Hi Glen. I disagree with your statement that voice input is more important
to the sighted than to the blind. Voice input is simply a matter of
convenience no matter whether you are blind or sighted. I use voice
recognition on my ppc6700 which is a PDA with a cell phone built-in running
Windows Mobile 5 and a screen reader called Mobile Speak Pocket. I have
MicroSoft VoiceCommand installed on it, and it is wonderful to simply be
able to say play Kenny Gee and up comes Windows Media Player with all of the
Kenny Gee songs queued up and playing. This is convenience and nothing to
do with whether I am blind or not. It is also great to say call home or
dial 555-555-1212 and wait for the connection. Again, yes I can do it
myself as I have full speech feedback on my phone, but it is the
convenience.

I understand what you are saying about stereo typed impressions that people
have, but I certainly won't let that stop me from enjoying the same
conveniences that someone sighted does. Perhaps you haven't had the
pleasure of using a voice recognition system that honestly and truly works
well. MicroSoft VoiceCommand for Windows Mobile devices works almost
flawlessly. It really makes very very few mistakes, and it does what it is
designed to do extremely well. I think that if you experienced a system
that works really well you might change your mind, but of course each to his
own. Just my 2 cents worth.

--Best regards,

--Rick Alfaro
--rick.alfaro@comcast.net

-----Original Message-----
From: rockbox-bounces@cool.haxx.se [mailto:rockbox-bounces@cool.haxx.se] On
Behalf Of Glenn at home
Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 10:37 PM
To: Rockbox
Subject: Re: Nuance Communications and Gracenote Announce
Speech-EnabledMediaPlayer

I don't like using voice recognition for devices.
Too often people think that the Blind need voice recognition to use
equipment.
Also, I think many people don't understand the difference between voice
recognition, or voice command versus speech output.
I have a cell phone that I could talk to, but I prefer using the voiced
numbers to dial in the numbers. Voice input is more important to the
sighted who drive than it is to the Blind.
Glenn

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sarai D. Bucciarelli" <bucc7465@bellsouth.net>
To: "Rock Box" <rockbox@cool.haxx.se>
Sent: Monday, April 10, 2006 11:24 PM
Subject: Fw: Nuance Communications and Gracenote Announce Speech-Enabled
MediaPlayer

This is cool!

 ---- Original Message ------
From: "Bill Reif" <billreif@ameritech.net
Subject: Fw: Nuance Communications and Gracenote Announce Speech-Enabled
Media Player
Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 20:22:37 -0500

This is quite a story, given the fact that few MP3 players are accessible to
the blind. I had not considered, until recently, how speech recognition
could solve this problem while helping those who need to keep their eyes on
the road.

Bill

----- Original Message -----
From: Parker
To: Accessible Devices List
Sent: Sunday, April 09, 2006 12:01 PM
Subject: [accessible-devices] Nuance Communications and Gracenote Announce
Speech-Enabled Media Player

 Wednesday, April 05, 2006

 Nuance Communications and

 Gracenote Announce

 Speech-Enabled Media Player

 Applications for Mobile

 Devices

 CTIA Wireless 2006 - Expanded

 Partnership Delivers Full

 Voice Control of Music

 Collections on Mobile Devices

 LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS

 WIRE)--April 5, 2006--Nuance

 Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:

 NUAN), the world's leading

 supplier of speech and imaging

 solutions, and

 Gracenote, a global leader in

 digital entertainment

 technology, today announced a

 joint partnership to develop

 and market speech-enabled

 solutions for

 digital music collections on

 mobile devices. The

 partnership expands joint

 development efforts

 established in January 2005 to

 develop speech-enabled

 automotive

 entertainment solutions. The

 companies will demonstrate the

 new mobile functionality in

 Booth # 5044 at CTIA Wireless

 2006, being held this week in

 Las

 Vegas, Nevada.

 The joint offering provides a

 rich voice-activated interface

 to select a song, artist or

 playlist on MP3-enabled mobile

 devices. This combined

 solution

 uses underlying speech

 capabilities from Nuance and

 Gracenote's MediaVOCS phonetic

 database and playlist

 navigation to allow users to

 quickly and easily

 find and play the music stored

 on their mobile devices.

 Nuance's best-in-class

 text-to-speech engine for the

 mobile environment then

 delivers verbal feedback

 for hands-free and eyes-free

 activation and selection

 verification.

