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This journal now has its own domain name: http://thedigitalcar.com.
Tuesday, February 27, 2001
WirelessCar Raises $11.1 Million Second Round.
Wireless Car is the joint telematics venture created by Ericsson, Telia, and Volvo.
Friday, February 23,
2001
Ford
And Vodafone Launch New European Telematics Partnership.
We are delighted that the Focus is the first European Ford to be
available with telematic technology, [David Thursfield, President and
CEO, Ford of Europe] added, but we anticipate that within five years
nearly all new Ford vehicles will be fitted with some type of
telematics system.
Fonix(R) Optimizes Automatic Speech Recognition Engine
for the New Intel(R) XScale(TM) Microarchitecture (PR newswire).
Fonix(R) Corporation (OTC Bulletin Board: FONX) today
announced at the 3GSM World Congress the development of an optimized
port of their Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) Engine for the new
Intel(R) XScale(TM) microarchitecture and the Intel(R) Integrated
Performance Primitives (IPP). This version will deliver top-quality
speech recognition capabilities to mobile wireless devices including
PDAs, smart phones, and automobiles.
Belgium's ACUNIA
to Open Detroit Operations (PR newswire). Acunia was previously
SmartMove, and they demonstrated their Java-based Open Telematics
Framework at Convergence 2000 (AutoPressPoint
news release).
John Wiseman went to the Chicago Auto Show, and took some pictures.
Thursday, February 22,
2001
The Web, Without Wires, Wherever (NY Times).
"At the same moment you're filling up your gas tank, why wouldn't you fill up your in-box?" said Mark Goode, chief executive of MobileStar, a leader in the field.
Code Alarm recently announced alliances to deliver
web-based telematics with @Road,
to deliver navigation, concierge and emergency services with the Auto Club of America. The Auto Club alliance is particularly
interesting--is anyone else aligning with user groups to provide
telematics services?
Yes, I guess so--AAA announced a telematics company called Response Services Center LLC in April, 2000. Looking at the web site, though, I'm confused. It says "Our customers are business clients, not end users", which indicates they AAA members are not their clientele.
Wednesday, February 21,
2001
What is Microsoft's Smart Phone platform, referenced in this Fonix
press release? From that release:
The Microsoft Smart Phone platform, currently code-named
Stinger, is the software that powers a new generation of color mobile
phones with advanced mobile Internet and personal information
management (PIM) functionality. Stinger sets a new standard for smart
phone size and functionality, designed specifically to take advantage
of 2.5 and 3G broadband wireless networks and enable a wealth of
services such as secure corporate and web access, email, and
up-to-date PIM.
Siemens press release on technology debuts at SAE congress: Tire
Monitoring System (TMS), Closure Force Limitation (CFL) Anti-Pinch Motor
Technology, The Passive Start/Entry (PASE) System, Fingerprint
Identification, and Other Capitalized Technology Marvels, including Quick Scout(R) PDA, personal digital assistant (PDA)-based portable
Telematics system.
Tuesday, February 20,
2001
Adeca's
Centro de Servicos Telematicos has a pretty useless telematics site--all
Flash, no content.
Transcript
from The American Driver, about Siemens technology for using PDAs like
Palm Pilots as navigation systems.
Monday, February 19,
2001
Eyeforauto.com is having
another
telematics meeting, this time in Detroit on May 15-16 (Press
release. Full program.).
Paul Green, a
senior research scientist in the Human Factors Division of UM's
Transportation Research Institute, does research that seems worthwhile
to pay attention to. (He's on a panel on "driver distraction and
assistance" at the Eyeforauto telematics conference, and, I think, the
only panel member who isn't directly employed by the auto makers or suppliers).
Friday, February 16,
2001
DaimlerChrysler
pushes for open systems in telematics market at a media event to
introduce "IT Cruiser" technology with Sun Microsystems:
Mark Moody, a Sun senior Java architect, said ... the auto industry
should be responsible for setting standards, but within those
standards, cars should function almost as generic devices, able to
link to a large number of service providers in a reliable and stable
way.
Indicast, a "voice portal"
company, has licensed Fonix's Faast
Text-to-speech engine for use in Indicast's individualized news
service. Apparently, Indicast has its own patented natural language
interface for voice portals.
ATT's DARPA
Communicator Project. "You can try our system at the toll-free number 1 877 289 8021."
OK, I try it--a airplane reservation example. It doesn't recognize
"Kalamazoo,"and when I try to fly out of Chicago, O'Hare, the system
responds: "We experience technical problems. DMD is dead." Where do I
send flowers?
Thursday, February 15,
2001
eAutoWorld.com, taking place in Detroit on April
10-12, has a telematics track.
Fujitsu
Europe press releases, including their
new graphic display controller.
Oracle
has a wireless product which they recently display at a "car
of the future" track at their first "Appsworld Paris." This was a
SMS (short messaging system) emergency notication application.
Wednesday, February 14,
2001
Andrea
Electronics Safe and Sound microphone array for in-car use,
demonstrated at Convergence 2000 in October.
A speech and
language research list, from the University of Edinburgh's Centre
for Speech Technology Research.
Tuesday, February 13,
2001
Another
article about driver distraction while under the influence of
telematics, from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Monday, February 12,
2001
Delphi
Enters Licensing Agreement With MLR, LCC To Strengthen Wireless Voice,
Data Import Into Vehicle. (PR Newswire article).
MLR's patented technology covers basic protocols and
circuitry for cellular data transmission and also covers more advanced
omnimodal technology that affords automated access to wireless
networks operating on different transmission protocols.
Friday, February 9,
2001
TEMIC Speech Processing, a
DaimlerChrysler company, which includes a cute demo of HMM
speech processing. Their StarRec Car Speech Dialog
System can be used in the OEM and aftermarkets. It has a memory
that can store a vocabulary of about 300 words (data
sheet in PDF format).
I/NET
sets up shop in Chicago with Neodesic alumni. Michigan Craintech
picks up the story of our recent office opening. I wish they had
entitled the article "I/NET sets up shop in Chicago to build
conversational interfaces."
Digitial
Detoit is sponsoring a
challenge to come up with a name for "high tech in southeastern
Michigan." Today is the last day.
Interesting
agenda (pdf) for the "First Microsoft European Automotive and
Telematic Conference".
Wednesday, February 7,
2001
Who is Voxpilot? They just
received $2.5 million in first-round funding, according to
VentureWire. One of the principals is Dr. Richard Reilly, of
University College Dublin's Biomedical Engineering group. He's apparently
interested in gesture and speech (his vita).
Tuesday, February 6,
2001
I/NET
Opens Chicago Office To Develop Conversational Interface
Technology. This is us, of course.
Fujitsu
and XSYS Develop MPEG-2 Encoder System For Prototype In-Car Digital
Video System (PR Newswrire press release).
Monday, February 5,
2001
Yet another introduction to VoiceXML
and an older intro to intelligent
user interfaces from AI.about.com.
Friday, February 2,
2001
Friday links from EyeForAuto: A research
article on the market for 'intelligent transport systems' (i.e.,
computers outside of cars for traffic control, toll collection,
etc.) in post-financial-crisis Asia. Good
interview with the VP for Product Development at Lear Electrical
and Electronics Division, Michael J. Maloney, focussing on how
component manufacturers like Lear can compete effectively in
telematics. Interesting partnership between Ten Square and
Sensoria to provide high-bandwidth "personalized digital content"
(MP3's and videos, for example), to automobiles at gas stations.
Thursday, February 1,
2001
Happy One Month Anniversary of the Digital Car Journal! Last
month's entries can be found here.
Sun unveils
Java for Linux appliances (IDG.net article).
The two components are J2ME CDC (connected device
configuration), and a "foundation profile" for Linux, which is a set
of APIs (application programming interfaces) for building applications
that will run on networked devices, Sun said in a statement. The
vendor hopes they will be used in future consumer electronics devices
including advanced digital television set-top boxes and residential
gateways which aim at improving home networking as well as in-car
systems. (Emphasis
mine). |
