![]() | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
![]() | |
Industry | Electronics |
---|---|
Predecessor | Philips Speech Processing |
Headquarters | Vienna , Austria |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Thomas Brauner (President and CEO) |
Products | Speech processing devices |
Owner | Invest AG |
Number of employees | ~170 |
Speech Processing Solutions is an international electronics company headquartered in Vienna, Austria. The company designs, develops, manufactures and markets speech processing devices, such as those used in digital dictation and speech recognition. Speech Processing Solutions was formed on 1 July 2012. Philips Speech Processing was part of the Philips Consumer Lifestyle sector. Speech Processing Solutions is now an official licensee of the Philips brand. The company has subsidiaries in the US, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Belgium, France and Germany, and employs around 170 people worldwide.
Philips Speech Processing was founded in 1954, when the first dictation machine was produced in Vienna. In 1957, the first cassette-based dictation machine followed. One of the company's achievements was the development of the Mini-Cassette (also referred to as minicassette) in 1967. [1] The Mini-Cassette had a tape cassette format, mainly for the use with dictation recorders, which is still today's standard in professional analog dictation. [2] The cassettes were subsequently used in the Philips Pocket Memo devices, which were launched in the same year.
In 1989, Philips Speech Processing was awarded the ISO 9000 certification for quality assurance. At the time, the company was the first to receive such a distinction in Austria. 1991 marked the launch of Voice System 4000, which become a standard for hospitals worldwide. In 1994 Philips Speech Processing won the IF Design Award for their Pocket Memo 293. In 1995 the company developed SpeechNote, a dictation and transcription software.
In 1996, Philips, Grundig, and Olympus established the International Voice Association and defined the Digital Speech Standard (DSS), a proprietary compressed digital audio file format. It offers high audio quality for voice recording and is therefore suitable for voice recognition. The format allows files to be stored in a highly compressed form, reducing file size, network traffic, and required storage capacity. [3] The format also allows the user to attach additional information, such as a client or patient name, or a document type number, which is then stored in the file header.
In the same year, Philips Speech Processing also launched their first digital mobile device, the Philips SpeechPad. This was followed in 1998 by the launch of SpeechMike, the first digital dictation microphone with PC navigation and the introduction of SpeechMike Executive software. In 2002, Philips Speech Processing received a Lyreco Award for Best Supplier in Dictation Products, followed by the Merkur Award for Innovations from the Austrian Chamber of Commerce in 2003. The firm also launched their new range of dictation devices aimed at the consumer market in that year, the Digital Voice Tracers.
In 2004 the company launched the Digital Pocket Memo 9450 VC, at the time the first handheld dictation recorder with integrated voice commands, and received the IF Design Award for it in 2005. In 2004 Philips also introduced the first clip-on barcode module scanner for digital mobile devices. Philips also created the new SpeechExec software, a solution aimed at professional users, providing them with a full dictation workflow package. In 2008 Philips sold the related division Speech Recognition Systems to Nuance Communications. In 2009 Philips Speech Processing launched their first wireless desktop dictation device, the SpeechMike Air, as well as a dictation solution for mobile phones.
2012 Philips sold its Speech Processing unit to Invest AG, the private equity arm of Raiffeisen Banking Group Upper Austria. [4] [5]
In the same year Speech Processing Solutions introduced its new stationary digital dictation device, the SpeechMike Premium, with integrated motion sensor and antimicrobial surface. [6] [7] [8] Also the Philips dictation recorder app for smartphones (iPhone, Android and BlackBerry) was launched.
The latest product innovation from Speech Processing Solutions came in 2013, the launch of the Pocket Memo 8000 series. [9] [10] [11] Nuance awarded the Digital Pocket Memo (DPM) 8000 series with the highest Dragon Score (6 out of 6). [12]
In 2014 Speech Processing Solutions introduced its new cloud software called SpeechLive. It is a cloud-based workflow solution dedicated to dictation. [13] [14]
The company's core businesses are in hardware and software related to speech processing solutions. Its products include:
Sony Group Corporation, formerly Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering Corporation (東京通信工業) and Sony Corporation (ソニー株式会社), is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group comprises entities such as Sony Corporation, Sony Semiconductor Solutions, Sony Entertainment, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Financial Group, and others.
