Second Edition of Talk to Santa Application is Back to Enchant Children

MONTREAL, Quebec - BCE Elix, CONCEPT S2i, and N Echo have launched the second annual Talk to Santa Claus application that enables callers of any age to have an interactive and personalized chat with Santa over the holiday season.  The application which showcases Web and voice technologies such as speech recognition, text-to-speech, and the VoiceXML standard was also recognized last night at the 10th annual Boomberang celebration with an award for best campaign to introduce an innovative way to use the Web by integrating new technologies.
 
This year's edition is being sponsored by RockDétente an Astral Media Radio Network and Sympatico.  A small nominal fee will be charged for the service, with profits going to support Club des petits déjeuners du Québec and Breakfast Club of Canada non-profit organizations dedicated to ensuring that Canadian children start off their school day with a hearty, healthy breakfast in a welcoming environment.
 
Talk to Santa runs on the Bell Voice Select platform, which is a hosted speech solution that uses voice technologies to provide enhanced customer service.  The application is accessible at www.talktosantaclaus.com, where anyone can arrange a personalized interaction with Santa and his automated elf, Pixel, for a child or child at heart.  To personalize the chat, parents or other adults use the Web to provide some general information about the child. This year, Santa will be taking calls until midnight on December 24.