one of the key events held in Turin to mark the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy.


The two-meter tall, 150-kilo robot can speak 30 languages in a natural voice, and can also sing and joke, thanks to the speech recognition technology provided by Loquendo. It can also move autonomously using the navigation system and laser sensors that reveal the presence of obstacles.

The robot was created by Arneis Interactive Robotics, an Italian robot company, as a means of a guide and information point for events and places like exhibitions, fairs, museums, airports, and more, where a large crowd is present. The robot will intrigue, excite and engage in playful and safe interaction.

“We are very proud to have given voice to Beatrice,” says Daniela Melfa, sales manager for Italy at Loquendo, in a statement. “Arneis is a young, dynamic company of tremendous creativity and innovation.”

“The public’s enthusiastic response and amazement confirms the ever-present interest in robotics and artificial intelligence,” Melfa added. “It is an acknowledgement of their ability, and often undervalued potential, to interact with and relate to people, young and old, male and female.”

A Telecom Italia (News - Alert) company, Loquendoprovides a complete range of speech recognition solutions for telephony, mobile, automotive, embedded and desktop solutions. Loquendo TTS and Loquendo ASR, the speech recognition application from the company, allows people to interact with technology in the most natural way.

“With Loquendo, we have put our mark on the voice of Beatrice,” says Andrea Villa, CEO of Arneis, in a statement. “We didn’t just want Beatrice to speak; we wanted to create a personality. Loquendo proved itself to be the right choice for this project: excellently and intuitively designed software, achieving a level of sophistication which guarantees naturalness and creates exactly the right tone for our robot.”

Beatrice is currently on display at Turin’s ‘Officine Grandi Riparazioni’ and will be there until November 30, 2011.

Earlier this year, Loquendo announced the availability of its new digital personal assistant MyDA. MyDA is a combination of technologies from Pat and Samsung (News - Alert) Electronics Italia, and powered by Loquendo TTS. It will appear on all Samsung Apps on Galaxy S, Galaxy S Giorgio Armani and Galaxy Tab. It will also be available on Samsung Wave (OS Bada).


Rajani Baburajan is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of Rajani's articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Jamie Epstein







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