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Articles by Leonard Klie

Speech’s Next Big Thing Is Moving Fast

Quantum computing is making a resurgence, and speech tools could be beneficiaries.

Speech Industry Award Winners Fuel a Market on the Rise

Their efforts in the past year have left an indelible mark on the entire speech industry, brought the technology to new heights and new markets, and generated a lot of buzz along the way.

Mobile Apps Need Better Speech Interfaces

Now is the time to consider how your company could implement or upgrade its voice assistant mobile app interfaces.

Case Studies Provide Answers to Real-World Problems

Here's how some of your peers have solved problems similar to yours.

The Voice Fraud Threat Is Real

"Everyone needs to be concerned about the technology being used for nefarious purposes."

Apple Proposes Acoustic Model Fusion to Improve Speech Recognition

Apple has proposed a new approach that integrates external acoustic models into end-to-end ASR systems, aiming to refine speech recognition by enriching systems with broader acoustic knowledge.

OpenAI Launches TTS Models and APIs

OpenAI's new TTS model comes with six pre-set voice options and new file formats.

NYC Mayor Uses Voice Tech for Multilingual Robocalls

The robocalls, delivered via voice clone tech, present information on city job fairs and other events in Spanish, Yiddish, Haitian Creole, Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese, and several other languages.

Voice’s New Frontier: Diabetes Detection

Research has found significant vocal variations in people with and without type 2 diabetes and suggests that voice technologies could be used to detect the condition.

Interoperability Benefits Everyone, So Everyone Should Get Behind It

While the need to improve interoperability is clear, a lot of work must be done to forge a comprehensive set of standards.

With Voice, Consumers Struggle to Balance Convenience with Trust

Consumers still don't trust voice technologies for complex tasks, but that is starting to change, PYMNTS finds.

Meta, Google Develop Their Own AI Speech Models

Facebook parent company Meta last month unveiled Voicebox, an advanced AI tool for generating speech from text, while Google introduced AudioPaLM, its own large language model that can tackle speech understanding and generation tasks.

Analytics Continues Its Charge Beyond the Phone

Companies are gaining even more actionable business intelligence by deploying artificial intelligence and natural language processing engines to customer conversations in multiple digital channels.

Has Speech Crossed the Uncanny Valley?

People no longer see humanlike speech as too creepy. The question is whether that will last.

Why Can’t Speech Tech Have a New York Accent?

With a population of 8.8 million within the five boroughs, and nearly 19 million if you include the suburbs, one would be hard-pressed to call the New York metro area a small subset of any U.S. population group.

Analytics Is All the Rage

Thanks to innovations in AI, cloud computing, and NLP, advancements in speech analytics have been fast and furious.

Microsoft Reins in Its Voice Capabilities

The tech giant said its measures would amount to a significant update to the "Responsible AI Standard" it first released in 2001.

European Union Reins in Big Tech

The Digital Services Package will prohibit so-called gatekeepers from restricting consumers' access to third-party voice technologies and other applications and digital services.

Deepfakes Raise Ethical Questions

Any technology—no matter how well-intentioned—can usually be exploited by those who wish to do us harm.

Speech Prevailed in a Year of Incredible Turmoil

As we highlight in our annual "State of the Speech Technology Industry" report, 2021 was a very good year for the speech industry.

Voicebot Design Needs to Be Simple, Gridspace Execs Contend at CX Connect

Artificial intelligence is great, but artificial wisdom is even better, CX Connect presenters said today.

Market Spotlight: Hotels Offer a Room for Voice Assistants

As travel slowly starts to return following COVID-19 lockdowns, hotels today need to place a strong emphasis on safety and comfort. For many, speech-enabled in-room virtual assistants are the answer.

Market Spotlight: Retail Eyes a Sharp Increase in Voice-Assisted Shopping

While voice technology has been around for a while, its use as a consumer shopping aide really only emerged just a few short years ago, starting when Amazon unleashed its first Echo device on the world.

Emotion Is the Next Frontier in Human-Computer Interaction

Ever since the early days of the speech technology industry, engineers and developers have been on a never-ending quest to make voices that sound more lifelike and natural.

Speech Is Headed in New Directions

Though still in its very earliest stages, edge computing is being recognized for the transformative role it could play in voice interfaces.

Voice Provides a More Immersive Gaming Experience

As natural language has crept into the gaming world, gamers today can use voice as a controller, interact with characters during game play, communicate with other players in multiplayer and role-playing games, and so much more.

Dubber Launches a Slew of Voice Intelligence Solutions

Dubber significantly added to its unified call recording and voice intelligence solutions portfolio with a dozen new applications.

Microsoft Acquires Nuance in $19.7 Billion Deal

Microsoft will incorporate Nuance's technology in its cloud products for health care.

Speech Is Up for Any Challenge

As consumers' interactions shifted to digital channels, voice has become the interface of choice for many of those interactions.

Voice Soars as Vehicle Interface of Choice

In-car voice controls must be context-based to offer the best user experience.

Google Launches Accelerator on Voice & AI

Speech vendors will work with Google Assistant teams to address challenges related to voice and artificial intelligence.

Adobe Launches Adobe XD Google Assistant Preview Plugin

With the new plugin, voice system designers can export and preview Adobe XD voice prototypes to devices with Google Assistant.

Let’s Take Action Before It’s Too Late

Has technology reached a point where it's nearly impossible to rein in, where legislation will never be able to catch up with the speed of advancing technology and innovation?

Voicebots Outperformed Humans in COVID Detection

Leveraging VOIQ's artificial intelligence-powered voice software to have conversations with citizens over the phone, Colombia became the first country globally to use voicebots at this scale to diagnose millions of individuals within a matter of hours vs. weeks or months with a solely human-powered team.

Market Spotlight on Financial Services: Customers Talk Up Voice Banking’s Benefits

Voice-activated banking was first made available to consumers in 2014 when ING introduced a voice interface named Inge for its mobile banking app. Since then, consumers have been forcing a technology revolution that financial institutions have not been able to hold back—or only do so at their own peril.

SoundHound Partners with Mastercard to Voice-Enable Fast-Food Orders

SoundHound's Houndify voice AI platform will power Mastercard's drive-through voice ordering feature for quick-service restaurants, starting with White Castle in October.

Deepgram Unveils AutoML for Speech Recognition

Deepgram's AutoML is the first tool of its kind built specifically for automatic speech recognition (ASR). 

Speech Aids in COVID-19 Recovery

A voice-enabled app can help companies detect and monitor employees with the coronavirus; meanwhile, voice and speech samples are being collected from COVID-19 patients to help develop an algorithm for identifying carriers.

Overheard/Underheard: A New Collar Gives Dogs a Voice

An AI-powered dog collar uses voice recognition technology to detect and analyze five emotional states—happy, anxious, angry, sad, or relaxed—in dogs and tracks their physical activity.

Companies Turn to IVAs to Deal with COVID Surges

Automated voice solutions have helped contact centers handle rising interaction volume during the pandemic

Medallia Launches Medallia Speech

Medallia brings speech analytics into Medallia Experience Cloud to deliver a holistic view of the customer journey and improve call center efficiency.

