(Click here for larger image of Mobile Navigator screen shot)Mobile Navigator 5 comes with a set of CDs containing map data for 27 European countries plus North America and the Gulf region. Maps for the country in which the software was purchased are usable out of the box, according to Navigon. Other maps are made accessible by purchasing activation keys from the company's website.
Voice control is implemented by means of the VoCon 3200 2.0 speech recognition engine from ScanSoft, making use of an optimized speaker-dependent recognition algorithm. Users can add a speaker-dependent "voice tag" to a destination in a quiet environment or a stopped car; and can later say that destination in a noisy environment -- while driving, for example. VoCon 3200 uses "noise-robust acoustic models" and makes use of an extensive automotive speech database recorded within car environments, covering a wide range of different car models and driving conditions, according to ScanSoft.
Mobile Navigator 5 is expected to be available in May of this year. It can be purchased as software only, or bundled with a PDA and/or a Bluetooth GPS receiver.
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