Sensory Unveils Domain Specific Voice Assistant for Smart Appliances

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Dec. 24, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Sensory, a Silicon Valley company pioneering AI at the edge, today announced the release of its domain specific assistant for smart appliances – a specialized model of TrulyNatural, the company's large vocabulary speech recognition and natural language understanding platform, that has been designed for home appliances. This technology will help appliance manufacturers create a new wave of smart kitchen appliances that don't relay voice requests to the cloud.

Voice adoption in consumer electronics continues to gain significant traction, but as more voice-enabled products powered by cloud-based voice services enter the market, more privacy concerns are uncovered. TrulyNatural is the perfect solution for addressing these consumer concerns, because it enhances products with an extremely intelligent natural language user interface, while keeping voice data private and secure; voice requests never leave the device, nor are they ever stored.

"There are certain products where having a cloud-connected voice assistant capable of playing music, checking the weather and telling you a joke makes sense, but there are countless products where it would be unnecessary," said Todd Mozer, CEO at Sensory. "TrulyNatural is the perfect solution for device makers that want to create powerful products capable of understanding and responding to spoken commands, but don't need the added complexity, component costs and potential privacy risks associated with leveraging a cloud-based voice services platform."

TrulyNatural provides a flexible voice UI that can be integrated into devices of all shapes and sizes. It delivers an ideal user experience for domain-specific applications, such as home/kitchen appliances, vehicle infotainment systems, set-top boxes, home automation, industrial and enterprise applications, mobile apps and more. Designed to run completely on an application processor, all TrulyNatural speech processing is done natively (at the edge), not in the cloud. It enables a safe, secure, consistent, reliable and easy to implement experience for the end-user, free of requiring any extra apps or WIFI to be setup or operational. It can also be paired with Sensory's TrulyHandsfree wake word technology, giving device makers the ability to use their own desired wake words instead of having to use another company's or potential competitor's branded wake word. Sensory's TrulySecure technology can also be integrated to provide biometric-based security and user control features, allowing homeowners to limit who can use the appliances and/or certain features based on whose speaking to the device.

TrulyNatural currently supports US English, with UK English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish planned for release in 2020. SDK's are available for Android, iOS, Windows, Linux and other leading platforms.

Midea MCA, a global leader in home microwave appliances, is the first customer to adopt this technology into their products. The fruits of this relationship can be experienced at CES 2020, where both companies will be showcasing a new microwave oven capable of understanding naturally spoken requests, without sending a single Bit of data over the internet.

"When it comes to scientific and technological innovation in the home appliances industry Midea is committed to play a leadership role. We firmly believe in 'consumer-first technology' and strive to maintain a technological advantage through teamwork and innovation. By teaming up with Sensory we are able to not only modernize the consumer experience offered by our products but do so in a way that addresses the increasingly alarming privacy issue that concerns many consumers worldwide," said Dr. Scott Sun, Deputy Director of Midea MCA.

View a video demo of Sensory's Domain Specific Voice Assistant for Smart Appliances embedded in a Midea MCA microwave oven prototype here: https://youtu.be/uB5R5j-QeLM.

Sensory will be showcasing the microwave oven prototype at CES 2020 by appointment only. Journalists interested in seeing the microwave demonstration can request a private meeting with Sensory at the following link: https://email.sensory.com/sensory-at-ces-2020.

For more information about this announcement, Sensory or its technologies, please contact sales@sensory.com ; Press inquiries: press@sensory.com.

About Sensory:

For over 25 years, Sensory has pioneered and developed groundbreaking applications for machine learning and embedded AI - turning those applications into household technologies. Pioneering the concept of always-listening speech recognition more than a decade ago, Sensory's flexible wake word, small to large vocabulary speech recognition, and natural language understanding technologies are fueling today's voice revolution. Additionally, its biometric recognition technologies are making everything from unlocking a device to authenticating users for digital transactions faster, safer and more convenient. Sensory's technologies are widely deployed in numerous markets, including automotive, home appliances, home entertainment, IoT, mobile phones, wearables and more, and have shipped in over two billion units of leading consumer products and software applications.

About Midea Group

Midea Group is a world's leading technologies group focused on consumer appliances, HVAC systems, robotics and industrial automation systems, and smart supply chain (logistics). Midea offers diversified products, comprising of consumer appliances (kitchen appliances, refrigerators, laundry appliances, and various small home appliances), HVAC (residential air-conditioning, commercial air-conditioning, heating & ventilation), and robotics and industrial automation. Midea is committed to improving lives by adhering to the principle of "Creating Value for Customers". Midea focuses on continuous technological innovation to improve products and services, and to make life more comfortable and pleasant. 

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SOURCE Sensory