Chatbots Market Projected to Reach $9.17 Billion by 2025

The chatbot market is projected to see compound annual growth of 22 percent over the next five years, Valuates reports.

Market Spotlight: Voice Dominates the Future of Consumer Electronics

As time goes on, many experts predict that consumer electronics will no longer even need screens, instead allowing consumers to use nothing more than their voices to activate and control them

IBM, Apple Build on Natural Language Processing

The two industry heavyweights plan to bring to market new natural language processing (NLP) technologies that will help computers and customers communicate in clearer, more natural-sounding ways

There’s Tech for the Tough Spots

Businesses are now realizing that websites, online content, and product information need to be crafted in new ways so voice-based search engines not only recognize them but position them at the top of search results.

Breakthroughs in Speech Are Just Beginning

Our writers consulted with industry experts across the major sectors of the speech technology landscape to determine the state of the industry

Research Finds Older Generations More Likely to Use Voice Search

Voice use is gaining in popularity among older Americans.

Market Spotlight: Government

In all of these sectors of government, the technology gap is massive, largely because of a lack of funding, knowledge, or a desire for change.

Jibo is Finally Ready to Roll 

After a number of delays that slowed production by more than a year, Jibo has finally begun shipping its eponymous interactive, voice-enabled family robot.

Assistive Technologies: Helping The Disabled Join The Technological Revolution

Text-to-speech and automatic speech recognition technologies can help those with vision or hearing loss.

The Future Is Full of Possibilities

As we've done now for the past few years, Speech Technology magazine is again dedicating its first issue of the new year to a preview of what's to come in our small corner of the world. We've highlighted the six technology areas where we see the most impact: speech engine, speech analytics, voice biometrics, virtual assistants, speech developer platforms, and assistive technologies.

Amazon Launches Alexa for Business

AWS has created a business-specific version of its voice-enabled virtual assistant.

Amazon Launches Voice-Powered Alexa for Business

AWS has created a business-specific version of its voice-enabled virtual assistant.

Speech: The Solution for ‘What’ Ails You

The benefits of speech extend through every step of the medical process, from making appointments to receiving diagnoses

Voice Assistants Get Friendly with One Another

Amazon Alexa and Microsoft Cortana will soon be able to talk to each other

Overheard Underheard

Under-the-radar speech news

Jibo Is Finally Ready for Sale

The highly anticipated social robot for the home is now available nationwide.

An Integration Is Imminent Between Alexa and Cortana

Amazon's and Microsoft's virtual assistants will soon be able to interact with one another.

Overheard/Underheard

Under-the-radar speech news

Market Spotlight—Consumer Electronics: Apple Brings Siri Home

Apple gave its biggest fans the first glimpse of its HomePod system

Voice Biometrics Needs to Adapt

Accuracy has been a top-of-mind concern

Speech Is Gaining Invisibility

But it is taking on the role of disruptor, not disruptee

Amazon Launches Alexa Device SDK

The Amazon Voice Service Device SDK lets device manufacturers add Alexa to their own equipment.

Smart Home Technology Faces Adoption Challenges

Of those who own smart home systems, roughly a third use voice functionality, a ReportLinker survey found.

If Speech Will Help, Bring It On!

The companies bold enough to deploy speech technologies to combat fraud have seen tremendous results.

Overheard Underheard

Under-the-radar speech news

There’s Never Been a Better Time to Be a Developer

Market Spotlight: Advertising Has More Draw When Speech Is Included

Voice technologies are hard at work ensuring advertisers that their messages are getting out

OVERHEARD UNDERHEARD

Under-the-radar speech news

IBM Eyes Speech to Spot Mental Maladies

IBM Research predicts that in five years, patterns in speech and writing analyzed by cognitive systems will provide clinicians tell-tale signs of early-stage mental and neurological conditions

Digital Assistants to Bring in $623 Billion by 2020

Digital assistants are expected to generate $7.9 billion in revenue this year, but that amount is expected to balloon to $623 billion by 2020, says an industry expert

Nuance Adds Deep Learning to Dragon

Nuance Communications has begun leveraging its work with Nuance Deep Learning technology in the latest version of its suite of Dragon professional productivity solutions for PCs and Macs.

Overheard/Underheard: Kenmore Unveils the Alfie App

The voice-controlled intelligent shopper can help you find the right product at the best price

Market Spotlight: Speech Technology Eases the Pain of Electronic Healthcare Records

Healthcare organizations today are being pulled in many directions as they try to provide higher quality care while at the same time reducing costs and maintaining regulatory compliance.

Samsung Acquires Virtual Assistant Viv

Samsung moves further into voice-enabled, natural language interfaces for developers.

Google's DeepMind Develops an Entirely New Approach to TTS

The revolutionary WaveNet technology creates sound waves to generate audio that is more natural sounding than traditional TTS, the company says.

Market Spotlight: Voice Functionality to Grow 80 Percent in Five Years

NICE Acquires inContact

Speech Market to Reach $12 Billion by 2022

Overheard/Underheard: KITT.ai's Snowboy to Help Developers Add Voice Activation

The 2016 Speech Industry Star Performers: [24]7

The 2016 Speech Industry Star Performers: Acapela Group

The 2016 Speech Industry Star Performers: Sensory

The 2016 Speech Industry Star Performers: SoundHound

The 2016 Speech Industry Star Performers: Verint

The 2016 Speech Industry Star Performers: VoiceBox Technologies

The 2016 Speech Industry Luminaries: Kate Dilligan

The 2016 Speech Industry Luminaries: Lars-Erik Larsson

The 2016 Speech Industry Luminaries: Alex Lebrun

The 2016 Speech Industry Luminaries: Todd Mozer

NICE Introduces Engage 6.5

The latest release of NICE's recording platform provides deeper business insights across channels, including chat and Skype for Business. (Featured on SmartCustomerService.com.)

Cyara Launches Virtual Agent

The new solution can test how efficiently contact center agents interact with desktop systems and apps. (Featured on SmartCustomerService.com.)

Verint Acquires Contact Solutions

The deal extends Verint's Actionable Intelligence vision with real-time, contextual self-service software. (Featured on SmartCustomerService.com.)

Market Spotlight: Banking on Speech to Prevent Fraud

Overheard Underheard: Under-the-Radar Speech News

BBC Pilots Automatic Translation Tool

Technology automatically converts news scripts to other languages and speaks them aloud with text-to-speech synthesis.

The Art and Science of Error Handling

A conversation with an IVR is still a conversation, and the same rules have to be applied. A Q&A with Google's Nandini Stocker.

eBay Finds a NICE Way to Save

NICE Systems' Interaction Analytics helps eBay dramatically cut average handling times

Enacomm and VoiceVault Provide Voice e-Signature Solution

Voice biometric identity verification allows organizations to eliminate ink-based signatures for authentication.

W3C's Voice Browser Working Group to Disband

The World Wide Web Consortium's subgroup created the VoiceXML standard, but sees interest shifting away from IVRs to smartphone apps.

Speech Industry Sees a Flurry of Patent Activity

More than 21,000 patents have been granted in the United States since 2000, a report from iRunway finds.

