Digi International announced voice control software that allows developers to design a voice-based human-machine interface for edge devices with no cloud connectivity required, it said Tuesday. The software is said to reduce connectivity costs and data privacy concerns while providing response time of under 100 milliseconds. It supports 30 languages, features a 60,000-word vocabulary, and includes a tool suite to train new commands and generate custom voice-enabled applications.

SoundHound announced a service that will allow restaurants to automate the phone ordering process, and it's partnering with Square to integrate the conversational AI phone ordering automation with Square’s point-of-sale systems, it said Thursday. When a customer calls a restaurant to place an order, the SoundHound for Restaurants voice assistant answers the call, takes the order, accepts modifications and sends a confirmation to complete the payment, the company said. Callers can ask for what they want using SoundHound's natural language interface. The voice assistant answers every call and can take multiple orders simultaneously, it said.

Amazon smart speaker shipments will have a minus 3.2% compound annual growth rate through 2026, Omdia forecast Wednesday, saying smart speaker sales have peaked in North America, with a 1.3% compound annual growth rate expected through 2026. Amazon had an installed base of 110 million speakers in North America last year, double that of Google, whose smart speaker sales are projected to have a 0.2% CAGR through the period. Omdia estimated Apple HomePod growth of 11.7%, “predicated on the release of a new smart speaker.” Without a product refresh, Apple’s outlook is flat, Omdia said. "Smart speakers have become ubiquitous in the U.S.," said analyst Blake Kozak, saying price is no longer a barrier to adoption. Since smart speakers “don't need to be replaced unless they fail, growth is about to come to a grinding stop in the North American market," Kozak said. New use cases in healthcare could mean a “second life” for the devices, he said. Globally, the smart speaker market was about $13 billion in 2021, up from about $12.1 billion in 2020, on unit sales of 190 million. Annual shipments are expected to reach 273 million in 2026 for a 7.5% CAGR, it said.

Amazon emailed Alexa customers Friday notifying them they can make a donation to the American Red Cross to support Ukraine. When users say, “Alexa, make a donation to support Ukraine,” Alexa confirms the dollar amount. When we asked what our options were, Alexa went off track, saying she could help with morning activities, relaxation, education, entertainment, health and fitness and more, and asked which we wanted to explore. We tried again, confirmed the donation and were told the donation was sent via Amazon Pay.

Vizio and SoundHound extended their partnership integrating SoundHound’s voice AI in Vizio remote controls, the companies said Tuesday. The first voice-enabled Vizio remotes launched last spring, with daily voice queries doubling every quarter, they said. Voice allows users to quickly find the content they want “with the complex search technology happening in the background,” said David Rudnick, Vizio senior vice president-product engineering. SoundHound Products Vice President James Hom said as voice AI becomes a more commonly used interface for consumers, “there is a big opportunity to extend voice AI into interactive and commerce opportunities.”

Snap One’s Control4 home automation brand and voice control company Josh.ai are partnering on a consumer campaign to highlight their integration, they emailed Wednesday. The companies plan a webinar Feb. 16 at noon EST with Josh.ai CEO Alex Capecelatro, Snap One Chief Product Officer G Paul Hess, and Future Automation & Design President Patrick Coleman to discuss the integration and future plans. The companies also created a client experience video to demonstrate how their integrated technologies create a differentiated voice control experience from mass-market voice assistants.

SoundHound announced a multiyear agreement with Qualcomm to enable its always-on voice AI technology with Snapdragon platforms. The agreement covers SoundHound’s automatic speech recognition, natural language understanding and text-to-speech conversion software. App developers and device makers can integrate the technologies for conversational voice experiences and to build voice interfaces that detect queries in noisy environments and when a device is transmitting other sounds, it said Tuesday.

Callisto technology, a custom hardware and software integration developed by engineers from Lockheed Martin, Amazon and Cisco, will be used in NASA’s Orion spacecraft for the Artemis I multiweek uncrewed mission scheduled for early this year around the moon and back to Earth, said the companies Wednesday. Human-machine interface technologies built into Orion will help show how future astronauts could benefit from far-field voice technology, AI and tablet-based video collaboration, they said. "Callisto will demonstrate a first-of-its-kind technology that could be used in the future to enable astronauts to be more self-reliant as they explore deep space," said Lisa Callahan, Lockheed Martin general manager-commercial civil space. Callisto partners worked with NASA to build a virtual crew experience at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, allowing operators to interact with Callisto from the Mission Control Center. The remote interactions will test and demonstrate how voice and video collaboration technologies can help astronauts improve efficiency and situational awareness during their mission, providing access to flight status and telemetry and the ability to control connected devices onboard Orion. Video and audio of the interactions will be transmitted back to Earth numerous times throughout the Artemis I mission, allowing engineers to analyze the performance of the onboard systems while sharing interactions with the public. The Callisto technology demonstration will allow the public to engage with and virtually "ride along" with the Artemis I mission. They can follow the mission on Alexa-enabled devices by saying "Alexa, take me to the Moon." Cisco’s Webex video collaboration capabilities will offer opportunities for science, technology, engineering and mathematics education and remote classroom teaching events, said the companies.

LG implemented DSP Concepts’ TalkTo audio front end in its Objet TV, said the voice technology company Tuesday. The 65ART90 Objet TV, with two front-facing mics, is meant to show artwork and TV content “from a comfortable distance” and can be paired with LG sound bars or multichannel home theater systems. The TalkTo solution is designed to improve the accuracy of voice pickup for voice commands while reducing ambient noise. TalkTo uses signal processing to filter the audio signal detected by the TV's mics to improve accuracy, said DSP Concepts CEO Chin Beckmann: "The key feature is that a viewer can sit in front of a loud television and speak their commands without having to raise their voice." The 65-inch TV, available only in South Korea initially, has a 4.2-channel, 80-watt audio system, and a moving screen cover that slides down when the TV isn't in use.

Netflix will use SoundHound’s voice AI interface for its Da Vinci reference design kit, said SoundHound Tuesday. The voice user interface will allow operators to provide more convenient, easier, and hands-free experiences to their subscribers without the need to develop a voice solution on their own, it said. Searches can be granular, SoundHound said, giving the example of a user asking for action movies, from the 1990s only, that aren’t over 150 minutes long. Users will also be able to access their set-top box for voice commerce, such as ordering pizza, or controlling other devices in the home, it said.