Umanify Takes Loquendo Speech to the iPhone

Loquendo and Umanify, a start-up company developing innovative interactive digital assistants, have developed a speech-enabled Interactive Digital Assistant for Apple’s iPhone.

Umanify’s Interactive Digital Assistant (IDA) for Mobile is a client application powered by Loquendo Embedded TTS. By exploiting a client-based text-to-speech engine, this solution significantly lowers the bandwidth requirements on the mobile data connection, as information is transferred in text format, and the visual and audio rendering is processed locally, resulting in lower connection costs along with a rapid response.

Umanify’s IDA gives Spanish iPhone users mobile and speech-enabled access to the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX) Web site. Users can select the site content that most interests them and access it directly from their phones, complete with regular news updates, video content browsing, etc. This content is read out to them by one of Umanify’s Interactive Digital Assistants, using lifelike facial expressions synchronized with Loquendo’s expressive speech - providing users with a natural, enjoyable and highly effective interface.

"Umanify have created a genuinely pioneering application for a simple and enjoyable user experience," says Paolo Coppo, Loquendo VP of Marketing and Business Development. "Umanify have paved the way for more speech-enabled mobile applications, making access to Web content ever more satisfying and productive."

"User-centric technologies enable human activity in a variety of contexts, adapting to and serving the user satisfactorily, transparently, anywhere and at any time - and not the contrary. Umanify has successfully applied this concept to the ICEX digital assistant." Carlos Gonzales, director, IT division, ICEX.

"By integrating Loquendo speech engines with Umanify’s natural interaction technology and multimodal interfaces, ICEX’s digital iPhone assistant is one of the most advanced and innovative of the market", said Fran Martin, CEO Umanify.

Umanify’s ICEX IDA for mobile is also available for the latest Nokia smartphones, with new models being made compatible all the time, and will in the future also offer users Loquendo Speech Recognition technology for full hands-free interaction.