Speech Will Be a Main Interface for Mobile Devices by 2020, Tractica Predicts

Tractica expects speech recognition to achieve 82 percent penetration in smartphones, tablets, and wearables in five years.

[24]7 Adds Deep Neural Networks to IVR

Microsoft's DNN technology brings greater speech recognition accuracy to the [24]7 Customer Engagement Platform.

The 2015 Speech Industry Implementation Awards: Afni

The 2015 Speech Industry Implementation Awards: Michigan Office of Child Support

The 2015 Speech Industry Luminaries: Kristie Goss

The 2015 Speech Industry Luminaries: Drew Lanham

The 2015 Speech Industry Star Performers: Acapela

The 2015 Speech Industry Star Performers: Amazon

The 2015 Speech Industry Star Performers: Apple

The 2015 Speech Industry Star Performers: Google

The 2015 Speech Industry Star Performers: Microsoft

The 2015 Speech Industry Star Performers: Nexidia

The 2015 Speech Industry Star Performers: SpeechPro

Speech and Voice Recognition Markets to Grow Twelvefold

W3C Pushes a Multimodal Development Standard

Market Spotlight: Speech Finds Its Place in In-Car Systems

Overheard/Underheard: GetAbby's Avatars Get Real

Sensory Adds Deep Learning to TrulyHandsfree Platform

New speech extraction techniques in TrulyHandsfree 4.0 allow spoken commands to cut through real-world noise.

Wells Fargo to Pilot SpeechPro’s Face and Voice Biometrics

The banking firm is rolling out SpeechPro's VoiceKey OnePass technology to its mobile business customers.

USAA and Nuance Create a Financial Virtual Assistant

The Savings Coach's virtual assistant and gaming features prove successful with first-time savers.

Verint Releases Identity Authentication Solution

Solution leverages speech biometrics, speech analytics, and other technologies to separate customers from fraudsters.

MindMeld, Sense.ly Partner on Virtual Nurse App

Users can use voice to describe conditions and connect with the proper information or personnel for diagnosis and treatment.

CallMiner Introduces Eureka Fall 2015

The latest iteration of CallMiner's interaction analytics solution increases speed to intelligence.

Call Center Recording Market Sees Tremendous Growth

The market is predicted to grow from $1.05 billion currently to $1.6 billion by 2020.

VoiceBase Teams up with Genband to Offer Embedded Solutions with On-Demand Speech Analytics

Automatic transcription, keyword detection, and call scoring power a new breed of voice applications.

Sensory Releases TrulyNatural Deep Neural Net Speech Recognition

Jibo has signed on as the first TrulyNatural customer.

Domain-Squatting Scheme Exploits TTS

Overheard, Underheard: TalkRocket Pro Lets a User's Location Do the Talking

Market Spotlight: Voice Moves Up to the Cloud and Down Market

Natural Language Processing Strives to Meet Star Trek Standard

Systems are not yet fully conversational, but they're on their way

Speech Technology Speeds Police Response

Philips's dictation and transcription technology helps a Minnesota police force increase efficiency and reduce costs

CallMiner Adds SpeechPro Voice Biometrics to Eureka Apps

SpeechPro's technology can separate speakers in call center recordings. (Featured on DestinationCRM.com.)

Dictionary.com Unveils Voice App for Apple Watch

Voice-activated definitions are available with a flick of the wrist.

Convergys Analytics and Nexidia Announce Partnership

Convergys Analytics partners with Nexidia to expand speech analytics capabilities.

Microsoft Adds More Speech Capabilities to Skype Translator

New languages, vocal warnings, and control options round out Phase 2 of Skype Translate.

Verbatim-VR Launches Error-Free Voice Recognition

New shared correction and knowledgebase technology helps improve speech recognition accuracy.

NICE Releases IVR Journey Analytics

IVR Journey Analytics presents a visual map of everything that happens within IVR interactions.

Honeywell Tests Voice Recognition in Plane Cockpits

Pilots will be able to use voice to perform some routine commands.

LinguaSys Launches Natural Language User Interface Server

With LinguaSys' new NLUI Server, developers can create natural language conversational interfaces in more than 20 languages.

The 2015 State of the Speech Technology Industry: Application Testing and Tuning

The 2015 State of the Speech Technology Industry: Contact Center Outsourcing

The 2015 State of the Speech Technology Industry: Speech Engine

Overheard/Underheard: MAID Oven Gets Home Cooks Out of the Kitchen Faster

Financial Services: Call Recording Answers the Regulators' Call

Space...The Final Frontier for Speech?

Skype Translator Emerges

Nexidia Brings Neural Phonetic Speech Analytics to Audio Discovery

Enhancements provide visual data analysis and improved tools for review and workflow for the legal market.

Aspect to Offer SpeechPro's VoiceKey on Its Innovation Exchange

SpeechPro's VoiceKey voice biometric solution selected for Aspect's new software marketplace for customer engagement solutions.

Jibo Names New CEO, Raises $25 Million

Former Nuance executive Steve Chambers takes on the role of CEO as founder Cynthia Breazeal becomes chief scientist.

EasyAsk Releases Voice Shopper

New EasyAsk Voice Shopper lets customers query e-commerce sites with their voices.

Sensory Expands Market for TrulyHandsfree Speech

Intel is just one of the firms to implement the voice trigger and speaker verification technology.

Alorica Acquires West's Agent Services Businesses

The $275 million deal expands Alorica's capabilities, service offerings, and delivery options. (Originally appeared on DestinationCRM.com)

Skype Translator Emerges in Preview Version

Microsoft yesterday released a limited version of its real-time, speech-enabled translator.

NoteSwift Takes Medical Dictation to the Next Level

NoteSwift takes dictated speech and integrates it directly into doctors' electronic health records.

TCN Launches Platform 3 VocalVision

VocalVision is optimized for the JAWS screen reader to enable visually impaired call center agents.

Amazon's Echo Is a New Voice-Controlled Device

The Echo speaker doubles as a speech-enabled personal assistant.

Smart Voice Alliance Launches

HTML5 Is Live

The programming language will become the platform of choice for designing and deploying multimodal applications.

Genesys Helps Michigan Put Kids First

Call center technology assures timely access to child support and other services for parents in need.

Li Creative Technologies Enters the Voice Biometrics Arena

The company's solution boasts nearly 100 percent accuracy.

On SpeechTEK's Third Day, Hollywood Challenges the Industry

Pop culture has been both a help and a hindrance to the perception of the speech industry, panelists contend.

On SpeechTEK's Second Day, the Future Is on Display

Conference speakers bring light to technologies that are no longer science fiction.

SpeechTEK Speakers Call for Conversational Technologies

Speech will always come up short until it can engage in two-way dialogues, panelists point out.

EmotionML Advances as a Standard

IVR Continues to Spark Interest in Utilities

Overheard/Underheard: MIT Media Lab FingerReader Converts Text to Audio Signals for Vision-Impaired

Star Perfomers: Amazon's on Fire

Star Performer: Apple Is More Siri-ous

Star Performers: Expect More from Expect Labs

Star Performers: Microsoft Makes Mobile Moves with Cortana

Star Performers: Nuance Advances Enterprise and Consumer Efforts

Star Performers: Sensory Saves Power and Debuts Speaker Verification

Star Performers: SpeechPro Brings Verification to Cloud, Web, and Mobile Tech

Domino’s Adds Voice Ordering to Mobile Apps

Domino's new virtual assistant is based on Nuance's Nina Mobile technology.

