[Blindtlk] Amazon's acquisition of text-to-speech company IVONA could help it battle Siri and lawsuits

[Daniel Garcia]

Amazon’s acquisition of text-to-speech company IVONA could help it battle
Siri  and lawsuits 

http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-acquisition-text-speech-company-1449
22940.html

By Laura Hazard Owen Thu, 24 Jan, 2013 9:49 AM EST

In a move that could assist vision-impaired users and potentially aid
smartphone development, Amazon has acquired 

text-to-speech and voice recognition company IVONA Software for an
undisclosed sum.
Amazon already uses IVONA technology on the Kindle Fire, using the software
to, for example, read user actions aloud or 

help navigate the touchscreen. Amazon might now integrate some of these
features into its e-readers. (The Kindle 

Paperwhite lacks the experimental text-to-speech feature that was available
on the older Kindle Touch.)
Over the past few years, various advocacy organizations for blind people —
most prominently, the National Federation for 

the Blind — have sued or protested against Amazon as it attempts to sign
deals with school districts and universities to 

bring Kindle devices into classrooms. The organizations argue that Kindle
e-readers and ebooks are inaccessible to blind 

students and are thus prohibited from use in public schools by federal law.
More recently, advocacy by the National 

Federation for the Blind may have been a factor in the scuttling of a
multi-million dollar deal between Amazon and the 

U.S. State Department to provide Kindles to overseas programs. If Amazon is
able to integrate text-to-speech technology 

into more of its devices, the company might be able to avoid some of these
actions.
Of course, IVONA’s technology could also help Amazon create a competitor to
Apple’s Siri voice-recognition technology. 

(Rumors that Amazon is working on a smartphone have been making their way
around the internet for awhile.) It seems 

more likely, though, that the primary driver of this acquisition is Amazon’s
desire to avoid future lawsuits — and to get 

its Kindles into more hands worldwide.