Press release
Source: Mercedes-Benz
Stuttgart - The latest generation of the LINGUATRONIC voice-operated control system is entering series production with the 2009 S-Class. Instead of saying the town and street separately as before, drivers can speak the desired destination as a single command - for example "Stuttgart, Epplestraße". The system immediately begins to work out the route, only pausing to enquire whether a house number is to be entered as well. In Germany, LINGUATRONIC understands around 80,000 town names and 470,000 street names entered in this way. This new, particularly convenient destination input works in six languages and more than 15 European countries.
A dialogue with LINGUATRONIC is practically a person-to-person affair. Around a dozen female speakers and one male speaker lent their voices to the S-Class, recording the individual words, phrases, numerical sequences and names which the system almost instantly joins together into easily understood information and instructions as the situation requires when interacting with the driver. The "voices of the S-Class" come from various European countries, where the ladies - and one man – concerned work for radio and TV stations or synchronising studios.
Scientists spent more than two decades working on the development of a computer-based voice recognition system. In 1996 Mercedes-Benz was the first automobile brand to offer such a system in a car - though initially only to operate the onboard telephone. Voice-operated control has come on in leaps and bounds since then: the times when town and street names had to be spelled out are long gone. When controlling the telephone, audio and navigation system, the latest version of LINGUATRONIC, which Mercedes-Benz offers in various model series, works on the principle of whole-word input.
Voice-operated control is not just about understanding the driver's wishes, but also about entering a dialogue with him. The system responds in a friendly voice if it has failed to understand something, for example, or if it wants the driver to confirm certain operating commands. While it would be perfectly possible to generate these voices synthetically - i.e. by computer - Mercedes-Benz holds a low opinion of such "lifeless" announcements, preferring a person-to-person dialogue for its voice-operated control system.
Source: Mercedes-Benz
Stuttgart - The latest generation of the LINGUATRONIC voice-operated control system is entering series production with the 2009 S-Class. Instead of saying the town and street separately as before, drivers can speak the desired destination as a single command - for example "Stuttgart, Epplestraße". The system immediately begins to work out the route, only pausing to enquire whether a house number is to be entered as well. In Germany, LINGUATRONIC understands around 80,000 town names and 470,000 street names entered in this way. This new, particularly convenient destination input works in six languages and more than 15 European countries.
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A dialogue with LINGUATRONIC is practically a person-to-person affair. Around a dozen female speakers and one male speaker lent their voices to the S-Class, recording the individual words, phrases, numerical sequences and names which the system almost instantly joins together into easily understood information and instructions as the situation requires when interacting with the driver. The "voices of the S-Class" come from various European countries, where the ladies - and one man – concerned work for radio and TV stations or synchronising studios.
Scientists spent more than two decades working on the development of a computer-based voice recognition system. In 1996 Mercedes-Benz was the first automobile brand to offer such a system in a car - though initially only to operate the onboard telephone. Voice-operated control has come on in leaps and bounds since then: the times when town and street names had to be spelled out are long gone. When controlling the telephone, audio and navigation system, the latest version of LINGUATRONIC, which Mercedes-Benz offers in various model series, works on the principle of whole-word input.
Voice-operated control is not just about understanding the driver's wishes, but also about entering a dialogue with him. The system responds in a friendly voice if it has failed to understand something, for example, or if it wants the driver to confirm certain operating commands. While it would be perfectly possible to generate these voices synthetically - i.e. by computer - Mercedes-Benz holds a low opinion of such "lifeless" announcements, preferring a person-to-person dialogue for its voice-operated control system.
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