Speech Is Helping to Identify Concussions

Waveform Communications is developing a speech recognition product that compares how people produce vowel sounds to zero in on brain injuries.

Microsoft Introduces Cortana, Its Answer to Siri

Momentum Builds for Voice Stress Analysis in Law Enforcement

Overheard/Underheard: CVS Prescription Service Aids Visually Impaired

Speech Is Set to Dominate the Wearables Market

A voice interface opens a world of possibilities for wearable devices.

County Jails Unlock the Secret to Fewer Calls

Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department turns to Telerus to deliver information about inmates.

SpeechTrans Updates SpeechTrans Ultimate for Windows 8.1

SpeechTrans Ultimate for Windows 8.1 offers real-time speech-to-speech translation, dictation, and instant messaging on Facebook, Google Talk, Yahoo!, and AIM.

Vonjour Releases Virtual Voicemail Dashboard

Vonjour.com releases virtual voicemail dashboard to provide businesses a central hub to communicate with customers.

VoiceVault Releases the ViGo Development Platform

ViGo is a development platform for mobile voice security applications.

Honeywell Releases New Version of VoiceCatalyst

Vocollect VoiceCatalyst 2.1 makes it easier to implement voice picking in the warehouse.

AppTek Releases Omnifluent Mobile Speech Translation Apps

Bidirectional apps provide real-time speech and text translation on iOS devices.

Nautilus Puts Speech Analytics to Work

CallMiner Eureka is the right fit for the home exercise brand.

IBM's Watson Brings Cognitive Computing to Customer Engagement

While the technology is still new, early developments are piquing interest in its future potential.

Biometrics to Drive Voice Recognition Market Growth

Global VoIP Service Revenue on the Rise

Siri Hits the Road in New Car Models

Intel Is Working on a Smart, Voice-Enabled Headset

Intel's "Jarvis" is a smart, wearable personal assistant that doesn't need an Internet connection.

Voice Stress Analysis Technology Is Replacing Polygraphs

CVSA boasts more than 95 percent accuracy and lower cost of operation than polygraphs.

Genesys Further Ventures into the Cloud with Ventriloquist Acquisition

The Ventriloquist acquisition strengthens Genesys' capabilities to personalize proactive customer interactions.

Jabra Releases BIZ 2300 Headset Purpose-Built for the Contact Center

Jabra's new BIZ 2300 headsets offer improved speech recognition, durability and comfort for contact center environments.

RingPlus Launches In-Call Mobile Voice Apps

Several of the speech-enabled apps available now include real-time transcription, recording, and translation.

Expect Labs Launches MindMeld Intelligent Conversation Assistant

MindMeld listens to conversations and finds related information before users have to search for it.

Frost & Sullivan Finds Integration of Biometrics in Consumer Electronics a Fast-Emerging Trend

Frost & Sulivan predicts that fingerprint recognition will remain the leading biometric technology, but voice is also expected to grow.

The Global Voice Recognition Market to Grow at a CAGR of 22 Percent Through 2016

Analyst firm TechNavio predicts voice biometrics to dominate the market growth opportunities.

Apple Upgrades Siri in Latest iPhone, iOS Releases

Overheard Underheard

Amcom Speech Recognition Answers a College's Call

Middlesex County College benefits from a voice-based call attendant solution.

Nuance Adds Speech to Aldebaran's NAO Robots

The NAO robot delivers natural and conversational interactions with Nuance's voice recognition and text-to-speech.

Natural Language Processing Market To Grow Rapidly

MarketsandMarkets predicts the natural language processing market will grow at 21.1 percent annually through 2018.

Nuance Introduces Clinic 360 Suite for Medical Documentation

Clinic 360 integrates speech recognition and transcription to drive improved medical workflows.

Transcription Outsourcing Releases Free Dictation App

The company's iPhone app is free to use; customers pay per minute of transcription time.

Business Booms for Voice-Over Talent

A movie has sparked interest in voice-overs for everything from TV commercials to wedding videos.

Demand Favors Hosted IP Telephony and Unified Communications

Frost & Sullivan research finds improving technologies and evolving business models expand customer choices.

BT, Truphone Partner on Mobile Recording Solution

The new app will allow U.S. financial services firms to record calls and text messages for federal regulatory compliance.

Unified Communications Market to Nearly Triple by 2018

Speech Answers Compliance and Cost Concerns

Overheard Underheard

Phantom Data Services Releases Voice Scrambler

The real-time audio processing app features voice changer, pitch shifter, voice scrambler, and descrambler.

Fonetic and ASC Telekom Partner on Solution for Banks

New solution fosters compliance with government regulations around the world for recording and analysis of transaction records.

AAA Urges Drivers to Stop Using Speech

New research finds hands-free does not mean distraction-free.

Space Flights Bring Speech Technology Home

IEEE experts explore space technology advancements' impact on consumer electronics.

Genesys to Acquire SoundBite Communications

Genesys further extends its cloud-based contact center solutions portfolio with proactive collections and payments, mobile marketing, and customer service applications.

Genesys Acquires Angel.com

Building a Sound Social Presence

Microblogging enhanced with audio could bring personality to posts.

Voice and Email Merge in Skype for Outlook

Microsoft integrates voice and video calling service into its popular email app.

Toronto Transforms City Services with 311

Canada's largest city improves customer service with updated contact center technologies.

IBM's Watson to Help Cancer Care

Overheard Underheard

Research Finds Danger in Voice-Based Texting While Driving

A new study finds drivers are also distracted while using hands-free technologies in the car.

NeoSpeech Turns TTS Over to Amazon Hosting

Developers can now access more reliable TTS Web Services.

Genesys to Acquire Angel

The $110 million deal brings more cloud offerings to Genesys.

Sensory Announces TrulyHandsfree Voice Control 3.0

TrulyHandsfree is enhanced with user-defined triggers and passphrases.

Mobile Technology Solves TV Troubles

Synchronoss' SmartCare IVR gives Mediacom subscribers on-the-go options via their smartphones.

Clearing Up the Hype Around Hypervoice

Speech to Play a Bigger Role in Translation Technologies

Drivers Prefer Speech, But It Needs Work

Overheard Underheard

Speech Finds a Home

Talking to the walls might not mean you're crazy.

Oracle Buys Acme Packet

The deal adds session border control technology to Oracle's communications offering to speed the deployment of all-IP networks.

Customer Service Metrics That Matter

One-third of companies are missing the mark. Don't let yours be one of them.

Nuance Plans a (Truly) Hands-Free Phone

Speech-Enabled Virtual Assistants for Landlines?

Nuance to Acquire Ditech Networks

Overheard Underheard

IVR Delivers for a Propane Gas Supplier

AmeriGas sees business improvements with a speech-enabled phone system from Message Technologies Inc.

