[infoshare] Re: World's first talking TV
- From: Eliza Cooper <eliza.l.cooper@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "infoshare@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <infoshare@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 13 Jun 2010 21:55:34 -0400
Who has connections in the UK who wants to get us some? :)
Eliza
Sent from my phone
On Jun 13, 2010, at 11:30 AM, "Lynne" <superlynne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Morning, All.
Hope I copied and pasted all pertinent info.
by Andy Sennitt
TVs that can talk to their owners are now a reality thanks to
British high-tech company, Ocean Blue Software. Expected in UK
stores by the end of the summer, the company’s low cost text-to-spee
ch technology, dubbed “Talk@TV”, is being built into set top
boxes from Korean company, Arion Technology, which will be branded a
nd distributed by major retailers in the UK from August.
The new set top boxes are like regular Freeview or satellite boxes,
but will be able to talk to their blind or partially-sighted owners
– advising, via speech technology, the TV programming schedule, for
example what’s on and when. Owners will be able to adjust the speed
and verbosity of the voice to suit their needs, choose to enlarge or
reduce font sizes and change background and text colours. A re-desi
gned and easy to use remote control will also be included.
The technology has been developed in partnership with digital TV
chip giant, STMicroelectronics, whose processors lie at the heart of
most TVs and set top boxes. Phase two of the development will
introduce voice activation technology to allow owners to talk back
to their TV sets – “channel up”, “channel down”, “volume
up”.
Ocean Blue’s Talk@TV will be available in different languages and di
alects; the UK version supports both the Scottish Gaelic and Welsh l
anguage for example. The technology behind Talk@TV is a derivative o
f the pioneering work and development between the Royal National In
stitute for the Blind (RNIB) and Ocean Blue over the last three year
s. The development won an IABM Award for Excellence in Design and In
novation, was nominated for a Royal Television Society award and sho
rtlisted for an IMS TV Innovation award in the USA.
The Arion Talking set top box will be available in a number of UK
retailers.
Other related posts:
