https://www.iotworldtoday.com/wp-content/themes/ioti_child/assets/images/logo/footer-logo.png
  • Home
  • News
    • Back
    • IoT World 2020 News
  • Strategy
  • Special Reports
  • Galleries
  • Business Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Industry Perspectives
    • Featured Vendors
  • Other Content
    • Back
    • IoT World 2020 News
    • Q&As
    • Case Studies
    • Features
    • How-to
    • Opinion
    • Video / Podcasts
  • More
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Strategic Partners
  • IOT World Events
    • Back
    • Internet of Things World: San Jose
    • IoT World 2020 News
Iot World Today
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • News
    • Back
    • IoT World 2020 News
  • Strategy
  • Special Reports
  • Galleries
  • Business Resources
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • Industry Perspectives
    • Featured Vendors
  • Other Content
    • Back
    • IoT World 2020 News
    • Q&As
    • Case Studies
    • Features
    • How-to
    • Opinion
    • Video / Podcasts
  • More
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Advertise
    • Strategic Partners
  • IOT World Events
    • Back
    • Internet of Things World: San Jose
    • IoT World 2020 News
  • newsletter
  • IIoT
  • Cities
  • Energy
  • Homes/Buildings
  • Transportation/Logistics
  • Connected Health Care
  • Retail
  • AI
  • Architecture
  • Engineering/Development
  • Security
ioti.com

Embedded Computing


Getty Images

Image shows a smart speaker.

Voice-Activated Technology Redefines the Internet of Things

Voice-activated devices have helped fuel IoT adoption. The long-term ramifications for application development could be considerable.
  • Written by Scott Robinson
  • 24th March 2020

While the average person speaks about 15,000 words a day, increasingly they’re speaking those words to machines. Smart speaker adoption has been rapid, with voice assistants such as Alexa setting the pace. Today 53 million people in the U.S. already own at least one. The number of voice assistants in U.S. homes has doubled since 2018 (to reach 25 million) and will increase to 275 million by 2023. That amounts to 1,000% growth in only five years, according to Juniper Research.

Smart speakers aren’t the only voice-command devices out there. Smart speaker apps run on smart phones and tablets as well.  

One vendor, for example, offers a device-agnostic voice control platform that can be customized to a company or industry vocabulary and operate offline. Another offers a smart TV equipped with a virtual assistant. A third provides voice interaction in manufacturing and construction environments, allowing workers hands-free access to relevant knowledge on demand.

Internet of Things (IoT) voice control is also pushing automobiles to the forefront of IoT adoption. Cars are now integrated with mobile apps to enable voice-activated commands while driving. Gartner puts adoption at 20% by the end of this year. 

Voice-Activated Technology at Home, at Work

While voice-activated technology has hastened IoT’s introduction to the home environment, voice interfaces have experienced slower adoption in the workplace. According to Globant’s 2018 Voice-Activated Technology Report, there is a significant gap between personal use of voice command devices and business use. While 72% of senior employees reported using voice-activated technology in their personal lives on a weekly basis, only 31% use it at work. And 73% of companies surveyed view voice-activated technology as valuable to the enterprise but haven’t taken steps to adopt it into their processes.

According to a 2018 report by Pindrop, 85% of companies surveyed plan to deploy voice-activated technology for customer interaction. Of managers responding, 88% say they believe voice-activated technology can create competitive advantage, with 57% agreeing it would make the enterprise more efficient.

In addition, the initial deployment of voice-activated technology in the enterprise tends to focus on cloud-based customer support, accessible via smart phones and laptops, rather than dedicated IoT hardware. Other industries such as transportation and manufacturing require edge computing to provide the necessary bandwidth for voice-activated technology. As a result, adoption of voice-activated technology will likely be slower, because deployment of the technology in those environments requires additional investment in edge servers to boost processing bandwidth to acceptable levels. 

Leveraging the Smart Speaker

Enterprises can trim the cost of voice-activated technology by piggybacking on what’s available instead of building voice-activated apps from scratch or paying for a pricey vendor system, simply pay Amazon to add a new skill to Alexa.

When Amazon first released Alexa in 2016, it had a catalog of 130 skills; as of September 2019, the catalog has grown to more than 100,000 skills. Amazon will create custom skills for a fee, and also offers the Alexa Skills Kit, a collection of application programming interface, tools and sample code which third-party developers can use to create their own. These new skills can be made available to any person or company using Alexa for voice-command functionality.

This strategy enables a low-cost and rapid adoption of voice-activated IoT in the enterprise, and it bypasses the need for edge resources. This may limit its application, but it gets the technology in the door and integrates it into some business processes.

A great example of how the skills kit and Alexa can create new voice-activated technologies is KidsMD, a Boston Children’s Hospital app. Parents can ask questions about a child’s illness or injury for real-time information about treatment, procedures or medication. 

The hospital also built an Alexa app that a gastroenterologist uses in the operating room to voice-activate an endoscopic camera. In the ICU, nurses use an app that provides the necessary information for drawing the correct amount of blood, saving 15–30 minutes per patient; and there’s a version of the KidsMD app that provides information on procedures and troubleshooting for hospital personnel.

Orbita, which produces an assortment of virtual health assistants, has generalized these capabilities and made its platform available in many mediums – smartphones, tablets, smart speakers – empowering consumers to locate medical resources, order medication, make appointments, understand lab results and set self-care reminders. Its OrbitaASSIST IoT is a virtual bedside assistant that facilitates patient-provider communication, reducing wait times, optimizing clinical team management and improving the patient’s experience.

