Lenovo Debuts Smartphone That Is Unlocked By User’s Voice

Using your voice to unlock your smartphone is now possible with Lenovo’s new smartphone, Lenovo A586, which debuted across China today.

AsianScientist (Nov. 30, 2012) – Using your voice to unlock your smartphone is now possible with Lenovo’s new smartphone, Lenovo A586, which debuted across China today at major telecommunications providers and online shops.

The in-built Speaker Verification technology was pioneered by A*STAR’s Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R) and commercialized at the Baidu-I2R Research Center (BIRC).

It marks a major milestone for BIRC, a joint laboratory between A*STAR’s I2R and Baidu, Inc., the leading Chinese language Internet search provider.

BIRC, Baidu’s first overseas joint R&D facility, was officially opened in Singapore in July this year.

The Lenovo A586 smartphone is the first smartphone to incorporate Speaker Verification technology into its operating system. Authorized users can unlock the smartphone by speaking a passphrase, without the need to use a personal identification number (PIN), password, or finger swipe pattern.

“This is a strong endorsement of user-inspired research and cutting-edge speech and language technology in I2R and BIRC. We look forward to more innovative products from the Baidu and I2R partnership,” said Dr. Li Haizhou, Co-Director of BIRC.

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Source: A*STAR.
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