just skip this as digressive, but I want to make a short folder to hold a few items...
Blue Parrot-they make a lot of headsets. They were an early user of Sensory IP for high end models....
Blue Parrot is the name of the brand. The brand of
VXI CORPORATION
VXI got sold
Intrepid Announces the Sale of VXi Corporation, a Leading Provider of Headset Communications Solutions, to GN Audio (Jabra), a Denmark-Based Leader in Intelligent Audio Solutions
October 14, 2016 02:23 PM Eastern Daylight Time
LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Intrepid Investment Bankers (Intrepid), a leading middle-market investment bank, today announced that its client, VXi Corporation (VXi), a leading provider of headset communication solutions for enterprises and mobile professionals, has been acquired by GN Audio, a division of GN Group (GN: CO), a Denmark-based leader in intelligent audio solutions, offering wireless headsets and earbuds under the Jabra brand, as well as hearing aids and medical grade audio solutions under the ReSound brand. VXi was a portfolio company of Vicente Capital Partners (VCP), a private equity firm specializing in both non-control and control investments in growth businesses that have annual revenues between $5 million and $25 million. The sale of VXi marks the third deal for Intrepid’s Commercial & Consumer Technology team in the last 12 months.
..............
he VXi brand and is the leading Bluetooth headset provider for truckers and other professional drivers under the BlueParrott brand.
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The GN Group
The GN Group is a global leader in intelligent audio solutions that let you hear more, do more and be more than you ever thought possible.
Our unique portfolio of medical, professional & consumer audio solutions – and the deep research & development expertise behind this range of products gives our brands unprecedented advantages in the med-tech, hearables and intelligent audio field.
Every day, we transform lives through the power of sound: Smart Hearing aids that enhance the lives of people with hearing loss; integrated headset and communications solutions that assist professionals in all types of businesses to be more productive; wireless headsets and earbuds designed to support any lifestyle and inspire everyone who likes to keep fit.
With world leading expertise in the human ear, sound, wireless technology and miniaturization, GN’s innovative and intelligent audio solutions are marketed by our premium brands ReSound and Jabra.
GN provides products and solutions to users in more than 90 countries across the world. Additional to ReSound and Jabra, GN also markets hearing aids under the Beltone and Interton brands.
Founded in 1869, the GN Group today has 5,400 employees and its parent company, GN Store Nord, is listed on NASDAQ Copenhagen (GN.CO).
What have I learned so far....Sensory IP now has adjacent possible within the hearing aid companies....this is the first item I have read
with a hint that the existing hearing aid folks are making moves.....
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GN prepares for the future of intelligent audio solutions and hearables
GN News
May 27, 2016
GN Group strengthens its unique proposition with the flagship brands ReSound and Jabra – and changes legal company names to support a renewed brand platform
For 147 years, GN Store Nord has been a global force of innovation in communication. From enabling worldwide communication with the first telegraphic connection between Europe and Asia in the 1870s, the GN Group today stands out as a world leader in intelligent audio solutions that transform people’s lives through the power of sound.
The combination of cutting-edge Jabra headsets and medical industry-leading ReSound smart hearing aid technology makes the GN Group unique in the industry.
Setting GN Group up for the next phase of intelligent audio solutions
GN Group is preparing for a changing world by shaping it. We believe people will use ear-worn technology ever more to increase productivity and improve health and well-being. Intelligent audio solutions based on medical and sound expertise, in combination with always-on access to the internet and information, present a sweet spot for GN’s unique innovative expertise and market access across medical, professional and consumer target groups.
Today, GN is the only company that can transform deep insight from both the hearing aid and the headset customers into world-leading expertise in the human auditory system, sound processing and wireless technologies. This enables the GN Group’s scientists to develop truly intelligent audio solutions that do much more than amplify speech and sound. Comprehensive solutions that today and in the future will support the user in an array of innovative ways.
Presenting a new communication and brand platform
The GN Group’s core competencies in the human ear, sound applications, connectivity and miniaturization, all uniquely residing under the same roof, are the foundation for the group’s strong brands.
The GN Group’s brand platform is now modernized to fully reflect the group’s unique portfolio of medical, professional and consumer grade products and to emphasize the multiple advantages the Jabra and ReSound brands offer to consumers.
With our purpose to MAKE LIFE SOUND BETTER, the GN Group will continue to satisfy the hearing aid and headset markets with ReSound and Jabra as the driving brands and further utilize our combined competencies in the emerging markets for hearables and intelligent audio solutions.
The GN Group’s new brand proposition expresses the benefits that the products and solutions under the ReSound and Jabra brands offer to users: INTELLIGENT AUDIO SOLUTIONS THAT LET YOU HEAR MORE, DO MORE AND BE MORE THAN YOU EVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE.
Changes to legal company names
As of today, this new brand platform will lead to some consequential changes in the GN Group:
- The Danish parent company in the hearing aid group – GN ReSound A/S – will change its name to GN Hearing A/S. The group’s flagship hearing aid brand is ReSound, but it will continue operating other specialty brands such as Beltone, Interton and Otometrics
- The headset business’ Danish parent company – GN Netcom A/S – will change names to GN Audio A/S. This company will exclusively market itself under the Jabra brand
- The group’s subsidiaries outside of Denmark will change names in accordance with the above parent company changes during 2017
To reflect the GN Group’s vision and purpose – and to support the new brand platforms for its two leading brands ReSound and Jabra – a new and modernized corporate look is now rolled out.
Today, we also launch our new corporate homepage that will give the audience a first taste of our new brand platform, which will be implemented globally throughout the remainder of 2016. Visit us at GN.com.
This is the first time I have come across evidence that always listening will come to GN audio- Beltone, Jabra.
Nice. Note this is where Knowles is an incumbent with the LPSD ing mic.
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They gotta move along....
#HEALTH NEWS
NOVEMBER 2, 2017 / 6:01 AM / A MONTH AGO
Hearing aid maker GN Store Nord suffers as rivals catch up
COPENHAGEN (Reuters) - Shares in GN Store Nord fell more than 5 percent on Thursday as slightly weaker-than-expected quarterly revenue stoked fears that rivals are catching up with its technology.
FILE PHOTO: A ReSound LiNX mock-up is pictured in Vienna November 22, 2013. REUTERS/Heinz-Peter Bader
SPONSORED
Market leader Sonova earlier this year launched a new hearing aid microchip capable of streaming audio directly from wireless devices, as the Swiss company tried to close a technology gap with its Danish competitor.
“The competitors are coming, but we can’t focus on what they have in their bags,” Chief Executive Anders Hedegaard told Reuters, adding it was important to constantly renew products in the $6 billion-a-year hearing aid market.
GN shares were down 5.0 percent at 200.5 Danish crowns at 0851 GMT, after third-quarter hearing aid sales growth slowed, due in part to disruptions caused by hurricanes in the United States, the company’s biggest market.
Its GN Hearing division reported underlying growth of 6 percent, which disappointed analysts after the launch of its newest hearing aid, ReSound LiNX 3D, led to double-digit growth in May and June.
“GN Hearing has benefited from having very differentiated products compared to the competitors in the past couple of years but that has become more blurred now,” Sydbank analyst Morten Imsgard said.
The ReSound LiNX 3D hearing aid offers remote tuning and direct streaming from an Apple iPhone to the hearing aid, aiming to win over tech-savvy Baby Boomers.
Sonova now aims to compete on direct-streaming with a 2.4 GHz chip - which GN was first to present years ago - that enables direct streaming from not just Apple but other Bluetooth-equipped devices as well.
GN posted third-quarter revenue of 2.28 billion Danish crowns ($357 million) slightly lower than analysts’ average forecast of 2.30 billion, according to a Reuters poll.
Digressive reading is so rewarding. That QUIK/Nordic Voice over BLE will get plenty of attention and start to prepare that it could be even be in places like GN hearing, Sonova....
I did not expect us to have much in the markets of companies like GN, but with them owning the blue parrot brand, that IS already a Sensory IP company, evidence that they are under pressure.
THe phrase that they see
always-on access to the internet and information, present a sweet spot for GN’s unique innovative expertise a
They actually need always on voice, blue parrot would be a good place for them to use Eos, while they should use Knowles for some other products.
Will track along.
Sensry wins either way....QUIK and Knowles are both Sensory IP folks- hence Todd M. comment that they are in shootouts with themselves quite often.
My QUIK holdings are 10% sensory, have been since '15.
commmentary- I had a short thread on the TV series west world. IF anyone could make something like that a reality..it would be here. As in
NTT and Toyota Begin Joint Research Aimed at Promoting
the Use of Lifestyle Support Robots
Working towards a society in which humans and robots coexist harmoniously
Toyota City, Japan, September 25, 2017—Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT) and Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) have commenced joint research with the aim of promoting the use of partner robots that can help and coexist harmoniously with humans. The research aims to provide support for various situations that occur in daily life utilizing AI technology (corevo®) from the NTT Group and the Human Support Robot (HSR), one of the partner robots currently being developed by Toyota.
1.Background
Previously, robot development focused primarily on industrial robots in factories and other workplaces fulfilling tasks in place of humans. However, in recent years, as observed in products like robot vacuum cleaners, increased attention has been given to partner robots. Partner robots operate inside homes and can help with such tasks as housework, nursing and child raising, or acting as a partner with which to communicate*.
NTT is engaging in the research and development of corevo®, which incorporates media processing technologies with world-leading levels of accuracy (the company’s voice recognition technologies being a prime example) and interaction technologies such as R-env® so that robots and other personified agents operating on corevo® are able to understand human words and expressions, as well as understand advanced discussions that incorporate hand and body gestures. Through its collaboration with various manufacturers, NTT has promoted initiatives that equip robots with a variety of different characteristics to become more integrated into human life.
Commentary..
All I wanted to find was a Japanese carrier who just might have an interest in always on voice...
I found that in NTT DoCoMo, and a WHOLE lot more.
I gained insight in that phrase-this stuff does NOT happen overnight.
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Wow, look at this...
so far ahead of his time....!
![[IMG]](https://www.org.id.tue.nl/IFIP-TC14/img/t.gif "Click this image to show the full-size version.")
Ryohei Nakatsu, PhD
Professor, National University of Singapore
(emeritus)
Tel:
E-mail: nakatsu.ryohei@gmail.com
Homepage: http://www.ece.nus.edu.sg/staff/bio/nr.html
Ryohei Nakatsu received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electronic engineering from Kyoto University in 1969, 1971, and 1982, respectively. After joining NTT in 1971, he mainly worked on speech recognition technology. In 1994, he joined Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute (ATR) as the President of ATR Media Integration & Communications Research Laboratories. From the spring of 2002, he has been a Professor at School of Science and Technology, Kwansei Gakuin University. At the same time, he established a venture company, Nirvana Technology Inc., and became a President of the company. Between 2008 and 2014 he was Professor at the National University of Singapore and director of the Interactive & Digital Media Institute (IDMI) till 2011. [Read about hisvision]
His research interests include
emotion extraction from speech and facial images, emotion recognition, nonverbal communications, and integration of multimodalities in communications.
so far ahead of his time....!
He received the Best Paper Award from the IEEE International Conference on Multimedia Computing and Systems (1996); Telecom System Award from Telecommunication System Foundation (1999 and 2000); the Best Paper Award from Virtual Reality Society of Japan (1999, 2000, and 2001); and the Best Paper Award from Artificial Intelligence Society of Japan (2000). He is a Fellow of the IEEE and the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers Japan (IEICE-J).
He was the chair of TC14 on Entertainment Computing as part of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP).
He is co-editor in chief of the international journal on ENTERTAINMENT COMPUTING with Elsevier.
He is co-editor in chief of the Handbook for Digital Games and Entertainment Technology with Springer.
junemoon, wkav and John like this.
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October 11, 2017 2:59 am JST
NTT Docomo readies low-cost voice control for AI speakers
Slashing development costs 99% helps adapt tech to variety of services
![[IMG]](https://asia.nikkei.com/var/site_cache/storage/images/node_43/node_51/2017/201710/1011n/1011n_docomo/651046-1-eng-GB/1011N_docomo_article_main_image.jpg "Click this image to show the full-size version.")
TOKYO -- NTT Docomo looks to release software that could propel the spread of voice prompts to control home electronics by slashing the traditional development costs tied to business adaption by as much as 99%.
The software, planned for release as early as next year, would be used via smart speakers supported by artificial intelligence, as well as other devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. The technology would enable users to access various services by simply talking to the devices.
The software boasts minimal development costs for companies eager to offer voice-prompt services. For existing systems like IBM's Watson, software typically needs to be reformulated based on the nature of the services. The associated cost of 10 million yen to 30 million yen ($88,780 to $266,340) annually has hampered the widespread use of such software.
Docomo curbs this cost by minimizing the development work for such tweaks and providing customers with the tools needed for this development for free.
The mobile communications company says it has received inquiries from dozens of businesses. Financial institutions are considering such services as letting elderly people trade stocks via voice prompts, for instance.
Docomo, which aims to have at least 100 companies using its new software by 2020, will offer the software on its "dmarket" online marketplace on a trial basis in the spring. Docomo will use the test launch to identify areas for improvement. The company plans to sell a dedicated microphone for audio input.
U.S. tech companies Amazon.com and Google are among those gearing up to release AI-supported smart speakers in Japan, which are viewed as the next product to dominate the market after smartphones. Voice features will be crucial in winning the competition.
The Nippon Telegraph & Telephone group has researched voice recognition for a long time, yielding developments such as the i-concier mobile personal-assistant service. By offering new software to a broad range of companies, the group hopes its services will take root widely.
Tripartite AI Alliance
Korean, Chinese and Japanese Telecom Leaders Forge 'AI Alliance'
![[IMG]](https://www.businesskorea.co.kr/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/%5B%EC%82%AC%EC%A7%84%EC%9E%90%EB%A3%8C1%5D%20KT%20%ED%95%9C%EC%A4%91%EC%9D%BC%20%EC%9D%B8%EA%B3%B5%EC%A7%80%EB%8A%A5%20%EC%82%AC%EC%97%85%20%ED%98%91%EB%A0%A5%20%EC%9D%B4%EB%81%88%EB%8B%A4.jpg?itok=arpIURnB)
Hwang Chang-kyu, chairman of KT, Xiang Bing, chairman of China Mobile and Yoshizawa Kazuhiro, president of NTT DoCoMo (from right) are posing for a commemorative photo shoot at the General Meeting of the SCFA 2017. (photo courtesy: KT)
30 November 2017 - 10:00am
Cho Jin-young
KT of Korea, China Mobile of China and NTT DoCoMo of Japan joined forces in the development of AI technology and services.
On November 29, KT announced that the company held the General Meeting of the SCFA 2017, a strategic council among leading telecommunication service providers of Korea, China and Japan with China Mobile and NTT DoCoMo at the Conrad Hotel in Guangdong, China.
KT, China Mobile and NTT DoCoMo agreed to create the 'AI Task Force Team' for the first time at the conference. KT and China Mobile are planning to elaborate their multilingual AI databases through exchanges of interpretation and translation data. In addition, the telecom trio will test various services and discover services through which they can cooperate with one another by sharing various AI speech recognition application programming interfaces (APIs).
China Mobile and NTT DoCoMo are applying AI technology to customer services, the IoT, and marketing among others. KT hopes that the newly established AI TF Team will be a new opportunity for the global AI business, following collaboration with Sound Hound, a leading AI company in US Silicon Valley.
Meanwhile, during the meeting, a lot of attention was paid to KT’s free WiFi roaming service in Korea, China and Japan which is the service that only KT is providing among Korean telecommunication service carriers. The number of cases where KT subscribers used the free WiFi roaming service in China and Japan reached 100,000 in just two months after the launch of the service.
So why did I put this up?
As an example of a Japanese carrier who might want always listening for smartphones...
Q2 cc
the good news is that the design has expanded from a simple sensor hub function to one that now includes a carrier-driven requirement for always-on voice as well.
Use DOCOMO as a fairly good mental model as shown here and that it could be BIGGER
![[IMG]](https://www.musttechnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/docomo-2.jpg "Click this image to show the full-size version.")
disclaimer..
If their lead Japanese carrier mandates certain features enabled by EOS S3,
![[IMG]](https://www.mobileworldcongress.com/wp-content/themes/theme_MWC/images/mwc-date.png?v2)
![[IMG]](http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/sites/default/files/field/image/%5B%EC%82%AC%EC%A7%84%EC%9E%90%EB%A3%8C1%5D%20KT%20%ED%95%9C%EC%A4%91%EC%9D%BC%20%EC%9D%B8%EA%B3%B5%EC%A7%80%EB%8A%A5%20%EC%82%AC%EC%97%85%20%ED%98%91%EB%A0%A5%20%EC%9D%B4%EB%81%88%EB%8B%A4.jpg)