Nuance Communications, today announced that Nuance speech solutions are being shipped within Ford SYNC for twelve Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models for 2008. The system works with Bluetooth phones and cellular carriers to provide voice command.
Ford SYNC, a new factory-installed, in-car communications and entertainment system, developed in conjunction with Microsoft and Nuance, includes Nuance speech technologies that provide consumers with the ability to bring nearly any mobile phone or digital media player into their vehicle and operate it using voice commands or the vehicle’s steering wheel or radio controls.
“With Nuance Automotive powering the speech capabilities of SYNC, Ford drivers should never have to take their eyes off the road to dial their phone, receive text messages or select songs from their iPod, Zune or other MP3 player,” said Steve Chambers, president, Mobility and Consumer Services at Nuance.
Ford’s SYNC system with Nuance speech features:
- Voice-activated, hands-free calling: Drivers can simply press the “Push to Talk” button on the steering wheel, and then say the name of the person to call. SYNC will automatically connect with the names in the mobile phone’s contact list.
- Audible text messages: With Nuance speech synthesis, SYNC will convert text messages from a compatible mobile phone to audio and read them out loud. The system is sophisticated enough to translate commonly used text messaging expressions such as “LOL”.
- Voice-activated music: Drivers can browse hands-free the music collection on a digital media player or USB drive by genre, album, artist and song title using simple voice commands, such as “Play Genre Rock,” “Play Artist U2,” or “Play Playlist Acoustic.”
- Instant voice recognition: The advanced Nuance speech recognition in SYNC lets a driver speak simple commands that are automatically understood by the system, without any training.
- Multilingual intelligence: SYNC is fluent in English, French and Spanish.
SYNC is now available on many 2008 models including the Ford Edge, Focus, Fusion, Taurus, Taurus X, Explorer and Sport Trac; Mercury Milan, Montego and Mountaineer; and Lincoln MKX and MKZ. The technology is expected to be available on all Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles in the near future.
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