Gizmodo: recognition

Asus Working on Handwriting-Pad Add-on for Eee PC

Kit Eaton — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 09:00:00 EDT

While modders are busily adapting the Eee PC for touchscreen capability, it seems that Asus has been working on an official handwriting recognition add-on. Demoed at last weeks Computex show, the Asus pad accepts English and Chinese (traditional and simplified) characters and simply plugs into the Eee's USB port. It measures 4.3 x 4.4 x 0.7 inches, with the touch pad being a little over 2-inches across. If you're an eager hand-writing fan, you'll have to wait though, as there's no launch date or price info. [Aving via Pocket Lint]

Optio V20 from Pentax has 5x Zoom, Smile Recognition and Blink Detection

AddyDugdale — Mon, 19 May 2008 03:00:00 EDT

Six months after Pentax released the Optio V10, the japanese company has upped the stakes with the V20. The slimline point-and-shoot has upped the zoom from 3x to 5x, as well as increasing Digital SR mode to ISO 3200 and ISO 6400. With a nice, big 3-inch LCD screen on the back, smile recognition and blink detection, (Earl Hickey, this one's for you) the V20 will be available in Japan next month for the equivalent of $288 Bonus shot of the V20 after the jump.

[Impress]

AVIC-F High-End Navigation Systems from Pioneer Rocks Voice Control

AddyDugdale — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 09:45:00 EDT

Talking to your gadgets is the first sign of madness, but people who insist on doing it should look at Pioneer's AVIC-F systems. The three models, the AVIC-F700BT, AVIC-F900BT and the AVIC F90BT all have a type of voice control developed by Pioneer alongside VoiceBox Technologies, which filters out the "um" and "ah" in everyday conversations to decipher your commands.

All three models have iPod connectivity, Bluetooth, MSN Direct, DH radio, XM and SIRIUS Satellite radio, CD and DVD-playback, as well as the advanced conversational voice recognition system. There's a 5.8-inch hi-resolution touch panel display, USB interface and SD card slot, plus maps from Tele Atlas of the US, Canada, Alaska and Hawaii. Available in June, the three models will cost $850, $1,100 and $1,200, respectively. [ecoustics.com]

Tell Your Car What to Play, Read With Ford Sync

msparkes — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 05:17:28 EDT

Ford Sync is a new system developed by Ford and Microsoft that aims to fully integrate your MP3 player, cell phone and car computer with a speech recognition system. You will be able to climb into your SUV and say, 'Play artist Cliff Richards', and the annoying old timer will start blaring out of your speakers. It can even read out your text messages for you in an old-skool synthesised voice, which even understands lazy abbreviations like GR8. Jump to see it in action on a video featuring the action movie guy voice over.

I can imagine some problems if your passengers disagree with your music tastes though - it will be a competition to see who can shout their choice the loudest. It should be available in the fall. Jalopnik had a review of Ford Sync at the start of the year, see it here. [TrendHunter]

Oki Japan Bring Iris Scanning to Existing Cellphones

msparkes — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 06:09:04 EDT

Oki Japan has developed software that brings iris recognition security to existing cellphones. Before now, biometric security has meant either hugely expensive military systems or cheap, novelty peripherals. This new development is part of a growing number of practical and affordable solutions. The software can be used to add another layer of security on any device that has a camera of at least 1 megapixel and is claimed to only give one false positive for every 100,000 scans. [Digital World Tokyo]

SpinVox Winds Your Voicemails into Text For Easy Reading

Jason Chen — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 21:00:51 EDT

We had a brief chat with a SpinVox co-founder today and he told us all about this speech-to-text service. SpinVox, when integrated with a cellphone or landline provider, can take your voicemail messages and automatically transcribe them into text that gets sent to your email or your phone as a text message.

This is actually a pretty cool service, seeing as other transcription services we've seen are either expensive or strange to use. SpinVox has lined up Cincinnati Bell and Skype, and are working on some deals with major carriers now (no details yet). We know many people who don't bother listening to voicemails because it requires dialing in, pressing buttons, and listening—these are very lazy people.

Other cool SpinVox usages are sending memos and broadcast messages from your phone by calling a number and speaking. Sounds like a great way to send messages to your husband to pick up some tampons. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Spinvox]

Microsoft Discovers Secret to Speech Recognition

Jason Chen — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 20:15:40 EST

– Jason Chen

Microsoft [Thanks Eric!]

Asus Z801 Karaoke Phone

Jason Chen — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 19:10:48 EST

Asus' Z801 Karaoke phone could be the coolest phone we've ever seen. Not for the looks, the design, the amount of megapixels, or even a fast data connection, but for its Karaoke feature. When you play back an MP3 on the Z801, you can sing along and the phone will speech-to-text what you say and display the words right on the phone.

If this feature indeed works the way they describe, this could be the best phone ever. If not, it's just another phone with a 2-megapixel camera that's available only in China. – Jason Chen

PhoneDaily [via Mobile Mentalism]

Samsung SCH-V960 Optical Joystick: How It Works

Jason Chen — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 15:35:33 EST

Samsung's SCh-V960 may have the first optical joystick available on a phone, but we'll be damned if we can figure out what the hell that means. But we can take a look at Samsung's "fingerprint recognition" joystick patent to get a better idea of how it's going to work.

The fingerprint algorithm can detect where you place your finger on the joypad, which finger you place, and even the angle you place it at. That means sliding around with your thumb could get you your contacts, whereas using your other thumb could scroll through menus. And the placement of your finger, of course, knows in which direction you want to scroll.

Just conjecture for now, but it seems a likely candidate for the optical joystick implementation. What's also cool is that it can gauge how healthy you are by the amount of boogers you smear on its sensor. – Jason Chen

Samsung SCH V960 Optical Joystick phone. How does it work? [UnwiredView]