Nuance Introduces Nina, the Virtual Assistant for Mobile Customer Service Apps

Press release:

Nina is the First Virtual Assistant to Understand What is Said – And Who is Saying It;
First to Provide an Open SDK for Mobile App Developers

Burlington, MA – August 6, 2012 – Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today introduced Nina, the virtual assistant for mobile customer service apps. With Nina, companies can quickly add speech-based virtual assistant capabilities to their existing iOS and Android mobile apps, greatly enhancing the self-service experience for their customers. Nina combines Nuance speech recognition, Text-to-Speech (TTS), voice biometrics, and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) technology hosted in the cloud to deliver an interactive user experience that not only understands what is said, but also can identify who is saying it.

Nuance also announced that USAA, a leading financial services provider that serves members of the U.S. military, veterans and their families, has adopted the virtual assistant for use within its popular mobile app. A pilot is planned for August and the functionality will launch to all USAA members early next year.

“USAA’s innovative solutions are designed to make life easier for our highly mobile military service members, and increasingly for all members who now expect to get things done when, where and how they want.” said Neff Hudson, assistant vice president of emerging channels for USAA. “We believe that the virtual assistant has tremendous potential to make it simpler, faster and more satisfying for our members to manage their financial affairs on their mobile devices.”

Nina is significant because it is the first virtual assistant customer service app to incorporate both speech recognition and voice biometrics into a single integrated solution. Nina is also the first solution that provides an open software development kit (SDK) to support the rapid integration of virtual assistant capabilities into existing mobile applications. In addition, Nina is the first to allow organizations to brand their own virtual assistant persona, including the visual appearance and implementation of optional custom TTS voices.

“Nina is a watershed innovation for the automated customer service industry, not only because it brings the virtual assistant directly into an app, but because it raises the bar through its level of interactive dialog and language understanding,” said Robert Weideman, executive vice president and general manager of the Nuance Enterprise Division. “Nina provides our customers a major competitive differentiator by enabling more successful self-service through their mobile apps. We are especially pleased to further our partnership with USAA, a company known for its innovation and approach to delivering a premier mobile customer service experience to its members.”

The Nina Virtual Assistant for customer service is comprised of:

• Nina Virtual Assistant Persona: Nina is a pre-made virtual assistant persona, which developers can leverage for their app, or use the available source code to quickly create a custom persona, including changing visual persona elements such as being awake, asleep, listening, processing, or answering a request. Nina also includes a range of existing Nuance text-to-speech voices, and Nuance can develop a custom TTS voice for an optional development fee.
• Nina Virtual Assistant SDK: To enable the rapid integration of virtual assistant capabilities into mobile apps for Apple iOS and Android, the Nina Virtual Assistant SDK has three components:
• Nina Core APIs – Binary APIs that provide access to the core cloud services, such as speech recognition, text to speech and NLU. This provides the most control and customization possible to the mobile app developer.
• Nina Virtual Assistant APIs – Source APIs that provide mobile app developers with access to customize the persona, as well as providing control of all modes of input, including speech recognition, text to speech and touch dialogs.
• Nina Reference Designs – Source code of Nina Virtual Assistant apps and functions, including the Nina Banking Assistant, deliver pre-designed templates and tasks for store location, bill pay, account information and over 200 other banking related queries. Developers will be able to leverage the reference designs to rapidly develop their own virtual assistant capabilities for travel, insurance, retail, government and more.
• Nina Virtual Assistant Cloud: The power and intelligence of Nina, including Nuance’s industry-leading speech recognition, TTS, NLU, interactive dialog management and voice biometrics services, is delivered through Nuance’s hosted platform, Nuance On Demand.

Availability

The Nina Virtual Assistant SDK and cloud service is available now from Nuance in US, UK and Australian English, with additional languages to be made available later this year. Nuance provides professional services in support of Nina and virtual assistant implementations.

For more information about Nina: http://www.nuance.com/meet-nina.

About Nuance Communications

Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.

News Release from Microsoft - Protection

Microsoft Deploys IDV Solutions’ Software to Help Protect Its People and Facilities

Next-generation physical security visualization software supports faster and more informed decision-making than the previous generation.

