Kenn Harper, VP, Devices & Ecosystem, Nuance, provides insight on several key industry trends for Parks Associates’ 20th-annual CONNECTIONS Conference, which will be held May 24-26 in San Francisco:
How is your company engaging consumers through new technology solutions?
Nuance is applying its research in artificial intelligence and Deep Neural Nets to advance 
speech recognition and natural language to create more powerful personal assistant capabilities in a broad range of connected devices, including TV’s, smart home devices, and entertainment systems. As a result, people can more easily discover, find and access a range of content versus having to traverse through endless menus and program guides.
Additionally, the connected home is quickly coming to fruition, and ‘things’ are more connected than ever. But with smaller or non-existent screens and systems packed with intelligence, a simple and intuitive user interface becomes critical for user adoption. Nuance’s voice and natural language capabilities give the connected home ecosystem the tools and technology required to quickly and easily integrate voice experiences that are fully tailored to the unique needs of the device or service, across a broad number of languages.
What is the biggest change you have seen in the past year in the connected home and entertainment industries?
The sheer amount of content available and intelligence coming to market as part of the connected home ecosystem is impressive and at a rate that rivals the smartphone industry. These devices can do more than ever – and more devices are now connected than we ever imagined. Even our refrigerators are becoming ‘smart’ and soon we’ll see robotics become part of the consumer home front.
TV manufacturers and streaming services were among the first to widely deploy voice a few years back and with mainstream deployments over the last few years, we’re seeing adoption stickiness rates that are incredibly high. That is quickly transcending the broader connected home. For example, Nuance’s voice technologies are powering Samsung’s Family Hub Refrigerator that allows consumers to access recipes, create shopping lists and more; and our technologies are coming to market through a range of home robotics and even home safety and home security offerings.
What do you think is the biggest driver for the connected consumer market?
Intelligent devices that are simple and intuitive to use, and in the ways that not only make our lives easier to manage but also enrich our home experience. This not only encompasses the user interface usability, but also through the ability to personalize the experience. Consumers want to be able to customize their experience from the moment they turn on their connected devices. We want our experience to adapt to our preferences and feel unique. For example with TV, your user profile can be customized to present unique favorite channels, watch lists and intelligent content recommendations based on usage history for the best entertainment experience. These same personalized experiences and specialized virtual assistants can lend themselves to any connected device.
What is the greatest challenge for the connected home industry in the next year?
One of the biggest challenges is a common platform or infrastructure from which these devices will connect to and talk to each other. There are a variety of hubs – some open, some closed, and some partially open but only if you adhere to their ecosystem’s set of branded APIs and experience. Device makers and developers need the ability to create unique offerings and experiences that allow them to differentiate, but also successfully integrate into the existing connected home infrastructure. The good news is that there are a number of initiatives underway to solve this challenge, ultimately benefitting the connected consumer where all of these smart devices can seamlessly connect as part of a holistic experience.
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Harper will speak on the session “New CE Experiences in Voice, Gesture, and Control” on Thursday, May 26 at 10:30 a.m. Other speakers on the panel include WeMo/Belkin, and EVA Automation.
For more information on CONNECTIONS, visit www.connectionsus.com or register by clicking here.
