Speech recognition startup earns funding, enters international R and D collaboration
October 25, 2012
INDIANAPOLIS - An Indiana startup could develop speech recognition applications based on its proprietary technology ahead of schedule after receiving more than $20,000 in an angel investment and entering a research and development collaboration with an international technology institution.
Waveform Communication LLC, based in the Purdue Research Park, is developing a digital code based on a model of vowel perception and production. The research was published in "The Waveform Model of Vowel Perception and Production," by Michael A. Stokes, the company's president and CEO.
Stokes said the financial contribution from an angel investor will strengthen the company's ability to meet its timeline for application development and deployment.
"A private individual has invested $22,500 into Waveform Communication," he said. "In addition to the $100,000 received from the first angel investor, these funds will allow the company to purchase resources to remain on an aggressive timeline to develop the applications."
Waveform Communication is collaborating on research and development with the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati. He said the relationship has resulted in benefits beyond the additional world exposure of the Waveform model of vowel perception.
"Working with the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati is extending the Waveform Model to the Hindi language," he said. "This adds more vowel sounds that it can recognize, and we already achieve 99.2 percent voice recognition accuracy without requiring speakers to take special training."
The Waveform Model was originally demonstrated using American Standard English. Stokes said it could be expanded into other languages.
"Additional languages will be identified in time, but there are several opportunities and requests for Spanish, Chinese and Hindi," he said.
About Waveform Communication LLC
Waveform Communication looks to make an international impact in speech technology by building applications through the Waveform Model. The company has been recognized as one of the top 50 startups in the world by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation in 2011, and became a tenant in the Purdue Research Park of Indianapolis in 2012.
About Purdue Research Park
The Purdue Research Park, with four locations across Indiana, has the largest university-affiliated business incubation complex in the country. The parks are home to about 200 companies that employ 4,000 people and are located in West Lafayette, Indianapolis, Merrillville and New Albany.
Purdue Research Park contact: Steve Martin, 765-588-3342, sgmartin@prf.org
Source: Michael A. Stokes, 317-902-9834, mstokes@waveformcommunication.com