New Types of Voice-Activated Apps

All of these approaches to integrating voice-activated technology into consumer and professional processes hasten the adoption of IoT in general; but voice-activated technology is also driving the development of new processes.

One exciting application of voice-activated technology is in devices for the visually impaired, allowing them to interact with the world in ways they previously couldn’t. Another is the screenless wearable (wearables have done much to advance public awareness of IoT), which typically requires a mobile application to display its data to the user; with voice-activated technology, it can respond directly.

Perhaps most game-changing is the potential of language translation. Voice-activated technology in IoT, with AI providing the translation, will remove many barriers in business and improve personal quality of life. In the workplace, real-time translation and IoT devices that can overlay it will make multi-lingual teleconferencing more efficient. In the home, children adopted into families who don’t speak their native language can interact with their new family members with a smart phone using a translation app (like Apple’s iTranslate) and earbuds. 

IoT is spreading fast, and with voice-activated technology, it’s spreading faster. Today’s young children will not remember a time when cars, homes and the objects around them didn’t talk.

Tags: Voice assistants Embedded Computing Other Content Features

Related


  • Image shows a big data and artificial intelligence concept.
    AI Data Processing at the Edge Reduces Costs, Data Latency
    As the number of edge devices increases exponentially, sending high volumes of data to the cloud could swiftly overwhelm budgets and broadband capabilities. Deep learning, a subset of machine learning, reduces cost and connectivity burdens.
  • Argent Case Study
    For more than 40 years, Argent has specialized in the fabrication and distribution of unique adhesive and die-cut solutions. See why Argent relies on the Plex Manufacturing Platform to remain competitive and support their open book management. At a Glance: • Argent’s legacy ERP system was cumbersome, costly, and disruptive to the business just to […]
  • IoT World Today Commits to Greater Diversity in 2020
    IoT World Today Stands with Black Lives Matter and will commit to several diversity-oriented initiatives in 2020.
  • Image shows city and technology computer graphics.
    AI, Edge Computing Architecture Drive Embedded IoT Development
    AI support in the cloud and at the edge have furthered embedded IoT development. A platform approach has emerged to span various developer skill sets.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your IoT World Today account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Content

  • Top IoT Trends to Watch in 2020
  • Will IoT-as-a-Service Models Gain Critical Mass in 2020?
  • Edge Computing Frameworks Abound—with None Yet Dominant
  • IoT Salary Survey Report

News

View all

Private LTE Market Projected to Grow to $13 Billion

12th January 2021

IoT World Announces 2021 IoT World Advisory Board

9th December 2020

White Papers

View all

The eSIM Cookbook – Towards the Next Generation of Connected Devices

22nd February 2021

eSIM Delivers Greater Freedom for OEMs – by Beecham Research and Truphone

22nd February 2021

Special Reports

View all

Cybersecurity Protection Increasingly Depends on Machine Learning

28th October 2020

Webinars

View all

Weber’s Journey: How a Top Grill Maker Serves Up Connected Cooking

25th February 2021

From Insights to Action: Best Practices for Implementing Connected Device Security

15th December 2020

Galleries

View all

Top IoT Trends to Watch in 2020

26th January 2020

Five of the Most Promising Digital Health Technologies

14th January 2020

Industry Perspectives

View all

IoT Spending Holds Firm — Tempered by Dose of ‘IoT Pragmatism’

1st December 2020

The Great IoT Connectivity Lockdown

11th May 2020

Events

View all

IoT at the Edge

17th March 2021

Embedded IoT World 2021

28th April 2021 - 29th April 2021

IoT World 2021

2nd November 2021 - 4th November 2021

Twitter

IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

IoT Remote Monitoring Helps Enterprises Traverse COVID-19 and Beyond dlvr.it/RtZ3K5 https://t.co/owJXYf1gkO

26th February 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

Securing the Industrial Internet of Things dlvr.it/RtYfYk https://t.co/khUn79dvQD

26th February 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

📢 Announcing #EIOTWORLD sponsor, @BluetoothSIG — the global standard for simple, secure wireless connections. ➕ Le… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

26th February 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

How IoT Devices Can Enhance the Connected Customer Experience dlvr.it/RtPcvS

24th February 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

🤝 Meet #EIOTWORLD speaker Ingo Feldner, Project Lead for Virtual #Hardware Platforms at @RobertBoschGmbH 📅 Join hi… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

24th February 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

Developing IoT Applications with Rust: Using a Rust Development Environment dlvr.it/RtNqrk https://t.co/wOmnoz2UVT

24th February 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

Chip-Enabled Edge AI Drives Next-Gen IoT dlvr.it/RtKcMQ https://t.co/dLjBzE6Qei

23rd February 2021
IoTWorldToday, IoTWorldSeries

The eSIM Cookbook – Towards the Next Generation of Connected Devices dlvr.it/RtG5bB https://t.co/5kXa8Pnv4T

22nd February 2021

Newsletter

Sign up for IoT World Today newsletters: vertical industry coverage on Tuesdays and horizontal tech coverage on Thursdays.

Special Reports

Our Special Reports take an in-depth look at key topics within the IoT space. Download our latest reports.

Business Resources

Find the latest white papers and other resources from selected vendors.

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our audience? Access our media kit.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • IoT World Series
  • Channel Futures
  • RISC-V
  • Dark Reading
  • ITPro Today
  • Web Hosting Talk

WORKING WITH US

  • Contact
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Login/Register

FOLLOW IoT World Today ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2021 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X