Intel has added Nuance speech recognition support to its Perceptual Computing SDK beta, which aims to help developers introduce advanced interface methods to PCs.
The chipmaker announced the beta for the SDK in September at the Intel Developer Forum and released the first version in October. Intel advertises Beta 2’s core capabilities as: close-range hand and finger tracking (from Total Immersion), speech recognition (from Nuance), face analysis and 2D/3D object tracking (by SoftKinetic).
The beta includes speech recognition APIs for “command and control, short sentence dictation and text-to-speech”, with Nuance Dragon Assistant support available as a separate download.
Executive VP David Perlmutter first demoed the Nuance speech recognition feature at IDF, noting a collaboration with Dell to bring the Dragon Assistant Beta software to a Dell XPS13 Ultrabook. Intel also has plans to run a perceptual computing challenge alongside the SDK that will include $1 million in prize money.
In addition to the SDK, the company also offers an Interactive Gesture Camera from Creative for its perceptual computing developers. The $149 USB camera includes a depth sensor and dual-array microphones.
Intel bills the initiative as for Intel Core Processor-powered Ultrabooks, laptops and PCs. It’s an interesting move, given that the company has fallen behind on mobile computing and touch screens.
Photo credit: Mandy Cheng / AFP / Getty Images
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