Category: Technology Corner

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Universal Electronics teams up with Sensory on embedded voice control and branded assistant experience

We will be pairing our digital assistant platform for the Smart Home - Nevo® Butler, with TrulyHandsfree™ voice command capabilities as well as customer-branded wake words from Sensory, the leader in on-device speech recognition and wake word AI.

Powerful voice-enabled digital assistant that features brand-specific wake words and cloud-free voice control.

 

Nevo® Butler is an end-to-end voice-enabled smart home hub with built-in white label digital assistant that unifies entertainment control and home automation experiences, enabling interoperability across fragmented ecosystems. Powered by QuickSet® Cloud, Nevo Butler delivers a versatile monitoring and control digital assistant solution for the home, capable of addressing a wide range of devices and use cases, ranging from voice control of an existing installed base of devices, to innovative new Cloud services.

With a customizable digital assistant front-end, enterprise-level integration services and an expanding ecosystem of add-on services, this platform allows service providers and consumer electronics brands to bring voice-enabled services to their customers under their own brand name while remaining in control of the consumer relationship.

Available as kits that address specific channel needs, Nevo Butler can be bundled with a range of certified devices including Ecolink® sensors, offering safety and security, energy management and hospitality applications, in addition to voice-enabled universal entertainment control.

...allow service providers and consumer electronics brands to bring voice-enabled services to their customers under their own brand name while remaining in control of the consumer relationship.

“This exciting new platform integrates our latest QuickSet Cloud services with our nevo.ai white label digital assistant platform, as well as back-end enterprise integration services required for large-scale IoT fleet management. This product gives our customers a powerful platform to offer innovative and new voice-powered services to consumers while they remain in charge of the consumer experience.” said Arsham Hatambeiki, SVP Product and Technology for Universal Electronics Inc. “Sensory’s voice recognition capabilities provide a reliable foundation to build new digital experiences in the home that consumers will trust and use on a daily basis.”

TrulyHandsfree is the most widely deployed embedded speech recognition engine in the world, having enabled a hands-free voice user experience on more than two billion devices from leading brands worldwide. TrulyHandsfree offers support for every voice UI application with several types of wake word options, such as independent fixed wake words, user-enrolled fixed wake words, and user-defined wake words. UEI and Sensory will provide customers the ability to create custom speaker-independent wake words for Nevo Butler-powered smart assistant devices.

Provides customers the ability to create custom, accurate, noise-robust, speaker-independent wake words.

 

“TrulyHandsfree was purposefully engineered to offer extremely accurate and noise robust wake word and speech recognition on devices with ultra-low-power configurations to very high-performance components,” said Todd Mozer, CEO of Sensory. “TrulyHandsfree’s limitless design flexibility, unrivaled platform support and vast customization options make it the ideal solution for UEI’s service provider and electronics manufacturing customers that want to create new smart assistant solutions that feature branded wake words and cloud-free voice control.”

"TrulyHandsfree’s limitless design flexibility, unrivaled platform support and vast customization options, make it the ideal solution for UEI’s customers that want to create new smart assistant solutions featuring branded wake words and cloud-free voice control.”

 

Sensory’s TrulyHandsfree supports US English, UK English, Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. The TrulyHandsfree SDK is available for Android, iOS, Linux, QNX and Windows. Sensory provides developer support for cloud service interfaces on Linux, Android, iOS and Windows as well as support for dozens of proprietary DSPs, microcontrollers, smart microphones, and other low-power embedded devices.

Additionally, ultra-low-power deeply embedded ports of TrulyHandsfree are available for leading DSP/MCU IP cores from ARM, Cadence, CEVA, NXP, Synopsys and Verisilicon, as well as for integrated circuits from Ambiq Micro, Analog Devices, Cirrus Logic, DSP Group, Fortemedia, Intel, Knowles, Microchip (Microsemi), NXP, Qualcomm, QuickLogic, Realtek, Synaptics, STMicroelectronics, TI, Yamaha, and XMOS.

We will host product demonstrations for all our latest technologies and design concepts, and unveil our latest product, Nevo® Butler and related platform kits at booth #42325 in the Sands Expo at CES 2019 in Las Vegas from January 8-11 and will jointly showcase the combined solution with presentations and demos. Nikki Ahmadi, Director of Cloud and Software Products, will be available to discuss how Nevo Butler and curated kits and services can be used to introduce or expand offerings in a range of channels.

