We may not make many TV sets in Massachusetts, but two of the leading speech-recognition software companies are there: Burlington-based Nuance Communications Inc. and Vlingo Corp., of Cambridge. Bitter competitors for years, they recently decided to merge.
But the newlyweds haven’t sorted out their differences over smart TV. Both companies came to CES to peddle their software to TV makers, and each has taken a very different approach.
Vlingo’s Virtual Assistant is designed for deployment by cable TV companies. I wasn’t able to test the system, because it needs Wi-Fi Internet service, which is lousy on the CES show floor.
But here’s how it works: You install a free app on an iPhone or Android, get a Wi-Fi-compatible set-top box from your cable TV provider, and connect it to your home network. The phone is now a Wi-Fi remote control that lets you operate the set by pressing on-screen icons or speaking words. But when the Wi-Fi is down, so is Vlingo.
Virtual Assistant is supposed to let users carry out the standard TV commands - shifting volume or changing channels - along with spoken searches for programs by type or movie star. You want Schwarzenegger movies? No problem. Unless you don’t have Wi-Fi.
Vlingo’s former rival Nuance showed off Dragon TV, a smart system that seems to work just fine.
Dragon TV is to be built directly into new television sets; the company is in talks with all the leading makers. It doesn’t require a smartphone, using an array of microphones inside the set instead.
You say “Dragon TV’’ to get the set’s attention, then ask for what you want. There are basic commands like “channel up’’ to go from channel 5 to 7, or “volume up’’ to drown out the kids. But the speech control is mainly useful for digging through thousands of programming choices. You can say “tune in CNN,’’ and it will, or “find comedies’’ to see sitcom listings.
