SmartBadge was Honoured at the International CES 2022 Innovation Awards

SmartBadge has been developed by SberDevices and is seamlessly integrated with the Speech Technology Center’s speech analytics system. The solution is an honouree in the Wearable Technologies category at the CES 2022 Innovation Awards.

The Awards were held ahead of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2022, one of the most influential global technology events, scheduled to take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, from January 5 to 8, 2022.

SmartBadge is a software and hardware unit for analysing employee – customer communications. It incorporates portable dialogue-recording devices (badges), a docking station and software for remote device management and exchanging data with the speech analytics system. In handling customer data, the priority is to ensure security. That has been taken into account when creating SmartBadge. The device's data protection system is based on digital signatures and a hardware-level asymmetric encryption algorithm.

In Russia, SmartBadge is the first-of-its-kind device, capable of diarisation — dividing recorded dialogue into two audio tracks — one of the employee and the other one of the customer. Then, the Speech Technology Center's speech analytics converts dialogues into text and analyses it with multiple algorithms, while rich reporting helps to quickly pinpoint problem areas. Reports are generated through the analysis of keywords and expressions. The solution has pre-configured basic and specific cases designed by Speech Technology Center's experts. These include quality control of service and inappropriate words, the identification of negative or positive customer reaction, and successful or failed sales strategies. Apparently, the quality of the speech analytics depends on the quality of speech recognition – identifying exactly what is said is crucial, even if the speech is partially slurred or the background is noisy. The Speech Technology Center's speech recognition technology, which has gained international acclaim from experts, ensures one ‘understands’ even spontaneous, and at times, unclear speech.

Using this device, one can improve service quality, train employees, solve disputes, analyse customer requests, and boost sales, customer loyalty, and marketing performance.

‘Here, at SberDevices, we strive daily to create the best home and business solutions that are convenient, intuitive, and groundbreaking at the same time. For us, the Innovation Award we received at CES 2022 is proof that by developing new products, we are on the right path technology-wise. We are glad that our hard work on a variety of devices has received such high praise from international experts,’ says Konstantin Kruglov, SberDevices CEO, Senior VP for New Digital Surfaces of Sberbank.

‘The speech recognition technology developed by Speech Technology Center was acknowledged the best in the world at the international CHiME workshop. The Speech Technology Center's speech analytics have proven to be effective in contact centers across Russia, including banks, telecom, fuel and energy companies and government organisations. Based on the feedback received, it has helped to improve services. The demand for the solution on online platforms has resulted in the demand for its implementation in offline settings as well.  SmartBadge has the capacity to meet this demand, and we are grateful for the high praise that our solution has received from the honorary international jury at the CES 2022 Awards. The Speech Technology Center's speech analytics and already available in Russian, English, and Spanish and will soon be in Arabic and other languages as we strive to provide global access to our product,’ adds Dmitry Dyrmovsky, Speech Technology Center CEO.

The CES Innovation Awards are held annually by the American Consumer Technology Association (CTA) and are dedicated to distinguishing outstanding solutions in the field of design and development. The expert jury consisting of media representatives, designers, engineers, and various other professionals evaluates applicants in 27 categories of consumer products and technology. They assess innovativeness, engineering, functionality, aesthetics, and design. The solutions with the highest assessment rating receive the Best Innovation Award. This year, the jury received a record number of applications – over 1,800.

Speech Technology Center is a global developer of products and solutions based on conversational artificial intelligence, machine learning, and computer vision with 30 years of experience. It offers technological expertise in speech technology, as well as facial recognition and voice biometrics. Speech Technology Center is focused on creating B2B and B2G AI solutions, with more than 5,000 AI projects completed around the world, including national-scale projects in Mexico, Ecuador, and the Middle East. In Russia, Speech Technology Center solutions are put to use in the largest banks, telecommunications companies, the fuel and energy sector, as well as the public sector. Moreover, they are being used to introduce the Safe&Smart city concept. Speech Technology Center Group’s voice forgery detection and speech recognition technology are on top of the global rankings like NIST, VOiCES, and CHiME Challenge.