News

CSR adds text-to-speech to its BlueCore5-Multimedia platform

eXtension partner NowSpeak develops Mobile TTS for BlueCore

Cambridge, UK – 7 December 2006 – CSR (LSE: CSR.L) has further expanded the capabilities of its BlueCore5-Multimedia platform with the addition of NowSpeak Technologies to CSR’s eXtension Partner Programme. NowSpeak’s Mobile TTS software for BlueCore has been developed to run on CSR’s powerful Kalimba DSP, providing text-to-speech capabilities for Bluetooth headsets and in-car handsfree systems using CSR’s BlueCore5-Multimedia silicon.

NowSpeak Mobile TTS for BlueCore represents a big step towards a fully handsfree approach to communication. When a call is received on the user’s mobile phone, the name or phone number of the incoming caller is announced over the headset or car kit, allowing the user to decide whether or not they wish to accept the call. The TTS software automatically synthesises speech from the incoming text in real time, without the need to know the words in advance. This offers a significant advantage over pre-recorded speech systems which can only announce pre-defined words and phrases. Also, Mobile TTS technology offers voice prompts indicating the status of the Bluetooth device and instructions to improve usability.

“Our partnership with CSR is enabling us to move closer to our vision of putting Bluetooth devices at the centre of the user’s digital experience, allowing personalised voice-driven universal remote control,” explained Allan Davison, Commercial Director, NowSpeak Technologies Ltd. “We chose CSR’s BlueCore platform because it has been selected for more than 80% of all headset designs, opening a huge and growing potential market for our technology.”

BlueCore5-Multimedia is the only single-chip Bluetooth platform with a powerful 64 MIPS DSP and on-chip memory to support a host of third-party software for enhanced audio capability and expanded functionality to add increased value to mobile handsets, headsets and automotive handsfree systems.

The DSP-based platform also features enough power to support future software enhancements. Currently NowSpeak Mobile TTS for BlueCore offers caller ID, device status updates and an audio pairing guide in multiple languages including major European, North and South American and Mandarin. However, thanks to BlueCore5-Multimedia’s untapped processing power, NowSpeak expects to add support for additional languages, SMS and email reading as well as speech recognition for name dialling and music control and selection.

Richard Ord, SVP of CSR’s Wireless Audio strategic business unit (SBU) commented, “NowSpeak’s text-to-speech capability, running on our market-proven multimedia architecture offers a level of added value to our automotive, handset and headset customers that simply cannot be matched. Our decision to pursue a DSP-based architecture for wireless audio applications allows us to offer outstanding audio performance to our customers through our eXtension partnerships and encourage the mass market adoption of Bluetooth for wireless audio applications.”

 

NowSpeak appoints Excelpoint as distributor for Asia Pacific region
20/10/2006

NowSpeak Technologies, a leading supplier of speech solutions for mobile devices, announces that it is partnering with Excelpoint Systems who will distribute NowSpeak's Mobile TTS for BlueCore in the Asia Pacific region.

Excelpoint, who specialises in product realisation, providing time-to-market solutions and turnkey project management of electronic systems to box-build, will incorporate NowSpeak's TTS engine into their Bluetooth device reference designs.

"We are pleased to announce this partnership as Excelpoint has a proven track record in Bluetooth device development and production and it will enhance NowSpeak's presence in the region." said Allan Davison, Commercial Director of NowSpeak Technologies.

NowSpeak Mobile TTS for BlueCore is the world leading text to speech system for CSR's single chip Bluetooth solution. The TTS engine exploits the DSP capabilities of the BlueCore platform to enable to Bluetooth headsets and hands-free car kits to speak the name or number of the caller.

 

Mobile TTS for BlueCore solution available
25/5/2006

NowSpeak Technologies today announced the release its Mobile TTS engine for CSR's single chip Bluetooth solution, BlueCore™.  This world leading TTS solution allows the significant enhancement of Bluetooth headsets and hands-free car kits enabling them to speak the name or number of the caller.

"The benefits to the busy user on the move cannot be underestimated.  For the first time they will be able to hear the name of the caller and decide if they want to accept or reject a call." said Allan Davison, Commercial Director of NowSpeak Technologies.

In addition the user will also be able to hear devices status information such as "battery low" or "network coverage lost" warnings as well as receiving spoken guidance for activities such as pairing.

The NowSpeak TTS system provides a unique combination of natural sounding speech and small resource footprint which makes it ideal for mobile devices. It is a software only solution that exploits the power of the BlueCore DSP to synthesis speech from text in real time.

The TTS system is multilingual and supports the major European, North and South American and Mandarin languages. There are two versions of the system available one that speaks digit strings such as phone numbers and fixed phrase and second version that can speak callers name in addition to digit strings and fixed phrases.

 

Small-footprint text-to-speech engine now available
10/2/2006

NowSpeak Technologies have announced the release of their small-footprint text to speech engine for mobile devices that requires as little as 50K bytes. The new engine combines exceptional speech quality with low memory requirements.

The natural sounding text-to-speech system is available to license on the key mobile platforms with a range of languages and voices either on its own or in combination with our speaker independent speech recognition technology.

 

NowSpeak Dialler Voice Assistant released
21/12/2005

The latest release of the NowSpeak Dialler name dialling application has been further enhanced with a voice assistant that confirms the name and help you select the phone number to dial. Simply say the name and follow the voice prompts. No voice training required.

The application can be purchased on a ten day trial version for the Sony Ericsson P800/900/910 smartphone can be downloaded from Handango.