Spark Assistant' voice assistant
Artificial intelligence for meetings
IT provider Cisco has introduced the 'Spark Assistant', an adaptive voice assistant for companies. Unlike 'Siri', 'Alexa' and the like, it is specifically designed to make meetings easier and more productive.
Using 70" screens and a camera, the voice assistant 'Spark Assistant' presented by Cisco can perceive its surroundings and support human team members during a meeting.
© Cisco SystemsCisco plans to gradually launch the 'Spark Assistant' on the market from the beginning of 2018. Selected customers will then be able to test the intelligent assistant in practice. Using the command "Hey Spark" and a specific request, the user can access various functions, such as starting a meeting, recording or ending a meeting or calling a specific colleague. At launch, voice control will work in English, with other languages to follow over the course of the coming year.
"In the foreseeable future, AI meeting bots will be a natural part of a team," says Rowan Trollope, Senior Vice President Cisco. "While they take care of organizational matters, team members can unleash their creative potential."
© Cisco SystemsCisco would then like to use the experiences of the test customers to further improve the assistant. The aim is for the 'Spark Assistant' to be able to record meetings in future and send its notes to participants or help employees with planning and scheduling.
In addition to machine learning and speech recognition technology, the voice assistant has a good understanding of naturally spoken language. It can respond to questions from team members and has a dialog management function.
Introduction with the new 'Cisco Spark Room 70'
The 'Spark Assistant' will initially be available on Cisco's own end devices. This includes the latest 'Cisco Spark Room 70' series. The voice assistant uses the integrated technologies - such as real-time facial recognition, intelligent proximity (ultrasonic pairing with smartphones to control and share the screen) and speaker tracking (zooming in on the person who is currently speaking). 'Cisco Spark Room 70' has one or two 70" screens with 4K resolution and a quad 5K camera. This equipment allows the voice assistant to perceive its surroundings. It can recognize who is entering or leaving the conference room and which person is currently speaking.
You might also be interested in
On the trail of threats
Cisco presents an application designed to close the gap between IT and OT. AI technology helps to identify threats when monitoring networks.
read more...Voice assistant / artificial intelligence
Google expert to make 'Siri' smarter
Apple has appointed an artificial intelligence expert from Google to a management position: John Giannandrea will head up the development of artificial intelligence at the iPhone company in future, according to Apple CEO Tim Cook in an email to his...
read more...How accepted are 'Siri', 'Alexa' & Co.
Digital voice assistants are popular: three out of four Germans have already gained experience with 'Siri', 'Alexa' & Co. or can imagine using them. The BVDW has published a survey on what respondents like about them and their concerns.
read more...Own smart speaker planned
Amazon has clearly been driving the market for smart speakers with 'Alexa'. Deutsche Telekom wants to get into the ring in Germany and is focusing on the data protection card, among other things.
read more...IoT services for private customers at a fixed price
The communications group Vodafone networks 60 million devices - so far mostly in the German economy. Now it is expanding its portfolio to include IoT solutions for private customers: With 'V by Vodafone', private items and pets can be easily...
read more...Edge AI HPCs for Vision AI and GenAI
Advantech has announced the 'AIR-410' and 'AIR-420', next-generation compact Edge AI high performance computers (HPCs). Combining AMD Ryzen 7000/8000/9000 series processors, scalable GPU support and Advantech's 'Edge AI SDK' software, the systems...
read more...Siemens presents technologies to accelerate industrial AI
At CES, Siemens presented technologies to accelerate industrial AI: new digital twins, AI co-pilots, an Industrial AI Operating System and applications in manufacturing, energy and life sciences.
read more...Hitachi takes over Synvert
Hitachi Group has signed an agreement to acquire Synvert, a Germany-based company, as a wholly owned subsidiary of its US subsidiary GlobalLogic from Maxburg, a private equity fund focused on founder-led technology companies in the German-speaking...
read more...Proalpha takes over Insiders Technologies
The Proalpha Group, provider of business applications for SMEs, acquires Insiders Technologies and significantly expands its 'Industrial AI Platform' with AI applications and services for digital document processing.
read more...