Dean Weber (born August 12, 1962) is an American entrepreneur, computer scientist and inventor, described by many as "the father of the intelligent personal assistant" and was credited for the commercial launch of the first virtual assistant called IVAN, in 1999. During that time, Weber was founder of One Voice Technologies, an Artificial Intelligence company founded in 1998 in San Diego, California. At One Voice, Weber was instrumental in launching voice solutions worldwide to millions of users and ultimately sold his patent portfolio to Apple in 2010 prior to Apple's launch of Siri.
In 2017 and 2018, Weber showcased advanced conversational-AI solutions for connected cars with Mitsubishi and Faurecia at auto shows in Detroit, Paris, Shanghai, and Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
Today, Weber leads a team of entrepreneurs and AI scientists creating conversational-AI voice solutions in the digital health sector at Quantum AI Health. Quantum AI Health is focused on providing Artificial Intelligence solutions to improve patient care and physician access to electronic health records with their AI-based Virtual Medical Scribe platform.
Education and early career
Weber attended Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) and graduated in 1984 with a degree in computer science and minor in mathematics. At CCSU, he studied compiler design, queueing theory, and wrote several applications for disk operating systems and virtual memory optimizations.
Upon graduation, Weber was hired by United Technologies Hamilton Standard Advanced Space and Sea Division in Windsor Locks Connecticut, where we worked on a team that designed and developed the NASA Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) space suit for the International Space Station (ISS) and NASA's Space Shuttle program. In addition, at Hamilton Standard Weber worked on Navy submarine projects where he held a DoD Top Secret clearance.
In 1986, at the age of 23, Weber was hired by Northrop Grumman in Los Angeles, California, where he developed software for the Northrop B-2 Spirit Stealth Bomber, with a DoD Top Secret clearance, and was on the original public launch team in 1998.
Career
EditPro
In 1990, at the age of 27, Weber founded EditPro, a software development company that developed and sold the industries first fully integrated development environment (IDE) with embedded syntax color coding and support for Ada, Assembler, Basic, C/C++, Clipper, COBOL, dBase/xBase, Fortran, FoxPro, HTML, Java, Makefiles, Paradox, Pascal, RTF, SGML, SQL, Windows API functions, and Windows .INI files. In 1992, Weber sold the company to Kubota of Japan to launch advanced software development tools in the Japanese market.
Conversational systems
In 1992, at the age of 29, Weber began developing several technologies combining state-of-the-art voice recognition, dictation, and facial recognition solutions to create the industries first AI-based virtual personal assistant.
One Voice Technologies
In 1996, Weber began Conversit.com and later changed the name to One Voice Technologies. The company was an early pioneer in conversational-AI and is credited with launching the industries first virtual personal assistant in 1999. As founder, Weber built the company from startup to Nasdaq listing and raised over $50M in funding. From 1999 to 2010, the company launched several industry first solutions in the consumer, automotive, telecom, and gaming industries. In 2010, the company sold its patent portfolio to Apple for technology used in Siri.
Timeline of products and news from One Voice Technologies
Name | Year | Description | Links |
---|---|---|---|
IVAN | 1999 | Intelligent Voice Animated Navigator | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVcJcghRGxc |
Forbes Magazine | 1999 | Speak for Yourself | https://www.forbes.com/forbes/1999/1115/6412244a.html?sh=4f3e1ce95594 |
Harry Potter DVD | 2002 | One Voice Technologies and Warner Home Video Unveil the World's First Voice Interactive DVD With Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone | |
Media Center Communicator | 2007 | Voice Control Your Home | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM8tLUdTw_Ihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNGqJwjKFtg |
Samsung Q1 UMPC | 2007 | Voice Control for Samsung's Q1 Ultra Mobile PC | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38225dFAgn8 |
Say2Play | 2008 | Voice Control Gaming Experience | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qr-8k-OeWs8 |
SHEnetics
in 2013, Weber founded SHEnetics (Simulated Human Experience). SHEnetics launched several solutions in the mobile sector primarily focused on the automotive industry.
Quantum AI Health
In 2022, Weber launched Quantum AI with a focus on the digital healthcare sector providing AI based solutions for physicians to automate the generation of electronic medical notes.
Patents
Patent No. | Country | File Date | Grant Date | Description | Status |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
6,499,013 | US | 09/09/1998 | 12/24/2002 | Interactive user interface using speech recognition and natural language processing | Sold to Apple |
6,532,444 | US | 10/05/1998 | 03/11/2003 | Network interactive user interface using speech recognition and natural language processing | Sold to Apple |
6,434,524 | US | 10/05/1999 | 08/13/2002 | Object interactive user interface using speech recognition and natural language processing | Sold to Apple |
1110205 | EP, ES, IT, FR, GB, DE | 09/08/1999 | 01/12/2005 | Interactive user interface using speech recognition and natural language processing | Sold to Apple |
1110206 | EP, ES, IT, FR, GB, DE | 09/08/1999 | 12/29/2004 | Network interactive user interface using speech recognition and natural language processing | Sold to Apple |
References
- Garber, Joseph (15 November 1999). "Speak for Yourself".
- "One Voice Technologies". Archived from the original on February 28, 2005.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)