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Fun and Functional: Wireless Convergence, Coming Soon to a Mobile Phone Near You

Speech Applications & Solutions



Speech Applications & Solutions Featured Article

 

 

May 23, 2006

Fun and Functional: Wireless Convergence, Coming Soon to a Mobile Phone Near You

By Mae Kowalke, TMCnet Associate Editor

 

Imagine a world in which a single technological device lets you make purchases, get work done while away from the office, stay in touch with friends and family, listen to music, access your bank account, map trips to and from various destinations, find the phone number for a restaurant or taxi cab company, take photographs and record videos, create and publish blog entries, and unwind by playing games.

 
What device might that be? Why, your mobile phone, of course.
 
Now imagine that most, if not all, of those applications are accessible simply by speaking into the phone or swiping your finger across a touchpad.
 
The technology for these applications is available today, Jim Burke, VP of Communications at AuthenTec, recently told TMCnet.
 
In fact, Burke said that today in Asia, mobile phones are available that include the following features:
  • Video camera
  • Still camera
  • Stereo speakers
  • GPS
  • Music download capabilities
  • Mobile commerce functionality
  • Biometric sensor pad
  • Online banking applications
  • 3D gaming capabilities
These features are not yet all available in the U.S. (in some cases because supporting infrastructure hasn’t been installed), but they’re on their way, Burke said.
 
Recent improvements in the areas of interactive voice response (IVR), biometrics (touchpads), and nearfield technologies are making these applications not only possible and useable, but also beneficial and desirable.
 
Speech Interface
 
In the wireless industry today, there is increasing demand for platforms that make mobile phone applications accessible using speech, said Peter Mahoney, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing at Nuance (News - Alert).
 
That demand is being driven by two main developments, he said: platforms are becoming more powerful, and networks are now much smarter than they used to be.
 
“People have a permanent connection to data networks on their phone,” Mahoney told TMCnet. He added that this connection gives users access to information that is hard to interact with using only the 12 buttons on a mobile phone keypad.
 
For example, one application that’s becoming popular on mobile phones is search.
 
“People used to be limited to dialing directory assistance to get information,” he noted. Now they can access that same type of information using their mobile phones. There’s just one problem: it’s very difficult for people to input search strings using a keypad.
 
“Speech is a much better way to control and navigate lots of content and data,” he said.
 
In Search of a Better, Safer User Experience
 
Speech interface is ideal for the following applications, Mahoney said:
1. Communications
2. Search
3. Device control
 
When it comes to user experience, each of these applications has limitations on most phones in the U.S. today. Manufacturers and service providers are working on better mobile applications, but a truly usable interface is still missing in many cases.
 
“The key thing we need to do is pull together a much better user interface,” Mahoney said.
 
Speech interface is the solution, he said. It addresses not just the user experience, but safety issues as well. For example, mobile phone users who insist on performing text-messaging tasks while driving would be much, much safer if they could do so using their voice instead of their hands.
 
Motivations of Wireless Industry Segments
 
The wireless industry can be divided into three main segments, Mahoney said: carriers, manufacturers, and application/content providers
 
In the process of looking out for their own interests, each of these segments plays a role in driving the adoption of new wireless technologies.
 
Carriers are mostly concerned with finding new ways to generate revenue, he said. In the U.S., most wireless service plans include a large chunk of minutes, which means the amount of time users spend on the phone doesn’t affect revenues for carriers as much as it used to.
 
Instead, fee-based network services—such as text-messaging plans that charge per message—are the big money makers.
 
It stands to reason, then, that carriers are motivated to make the Internet more accessible via mobile phones.
 
Manufacturers have a slightly different, but related, perspective.
 
“They need to differentiate their devices and make them attractive to the carriers,” Mahoney said. Carriers, of course, are looking for features that make advanced service capabilities more accessible to users.
 
Application and content providers make up the most diverse segment of the market. That segment includes companies like Nuance—which provides speech and imaging solutions—and distributors of content such as ringtones.
 
“There’s a multi-billion dollar industry in ringtones,” Mahoney noted.
 
Nuance’s Role
 
Nuance straddles the line between carriers and manufacturers by developing technologies that help both those segments provide and popularize new mobile phone applications.
 
Currently, Mahoney said, the company is focused on speech interface and its applications for device control, communications, and search.
 
The use of speech interface for device control, he noted, is available today from Nuance in the U.S., in phones made by more than 30 different manufacturers. It’s used for functions such as voice-activated dialing and playing music files.
 
Nuance offers two flavors of speech interface for communications: a limited version built into phone, which will be available in the U.S. in the next few months; and a more robust version that is delivered over the network, currently in trials and slated for availability late in 2006.
 
Also currently in trials by Nuance is speech interface for search applications.
 
“Once you get to the point where you can use your voice to enter in as much text as you can say, it opens up lots of applications—some you can imagine, and some you can’t,” Mahoney said.
 
Once available, this type of speech interface will be useful for a variety of industries, including shipping, insurance claims, and sales force automation.
 
“The applications are quite endless,” he said.
 
Enter Biometrics
 
But speech interface isn’t the only way for users to interact with their mobile phones. Biometric (touchpad) sensors are now poised for widespread adoption in the U.S., Burke told TMCnet.
 
Burke’s company, AuthenTec, is a biometrics semiconductor manufacturer. More than 8 million of its sensors are in use worldwide, nearly 5 million of those in mobile phones.
 
The company’s sensors are small (about the size of a pencil point), inexpensive ($4 each) and accurate (failure rate of 1 in 100,000), Burke said. Those factors make them practical for mobile phone applications.
 
Fingerprint sensors from AuthenTec hit the Asian market in 2004, and are now being used there in 20,000 facilities, primarily for mcommerce applications.
 
