$2 Sensory chip could give toys (and other products) improved speech recognition, additional capabilities
By Donald Melanson 
posted February 17th 2010 1:56AM
posted February 17th 2010 1:56AM
Sensory Inc. may stay behind the scenes most of the time, but the company's speech recognition chips are already used in toys from JVC, Mattel, Hasbro and others, and it's now announced a new chip that could lead to toys with some significantly improved capabilities. Costing just $2 apiece (in quantities over 100K/year), the company's NLP-5X chip not only boasts support for speech recognition and text-to-speech that lets it "generate thousands of voices on the fly," but support for sound samples and MIDI playback as well. What's more, the chip uses what's described as an "incredible algorithm" that allows it to be on all the time and simply listen and activate itself when needed -- or when you least suspect it. Of course, while toys are one application, the company also sees the chip being used in a whole range of other consumer electronics -- Sensory even gives the example of an internet-connected oven that could let look up a recipe and then have a conversation with your oven about how you'd like to cook it.
I'm sleeping with the lights on tonight...
@Ltsmba
Yeah Engies you really couldn't wait till morning to post this one?
@Ltsmba
oh god. its chucky. scariest mf i ever knew. true story... five or six years ago when my mom still took me to the barber i used to try and run out kicking and screaming cuz they had the damn bride of chucky box laying next to the tv. remember the tv guide channel? when they played the chucky previews id run upstairs screaming "turn it off!"and sit in my room for hours on end or atleast till the fam squad decided on a channel to watch. it was that serious. if there was anything that ever made a bitch out of skyblaze it was chucky. thanks for bringing him back, engadget :\
@Ltsmba Not as scary as this: http://i.a.cnn.net/si/2007/writers/classic_nfl/09/10/bucs/buccaneers.jpg
"Sensory even gives the example of an internet-connected oven that could let look up a recipe and then have a conversation with your oven about how you'd like to cook it.."
Or kill you in your sleep.
@KGB Yeah but sensory has nothing on voodoo chants and black magic, if you want a real killer doll.
Thanks for scaring me shitless before I go to sleep engadget
I wonder what would end up happening if you start sleep-talking with those kinds of dolls overnight...
That does it. From now on, no electronic dolls for my kids. The last thing I need is a random doll or action figure talking on its own. Remember Furby? That toy freaked me out... and it still does today!
Don't worry people, they aren't on the market YET. Don't worry when they are on the market, either. Worry about two years later when they start talking amongst themselves.
I think the term is
"Beginning of the end."
Batteries Not Included just got a bit more real.
well those 'realdolls' will certainly get 'interesting'
whatever they do, just don't use Arnold Schwarzenegger's voice on the default setting....
cyborgs don't speak with austrian accents....
Chucky is back!!!
Speech recognition and text-to-speech aren't what scare me, its when toys start to come with built in WiFi that I'm worried about. Especially if they have automatic updates and can move around, see, and hear.
That picture is just about as freaky as that one of the boy on the bus in the recent Engadget article about school bus wifi. Yeesh.
People already look at me funny when I talk to myself, what are they going to think when I start talking to my oven? What about when it starts talking back?
But can it play Crysis?
I miss chucky :(
Thank God I saw this when I woke up. Now I can cower throughout the day :(
What a great photo to use with this article.
@groberts1980
Yes hilarious. Hilarious enough in fact for me to spend 5min recovering my account and pass to post this.
I'd love to argue with my oven over how to make something.
Please take away that picture. Every time I see that face I still get nightmares even at a old age. I never finish watching THAT SERIES EXCEPT THE 1ST. But PLEASE MAN TAKE IT OFF.
Paul Saffo predicted that...