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ScanSoft, Inc.,a global leader of speech and imaging solutions, today announced that NAVIGON GmbH, a leading provider of mobile navigation solutions, selected its VoCon(R) 3200 Embedded Development System 2.0 to speech-enable MobileNavigator 5, the latest release of NAVIGON’s award-winning navigation software. VoCon 3200 Embedded Development System 2.0 is a complete development suite that adds speech recognition to a variety of automotive, mobile and other embedded or PC-based applications.
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MobileNavigator software for PDA devices will be available as a modular package system consisting of software and map data for more than 27 countries in Europe and will be sold with Medion PDAs.
“The integrated speech recognition in MobileNavigator 4 was so well received that we extended its integration in our latest release, MobileNavigator 5. The product enables users to comfortably and safely access route information and directions for home, work or to the airport while on the road,” said Florian Singer, Executive Director, Marketing and PR NAVIGON GmbH. “ScanSoft’s speech recognition solutions offer outstanding quality, and add an important element of comfort and usability for our customers.”
With more than half a million units sold in 2004 (source: Canalys), NAVIGON’s MobileNavigator products are recognized for their innovative features and exceptional performance. The new program is available as a Bluetooth variant with or without automatic traffic jam avoidance and provides NAVTECH map data for 27 European countries, North America and the Gulf region (GCC). A completely revised user interface equipped with many new features is at the heart of the MobileNavigator 5 and makes the system easier, more intuitive and faster to use. ScanSoft’s speech recognition technology enables fast and easy access to navigation data and delivers the benefits of hands-free, eyes-free interaction.
“We are delighted that once again Navigon has chosen ScanSoft to speech-enable its latest generation of MobileNavigator. Using voice commands instead of a stylus when retrieving information from a PDA vastly increases convenience, efficiency and safety,” said Peter Hauser, senior vice president and general manager for ScanSoft International. “MobileNavigator 5 with speech recognition is an illustration of broad acceptance of speech recognition and an accelerated drive for more consumer and corporate speech applications.”
Industry-Leading Speech Recognition Software Optimized for Mobile and Automotive Applications
The VoCon 3200 speech recognition engine has been designed to further streamline the interface between people and technology. This latest version features extensive improvements in overall accuracy, significant memory and CPU savings and new tools to accelerate the development of highly accurate and effective speech applications. VoCon 3200 has been tuned to provide superior functionality, accuracy and performance for mobile and automotive applications, including Voice Activated Dialing (VAD) and Voice Destination Entry (VDE).
VoCon 3200 Embedded Development System 2.0 includes libraries for WinCE v4.2 / PocketPC 2003 to allow an easy integration into PDA-based applications and comes with an extensive API description, sample program code and demo applications.
Navigon’s MobileNavigator makes use of an optimized speaker-dependent recognition algorithm implemented in VoCon 3200 2.0. Users are now able to add a speaker dependent-voice tag to a destination. VoCon 3200 fully supports training the voice tags in a quiet environment or in a stopped car and entering a voice destination in a noisy environment, i.e., while driving. Rather than pure pattern recognition VoCon 3200 uses the existing noise-robust acoustic models even for the speaker-dependent user words and makes use of ScanSoft’s huge automotive speech databases recorded in car environments covering a wide range of different car models and driving conditions.
About Navigon
The navigation specialist has been operating for over fourteen years in this market – not only as supplier to car manufacturers, but also as manufacturer of mobile and automotive navigation solutions for end customers. The distinguishing features of the NAVIGON software architecture are its modularity and portability to a wide range of hardware and operating systems. These properties allow users of NAVIGON to find their way using their mobile, personal digital assistant, notebook or on-board computer. NAVIGON was founded in 1991 and operates with headquarters in Hamburg and Wurzburg in Germany.
For press photographs please go to: http://www.navigon.de/ Media Informationen (Media Information)
User name: navigon; password: @media
About ScanSoft, Inc.
ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT) is a global leader of speech and imaging solutions that are used to automate a wide range of manual processes – saving time, increasing worker productivity and improving customer service. For more information regarding ScanSoft(R) products and technologies, please visit http://www.scansoft.com/.
Trademark reference: ScanSoft, VoCon, and the ScanSoft logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of ScanSoft, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. All other company or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
The statements in this press release that relate to future plans, events or performance are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with market trends, competitive factors, and other risks identified in ScanSoft’s SEC filings. Actual results, events or performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements that speak only as of the date hereof.
ScanSoft Belgium BVBA
Vanessa Richter, + 32 9 2398031 Vanessa.richter@scansoft.com or Jonna Schuyler, 978-977-2038 jonna.schuyler@scansoft.com