Speech Reconnaissance

That's what it took for me to become Publisher for this issue of the magazine. So here I am pecking at the keyboard writing these few words in what will surely be my only issue as Publisher. Being on the team that is responsible for the magazine's makeover, I am excited about the evolution of the industry and the magazine as we enter the new millenium. Well, autumn is here and it's time again for the fifth annual SpeechTEK Conference & Exhibition, the speech industry's leading showcase, bringing the latest advances in this leading edge technology to America's mainstream businesses. In 1999, speech recognition moved well beyond the desktop, with applications in telephones, wearable computers, hand-held recording devices and embedded devices from appliances to automobiles. Speech is impacting the Internet, with the creation of the VoiceXML standard and it is becoming more important in customer service and E-Commerce applications. It all adds up to an industry with widespread influence and appeal, one which is offering developers new and different challenges as they work to configure speech into numerous environments. The results of their progress to date and some of their plans for the next century will be on display October 26-27 at the SpeechTEK '99 Conference & Exhibition in New York. The industry's largest speech technology event has grown continuously throughout its five-year history. In this issue of the magazine we give you a run down of what to expect at the conference. Also inside the magazine we talk to Paul Celen, COO of Philips to get his thoughts on the industry. In Magic Words and Computers that See, James Larson looks at several of the most promising interfaces, including projects under development at MIT. We also offer a peak at how speech might work in an imaginary enterprise wired for speech in Paul McNulty's feature, Putting Speech to Work in the Enterprise. Judith Markowitz's column takes you inside the new research labs at Motorola, and a feature by Mark Bannon shows the value of speech-enabled IVRs. Our correspondent Peter Fleming details how to evaluate the latest in hand held recording devices with speech recognition. Finally author Dan Newman has returned for a second time offering users tips on how to dictate more effectively. (Hopefully his tenure will last longer than mine!) Mark LoGiurato Publisher