Sensory Unveils Domain-Specific Voice Assistant for Smart Appliances

Sensory has launched a domain-specific model of its TrulyNatural large vocabulary speech recognition and natural language understanding platform for home appliances. This technology will help appliance manufacturers create a new wave of smart kitchen appliances that don't relay voice requests to the cloud.

TrulyNatural enhances products with a natural language user interface, while keeping voice data private and secure; voice requests never leave the device, nor are they ever stored.

"There are certain products where having a cloud-connected voice assistant capable of playing music, checking the weather, and telling you a joke makes sense, but there are countless products where it would be unnecessary," said Todd Mozer, CEO of Sensory, in a statement. "TrulyNatural is the perfect solution for device makers that want to create powerful products capable of understanding and responding to spoken commands, but don't need the added complexity, component costs, and potential privacy risks associated with leveraging a cloud-based voice services platform."

TrulyNatural can be integrated into devices of all shapes and sizes. Designed to run completely on an application processor, all TrulyNatural speech processing is done natively (at the edge), not in the cloud. It can also be paired with Sensory's TrulyHandsfree wake word technology. Sensory's TrulySecure technology can also be integrated to provide biometric-based security and user control features.

TrulyNatural currently supports U.S. English, with U.K. English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish planned for release later this year. SDKs are available for Android, iOS, Windows, Linux, and other operating systems.

Midea MCA, a microwave manufacturer, is the first company to adopt this technology.

"When it comes to scientific and technological innovation in the home appliances industry, Midea is committed to play a leadership role. We firmly believe in consumer-first technology and strive to maintain a technological advantage through teamwork and innovation. By teaming up with Sensory, we are able to not only modernize the consumer experience offered by our products but do so in a way that addresses the increasingly alarming privacy issue that concerns many consumers worldwide," said Scott Sun, deputy director of Midea MCA, in a statement.