Biographical Information

Articles by Bill Meisel

A Helping Hand in Voice Search

As the technology grows, customers will start to expect it more.

Speech Technology: Finally, a Competitive Necessity

Innovative technologies that are eventually successful follow a typical timeline. The capabilities and markets are over-stated in early stages as struggling start-ups try to make a case to investors and the press, leading to over-hype and disappointment. The core technology improves, and several early applications are identified where the use of the technology is particularly needed and is cost-effective, providing a base for growing businesses. Core technology continues to improve, making possible more marketable applications, but moving out…

Is There a "Speech Industry"?

The Applied Voice Input/Output Society (AVIOS) has been promoting the practical application of speech technology for over two decades. In the early days, the immaturity of the technology and the cost of implementing it offered few opportunities to build a "speech industry." Today, the improved technology and the lower cost of deploying it support many practical applications. Many people find that speech technology forms an important part of their work, implicitly creating participants in a...

The Impact of the ScanSoft-Nuance Merger

Bill Meisel, president of TMA Associates (www.tmaa.com), explains why "The ScanSoft-Nuance merger, with ScanSoft agreeing to purchase the outstanding shares of Nuance and use the name Nuance for the merged company, will send shock waves through the companies' partner networks and end-user customers."

Speech Technology: Science Fiction Gives Way to Real Value

Those working in developing basic speech technology have sometimes noted the fundamental nature of speaking and listening in human activity. Automating that capability should provide significant value in reducing costs and improving productivity for individuals and companies. The value for customers will automatically drive opportunities for vendors. The problem with this vision is that it leads to a science-fiction view of speech technology. How often have writers compared some speech product to HAL in the movie…

Speech Technology: Finally, a Competitive Necessity

Innovative technologies that are eventually successful follow a typical timeline. The capabilities and markets are over-stated in early stages as struggling start-ups try to make a case to investors and the press, leading to over-hype and disappointment. The core technology improves, and several early applications are identified where the use of the technology is particularly needed and is cost-effective, providing a base for growing businesses. Core technology continues to improve, making possible more marketable applications, but moving out…

Conversational Marketing:
Speech technology makes the telephone a new medium

The Voice User Interface (VUI)—speech recognition supported by text-to-speech and speaker verification—is changing the way the telephone is used in two ways. First, by helping us connect with one another. The VUI enhances standard telecommunications functions, such as dialing and voice mail, making them easier to use. It makes the addition of enhanced communication services, such as telephone access to email, feasible and usable. It makes directory assistance more economical, benefiting the service provider, but ultimately the consumer as well. In the long run, the network may use "voice tone" (speech recognition) rather than dial tone (the keypad), as its primary means of interaction with the caller.

The Voice Web

Telephones have been like turtles watching the Internet rabbit run. Although telephony infrastructure is changing rapidly, the way the telephone interacts with the user - and what the user does with the telephone - has barely changed for decades. The growth in wireless phones has made telephone service available almost anywhere, but the telephone is still used mostly for contacting specific phone numbers to talk to a person. When the telephone is used for contacting automated systems, the touch-tone interface is notoriously inconvenient and frustrating.

Speech Meets Needs in Many Different Markets

Voice synthesis technology and product identification products and services are developing rapidly and being continuously applied to new markets. While speech-centered companies have focused on the technology for decades, in many industries niches there are unique needs being addressed with speech for the first time.