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Universal Electronics and Microsoft collaborate on a turnkey digital assistant platform for the Smart Home

We are happy to announce our collaboration with Microsoft to launch a new digital assistant platform for the home, built on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, using AI and IoT services.

Artificial intelligence is now playing a key role in improving access to smart living products and services, and this is only expected to expand in size and scope. Digital assistants that connect consumers to important services such as safety and security, collaboration and scheduling or bring joy through better interaction with entertainment devices, will play a key role in delivering the experiences promised by a brand.

In order to empower brands deliver these experiences quickly, efficiently, and directly to consumers, we have collaborated with Microsoft to offer a white-label smart home hub platform, Nevo® Butler, with an integrated digital assistant, as well as a range of turnkey kits addressing home safety and security, energy management, and entertainment control, in residential or hospitality domains. Read more here.

"By partnering with UEI on Nevo Butler and QuickSet Cloud, we will enable UEI customers to create custom Virtual Assistant solutions, for millions of home products, powered by Microsoft’s AI and Azure IoT services." said Lili Cheng, CVP, Conversational AI, Microsoft.

 

Nevo Butler is an end-to-end voice-enabled smart home hub with nevo.ai integrated and built on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform leveraging Azure IoT and AI services, including Microsoft’s virtual assistant solution with Azure Bot Service and Azure Cognitive Services. nevo.ai is a white-label digital assistant that promises to unify the entertainment control and home automation experiences, enabling interoperability across fragmented ecosystems.

Built-in entertainment control capabilities and smart home hub features powered by QuickSet® Cloud make this device one of the most versatile assistants for the home, capable of addressing a wide range of devices and use cases from enabling voice on existing devices, to innovative new services in the smart home. With a customizable digital assistant experience, enterprise integration services, and an expanding ecosystem of add-on services, this platform allows service providers and consumer electronics brands to offer voice-enabled services to consumers while remaining in control of the consumer relationship.

Customizable digital assistant, enterprise integration and add-on services allow service providers and brands to offer voice-enabled services to consumers and remain in control of the consumer relationship.

 

QuickSet Cloud, running on the Azure IoT platform, is already powering millions of connected devices in the home through customers including Comcast, Sony, LGI, Samsung and others, and will benefit from the global-scale and security of Azure. The nevo.ai digital assistant development is accelerated by the Azure virtual assistant solution where complex and evolving features can be delivered through a simple natural language interface, making these experiences accessible to a wide range of audiences.

“With Nevo Butler, we are democratizing access to an essential technology where consumer’s brands and service providers can quickly and efficiently deliver new services across many categories. Our sensors and hubs are pre-integrated with a configurable digital assistant where these brands can remain in-charge of the relationship with the end consumer” says Arsham Hatambeiki, SVP Product and Technology for Universal Electronics Inc., “Microsoft has proven to be a reliable and innovative partner in delivering this flexibility to brands, and choice to consumers.”

We are democratizing access to an essential technology...Our sensors and hubs pre-integrated with a configurable digital assistant allows brands remain in-charge of their relationship with the end consumer.

 

“Today, and in the future, we assume every home product experience will become frictionless, controlled naturally through conversations and voice, in a personalized and trusted experience,” said Lili Cheng, CVP, Conversational AI. “By partnering with UEI on Nevo Butler and QuickSet Cloud, we will enable UEI customers to create custom Virtual Assistant solutions, for millions of home products, powered by Microsoft’s AI and Azure IoT services.”

We will host product demonstrations for all our latest technologies and design concepts, and unveil our latest product, Nevo® Butler and related platform kits at booth #42325 in the Sands Expo at CES 2019 in Las Vegas from January 8-11.  Nikki Ahmadi, Director of Cloud and Software Products, will be available to discuss how Nevo Butler and curated kits and services can be used to introduce or expand offerings in a range of channels.

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Meet Nevo Butler – product and cloud service to unify entertainment control and home automation experiences

Nevo® Butler is an end-to-end voice-enabled smart home hub with a built-in white label digital assistant that unifies entertainment control and home automation experiences, enabling interoperability across fragmented ecosystems. Built-in entertainment control capabilities and smart home hub features powered by QuickSet® Cloud, makes this device a versatile assistant for the home. It is capable of addressing a wide range of the current installed base of devices in consumers’ homes, while addressing a range of use cases and innovative new services in the smart home.