The Promise of Mobile Commerce
 
When combined with nearfield technology, biometric sensors have the potential to open up the mcommerce market by turning mobile phones into portable wallets.
 
Nearfield technology, Burke explained, is what’s used in devices that are waved in front of a sensor at close range (10-12 inches) to complete a transaction. An example is EZ Pass on toll roads in the U.S.
 
Mcommerce applications have two main functions, Burke said:
 
1. Ability to use a cell phone as debit card (portable wallet)
2. Ability to purchase items on-screen at sites like amazon.com or walmart.com.
 
Biometrics + Nearfield Technology = Portable Wallet
 
Portable wallets require nearfield technology, Burke said, and the supporting infrastructure is just now being installed in Europe and the U.S.
 
In Asia, testing of nearfield technology began in 2003. Today it’s available there in 20 different mobile phone models.
 
The same type of testing is now taking place in Europe and the U.S. On a related note, AuthenTec is currently testing biometrics in the U.S., at sporting event venues and other locations.  
 
“We believe you'll see the first biometric-enabled, mcommerce phones in 2007,” Burke said.
 
He added that industry research firms like ABI and Gartner are predicting that, by 2010, 50 percent of mobile phones will have mcommerce capabilities.
 
A recent survey by AuthenTec echoed that finding: 40 percent of respondents said they’re willing to pay more for a phone that can be used for mcommerce tasks.
 
Other Applications for Biometrics
 
The biometric sensors made by AuthenTec are now accurate enough to take on functions similar to hotkeys or touchpads on notebook computers, Burke said. They can be used, for example, to play particular songs or launch favorite websites. Because each finger has a unique print, users can set ten different shortcuts.
 
Burke told TMCnet that there are two main types of biometric sensors: touchpad and slide sensor. AuthenTec is now starting to phase out touchpads, because slide sensors are smaller, less expensive, more accurate, and have more applications.
 
Slide sensors can provide the type of features and functions normally associated with desktop PCs and laptops, he added. This type of sensor on computers first caught on as a security feature, but then people saw other applications as well. The same thing is now happening on mobile phones.
 
Biometric sensors also have some important applications for mobile game-playing. Because gamers are accustomed to using joysticks and touch-pads to navigate through games, using a keypad or switches on a phone is cumbersome and frustrating.
 
“The ability to use a sensor as a touchpad or joystick means you can play a game very similarly as you might on a home computer or game console,” Burke said.
 
Technology Adoption: Chicken or Egg?
 
As is often the case, adoption of a new technology like biometrics can be a chicken-or-egg proposition, Burke told TMCnet.
 
“The operators and the manufacturers don’t want to proceed unless there is a desire,” he said. But, of course, users won’t widely adopt the technology until its availability and affordability increases.
 
Ah, there’s the rub.
 
In the case of biometrics, it could be that the merging of PDAs, mobile phones, cameras, and portable music devices will help break through the initial barrier to adoption.
 
Convergence (News - Alert)
 
Mobile phones with a variety of functions built-in are very appealing to consumers, many of whom would like to trim down on the number of devices they carry around with them, Burke said.
 
Instead of porting around a phone, wallet, and music player, he predicted, soon you’ll only need one device—a device that will look and act something like a combination between a mobile phone and a PDA.
 
“Phones are providing more PDA-like functions, and PDA are starting to add more phone-like functions,” he said.
 
The main difference in the U.S. between phones and PDAs, he added, tends to be screen size and whether or not the device includes a QWERTY keyboard.
 
The line between multiple wireless devices is being blurred as battery life, processing power, and memory continue to improve. These improvements, Burke told TMCnet, benefit manufacturers, service providers, and consumers alike.
 
Back to the Segments
 
Service providers and manufacturers are intricately tied together in their needs to differentiate and increase revenues, Burke noted.
 
A phone manufacturer may include a particular feature in its phones, but that feature needs to work well with services offered by carriers. The same is true in reverse.
 
Better physical capabilities on phones—such as improved sound quality and higher screen resolution—help create better user experiences, and that in turn drives demand for both phones and services.
 
Increased demand is good for manufacturers (who need to differentiate their products) and service providers (who are concerned about ARPU, or Average Revenue Per User).
 
Mobile Applications – Now and in the Future
 
In the U.S., Burke said, music downloading capabilities are the newest, hottest mobile phone application. Cameras on phones are also popular, and “GPS is very slowly starting to appear in very high-end models.”
 
He predicted that the mobile phone as portable wallet will appear in the U.S. market sometime during 2007, and will be very popular.
 
Mahoney cited search as one of the most promising applications for mobile phones, especially when combined with the power of speech interface.
 
“It can be incredibly powerful to do voice-based web searches on a wireless phone,” he said. “It opens up a ton of exciting new applications for people.”
 
One such application is mobile blogging. Using speech interface, users will be able to speak their message instead of type, creating on-the-fly blog entries.
 
Mobile phones used to have a single function: voice conversation. Today, they’re being used much more broadly as communications devices, Mahoney noted. That includes everything from texting to e-mail.
 
“No-one could have anticipated the level at which people are using cell phones for communication,” he said.
 
It’s not just about communication, of course.
 
“We’re seeing an awful lot of interest in the entertainment side of phones,” Mahoney added.
 
As it turns out, ‘wireless convergence’ really means combining the fun (music, games, etc.) with the functional (mcommerce, search) in a single device.
 
Indeed, that is the larger story here: more functionality, fewer things to carry around.
 
“The biggest surprise is not the individual features as much as it is the ability to combine so many on an individual device,” Burke said.
 
-----
 
Mae Kowalke previously wrote for Cleveland Magazine in Ohio and The Burlington Free Press in Vermont. To see more of her articles, please visit Mae Kowalke’s columnist page.
 





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