Lucent Unveils New Speech Software from Bell Labs

MURRAY HILL, N.J. - Lucent introduced a speech software package based on Bell Labs research called the Lucent Speech Application Platform that will enable professionals to develop Windows-based applications for speech-enabled products.

Lucent also announced that it will work with Intel Corporation to advance away-from-the-office business applications. Other initial customers for the Lucent Speech Application Platform include Cambridge Consultants, Ltd. and 900 News Inc./Stock News Now.

The new Lucent software developers kit (SDK) integrates automatic speech recognition (ASR) and superior text-to-speech (TTS) synthesis technologies for computer applications that work with a microphone or over the telephone. These capabilities can be combined to provide a platform for multilingual natural language environments.

Distributed on a CD-ROM with multilingual engines for ASR and TTS, the Lucent Speech Application Platform allows software developers to create such applications as e-mail readers, voice-controlled Web browsers, and automatic news readers.

The Lucent Speech Application Platform is compliant with Microsoft Software Application Programming Interface (SAPI).

The TTS engine provides unrestricted text input and options for both male and female voices as well as multilingual engines. The Lucent TTS Engine currently supports American English, German, and Spanish (Mexican). The engine will soon handle French, Spanish (Castilian), Italian, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese (Mandarin).

The Lucent ASR engine supports speaker-independent, continuous speech recognition and run-time vocabulary change. Both sub-word (phonetic) models and whole-word models are supported. The engine can reject out-of-vocabulary utterances and offers a SAPI-compliant grammar compiler. The speech recognition engine uses 32 MB of RAM and requires a 166 MHz Pentium Pro. It is currently available in English and Spanish, with other languages planned.

Cambridge Consultants will develop Web e-commerce applications using the Lucent TTS engine.

900 News Inc./Stock News Now developed a stock news and quote reader, Stock News Now, which will use Lucent's TTS engine for an over-the-telephone application.

The Lucent TTS engine has logic to support pronunciation of names, addresses, numbers, date and time, as well as context-sensitive abbreviation expansion. The TTS playback includes male and female voices at both 8 KHz and 11 KHz; and supports adjustment of speed, volume, pitch, and vocal tract size.