Dictaphone was an American company founded by Alexander Graham Bell that produced dictation machines. It is now a division of Nuance Communications, based in Burlington, Massachusetts.
IBM ViaVoice was a range of language-specific continuous speech recognition software products offered by IBM. The current version is designed primarily for use in embedded devices. The latest stable version of IBM Via Voice was 9.0 and was able to transfer text directly into Word.
The Microcassette is an audio storage medium, introduced by Olympus in 1969.
Digital Speech Standard (DSS) is a proprietary compressed digital audio file format defined by the International Voice Association, a co-operative venture by Olympus, Philips and Grundig Business Systems.
Conexant Systems, Inc. was an American-based software developer and fabless semiconductor company that developed technology for voice and audio processing, imaging and modems. The company began as a division of Rockwell International, before being spun off as a public company. Conexant itself then spun off several business units, creating independent public companies which included Skyworks Solutions and Mindspeed Technologies.
MacSpeech, Inc. was a New Hampshire-based technology company that produced software-based speech recognition and voice dictation solutions for the Apple ecosystem. The company's products included iListen, MacSpeech Dictate, MacSpeech Dictate Medical, MacSpeech Dictate Legal, MacSpeech Dictate International, and MacSpeech Scribe. On February 12, 2010, Nuance Communications, Inc. acquired MacSpeech.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking is a speech recognition software package developed by Dragon Systems of Newton, Massachusetts, which was acquired in turn by Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products, Nuance Communications, and Microsoft. It runs on Windows personal computers. Version 15, which supports 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows 7, 8 and 10, was released in August 2016.
The Mini-Cassette, often written minicassette, is a magnetic tape audio cassette format introduced by Philips in 1967.
A voice-user interface (VUI) enables spoken human interaction with computers, using speech recognition to understand spoken commands and answer questions, and typically text to speech to play a reply. A voice command device is a device controlled with a voice user interface.
A dictation machine is a sound recording device most commonly used to record speech for playback or to be typed into print. It includes digital voice recorders and tape recorder.
As of the early 2000s, several speech recognition (SR) software packages exist for Linux. Some of them are free and open-source software and others are proprietary software. Speech recognition usually refers to software that attempts to distinguish thousands of words in a human language. Voice control may refer to software used for communicating operational commands to a computer.
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.
Grundig Business Systems (GBS) is a German company located in Bayreuth and Nuremberg in Germany and employs 170 people. Since 2001, it has been an independent corporation that manufactures analogue and digital dictation devices featuring the "Made in Germany" quality label.
The Voice Navigator was the first voice recognition device for command and control of a graphical user interface. The system was developed by Articulate Systems, Inc. originally designed for the Apple Macintosh Plus and released in 1989. Subsequent versions were created for Microsoft Windows. Articulate Systems, Inc. was acquired by Dragon Systems in 1998.
MacSpeech Scribe is speech recognition software for Mac OS X designed specifically for transcription of recorded voice dictation. It runs on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard. The software transcribes dictation recorded by an individual speaker. Typically the speaker will record their dictation using a digital recording device such as a handheld digital recorder, mobile smartphone, or desktop or laptop computer with a suitable microphone. MacSpeech Scribe supports specific audio file formats for recorded dictation: .aif, .aiff, .wav, .mp4, .m4a, and .m4v.
Dragon Dictation started as speech recognition application for Apple's iOS platforms, including iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The app provided automatic speech-to-text capabilities. It was developed by Nuance Communications, and released in December 2009 as a free app. It is now commonly found licensed in vehicle infotainment systems and healthcare equipment.
The transcription machine is a special purpose machine which is used for word or voice processing. This special device manages audio video recording to transcribe them into written or hard copy form. So transcription machines are combination of transcribers and dictation machines.
Podio supplies a web-based platform for creating no code solutions and automated workflows. The feature set includes organizing team communication, business processes, data and content in project management workspaces according to project needs.
Pocket PC 2000 was the first member of the Windows Mobile family of mobile operating systems that was released on April 19, 2000, and was based on Windows CE 3.0. It is the successor to the operating system aboard Palm-size PCs. Backwards compatibility was retained with such Palm-size PC applications.