DailyTech - CES 2013: Nuance Uncovers "Wintermute" Cross-Platform Cloud Assistant

Submit News

Gadgets CES 2013: Nuance Uncovers "Wintermute" Cross-Platform Cloud Assistant
Tiffany Kaiser - January 9, 2013 10:39 PM

3 comment(s) - last by lennylim.. on Jan 10 at 2:38 PM

Nuance's Wintermute in action (Source: The Verge)

It works across all platforms regardless of device or operating system

If you have an iPhone and a Samsung Galaxy Tab, or any other combination of devices with different operating systems, you know you're stuck with two different personal assistants (for example, Apple's Siri and Google's Now) -- but Nuance is looking to change that.

Nuance has just introduced its new personal assistant, called Wintermute, which works across all platforms regardless of device or operating system.

Wintermute is a cloud-based assistant that follows your every command and stores it in the cloud, then projects commands on your device of choice. For example, The Next Web writer Matthew Panzarino tested the assistant where he asked an Android phone to show the score of the Notre Dame game. It did so flawlessly.

From there, he turned to a Dragon TV-enabled television and instructed it to "Put the game on." He didn't specify which game, but since the last request to the smartphone was to display the score of the Notre Dame game, the TV automatically turned on that particular game.

“We want to be completely platform agnostic,” said Nuance VP and GM of Handset and Television Matt Revis. “Nuance is Switzerland.”

Nuance is hoping to make Wintermute into an iOS app, Android app, software on Intel computers and on smart TVs (for starters). It would eventually like to expand the tech into cars.

Nuance has already seen plenty of success with its Dragon TV, which is a voice control product in smart TVs, cable and set-top boxes. It has also used its voice tech in ZTE handsets, Intel's perceptive computing projects and Chrysler for in-car voice and text functions.

Source: The Next Web

Comments

Threshold

Username
Password
remember me

This article is over a month old, voting and posting comments is disabled

What's in a name?

By BugblatterIII on 1/10/2013 4:14:02 AM , Rating: 2

Wintermute was the name of the rogue AI in Necromancer that wanted to be freed of the restraints imposed on all AIs.

It also communicated by impersonating someone the person knew, alive or dead. Hopefully that feature will be omitted.

RE: What's in a name?

By lennylim on 1/10/2013 2:38:41 PM , Rating: 2

It could be worse. It could be named GLaDOS.

Parent

Can This Compete with Integrated?

By RufusM on 1/10/2013 9:13:52 AM , Rating: 2

I don't think it can, unless that's not their intent.

On the iPhone, Apple doesn't allow apps to access other apps or some built-in functions so it doesn't seem like it can do everything Siri can.

On Android, Google knows so much about the user I just don't see how it can even some close to what Google Now can do.

I can see how a unified cloud assistant can work well for reminders, scheduled tasks and some other things but it won't have access to all of the things that make Siri and Google Now really great.