IVR Is the Right Prescription for This Pharmacy

TalkRx keeps small, independent stores competitive with retail giants.

Strong Gains Expected for Speech

Overheard Underheard

Global VoIP Revenue to Reach $65 Billion in 2012

HD Voice: A Crystal-Clear Connection

Wideband audio can make enterprise applications more accurate.

A Small Firm Takes on the Big Smartphone Makers over Voice Patents

NY Area Airports Pilot Speech to Speed Travelers Along

ETS Adds Voice identification to Increase TOEFL Exam Security

Overheard Underheard

CereProc Signs on for New UK Education Initiative Using Speech

The U.K. government-sponsored program launches two TTS voices for use in England's education system.

NICE Debuts First Session Recording Solution Based on SIPREC Protocol

Industry-driven session recording protocol enables standardized, consolidated, and simplified session recording capabilities.

Sensory Introduces Speaker Verification for Mobile Devices and Consumer Electronics

Speaker verification is designed with a small footprint and low power consumption for integration into all types of devices

Speech Analytics Set to Surge

British Government Makes Investment in Literacy

Voice Biometrics Comes of Age

CallCopy Connects for Columbus Team

The NHL's Blue Jackets improve call center staff with intelligent call recording technology.

A Small Firm Takes on the Big Smartphone Makers over Voice Patents

Potter Voice Technologies is suing Apple, Microsoft, Google, and others over a patent that covers natural language voice control of a computer.

Avaya Unveils “Collaborative Cloud” Strategy and Solutions

Avaya Collaborative Cloud provides a strategic framework for cloud-based collaboration solutions using Avaya unified communications, contact center, networking and services.

EasyAsk Debuts Mobile Quiri Platform

Corporate mobile app combines voice, search, mobile display, and interactions.

American Customers Have a NICE Flight

Airline improves the customer experience with NICE Systems' SmartCenter suite.

Voice Could Open New Doors for Hotels

Genesys Sets a New Course

Overheard Underheard

Aspect Inks a UC Distribution Deal with Dell

Dell Services will deliver Aspect's unified communications solutions for next-generation customer contact centers.

SpeechCycle Awarded Patent for Repeat Caller Process

New patent covers call back disposition and re-evaluation in IVR-based customer care.

Genesys Sets a New Course

Under its new ownership, the company will enhance its core product portfolio and strengthen its offerings in cloud computing, analytics, workforce optimization, process workflow, and social engagement.

New Players Join the Speech Industry

Powerful new players are piquing the interest of analysts.

Voice Rec Is a Pain Point with Vehicle Navigation Systems

Voice recognition is one of the key areas affecting customer satisfaction with in-car navigation systems.

New Speech Solutions Treat Smaller Practices

New tools ease small healthcare providers' transition to electronic health records.

IVR Identifies At-Risk Students

Vocantas IVR helps Avila University reach out to students in danger of transferring or dropping out.

A Matter of Convenience

A c-store distributor realizes double-digit gains with a voice-driven warehouse application.

Can Mobile and IVR Coexist?

Customer interaction technologies should support one another, not compete.

A New Voice Biometric Vendor Emerges

Australia's Auraya launches the ArmorVox voice security application suite.

LumenVox Now Offers TTS

New Speech Engine now features text-to-speech, a completely new functionality for LumenVox

VoiceHub Launches Low-Cost Call Router with Speech Recognition

VoiceHub brings a speech recognition-based phone service to entrepreneurs, mobile workers, and small to medium businesses.

Can Voice Biometrics Hack Computer Security?

Speech technology can protect customer data against small-scale attacks.

Call Recording Resolves Disputes at Medical Practice

Oaisys Talkument and Tracer help North Scottsdale Family Medicine avert malpractice suits.

IVR Investment Pays Off for Bank

Australia's Westpac overcomes service issues with a more automated platform.

Nuance and Vlingo Battle in Court

A federal jury in Boston in early August settled one patent case leveled against Vlingo by Nuance Communications, but the legal battles between the two rival Massachusetts speech companies are far from over.

Alcatel-Lucent Unveils Mobile Capabilities for Genesys

One piece of Alcatel-Lucent's Enterprise Business Unit, Genesys Telecommunications Labs, received the equivalent of a corporate makeover that places it at the forefront of the mobile revolution.

Speech Is a Key Component of iPhone 4S

Apple, on October 4, unveiled its iPhone 4S, packed with a host of speech capabilities, including an intelligent assistant that helps users get things done simply by asking.

Market Spotlight: Retail

NFC as a talking shopping aid.

Avaya Acquires Speech Analytics Vendor Aurix

Acquisition will enable Avaya to add speech analytics to contact center and unified communications portfolio.

Interactive Intelligence to Launch Cloud-based Communications Trial Program

"Quick Spin" program designed to further reduce risk of migrating to communications-as-a-service.

Nuance Launches Its First Mobile Advantage Apps

The first two apps in the suite are designed to steer customers to mobile smartphone applications.

The Prescription for Speech Delivered at SpeechTEK 2011

In closing keynote, co-chairs Jim Larson and Susan Hura urge attendees to improve IVR systems at all costs

Nuance Agrees to Acquire Loquendo

Deal is valued at $75.5 million

Nuance, Ford Collaborate on Speech Understanding and Intent

Pair aims to make voice recognition more intuitive in SYNC in-car telematics system

Aetna Members Get Answers

The insurer's virtual assistant engages more than 2 million chats, helping ferret out information on benefits, costs, and more

A Window of Opportunity

Call center software helps Blinds.com boost revenue, cut service calls

Suite Evolution Drives Contact Centers

Bundling apps improves data management, customer experience

Alcatel-Lucent Unveils a New Strategy for Genesys

Genesys Mobile Customer Engagement Strategy evolves companies from transactional, service-only apps to mobile customer conversations.

Google to Acquire Motorola

The deal is worth $12.5 billion and brings a hardware manufacturer to the Android platform provider.

Nuance to Acquire Loquendo

The deal is worth $75.5 million and brings together two speech technology leaders.

Writing a Prescription for Speech

Companies need to start thinking about IVRs in a mobile and multimodal context.

Voxeo Announces Prophecy 11 and VoiceObjects 11

Prophecy adds HD audio and IPv6 and fax support while VoiceObjects brings greater scalability and ease of use.

Nexidia to Release ESI 9.0

New product suite version includes increased scalability and enhanced performance management capabilities.

Speech Takes on New Roles

A growing interest in speech as part of a larger solution set is emerging.

Angel Voice-Enables Social Networks

New applications let users post voice files to Facebook and Twitter.

Verint Will Acquire Vovici

The combination will create a comprehensive VoC solution with multichannel analytics, including speech, social media, email, Web chat, and enterprise feedback.

SpeechCycle Awarded Patent for Spoken Language Understanding

New patent deals with error recovery when an utterance can't easily be mapped to a specific path in the call flow.

Microsoft to Acquire Skype for $8.5 Billion

Software giant targets Internet and smartphone markets

Nokia Turns to Windows Phone Platform

Microsoft, Finnish company team on Windows Phone 7-based global mobile ecosystem

Hosted Solutions Slash Cost of Ownership

Cloud-based offerings bring substantial savings over on-premises systems

Nuance Releases New Dragon Version and New Dragon Remote Mic App

Version 11.5 adds new social media sharing capabilities, correction and editing features, and more.

