Gracenote Improves MyFord Touch Voice Recognition for Music Search

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumer Electronics Show (CES) -- What's in a name?  Music fans would say a lot, especially if their favorite artists have more than one and they've had trouble finding them in their digital music library. From Bowie to Old Blue Eyes, The Fab Four to The Artist Formerly Known as Prince, artist nicknames have been known to cause problems with all voice recognition systems.

Gracenote®'s MediaVOCS® technology, featured in the MyFord Touch system, offers improved voice recognition capabilities for music search and playback, and lets drivers access bands and artists with alternative names, names from different parts of the world and irregular spellings with speed and accuracy.  Whether it be "G.N.R." for Guns N'Roses, "Snoop" for Snoop Dog, or hard-to-pronounce names, like Sade, Depeche Mode or Motley Crue, Gracenote MediaVOCS enables voice recognition systems to recognize monikers for artists from every genre and era.

"Accessing and managing music libraries in the car can be frustrating and distracting to drivers, especially now that many digital music collections are quite large," said Stephen White, senior vice president at Gracenote.  "Our expert editorial team has worked hard to ensure our database includes the most popular alternative names for artists, and we are pleased to deliver an enhanced voice recognition experience that makes it safer and easier for Ford drivers to access their music."

For Ford, Gracenote packages MediaVOCS, cover art and music metadata into embedded databases specific to markets in which the cars are sold.  These databases are loaded on the SD card in the 2011 Ford Edge and Lincoln MKX vehicles as part of the cars' premium map-based navigation package.

Gracenote and Ford CES

Gracenote will be demonstrating MediaVOCS at the Consumer Electronics Show Jan. 6-9, 2011 in South Hall 3, Booth 31106.

About Gracenote

A pioneer in the digital media industry, Gracenote combines information, technology, services and applications to create ingenious entertainment solutions for the global market.  From media management, enrichment and discovery products to content identification technologies, Gracenote allows providers of digital media products and the content community to make their offerings more powerful and intuitive, enabling superior consumer experiences. The company's solutions integrate the broadest, deepest, and highest quality global metadata and enriched content with an infrastructure that services billions of searches a month from thousands of products used by hundreds of millions consumers. Gracenote's customers include the biggest names in the consumer electronics, mobile, automotive, software and Internet industries.  The company's partners in the entertainment community include major music publishers and labels, prominent independents and movie studios.  Gracenote, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, is headquartered in Emeryville, California. www.gracenote.com.

Gracenote is a registered trademark of Gracenote, Inc. All other names are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE Gracenote