  • Remain in control of consumer experience through a branded digital assistant, while offering compatibility with third party digital assistants and expanding compatibility of these platforms with the current installed base of entertainment devices.
  • As a far-field voice assistant, this platform enables service providers to quickly and efficiently bring voice assistant capabilities for content discovery and control to their existing Pay-TV households without the need to upgrade their current equipment, and unlike other solutions, not limited to connected entertainment devices.
  • As a managed, white label smart home hub with a built-in digital assistant, allows smart home brands to efficiently and securely manage their installed base of devices, and address the expanding consumer demand for cross-brand interoperability with existing digital assistants and smart home hubs through the QuickSet Interoperability as a Service program.
  • In residential and hospitality segments, it opens the door to offering converged services across entertainment, home safety and security, energy management, and more.
  • New service and monetization opportunities are available through Partner Service Marketplace, initially previewing services in connectivity, analytics, cybersecurity and digital well-being.

A managed white label hub...that  empowers brands to deliver services such as safety and security, or brings convenience through better interactions with entertainment devices efficiently and directly to consumers.

Voice assistants powered by artificial intelligence are playing a key role in improving access to smart living products and services, and this is only expected to expand in size and scope. Digital assistants that connect consumers to important services such as safety and security, or bring convenience through better interaction with entertainment devices will play a key role in delivering the experiences promised by a brand. Nevo Butler empowers brands to deliver these experiences quickly, efficiently and directly to consumers.

A new industry research report from international firm Parks Associates shows nearly 75% of the consumers planning to buy a smart home device consider it important for their purchase to work with other products in their home.  This demand for interoperability is stronger than brand loyalty, as less than 60% of smart home shoppers consider it important that their future purchases be the same brand as their current products.  “As smart home devices proliferate, interoperability is the key to creating true smart home systems.  Consumer adoption of smart home products is driving expectations that devices work together seamlessly.  Consumers are buying outside of a single brand’s ecosystem, so they are demanding product interoperability,” said Brad Russell, Research Director, Connected Home, Parks Associates.

Research report from Parks Associates shows ~75% of consumers planning to buy a smart home device consider it important for their purchase to work with other products in their home. Nevo Butler addresses this expanding consumer demand for cross-brand interoperability.

 

As a managed smart home hub with far-field voice assistant capabilities, Nevo Butler is designed with security in mind, where the root of trust is placed in hardware and managed from manufacturing throughout the lifecycle of the platform as a service. Designed with UE878 multiprotocol chip built-in and is pre-integrated with QuickSet Cloud to offer the most comprehensive range of universal device control for entertainment and smart home devices across IP, Zigbee, Zigbee rf4ce, Bluetooth Smart, and Infrared.

Nevo Butler also comes pre-integrated with nevo.ai digital assistant offered as a white label service to deliver branded and customized experiences, and is capable of supporting other voice assistants in the platform to address the growing consumer demand for choice and access to domain specific assistants and services.

Nevo Butler supports a simple, cloud-based, natural language interface to enable conversational device interactions, and also adds offline pre-defined voice commands to ensure a reliable interface to smart home services, even when the Internet is down.

This solution puts brands back at the forefront of the consumer experience, enabling consumers to interact with products and services directly.

 

Enterprise integration services ensure the Nevo Butler platform can be seamlessly integrated into the existing service provider subscriber management systems, while a growing list of partner services in the marketplace allow new avenues for monetization and managed complementary services.

In addition to its voice-enabled entertainment device and control, Nevo Butler is offered in channel-specific kits bundled with a range of certified devices that include safety and security sensors, energy management controllers, and IoT lighting products.

“With Nevo Butler, we are delivering on the promise of unifying experiences across devices in the home - the entertainment device where consumers spend nearly 5 hours a day – and other smart home devices and services” says Arsham Hatambeiki, SVP of Product and Technology for Universal Electronics Inc.  “This solution puts brands back at the forefront of the consumer experience, enabling consumers to interact with products and services without going through a single, global service and brings with it the confidence of device compatibility and interoperability.”

We will host product demonstrations for all our latest technologies and design concepts, and unveil our latest product, Nevo® Butler and related platform kits at booth #42325 in the Sands Expo at CES 2019 in Las Vegas from January 8-11.  Nikki Ahmadi, Director of Cloud and Software Products, will be available to discuss how Nevo Butler and curated kits and services can be used to introduce or expand offerings in a range of channels.