Pittsburgh’s Kextil frees up field techs’ eyes and hands using wireless and voice recognition

Using “industrial strength” voice recognition and Bluetooth technology, a Pittsburgh startup is creating a software application that will allow field technicians to relay and receive information without ever touching a device.

For technicians in the field repairing complex industrial equipment, “their hands and eyes are their primary tool,” says Kextil  founder Jonathan Berman.  “If they have to touch a device, they have to stop working.”

So Kextil’s software platform allows field workers to use speech to look up information and document what they are doing, eliminating “the barrier to information flow between the field guy and the enterprise and the enterprise and the field,” he adds. “It’s like having a virtual secretary on one shoulder and a virtual supervisor on the other.”

Founded in 2010, Kextil is in its beta trial stage, testing its prototype with three companies including Siemens, a global supplier of semi-conductor equipment and, starting in April, a major medical device company. Berman expects to be ready for a commercial launch at the end of the year.

For now, Berman is the only full-timer, working with three part-time employees. But the company has four current job openings and Berman expects to have a workforce of six by later this year. The company recently received $150,000 in funding from Innovation Works to support its rollout.

The young company is already planning to expand its platform to additional operating systems, notably Apple and Android. And it is working on a new system for Siemens’ industrial control systems that would allow operators to verbally control their machines.