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VocalZoom Partners with Cobalt to Improve Speech Recognition

VocalZoom, a supplier of human-to-machine communication (HMC) optical sensors that enable a more natural, personalized and secure voice-control experience, will be collaborating with Cobalt Speech & Language to deliver an end-to-end solution for voice control in the connected car, head-mounted devices, and access control applications.

The two companies have signed an agreement to combine VocalZoom's optical HMC voice sensor technology with Cobalt's speech recognition engine, creating a comprehensive voice-control development platform for products that deliver near-perfect performance even in noisy environments with other people speaking in the background.

"I've been working to advance the state of the art in speech recognition technology for more than two decades and have achieved more performance improvements working with VocalZoom's HMC sensor in two months than would typically be seen in two years with conventional approaches," said Cobalt founder and CEO Jeff Adams, in a statement. "I believe we are now poised for unprecedented breakthroughs and a new realm of voice control product possibilities using this combined solution. It will open the next chapter in how we control our increasingly digital world."

Products that incorporate VocalZoom's HMC optical sensor can acquire and measure facial vibrations during speech and combine this additional data with the output from acoustic microphones to create an isolated, near-perfect reference signal, regardless of noise levels. VocalZoom and Cobalt have conducted tests under noisy conditions that show an almost 60 percent improvement for Cobalt's speech recognition engine with the VocalZoom sensor, using an acoustic microphone and noise reduction technology.

"We are pleased to be working with Cobalt and its team of industry leaders, who've been at the forefront of so many of today's speech recognition technology innovations," said Rammy Bahalul, vice president of sales and business development at VocalZoom, in a s tatement. "Together, we have demonstrated how easy it is to combine the VocalZoom HMC sensor with Cobalt's speech recognition solution, which will give consumer electronics manufacturers worldwide a platform for significantly improving their current products with no changes required to their existing speech architecture or noise reduction algorithm."

VocalZoom is working with Cobalt to create a product development platform with the HMC sensor and Cobalt's speech recognition engine so developers can speed time to market for significantly better-performing products based on their existing voice-control system architectures and noise-reduction technology. Each company will be contributing proprietary products and technology for the jointly developed platform, which will be offered to mutual customers under their own sales and licensing agreements.


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