LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SoundHound Inc.®, the leading innovator in sound recognition and voice-enabled conversational intelligence technologies, today announced a global partnership with Onkyo, a worldwide leader in high-end consumer audio products. The two companies will co-develop and market Onkyo’s next-generation series of smart speakers, which will be powered by SoundHound Inc.’s Houndify™ voice-enabling conversational intelligence developer platform and will be launched later this year. The first series of products will consist of smart speakers released under the Onkyo brand and will be available globally, including across North America. With this partnership, Onkyo may decide to extend the collaboration to other brands in the corporate portfolio.
With the Houndify integration, Onkyo smart speaker users will be able to talk to their products naturally to control them and receive answers about weather, sports, stocks, flights, hotels, restaurants, music, movies, and more. SoundHound Inc.’s decade of expertise in music search and discovery, plus its current leadership in voice search and natural language processing, combined with Onkyo’s history of producing high-end audio equipment, delivers an unprecedented music discovery, content navigation, and consumption experience.
“The Houndify platform was created to be the world’s first fully agnostic voice and A.I. technology that allows anyone to easily add a voice-enabled, conversational interface to their apps and devices,” said Keyvan Mohajer, cofounder and CEO of SoundHound Inc. “Onkyo is a respected leader in innovative, high-end consumer audio products, both in Japan and around the globe, and we’re thrilled to partner with them to deliver a smart and robust conversational voice interface to their customer base.”
“Voice interfaces are becoming a more important part of consumers’ lives, as we embark upon a new, more connected era of audiovisual technology,” said Munenori Otsuki, president and CEO of Onkyo. “Onkyo has a history of establishing partnerships with the world’s pioneering technology companies; with Houndify, SoundHound Inc. has created a sophisticated natural language processing platform that is uniquely positioned to scale and innovate along with us.”
SoundHound Inc. introduced the Houndify platform in 2015, with the mission of bringing A.I. to everyone. About 20,000 partners signed up within a year, including world-renowned players in variety of industries, and hundreds of distinct products are being Houndified. Houndify is the only A.I. platform that is fully independent and platform-agnostic, which means business owners like Onkyo can deploy it anywhere and stay in control of their brand, users, and data, while differentiating and innovating.
Houndify provides the A.I. technology ingredients, including very fast speech recognition, sophisticated natural language understanding, and easy to use developer tools. This gives Houndify unparalleled speed-to-market and the ability to scale, and includes an ever-expanding set of domains, which are programs that provide users with relevant information or actions related to their queries. The platform also provides access to knowledge and data from major service provider partners. Houndify is already featured in SoundHound Inc.’s mobile apps -- Hound, the voice search & assistant app, and SoundHound, the music search, discovery and play app -- making them hands-free and voice interface enabled.
Developers interested in exploring the Houndify platform can visit Houndify.com to learn more and register. The Hound voice search and assistant app is available as a free iOS or Android app, and can be downloaded via SoundHound.com/Hound. For more information on Onkyo, visit OnkyoUSA.com.
About SoundHound Inc.:
SoundHound Inc. turns sound into understanding and actionable meaning. We believe in enabling humans to interact with the things around them in the same way we interact with each other: by speaking naturally to mobile phones, cars, TVs, music speakers, and every other part of the emerging ‘connected’ world. Our consumer product, Hound, leverages our Speech-to-Meaning technology to showcase a groundbreaking smartphone experience, and is the first product to leverage and showcase the Houndify platform. Our SoundHound product applies our technology to music, enabling people to discover, explore, and share the music around them, and even find the name of that song stuck in their heads by singing or humming. Through the Houndify platform, we empower developers to be part of the Speech-to-Meaning revolution. Our Mission: Houndify everything.
About Onkyo:
Since 1946, Onkyo has been passionately committed to developing audio products that deliver uncommon performance, quality, and value. Bundling proprietary technologies and innovations with other sound-enhancing exclusives, Onkyo continues to create award-winning products that are lauded by industry-leading publications. The company's philosophy is to deliver products that are superbly designed and built to a consistently outstanding standard of excellence. The results can be seen in the obvious quality of any Onkyo-manufactured product, even before it’s turned on. For more information, visit the Onkyo website at onkyousa.com.
