Nuance has unveiled a new interface that makes it easier to use the next generation of smart watches.
The speech-recognition giant, which already provides the voice engine for Samsung’s Galaxy Gear watches, said progress comes on three fronts, but all of them centre around reducing the need to accurately hit any area of the screen. An upwards swipe will take you from the default clock screen to the latest sports results, for example, which you can personalise to your team. Sweep sideways from here and you can check the weather.
The second change is what Nuance is calling a Dragon Mobile Assistant. “Calling, texting, setting calendar appointments, setting reminders and alarms – you name it, you can pretty much do it with your voice,” said Sean Brown, senior manager of innovation at Nuance.
There’s also a cloud-based set of services sitting behind it to help customise things and to integrate with third parties. “So if I ask to find a great Chinese restaurant near me,” said Brown, “it will deliver me directly to the most relevant information thanks to our integration with Yelp.”
The third change uses its Swype keyboard technology. For those occasions when you don’t want to speak into your wrist, you can use a compact keyboard – but rather than tap individual keys, you swipe from letter to letter and let Swype work out what you were trying to say.
The new interface will debut on Omnate’s TrueSmart Android watch, due for release later this year, but you can see our video of the technology in action on our blog or YouTube channel.
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