Wavemakers Announces Telematics Collaboration

VANCOUVER, BC--(INTERNET WIRE)--Nov 13, 2002 -- Wavemakers Inc., a developer of voice optimization software, today announced its collaboration with Johnson Controls on the company's BlueConnect™ telematics system. Wavemakers will supply their Waveware™ library which includes the EchoBlock (echo cancellation), ClearStream® (noise cancellation and speech enhancement) and WaveBeam (multiple microphone) software modules.

BlueConnect is Johnson Controls' hands-free telematics system that allows drivers to keep their hands on the wheel while staying connected through a Bluetooth™ enabled cellular phone. In complex, noisy automotive environments, Wavemakers' Waveware suite of solutions provides significant voice quality during phone conversations, as well as improved voice recognition accuracy.

"We are very impressed with Wavemakers' technology and their team," said Jim Geschke, vice president and general manager of Electronics Integration at Johnson Controls. "Our BlueConnect product combines the efforts of a number of leading technologies, and Wavemakers' software solutions help to ensure maximum performance. Together with the other partners, Wavemakers is enabling us to provide a tightly integrated, adaptive and robust system."

"We are pleased to be providing Johnson Controls with our core technology and services to make BlueConnect a success," says Peter van der Gracht, Wavemakers' Chairman and CEO. "We are focused exclusively on servicing automakers' requirements, and working together with Johnson Controls, we will ensure that new car buyers are provided with world-class products."

About Johnson Controls Inc.

Johnson Controls, Inc., is a global market leader in automotive systems and facility management and control. In the automotive market, it is a major supplier of seating, interior systems and batteries. For nonresidential facilities, Johnson Controls provides building control systems and services, energy management and integrated facility management. Johnson Controls, founded in 1885, has headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its sales for 2001 totaled $18.4 billion. For more information, please visit www.johnsoncontrols.com.

About Wavemakers

Wavemakers® develops voice optimization software, including noise and echo cancellation, which enhances and reconstructs speech to improve the accuracy of voice user interfaces driving automotive speech applications and significantly improves the quality of voice for phone communications. Our Audio Intelligence® solutions go beyond reducing noise and improving SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) by reconstructing masked or lost information, thereby maximizing recognition accuracy in noisy environments. Our suite of solutions (ClearStream®, SmartAGC, WaveBeam and EchoBlock) has been proven to reduce the error rate of speech recognition systems by as much as 85%. Working with any speech engine, Wavemakers delivers an embedded high-performance but low-cost solution for any far-field microphone application.

The company is a third-party developer for the Intel StrongARM processing platform, a member of the Intel PCA Developer Network, a partner in the Hitachi SH4 COMET program and are Texas Instruments eXpressDSP™ compliant. Founded in 1993, Wavemakers is a privately held corporation based in Vancouver, Canada.

Be sure to visit www.wavemakers.com to view our other recent news:

Oct. 21, 2002: Hitachi's COMET Program Selects Wavemakers' AudioIntelligence® for Enabling Smart, Comprehensive System Solutions

Wavemakers® becomes partner in Hitachi's SH-4-based COMET program to address the voice enhancement needs of vertically integrated, one-box system development solutions.

Oct. 21, 2002: Waveware™ Fully Optimized on Intel® Applications Processors

Wavemakers' Software is Fully Optimized on Intel® Xscale™ Micro-architecture Platform for Embedded Speech Applications

© 2002. Wavemakers Inc. All rights reserved. Wavemakers, ClearStream, Audio Intelligence and Waveware are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Wavemakers Inc. All other trade names mentioned are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of their respective owners.