Interactive Intelligence Releases Customer Interaction Center 4.0

Major new release of flagship IP communications software suite adds real-time speech analytics, increased scalability, Web portal access, and private cloud deployment model.

One Call Now Acquires Vontoo

The mass message notification systems supplier acquires a permission-based automated marketing solutions provider.

Nuance Launches Complete Care Multichannel Solutions

Nuance Complete Care engages consumers over the customer contact life cycle with integrated inbound and outbound customer care

Xbox 360 Brings Voice Searches to TV

New offering combines Micrososft's Xbox and Bing technologies to let users request content by voice.

Microsoft Plans to Acquire Skype

Microsoft hopes the $8.5 billion purchase will give it a greater share of the Internet and smartphone market.

Verint Unveils Voice of the Customer Analytics Platform

Voice of the Customer Analytics combines all sources of customer interaction data into a single platform.

ClickFox Reveals Customer Identification Pitfalls During Self-Service

Ten percent of customers can't be identified by automated customer service systems, driving down customer satisfaction.

Market Spotlight: Government

Voice R&D responds to homeland security requests

SpeechCycle Dedicates Division to Smartphone Customers

The goal is to support leading operating systems, such as Apple's iPhone, Google's Android, and RIM's BlackBerry

Call Centers Receive Guidance on Protecting Credit Card Data

PCI Security Standards Council releases document titled "Protecting Telephone-Based Payment Card Data Information Supplement"

Mobile: The New Frontier for Voice Security

A Twitter poll shows that 84 percent of consumers contact customer service through their mobile phones, and more than half (53 percent) said that security risks are a main concern when they complete transactions

IVR Is Good News for Scripps

Media company leverages Pronexus system to standardize subscription services for 14 newspapers

Rural Arizona Connects With Residents

Pinal County speeds service and cuts costs by switching from a hosted to an on-premises contact center suite

Speech Analytics Captures Consumer Sentiment

Technologies blend data from different sources, emotional states, and moments in time

W3C Advances EmotionML

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has published a last call working draft and preliminary vocabularies standard.

Global Alert Network Launches Hands-Free Service for Drivers

The new app uses GPS and TTS to deliver relevant information when and where the driver needs it.

Verint Releases Audiolog 5 for SMBs

Contact center software enhancements support mobile and multimedia customer interactions.

VoIP Services Market Nears $50 Billion

Business adoption fuels strong growth; industry should reach nearly $75 million by 2015, Infonetics data reveals.

Nuance Takes Natural Language on the Fast Track

New Call Steering Fast Start offering cuts the cost and time to deploy a natural language interface in half.

SpeechCycle Launches SmartCare Mobile

The voice-enabled solution is the first customer care solution developed specifically for the smartphone.

PCI Council Releases Supplemental Guidance for Protecting Telephone-Based Payment Card Data

New resource helps merchants and service providers understand and implement PCI DSS requirements for voice recordings.

SpeechCycle Launches Mobile Division

Customer interaction management solutions vendor creates a new division to meet demand for business-to-consumer smartphone applications.

What's In A Name?

Personalization means more than being on a first-name basis with customers

Call Recording System Identifies Agents by Voice

New system uses speaker recognition to identify agents on call recordings.

Speech Is the True Blue Choice

Nexidia's QuickStart helps BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee save more than $1 million a year

Free Voice-to-Twitter Services Kept Egyptians Connected

Nuance Advances Into Voice Biometrics

Hotels Should Be Doing More with IVRs

Market Spotlight: Hospitality

Free Voice-to-Twitter Services Keep Egyptians Connected

Google has created a way for Egyptians to call in their Twitter feeds and have them posted online.

W3C Solicits Comments on Multimodal Architecture

The standards body has published a last-call draft of Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces.

Speech Synthesis With Emotion

New App Brings Social Media to Standard Voicemail

Contact Center Recording Systems Market Expected to Grow 55 Percent by 2015

For Full Benefit, Speech Use Has to Be Meaningful

Market Spotlight: Healthcare.

Reducing the Cost of Every Dialogue

An all-in-one IP communications software suite helps Dialogue Marketing consolidate infrastructure.

A Gray Area

Today's seniors can't be left out of VUI design decisions.

Contact Center Recording Systems Market Expected to Grow 55 Percent by 2015

Pelorus Associates expects the total worldwide market to hit $1.24 billion in five years, up from $800 million today.

RightNow Introduces Voice Experience Manager

RightNow's new Voice Experience Manager and communications-enabled desktop for Cisco and Avaya deliver highly personalized, branded phone interactions.

A VoIP Softphone

Standards Hit Speech on the Web and Voice Biometrics

ANSI and W3C capped a busy summer with the release of new recommendations that provide more global reach.

Saving Costs Vs. Saving the Customer

Companies need to balance cost savings with customer service when determining the success of a speech system.

VoIP and Voicemail-to-Text Make a Better Network

A broadband voice and data provider sees improved customer service with solutions from Junction Networks and PhoneTag.

Market Spotlight: Assistive Technologies for the Disabled

Speech as an enabler has room to grow.

Anana App Brings Social Media to Standard Voicemail

TTS and speech recognition combine with traditional voicemail platforms to make for a more interactive messaging experience.

Sensory Releases Truly Handsfree Trigger SDK for iPhone and Android OS

Total hands-free control is now possible for new, popular voice search applications.

Google to Hang Up on Free DA

The search engine giant will end its voice-powered Goog-411 service in mid-November.

FurstPerson Releases Interactive Hiring Simulation

CC Audition Talk & Note helps contact centers meet hiring challenges by using speech to screen job applicants.

Verint Extends Customer Interaction Analytics Portfolio with Sentiment and Text Analytics Software

Customers will benefit from a unified, multichannel view of customer experiences and behaviors.

SpeakerText Creates Interactive Video Transcripts

New service makes online video social and searchable.

SSML 1.1 Becomes a W3C Recommendation

Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) offers developers a way to control synthetic speech.

Voice-Enabled Bluetooth in-Car Speakerphones

Weathering the Storm

A call center solution helps a credit union improve member services, increase reliability, and support future growth.

Keynoter: Natural Language Processing Has Huge Potential

A university professor calls NLP the wave of the future in speech.

Microsoft Continues Its Pledge to Speech

Lunchtime panelists stay the course toward speech as the natural user interface.

Global Market for UC Projected to Reach $16.8 Billion by 2015

A new report predicts continued growth after two years of almost inactivity.

Speech in the Path of the Storm

Mass-messaging systems help communities prepare for hurricane season.

Market Spotlight: Education

TTS hits the broader student market.

ANSI Publishes Voice Biometric Data Standard

The standard lays out the type and format of information that should accompany recordings.

Voxeo Acquires Cloud Communications Startup Teleku

The deal expands Voxeo's voice and text messaging application development environment.

Alelo Has a Busy Summer

The interactive language-learning programs manufacturer wins some prime contracts and launches new programs.

