New voice-enabled remote control solutions for ZigBee® RF4CE™ and Bluetooth® Smart from TI

New solutions powered by Nuance deliver lower cost, voice-enabled remotes with single-chip hardware and software solutions

News provided by

Texas Instruments Incorporated

Sep 12, 2013, 08:00 ET

DALLAS, Sept. 12, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Texas Instruments (TI) (NASDAQ: TXN) today announced new voice-enabled ZigBee^® RF4CE^™ and Bluetooth^® Smart remote control development kits that will bring advanced voice features to more remotes and more consumers. Working with Nuance Communications, Inc., a leading provider of voice and language solutions, TI's new remote control solutions deliver high-quality voice recognition powered by Nuance's Dragon TV in a limited bandwidth stream without quality loss or impact on the results. TVs and set-top boxes (STBs) now offer more advanced services where voice-enabled remotes provide an additional method for user control. The performance and low power of TI's solution delivers advanced consumer applications including voice commands, hands-free search and navigation as well as user identification for customized user interfaces. Additionally, with a lower cost point and more flexibility than current voice-enabled remote technology, TI's RF4CE and Bluetooth Smart remote solutions make embedded- and Internet- or cloud-based remotes a reality.

"Voice is changing the TV remote experience bringing a new sense of simplicity and instant access to content, shows and features – otherwise hard to navigate with traditional remote controls and program guides," said Michael Thompson, executive vice president and general manager, Nuance Mobile. "TI's RF4CE and Bluetooth Smart remote control solutions powered by Nuance's Dragon TV bring the connected TV to life and create a compelling and engaging experience."

Based on a single-chip SoC (CC2533 or CC2541 for ZigBee RF4CE or Bluetooth low energy respectively), TI's voice-enabled remote control solutions only require an external ADC—no external DSP is needed for voice compression, which reduces costs to manufacturers. The voice-enabled remote controls use TI's royalty-free RemoTI™ RF4CE stack and BLE-Stack™ software. TI offers manufacturers a complete RF4CE and Bluetooth Smart remote control product offering including simple button remotes, advanced remotes with pointing technology, and now voice-enabled.

The voice-enabled remote control solutions have already gained momentum with remote manufacturers. The RF4CE solution will be demonstrated at the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) 2013 from Sept. 13-17, 2013 at RAI Amsterdam by:

Philips in hall 1, booth 1.A81 (with Nuance Dragon TV)
SMK in hall 4, booth 4.C78

Availability:
TI's voice-enabled remote control kits are currently being offered to qualified customers.

The RF4CE voice-enabled remote control kit and software are available today. The Bluetooth Smart voice-enabled remote will be available in 4Q.

Find out more about TI's RF remote control kits:

RF remote controls: www.ti.com/rc
TI E2E™ LPRF community: http://e2e.ti.com/support/low_power_rf/default.aspx
Connect More within the Internet of Things with TI: www.ti.com/iot
Wireless connectivity eNewsletter: www.ti.com/wiconnewsletter-pr
ConnecTIng Wirelessly blog: www.ti.com/connectingwirelessly-pr

About Texas Instruments
Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is a global semiconductor design and manufacturing company that develops analog ICs and embedded processors. By employing the world's brightest minds, TI creates innovations that shape the future of technology. TI is helping more than 100,000 customers transform the future, today. Learn more at www.ti.com.

Trademarks
RemoTI, BLE-Stack and TI E2E are trademarks of Texas Instruments. All other trademarks belong to their respective owners.

SOURCE Texas Instruments Incorporated