Nuance unveils Nina, a Siri sister that lives in third-party apps
The service works on both iOS and Android and includes everything from speech recognition to voice biometrics, according to Nuance.
Nuance, a company that plays a part in some of the most well-known speech-recognition services on the market, has unveiled its own intra-app service, called Nina.
With Nina's help, iOS and Android developers can bring speech recognition, text-to-speech, and voice biometrics to their individual applications. Nina works much in the same way as Siri, allowing users to provide voice commands that the technology then follows. And with the open software development kit, Nuance says that it can be integrated quickly into existing apps.
Nuance has played an integral role in Siri's development. Nuance provided technology to Siri before it was acquired by Apple, and according to CTO Vladimir Sejnoha in an interview with Techpinions last year, the company licenses "technology to [Apple] for a number of products." He didn't say which products are included in that arrangement.
In order to differentiate their applications from others, developers will have the ability to customize their Nina integration with different voices. Nuance said today in a statement that it has inked a deal with USAA, the financial services provider for U.S. service members, to integrate Nina into its mobile app. USAA plans to kick off with a pilot program in August and launch Nina to all members early next year.
The Nina SDK is available now in the U.S., U.K., and Australian English. Additional languages will be made available later this year.
Here's a video of Nina in action: