Commend announces Ivy Captions, a live transcription function for intercoms

Ivy, Commend’s conversational voice assistant for Intercom systems, now offers a new feature that simplifies dialogue by transcribing spoken content on-screen. With Ivy Captions, the words spoken by the user and Ivy are shown on the Intercom screen.

Launched in 2023, Ivy is a conversational voice assistant for Intercom systems based on artificial intelligence. It supports control centre staff by automatically answering frequently asked questions, such as directions or train schedule information. This allows operators to focus on special requests or emergencies. Unlike simple chatbots, Ivy is able to analyse spoken input and answer questions based on natural language processing.

With Ivy Captions providing visual support, it is now easier to avoid misunderstandings, especially in hectic environments such as train stations or airports. It makes understanding Ivy effortless even in noisy environments and in the user’s language (Ivy speaks – and now writes – German, English, Spanish, Italian, French, and Dutch).

By enhancing the dialogue with full transcriptions, Ivy Captions is a great asset to hearing impaired persons while ensuring improved general accessibility and interaction at the point of automated assistance.

Applications

Ivy suits a wide range of possible applications, for example in car parks, public transport facilities and inner cities. Consider the situation at a busy city square, where tourists are asking Ivy for directions to local sights at an info point. Ivy will provide detailed spoken directions, but traffic noise and other acoustic disturbances can sometimes make it difficult to catch every word.

Thanks to the transcriptions provided by Ivy Captions, users can easily confirm or correct what they’ve heard, take notes if necessary, and make sure they will get to their intended destination.

At underground stations,travellers can ask Ivy aboutschedules, delays, where to change trains, etc. ‘Leicester Square’ sounds different from the way it is written, which may cause confusion. With Ivy Captions,the spoken answer is instantly shown on the screen to prevent users from ending up at the wrong destination.

Ivy is available 24 hours a day and collects valuable data from its interactions to continuously improve the user’s experience. This data analysis makes it possible to derive operational recommendations, optimize processes and take customer service to the next level. For example, if many users keep asking the way to the nearest exit, this may indicate insufficient signage and prompt corrective measures. In addition, the documentation of incidents provides insight into how problems were handled, thus helping to improve service quality.

Thanks to intelligent audio analysis, Ivy is also able to filter out so-called ‘empty calls’ (triggered by mistake or as a prank), thus allowing employees to focus on urgent requests and save valuable time.

Evergreen Technology

Thanks to Evergreen technology, which guarantees the sustainability and longevity of Commend products and systems, Ivy now interfaces seamlessly with older systems. This is part of Commend’s commitment to long-term backward compatibility of its products, which allows customers to use yesterday’s devices with today’s technology.