Sensory Receives Patents for Voice Recognition over a Network

Patented technologies allow functionality like voice search on a mobile phone

Sunnyvale, CA. July 17, 2007. ...Sensory, Inc., the leader in speech technologies for consumer products, announces that with the issuance of U.S. Patent 7,092,887, it has a portfolio of three patents (including U.S. patents 6,999,927 and 6,665,639) that cover interactive speech recognition in wireless and computer networks such as cell phones and the internet. Broad coverage, including internet, wireless and search functions, is attributed to the early filing date of 1996.

The inventors of the technologies covered by these patents are Todd Mozer, CEO of Sensory, and Professor Forrest Mozer, a faculty member at the University of California, Berkeley. The patents disclose methods of performing a series of speech recognition tasks in which the recognized response to a first query determines the dialogue that follows in a system whose architecture is like that in client-server networks. An example of this interaction is wireless handset based voice search, which combines a speech interface with a search engine to allow a user to search a database with successive voice commands.

“We have always put a high priority on research and development and will continue to advance speech technologies that expand the possibilities of voice interface with consumer products,” said Sensory CEO Todd Mozer. Sensory holds dozens of patents, applied for and issued, in the area of speech technology. The company introduced the world's first commercially successful speech recognition integrated circuit (IC) in 1995, and the first speaker verification IC in 1998. Sensory acquired Oregon-based Fluent-Speech Technologies in 2000, and acquired the Texas Instruments line of speech output ICs in 2002.