On Friday we reported that Google will unveil an iPhone app that allows performing a Web search by simply speaking a command into Apple's popular phone. On the same day, telematics provider ATX announced that it has developed a system that let's drivers simply say what they're looking for and a vehicle equipped with on-board Internet access and a navigation system finds it.
ATX calls the application Browse By Voice, and it allows speech-enabled access to the Internet for local search and general Web searches while behind the wheel -- without having to remove your hands to type text into an in-dash display. "So, when a Google or Yahoo search engine main page is displayed on an in-vehicle display, the user will only have to say: "What's the weather in Boston?" to activate the search rather than having to type the phrase or use a knob to do the equivalent entry of a text stream," ATX says in a press release on the app.
ATX, which has already demonstrated the prototype app to several automakers, is betting that on-the-road Web surfing will soon become as common as iPod integration. And with Autonet Mobile, Chrysler and BMW all having introduced in-car Internet service since the beginning of 2008, and Mercedes set to debut a system at this week's Los Angeles Auto Show, that seems more like a reality than a longshot gamble.
ATX says Browse By Voice uses a natural-language platform so that users don't have to speak like a robot or memorize a list of commands. The company claims that a single request in casual language will initiate a successful search and that the system can account for dialects and adapts to a user's speaking habits.
In addition to search functions, ATX envisions Browse By Voice allowing drivers to send and reply to text messages and emails as well as manage social networks. And as a founding member of the Connected Vehicle Trade Association's dot.car initiative, which sets standards for in-car Internet, ATX says its voice-driven system makes checking your CarSpace page or IMing your peeps safer.
At least safer than doing it on your cell phone.
ateixeira says:
11:42 AM, 11/18/08
How do you pronounce the backwards "R" in Toys R Us? :)