 "As handset manufacturers

 offer enhanced memory on

 mobile devices -- with

 expected capacity for

 thousands of songs within the

 next year - it is becoming

 increasingly difficult for

 consumers to navigate the

 large music collections stored

 on their mobile devices," said

 Marc Theeuwes, director,

 mobile products,

 Gracenote. "By working

 together, Gracenote and Nuance

 are making it easy for music

 lovers to access their

 favorite songs on mobile

 devices through speech."

 "Nuance's advanced natural

 language technology allows

 users to simply say 'play' and

 then name the song title,

 genre or artist," said Craig

 Peddie, vice

 president and general manager,

 Embedded Speech Solutions,

 Nuance. "There is no

 requirement for a strict

 command interface that must be

 used in order to

 make the MP3 player function.

 Combining Nuance's advanced

 speech recognition technology

 with Gracenote's extensive

 database of media information

 will also

 allow people to simple say,

 'Play the Boss,' and the

 player will use the

 information contained in

 Gracenote's database to

 recognize the nickname for

 Bruce

 Springsteen, and then start to

 play songs recorded by Bruce

 Springsteen."

 The combined Nuance and

 Gracenote solution allows

 mobile device manufacturers to

 quickly deploy speech

 recognition technology in all

 types of MP3-enabled

 phones and to pass on superior

 performance and usability to

 their customers.

 In addition, the solution will

 make it easier for consumers

 to manage and enjoy their

 mobile music collections by

 using voice

 command-and-control to:

      -- Navigate to all media

 instantly:

          -- Play any

 individual song out of a

 collection, just by

              saying its name.

          -- Instantly hear a

 new mix, such as music from

 specific

              genres, artists,

 albums, regions, decades, or

 years.

      -- Playlist instant new

 custom mixes:

          -- Describe any

 combination of qualities of

 the music they

              want to hear in

 natural language - such as

 "60s Detroit

              Soul" to generate

 new mixes on the fly.

          -- Keep in the mood

 of the song currently playing

 by asking

              for "More like

 this."

      -- Find information on

 artists and songs:

          -- Consumers will be

 able to get more information

 on a

              favorite song

 they've been hearing by

 asking, "What is

              this?"

 About Gracenote

 Gracenote is a leader in

 global digital entertainment

 technology. Formerly known as

 CDDB, Gracenote provides

 businesses with critical

 embedded software

 and metadata that enable

 consumers to better manage,

 enjoy and discover digital

 media. Headquartered in

 Emeryville, California,

 Gracenote also has offices

 in New York, Tokyo, Berlin and

 Seoul. Gracenote's solutions

 are embedded in leading media

 players such as Apple iTunes,

 Yahoo Music Engine,

 RealNetworks

 Rhapsody, Napster and AOL

 Winamp, as well as software

 applications for Creative and

 iRiver portable devices.

 Gracenote's technology powers

 leading home

 and automobile consumer

 electronics brands such as

 Alpine, Denon and Marantz,

 Kenwood, Panasonic, Philips,

 Pioneer, Samsung, Sony and

 Yamaha, as well as

 international mobile music

 applications for KDDI (Japan),

 KTF (Korea), Musiwave

 (Portugal), and Oi (Brazil)..

 For more information about

 Gracenote, please

 refer to

 www.gracenote.com/corporate/.

 About Nuance Communications,

 Inc.

 Nuance is the leading provider

 of speech and imaging

 solutions for business and

 consumers around the world.

 Its technologies,

 applications, and services

 make the user experience more

 compelling by transforming the

 way people interact with

 information and how they

 create, share, and use

 documents. Every

 day, millions of users and

 thousands of businesses

 experience Nuance's proven

 applications. For more

 information, please visit

 www.nuance.com.

 Nuance and the Nuance logo are

 trademarks or registered

 trademarks of Nuance

 Communications, Inc. or its

 affiliates in the United

 States and/or other countries.

 All other company names or

 product names may be the

 trademarks of their respective

 owners.

 Contacts

 Nuance Communications, Inc.

 Kristen Wylie, 781-565-5428

 kristen.wylie@nuance.com

 or

 Gracenote

 Marc Theeuwes, 510-759-3083

 mtheeuwes@gracenote.com

http://home..businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmVie
wI

 d=news_view&newsId=20060405005225&newsLang=en

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Received on Wed Apr 12 21:20:42 2006