Day 2 Keynoter: Natural Language Processing Has Huge Potential

Interactive planning, human-robot interaction, medical advising, and interactive data exploration are among the potential use cases.

U.S. Rep. Giffords Adds Speech Technology to Her Web Site

Audio Eye makes congresswoman's official Web site accessible to the disabled via TTS and video captioning.

West Interactive Acquires TuVox

The deal increases West's speech applications and professional services expertise.

Avaya Launches Next-Generation Customer Service and Collaboration Applications

Avaya Aura Communications Platform powers new applications and redefines the economics of real-time businesses communications and collaboration.

Speech Tech Names Its Annual Industry Awards Winners

Leading vendors, user companies, and visionaries are honored in fourth-annual awards issue.

The 2010 Speech Luminaries

Speech Luminary: Dictation Everywhere

Peter Mahoney, senior vice president and general manager of Nuance Communications' Dragon product line.

Speech Luminary: Powerful Friends

Craig Walker and Vincent Paquet, product managers of Google Voice.

Speech Luminaries: From Recognition to Understanding

Michael Finke, CEO and founder of M*Modal

Speech Luminaries: Answering the Call

Torsten Brand, 1963-2010

The 2010 Star Performers

Star Performer: Google

Expansion mania hits

Star Performer: Volt Delta

Speech is the ticket

Star Performer: Oddcast

Better with baby talk

Star Performer: BBN Technologies

A multimedia mogul

Market Leaders: Speech Self-Service Suite

Market Leaders: Speech Security

Market Leaders: Professional Services

A Glimpse of What's to Come

Students develop speech apps as part of a new engineering class at MIT.

Google Voice Is Now Available to All

After a year of use by invitation only, Google finally makes its communications platform open to the general public.

Metaswitch Enhances Unified Messaging Portfolio with Voicemail-to-Text

New partnership with Nuance enables a fully integrated, multiscreen, multilingual voicemail experience.

AudioMicro Acquires Audioo, Launches Outrageous New Voicemail Sharing Service

The Audioo platform lets users auto-stream, publicly share, and store voicemails from handsets and services like Google Voice.

Nuance and IBM Team to Advance Next-Generation Natural Language Speech Technology

Research collaboration aims to break barriers with conversational and intelligent speech products.

Interactive Intelligence Enhances Communications-as-a-Service Offering

Company adds Web portal, workforce management, and agentless dialing applications to more effectively address rapidly growing hosted business.

Smartphones: The New Frontier for Voice Biometrics

Conference speakers tout the technology's potential for making mobile transactions more secure.

Nuance Introduces Speak & See Suite With Dragon NaturallySpeaking

The solution makes reading, writing, language learning, and interaction with the PC easier.

Talking Dictionaries

Are Consumers More Responsive to Male or Female Voices?

A new survey reveals customer sentiment in advertising messages.

YouTube Expands Video Transcription Option for All

Businesses can benefit from an expanded audience base.

Delivering the Intangibles

A call recording and monitoring solution brings out the best in agents and managers.

When in Rome...

To successfully launch a speech system in Italy—or any other part of Europe—translations should be done at the local level.

Market Spotlight: Travel and Transportation

Speech takes flight among pilots and tower personnel.

UTOPY Unveils New Solutions to Maximize Customer Satisfaction and Retention

Built atop UTOPY's speech analytics platform, UTOPY Customer Satisfaction and UTOPY Customer Retention deliver insights into the customer experience.

Newfound Launches Free 48-Port Version of Its Call Recorder

New IP Call Recorder 2.0 is now available for immediate download,

Google Expands Voice Search in Google Maps

Search by Voice comes to Google Maps 4.1 for Windows Mobile and Symbian S60 phones.

New Genesys 8 Software Suite Launches

New customer service suite includes all the tools to manage customer conversations across channels and time.

Sangoma NetBorder Call Analyzer 2.0 Now Available

New release of Call Progress Analysis engine improves outbound call accuracy and facilitates international deployments.

Angel.com Merges Business Intelligence with IVR Technologies

New Caller First Analytics provides call data and application performance reporting to improve customer experiences and business results.

Speech Rec Gets a Boost in Medical Journal

Nuance takes comfort from the support that the technology receives.

UTOPY Announces Three New Powerful Solutions

First Call Resolution, Handle Time Optimization, and Call Volume Reduction harness the power of UTOPY's speech analytics platform.

Voicemail-to-Text

Security in the Cloud

Your data is secure with low-cost hosting options for voice biometrics.

Messaging System Passes the Test

In a drill at the University of Pennsylvania, an emergency notification system reaches 53,000 people in less than eight minutes.

Is Google's New Phone Sparking a Mobile War?

With its Nexus One 'superphone,' Google looks to take on Apple.

Market Spotlight: Nonprofits

Low-cost solutions could make a contribution.

YouTube Expands Video Transcription Option for All

The move is seen as a shot in the arm for speech technologies.

Avaya Introduces Unified Communications Solutions for Healthcare

New solutions address patient flow, care coordination, and other key challenges for healthcare providers.

Nexidia and HyperQuality Partner for a More Powerful Customer Intelligence Solution

Technologies and services combined to allow for a deeper analysis of call center interactions.

Yap Sees Gains in Voicemail to Text

The company signs two big clients, demonstrating growing interest among enterprises and carriers.

Adeptra Survey Reveals Banks and Card Issuers Are Investing in Technology to Battle Fraud

Banks and card issuers recognize a need to improve fraud reporting and prefer to use direct methods to contact customers.

Speech-Enabled GPS Navigation Devices

Call Centers Violate PCI Standards

Ninety-seven percent still retain credit card information in call recordings.

W3C Tackles Emotion and Multimodality

New working drafts of standards are released by the Multimodal Interaction Working Group.

A Delivery Service Configures Its Way to Savings

Outbound IVR saves Go Configure $70,000 in its first year.

With Hard Work Comes Prosperity

In 2009, speech made the best of a bad economy.

Market Spotlight: Telecommunications

Speech is right for directory assistance

Google Showcases New Voice-Enabled Smartphone

The company calls its new NexusOne mobile device a "superphone."

Avaya Completes Nortel Acquisition

New product roadmap expected within 30 days.

Cbeyond Launches Cloud-Based Virtual Receptionist

The service offers call answering, call routing, voicemail integration, company directory, and more.

W3C Tackles Emotion and Multimodality

New working drafts of standards are released by the Multimodal Interaction Working Group.

Speech Is Right for Directory Assistance

New research finds speech recognition outperforms operators and databases in accuracy and speed.

Interactive Intelligence Releases SIP Station

New communications device offers an affordable, simple alternative to IP desk phones.

Intel Reader Transforms Printed Text to Spoken Word

Intel launches a mobile, speech-enabled handheld device for people with reading or vision problems.

Google Extends Voice Search to Chinese

The company says Mandarin Chinese is the first of many languages to be available.

Federal Judge Approves Voice Technology To Monitor Sex Offenders

U.S. district court validates voice stress analysis as being as reliable as polygraph examinations.

Dictation/Transcription Solutions

Speech Declares Its Independence

Warehousing systems evolve to the point where they can act with any kind of hardware, software, vendor, and voice.

