Speech-to-text company Nuance to partner, buy patents from IBM

Nuance Communications, a speech-recognition firm, announced a partnership with IBM Thursday that will leverage IBM patents in Nuance's speech offerings. Nuance did not mention specific applications or programs on which it would partner with IBM, but said the partnership should yield joint speech innovations within two years. Nuance also announced it would purchase some of IBM's speech-related patents in the deal.

Speech recognition technology is expected to advance unified communications applications significantly, especially in collaboration situations. Voice-to-text functionality in a language translation situation would be especially interesting, but don't cross your fingers for it to hit market any time soon. Nonetheless, Nuance's leadership said the partnership will yield positive results for both companies and their customers. 

"We are enthusiastic about this strategic relationship with IBM, building on its rich history of speech research to accelerate the creation and adoption of next-generation speech solutions," said Paul Ricci, chairman and CEO of Nuance. "Through this relationship, we expect to inspire a new level of technical advancement unprecedented in the speech industry from which the customers and partners of both companies will benefit." 

For more:
- see the Nuance release here 

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