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REDMOND, Wash. — March 14, 2012 — To help ensure the safety and security of its employees and contractors across more than 100 countries and nearly 700 facilities, Microsoft Corp. today announced it has deployed IDV Solutions’ new Visual Command Center software in its three Global Security Operations Centers. These centers are responsible for integrating and coordinating Microsoft’s security operations around the globe. The announcement was made at the Worldwide Public Safety Symposium in Redmond, Wash., an annual event designed to increase awareness of how technology can support the public safety sector and provide practical solutions that can be used to address daily challenges. Microsoft Global Security, which oversees the operation centers located in Redmond; Reading, England; and Hyderabad, India, monitors more than 27,000 pieces of hardware — including access card readers, cameras, fire panels, environmental alarms, biometric security systems and duress alarms — and manages more than 185,000 active cardholders and more than 30 million system events each month. “Microsoft Global Security’s charter is to establish and maintain a safe and secure working environment at all times, and we’re committed to supporting a cutting-edge technology environment to enable this,” said Michael Foynes, senior director, Global Security Operations, Microsoft. “IDV Solutions’ Visual Command Center is essential to maintaining our security mission — from routine day-to-day local operations to crisis management at our facilities worldwide, making a real impact on our ability to help keep our people safe.” As part of Microsoft’s command and control operations platform, IDV Solutions’ Visual Command Center integrates the gigabytes of data that pour in each second from multiple internal security systems and external data feeds around the world, uniting them in a dynamic, common operating picture that helps Microsoft Global Security make more informed decisions, coordinate responses and even save lives. “With Visual Command Center, organizations such as Microsoft are able to better integrate data from multiple security systems with information from around the world,” said Mark Morrison, chief executive officer and co-founder of IDV Solutions. “It helps them to identify and assess risk and, ultimately, to protect people and assets.” Visual Command Center is an evolution of Visual Fusion, IDV Solutions’ tool for data visualization. Like Visual Fusion, Visual Command Center unites data from multiple sources in the context of time and geography. Visual Command Center adds features that specifically address security professionals’ needs, such as real-time alerting, mobile applications and the ability to display multifloor building plans directly over building locations on a map. Also included in Visual Command Center is a bundle of subscription and open source data feeds selected for their relevance to security operations, including terrorism incidents, crime reports and global disaster alerts. Microsoft Global Security previously deployed Visual Fusion to help protect employees in the wake of civil unrest and political instability in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. The technology was used to continually check the proximity of Microsoft office locations to the center of demonstrations; these maps then were disseminated to Microsoft Incident Management Teams with situation updates. Similarly, in response to the massive March 2011 Japanese earthquake, Microsoft Global Security used Visual Fusion to check the proximity of offices to the earthquake and tsunami disaster zones. “From everyday events like a burst water main to the large-scale impact of hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis, situational awareness solutions such as Visual Command Center provide an intuitive geospatial display of information, which allows our Incident Management Teams to make more informed and precise decisions and better prioritize efforts and resources, an absolute must in immediate response actions,” said Mike Howard, chief security officer, Microsoft Global Security. The Worldwide Public Safety Symposium held March 13–15 in Redmond is attended by government officials, policymakers and information communication technology strategists from around the world, working together to deliver safer communities and national security. The conversation is at #2012PSS.

Which Mobile App Features make Consumers Tick?

Which Mobile App Features Make Consumers Tick?


Nuance Research Releases New Telling Data on Mobile Apps

Natural Language, Voice Biometrics, and Other Advanced Features are Set to Trigger Wider Consumer Adoption

BURLINGTON, MA. – March 7, 2012

WHAT: Mobile Apps are Here to Stay – When given the option, the majority (84 percent) of consumers would rather use a mobile app instead of calling a company for routine inquiries such as checking their balance, checking flight status and other tasks. While non-technophiles may find this mind-boggling, truth be told, mobile apps are here to stay and the numbers show that this trend is likely to continue. According to a recent survey commissioned by Nuance Research and conducted by Vocal Laboratories Inc. (Vocalabs), 85 percent of consumers expect to turn to a mobile app first for customer service over the next year.

Voice is King – The same survey also found that voice will be a key driver in mobile app growth, particularly when it comes to ease of use with a company’s customer service apps. More than half the respondents (59 percent) believe interacting with a company's mobile phone app through a natural spoken conversation would be easier than typing, while 42 percent said they believe it would be both faster and more fun than typing. For those surveyed who have already experienced natural language interactions through apps like Siri, those numbers skew higher with 68 percent thinking the interaction would be easier and 54 percent believing the interaction would be more fun. The survey also found that 77 percent would like to have the option and/or prefer to interact with mobile apps through a natural spoken conversation. Among those surveyed who have used conversational voice applications like Siri that number jumps to 91 percent.

Consumers Have an Appetite for Voice Biometrics – Nearly every consumer surveyed (a whopping 96 percent) said they make mistakes typing their passwords into their mobile phones, and 10 percent claimed that they make mistakes every time, signaling a clear opportunity for voice biometrics integration into mobile apps. Voice biometrics, which identifies each individual through their unique voiceprint, eliminates the hassle of remembering and then typing in passwords on virtual keyboards. Of the survey participants, 89 percent have more than 10 passwords that they manage, 34 percent have more than 20, and 15 percent have more than 40. Of these respondents, 77 percent feel a voice password would be more convenient than a typed password, while improved security is also a considering factor with 55 percent saying that they feel a voice password would be more secure than a typed password.