Tokyo and Osaka, Japan, September 24, 2014
Fujitsu Limited and FueTrek Co., Ltd. today announced Fujitsu's introduction of its MobileSUITE Voice Operation service and development kit. The service, which enables text input with technical vocabulary and control by voice alone, will be available in Japan from October 1. Both voice and text input features are only available in Japanese but support for other languages is being considered. The service is currently only available in Japan.
This is being offered as a new option for FUJITSU Cloud PaaS MobileSUITE, the mobile service platform, with a speech applications-programming interface (API)(footnote 1) for developers creating apps for smart devices. This service lets developers create business systems and services that can be controlled by voice commands, and makes it easy to develop mobile apps that can recognize technical vocabulary, increasing the convenience of apps for their users.
The new service is powered by vGate voice-recognition technology from FueTrek, and is the first collaboration between Fujitsu and FueTrek. The two companies plan to continue working together to augment their voice-based services in the future.
In recent years, with the utilization of smart devices such as smartphones and tablets, there is a desire to create new work styles and improve operational performance. Fujitsu and FueTrek, with its strengths in voice-recognition technology, are introducing new voice services for business systems.
The combination of MobileSUITE and FueTrek's voice recognition technology are being made available as MobileSUITE Voice Operation, a service for voice-driven control to make work more efficient, as well as a development kit. While voice services are increasingly available at the consumer level, technical vocabulary is necessary in business contexts. This service makes it easy for developers to create speech-driven apps that can control business systems and other Internet-based services, while recognizing technical vocabulary.
So, for example, a user could say to a smartphone, "Show me tablets that can be shipped this month, sorted by price" or "Reserve a conference room next week on a day that A, B, and C are free for one hour," and the results from both a business system and a services API on the Internet can be displayed.
Figure 1: Schematic of application in use
Figure 2: Sample display (footnote 2)
Key Features of MobileSUITE Voice Operation
- Top-tier voice-recognition technology(footnote 3)
Thanks to FueTrek's vGate voice-recognition technology, among the most accurate in the industry, users will benefit from stress-free voice-driven control and text input.
- Interactive processing means that the user's intentions are executed correctly
When a user gives a spoken command with an amount of information inadequate to control an application, this technology can interactively ask for supplemental information, as in the following example: "Reserve a conference room next week on a day that A, B, and C are free"-"For how long?"-"For one hour." This lets it act on the user's intent correctly.
- Connects to Web API that integrates business-system and services on the Internet
Certain command patterns from users have been stored in MobileSUITE Voice Operation as interactive scenarios, and developers can create services via voice control that integrate business systems and Internet-based services (Web API) based on those parameters. This makes it easier for users to control both business systems and web-based applications for even greater convenience.
- Supports technical vocabulary
By pre-registering specific technical terms, the service not only supports everyday vocabulary, it can also be set up with dictionaries that allow it to recognize a business' in-house jargon such as department names, product names, and abbreviations, as well as industry-specific terminology. This enables users to talk to the service in the ways they are already accustomed to, without needing any counter-intuitive ways of speaking.
About MobileSUITE
MobileSUITE, which makes the transformation in work styles convenient and easy, is a cloud-based, mobile-oriented integrated management service that provides apps and management functions such as device management (MDM) and application management (MAM) needed to use mobile devices in business. This gives a systems administrator centralized administration for MDM, MAM, and ID management to align them with operations and policies, while giving users a centralized business portal from which they can browse apps and content they can use in their work, so that they can quickly and easily find the services and content they need. Integrated cloud-based management coupled with a business-app portal in the smart devices makes for a secure, convenient mobile environment that lets businesses run more efficiently.
Fujitsu and FueTrek look forward to continued development of voice-driven services.
Operating requirements (Supported OS)
Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Android 4.2, Android 4.1, Android 4.0, iOS 7, iOS 6
Pricing and Availability
Price: By quotation
Availability: From October 1, 2014