PowerTalk

Thanks for joining me this week on PowerTalk. I’m your host Chris Versace, editor of the investment newsletter PowerTrend Profits. If you’ve been here before, welcome back! As you know my goal with PowerTalk is to let you listen in on some of the conversations I’m having each and every week and to take you behind the scenes and in the know.

If your a new listener to PowerTalk, this is the place where I bring you my 1-1 conversations with CEOs of public and private companies as well as other key people in business, politics and wherever else might be impacting the stock market and our investing decisions. 

A few weeks ago, subscribers to my investment newsletter, PowerTrend Profits, were told about the opportunities to be had in the shares of Nuance Communications (NUAN), a voice and speech recognition technology company. Since then legendary Carl Icahn disclosed a sizable position in Nuance and the company went on to announce several new wins. At the same time, we’ve seen a number of other activities and interests surrounding speech technology in recent months

  • General Motors (GM) is working to integrate Apple’s (AAPL) Siri offering into its infotainment system;
  • Google (GOOG) recently acquired DNN Research to improve its Voice Search solution;
  • Amazon (AMZN) acquired text-to-speech and voice recognition company IVONA Software for an undisclosed sum;
  • iSpeech, a Newark, N.J.-based startup that specializes in lifelike text-to-speech apps and previously rolled out voice technology for the connected home, launched a platform to help publishers quickly and inexpensively convert books and articles into audio;
  • Microsoft’s (MSFT) Research and Development teams have been working on something voice based of their own.

And that’s just the short list. Yep it looks like speech technology is becoming THE interface for connected devices. That’s why I’m really jazzed to talk with Paul Musselman, the CEO of Carnegie Speech this week. When we talked, Paul was at the ASU/GSV Education Summit in Arizona, but he made some time to talk with us about the opportunities to be had with voice and speech technology, what it means for the education market and how Carnegie Speech is changing both how students learn to speak English. 

You may not realize it, but as you’ll hear speech technology has will change not only the way we learn and have an impact on Immigration, it could potentially alter the gaming industry as we know it. 

Direct download: 04-21-13_CARNEGIESPEECHPOWERTALK.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 8:09pm EDT

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