At the recent Eurocucina exhibition in Italy, Indesit, Europe’s second-largest home appliances manufacturer, introduced Sophius, a prototype voice-controlled oven that uses speech technologies from Loquendo and Amuser, a multimedia solution provider.

Sophius is the first fully voice-controlled domestic appliance. Using voice—the most intuitive, natural, and immediate means of interaction—Sophius allows the user to set the cooking time and temperature or, if preferred, the preset program desired. Voice commands can be guided by Loquendo's expressive TTS prompts or said freely and naturally as the speaker wishes. Sophius is able to understand naturally spoken commands such as Cook the pizza at 180 degrees for 20 minutes.

Sophius is one of Indesit’s next-generation appliance concepts that was demonstrated at the Eurocucina exhibition in Milan in April, and embodies new technologies and design solutions to improve the quality of life at home. By incorporating Loquendo's speech recognition and text to speech technology, Indesit created a cutting-edge, pioneering solution that is set to transform the domestic environment.

"Indesit Company has always seen innovation as a priority for business development, for the creation of value and for sustainable growth," Silvio Corrias, Indesit’s director of innovation and technology, said in a statement. "Every year we completely renew at least 50 percent of our products, involving major investments.

"The collaboration between Loquendo and Amuser is part of Indesit’s innovation model, based on a wide-reaching system of networking that involves suppliers, producers of goods and products related to domestic appliances, universities, and research centers in Italy and abroad, allowing us to establish collaborative relationships from the initial phases of concept design and development," Corrias continued. "Sophius, incorporating Loquendo speech technology, received one of the most enthusiastic responses at Eurocucina."

"With Amuser's voice user interface, Loquendo expands its presence into home automation, a relatively new sector for speech technology," Paolo Coppo, Loquendo’s vice president of marketing and business development, said in a statement. "Loquendo is always searching for new and innovative applications for its technologies and the Sophius voice-controlled oven brings a new generation of VUI into the domestic environment, taking the strain out of household tasks."