Voice-Insight Selects ScanSoft to Provide Solutions for Accessing Data

PEABODY, MA & GENT, BELGIUM - ScanSoft Inc. (Nasdaq:SSFT), a supplier of imaging, speech and language solutions, announced that Voice-Insight SA NV, a speech technology and database integrator, has selected ScanSoft(R) solutions to deliver speech-enabled database products. Through this agreement, Voice-Insight will provide speech capabilities to existing database content by integrating ScanSoft's text-to-speech and automatic speech recognition solutions with Voice-Insight's Voice Query Language (VQL) technology. Voice-Insight's unique VQL technology is designed to provide access to any structured data by providing voice-enabled access to a wide range of database content. Voice Query Language technology is embedded in a variety of personal and business applications that are becoming more popular in today's mobile world, including geographic information systems, off- and on-board navigation, digital imaging and multimedia-on-demand, enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, sales force automation and business intelligence applications. "The agreement between ScanSoft and Voice Insight will provide field users with the technology to be truly efficient and hands-free when updating database content in real world situations," said Charles Kemper, CEO, Voice-Insight. "Adding speech technology to applications will provide a more productive and innovative solution." Voice-Insight's VQL technology is an extractor tool kit that can access an array of existing database applications. It can voice-enable database applications targeted to individuals, small business and enterprises and can be deployed in many types of mobile configurations. VQL is currently available in English, Japanese, French, Dutch and German; Chinese and other languages are under development. VQL uses ScanSoft's embedded speech recognition technology for automotive and mobile use, as well as ScanSoft's award-winning speech synthesis technology to create an effective and efficient user experience. ScanSoft and Voice-Insight have collaborated on several applications that are virtually seamless to the end user, including ESRI Inc.'s ArcPad, the first mobile PDA geographic information solution that provides voice-enabled database access, mapping, and advanced global positioning system (GPS) capabilities to field-based users via handheld and mobile devices. While on the road, users can perform tasks such as zooming in, zooming out, and panning as well as more complex tasks, such as retrieving and updating forms, querying and collecting data, and editing, all with their voices. "This combination of ScanSoft speech recognition, speech synthesis and Voice-Insight VQL technology brings high-performance speech capabilities to a mobile environment and provides benefits to industrial and consumer users in a variety of applications in which users need information from extensive or complex databases," said Peter Hauser, Senior Vice President and General Manager for ScanSoft International.