Clarity Exhibits its Voice Enabling Clear Voice Capture 'CVC' Technology; Clarity's Proprietary CVC Technology Enables Voice Activated Products in Noisy Environments.

Business Editors

TROY, Mich--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 27, 2000

Clarity LLC (http://www.clarityco.com/), previewed today its proprietary enabling software technology for voice interface applications, including hands free cellular communications in automobiles.

The technology, Clear Voice Capture(TM) ("CVC"(TM)) which is a novel breakthrough that allows voice based systems to perform in real-world noisy environments, was shown at The Automotive & Consumer Electronics Industries Deal Making Summit at the Detroit Marriott Renaissance by Clarity, a privately held software development company.

CVC has been applauded for its ability to clearly extract and capture a single voice signal from a mixture of unwanted noise sources. Systems equipped with this novel technology will achieve a higher level of accuracy and performance, further accelerating the adoption rate and user acceptance of voice features.

Applications for Clarity's CVC technology include: speech recognition software, voice based command and control, voice authentication, and voice communications, such as Internet (VOIP) and cellular telephony. The technology can be embedded into many consumer products, including Automotive Telematics, desktop, laptop and palmtop computers, personal-digital assistants, cellular-phones, intelligent home appliances, educational toys, and voice recording devices.

With effective voice interface capabilities, all of these products serve markets poised for substantial growth over the next five years.

In the Automotive market alone, The Intelligent Transportation Society of America, a Washington D.C. "think tank" that supplies data to the Department of Transportation, reports that there are more than 201 million cars in the U.S. today and that Americans collectively spend more than 500 million hours in their cars each week with an average commuting time of 80 minutes per day and growing.

With the introduction and high adoption rate of the Internet, automobile manufacturers now have a mechanism to offer their customers access to a broad spectrum of services never before seen, such as Internet services through cellular phones and satellite Internet access, electronic mail, navigation tools, in-car satellite radio and video as well as traffic updates.

With many countries around the world having banned, or in the process of banning hand-held cell phones in automobiles, Clarity is in a position to deliver hands-free, headset-free digital signal processing technology that enables effective voice based command and communications in the noisy automobile environment.

Voice is the ultimate human-machine interface, however it has been a challenge for the industry to make voice features work consistently, particularly in noisy environments. Even moderate levels of unwanted noise contaminates the voice signal of interest and degrades the performance and quality of the results, because systems with a microphone input, generally cannot distinguish between what part of the input signal is the user's voice and what part of it is noise.

Jaques Nasser, The Chief Executive of Ford Motor Co, has been quoted as saying, "we will do nothing short of transforming our cars into portals for the Internet." When discussing the union of the auto and IT industries, Motorola Corp., Executive Vice President Joseph Gugliemli, stated that "virtually every major auto manufacturer in the world is looking at installing the systems."

And Delphi's President of the Delco Electronics Systems unit Dave Wohleen notes that "Growing consumer demand for these (electronics) products is being driven by the desire to have more convenience, connectivity and entertainment options while driving."

Fred Nussbaum, Clarity's Vice President of Business Development, reported that "We completed speech recognition accuracy tests of Clarity's CVC technology using the latest revision of a very popular speech recognition software program. The test results taken from actual in-auto testing under a variety of real world conditions, demonstrated that CVC drastically reduces background noise levels in this very demanding setting. The lower noise levels translate into a 35% to 40% improvement in voice recognition accuracy, thereby enabling speech recognition systems to perform at a customer friendly level."

According to Mr. Nussbaum, "these results will be formally presented by Clarity at the AVIOS ( American Voice I/O Society) trade show in San Jose in May, but, the results are so impressive, they are being made available at this conference for the automotive executives to see."

"Clarity's signal processing technology is a solution whose timing is exceptional. Just as voice activated systems are being promised to customers, regulatory agencies worldwide are forcing auto manufacturers to seek safer ways for people to interface with their planned automotive telematics. We believe that Clarity is here to provide a far-field (hands-free, headset-free) voice communication tool to enable voice interface systems to perform in the noisy automobile environment," said Ed Narens, president and CEO of Narens Associates, an automotive marketing firm, founded in 1952.

Clarity's objective is to be a leading provider of software products that improve voice activated human-machine interfaces and the quality and efficiency of telecommunication systems. Clarity's primary strategy for achieving this goal is entering into co-development alliances and licensing arrangements with Original Equipment Manufacturers and suppliers in a broad range of industries, as well as semiconductor manufacturers and telecommunications network operators worldwide.

All product names and trademarks mentioned herein are trademarks of Clarity.