07 Apr
Lessons from Our Voice Engine #2: CLMs
Welcome back to “Lessons from Our Voice Engine,” where members of our Engineering and Speech Tech teams offer high level insights into how our voice engine works. Lesson 2 is from Lora Lynn Asvos, a Computational Linguist on our Speech Tech team. What are CLMs? CLM stands for “custom language model.” As mentioned in Lesson […]
01 Apr
6 Ways to Design Voice Experiences for Kids
Best practices in voice UX are emerging as the voice technology industry grows and voice use cases expand. As we design voice experiences for kids, we must account for their unique needs and behaviors. Here are six areas to consider when designing voice-first experiences for kids. 1. Be specific In voice experiences with kids, as […]
25 Mar
Lessons From Our Voice Engine #1: NLP
Welcome to “Lessons from our Voice Engine,” a series of blog posts by members of our Engineering and Speech Tech teams that explain, at a high level, how our voice engine works. Lesson 1 comes from Nick Parslow, a Computational Linguist and member of our Speech Tech team here at SoapBox Labs. What is NLP? […]
19 Mar
Voice-enabled MCQs Are Hot. Here’s why.
As many of you know, multiple-choice tests are a robust form of objective assessment where respondents select the best answer to a question from a list of options. When written with intention, multiple-choice questions (MCQs) are very effective in literacy because they can test higher-order learning and comprehension. Thanks to voice technology, MCQs are now […]
18 Mar
Announcing U.S. Expansion and Leadership Promotions
DUBLIN, IRELAND (MARCH 18, 2021) — SoapBox Labs, pioneering developer of private and accurate voice technology for kids, today announced its expansion into the United States and the promotion of three employees to its leadership team. The announcement signals momentum for the Dublin-based company, as well as growing demand for its kid-specific voice technology in […]
12 Mar
How Data is Reinventing EdTech
One of our favorite conversations with edtech customers is about how the unique data generated by voice-enabled tools can improve learning outcomes for kids and their teachers. “For the first time, using voice-enabled assessment tools, we can accurately measure the expressive language and literacy skills of a child. Historically, teachers needed to listen while the […]
05 Mar
Celebrating Our Women in AI
Women continue to be massively underrepresented in the computer science and artificial intelligence (AI) fields. While this is hardly “news”, the stats on gender diversity still have shock value. In its Global Gender Gap Report 2020, the World Economic Forum shows that only 32% of data and AI professionals in the US are women, and they […]
05 Mar
Voice-Enabling for Kids is Easy. Just Ask Rob.
My name is Rob O’ Regan and I’m the VP of Engineering here at SoapBox Labs. The mission of our engineering team has always been to enable great voice experiences for kids. We started on this mission 8 years ago and have since become the leading solution in the market, in part because we offer an API […]
19 Feb
Catering to Accents and Dialects
“Does your voice technology cater to different accents and dialects?” This is the most common question we get asked by new clients. And no surprise, since all education or entertainment brands worth their salt are committed to offering voice-enabled experiences that work for kids of all backgrounds, geographies, and ethnicities. The question is well justified […]
11 Feb
Tackling the literacy crisis during the pandemic
You don’t have to be an educator or a parent to be concerned by recent headlines about learning loss in children, like this one from the Washington Post. Reports about the effects of remote learning on kids confirm two things: the pandemic has deepened the decades-old literacy crisis, and students of color and in high-poverty […]
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