SVOX

SVOX
Private
Industry Speech Processing, Natural Language Processing
Predecessor SVOX GmbH
Founded 2000 (GmbH), 2001 (AG)
Founder Volker Jantzen
Christof Traber (GmbH)[1]
Bettina Hein
Thomas Benz (AG) [2]
Headquarters Zurich, Switzerland
Area served
 Global
Key people
 Martin Reber, (CEO)
Products Speech Recognition (ASR), Speech Output (TTS), Speech Dialog
Number of employees
 90 (2009)
For the Canadian media company, see S-VOX.

SVOX is an embedded speech technology company founded in 2000 and headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. SVOX was acquired by Nuance Communications in 2011. The company’s products included Automated Speech Recognition (ASR), Text-to-Speech (TTS) and Speech Dialog systems, with customers mostly being manufacturers and system integrators in automotive and mobile device industries.

History

SVOX was started in 2000 by researchers at Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich) and first focused exclusively on Speech Output (TTS) solutions for automotive industry.

In 2002 Siemens Mobile Acceleration (today's smac|partners GmbH) invested into SVOX.[3]

Later, as the market for Personal Navigation Devices and smartphones developed, the company started to supply those markets as well. In 2008 SVOX released Pico, a small-footprint TTS system optimized for mobile phones.[4]

In parallel, SVOX has branched into Speech Recognition and Speech Dialog. As part of that process the company acquired Professional Speech Processing Group of Siemens AG in early 2009.[5]

In 2009 SVOX made headlines with news that Google had chosen to include company’s Pico TTS solution into the 1.6 release of Android platform.[6]

In June 2011, Nuance Communications acquired SVOX.[7]

Products

SVOX products include Automated Speech Recognition (ASR), Text-to-Speech (TTS) and Speech Dialog systems. Typical uses include:

  • destination entry and voice directions in turn-by-turn navigation systems;
  • voice dialing and caller ID announcement in mobile phones and in-car telematics systems;
  • Point of Interest (POI) output and traffic information in navigation systems (PND and in-car).

Company’s speech products are especially popular with German car makers such as Audi, Porsche, BMW, Daimler and VW and are often found in premium cars.

The apps are still available on Google Apps, downloadable and available to buy. But when installed the app can not download the data files and fails. Which has caused Google Play users to buy apps that do no longer work. The support email is also offline. Google has not yet removed the files from the store, so there is still risk that users buy an app that does no longer work.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Handelsregister des Kantons Zürich. "Internet-Auszug".
  2. ↑ Handelsregister des Kantons Zürich. "Internet-Auszug".
  3. ↑ "Erste Investition in der Schweiz Siemens Mobile Acceleration investiert in den Schweizer Text-to-Speech-Spezialisten SVOX AG". na presseportal.
  4. ↑ "SVOX releases Pico: highest-quality sub-1 MB Text-to-Speech system available". PresseBox.
  5. ↑ Boretz, Adam. "SVOX Acquires Siemens' Speech Unit". Speech Technology Magazine.
  6. ↑ Conneally, Tim. "Android 'Donut' SDK released: What's new inside".
  7. ↑ Nuance Press Release. "Nuance acquires SVOX".
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