A Matter of Time

An IVR helps electronics retailer Comet dedicate more time to high-value customers who need extra help.

Voxeo Acquires Motorola’s VoiceXML Browser Technology

The deal includes all of Motorola's rights to and interests in the VoxGateway VoiceXML browser.

Avaya's Nortel Bid Goes Through

As the bidding process ends, Avaya comes out on top with its offer for Nortel's Enterprise Solutions, Government Solutions, and DiamondWare business units

Preference Low for Voice Channels

Convergys research finds favor growing for online channels over speech-enabled systems.

Defense Logistics Agency to Test Vangard Voice in Warehouse Operations

DLA awards the speech provider a contract to create a voice prototype solution for its worldwide supply chain.

KLAS-TV Turns to Pronexus to Create Time and Weather IVR Solution

IVR toolkit VBVoice used to quickly develop self-service application.

Rocketvox Unified Messaging App Goes Out for Beta

Rocketvox integrates voice technologies from Ribbit and PhoneTag and provides a single inbox for all types of messages.

Verint Upgrades Speech Analytics for Public Safety

New product lets 9-1-1 call centers mine recorded calls, spot trends quicker.

Voxeo Acquires Motorola's VoiceXML Technology

Deal includes all of Motorola's rights to and interest in the VoxGateway VoiceXML browser.

Managed Services Get a Boost in the Down Economy

Mobility, unified communications, and VoIP top the list of technology investments.

Across the Digital Divide

A police department gains efficiency with digital recording and transcription software.

Property of ??????????

Who owns a speech analytics application determines how the data is distributed.

MyVocal Serves Up Mobile Audio Content

Startup unveils personalized mobile audio content service for commuters.

Arabic Voice Translator Debuts for iPhone

A new English-to-Arabic speech translator for iPhone is available at Apple's App Store.

Avaya’s Nortel Bid Goes Through

As the bidding process ends, Avays comes out on top with its offer for Nortel's Enterprise Solutions, Government Solutions, and DiamondWare business units.

Buzzvoice Service Lets Consumers Listen to the Web's Top News

BuzzVoice converts breaking stories to audio in real time, letting consumers listen and multitask everywhere.

The 2009 Speech Luminaries

The 2009 Star performers

The 2009 Market Leaders

Market Spotlight: Education

TTS to Start the School Year

Voice-Based Lie Detector Technology Gets a Patent

Voice stress analyzer measures frequencies to get to the truth.

Spy Software Now Available for iPhone

Users can remotely track, log, and record activity on one phone from another phone.

Loquendo Brings Its Voice Technologies to the Asterisk Community

Loquendo and Digium partner to allow creation of multilingual speech applications based on the Asterisk developer platform.

Speech in Need of a Bailout?

Problems persist with speech automation, but banks are looking at expanding its use anyway.

Speech Takes Airline to New Heights

By providing a voice-powered virtual assistant on its Web site, Alaska Airlines improves customer self-service.

Swine Flu Outbreak Increases Schools' Use of Speech

Schools across the country have turned to voice broadcasting to reassure parents and address concerns.

IVR Market Expected to Continue Growing Through 2011

While IVR and voice portals have a bright future, VoIP sees a slowdown.

Microsoft to Halt Response Point Offering

The software giant announced this week plans to scale back its Response Point small business VoIP and UC solution.

Swine Flu Outbreak Increases Schools’ Use of Speech

Schools across the country turned to voice broadcasting to reassure parents and address concerns.

Tellme Pushes One-Button Voice Access to Mobile Communications

Voice features will be a big part of Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.5 phones.

AT&T Launches Multitenant Hosting on Call Center Technologies

The company offers business customers a virtual call center.

We Want YOU to Get This Call

With outbound IVR, it's all about getting the message to the right person.

Vlingo Users Gain More Control

Vlingo 3.0 adds enhanced hands-free features and supports more devices.

For the Best Hires, Retailers Hire Speech

Voice technologies help retailers prescreen an overflowing pool of job applicants.

Visual Voicemail Captures Consumer Interest

Most people would prefer to receive voicemail displayed in an email-like inbox, a survey finds.

Emerging Analytics Tools Could Cut Costs by 10 Percent

Customer experience analytics are expected to make a big splash in the next three years, DMG predicts.

Speech Makes an Impact

A customer care solutions package from Verint Systems is helping Pitney Bowes address agent and customer turnover.

Voicemail Moves to Gmail with CommonVoices App

New visual voicemail service available for Android G1 smartphone users.

AT&T Offers Collect Calls to Wireless Customers

The new service will allow users to make collect calls to mobile phones.

Speech Gives the Orders

A medical supplies distributor improves order accuracy with a voice-directed logistics system.

Kindle 2's TTS Flare-Up Quickly Extinguished

Amazon will let authors and publishers decide whether text-to-speech will be available for their specific titles.

Taming the Multichannel Monster

The right tools and technologies can bring together all of your customer contact channels seamlessly.

Market Spotlight: Insurance

Voice 'Insures' Greater Efficiency: Speech solutions move to help the industry overcome its dependence on paper.

ATX Introduces In-Vehicle Audio Messaging

New voice channel enables automakers and dealerships to reach out to customers with important information about their cars.

Voxeo Puts API in the Clouds

New Tropo platform expands the developer community's programming language choices.

Mass Messaging Use Grows Among Schools

Schools use Blackboard to communicate with the parents of 11 million students to enhance attendance and safety.

W3C Drafts New Multimodal Standard

EMMA facilitates interaction through keyboard, mouse, voice, touch, or gesture.

Microsoft Launches Upgrade of Key UC Platform

The new Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 that had been in beta testing since October officially launches for worldwide distribution.

Implementation Strategies 2009

A complete guide to deploying speech.

Gartner Names Contact Center Leaders

Alcatel-Lucent, Aspect, Avaya, Cisco, Genesys, Interactive Intelligence, and Nortel comprise the Leaders Quadrant.

Making Public Records Public

An ambitious archiving project involving audio indexing and search technologies puts Washington state on the map.

Market Spotlight: Telecommunications

Hold the phone! Economic strain and increasing competition force telcos to seek revenue-generation over technology upgrades.

Amcom Software Acquires SDC Solutions

The addition of SDC Solutions' product line and customer base strengthens Amcom's call center and emergency management software business.

Genesys Acquires SDE, Creators of the Genesys Customer Interaction

The acquisition expands Genesys’ hosted contact center solutions portfolio.

Nortel Files for Chapter 11

Telecommunications systems and services provider seeks credit protection and reorganization in light of faltering global economy.

Gartner Names Contact Center Leaders

Alcatel-Lucent, Aspect Software, Avaya, Cisco Systems, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Interactive Intelligence, and Nortel share Gartner's Leaders Quadrant spots.

Voxeo Acquires VoiceObjects

Voice platform provider expands solutions for enterprise and mobile carriers and extends its European footprint

With TTS, Santa Can Call Your Kid

Children's Christmas wishes can be confirmed by a phone call from St. Nick, all with a goal of raising money for charity.

Flash Games Get New Voice Capabilities

Green-Ear adds color to gaming arena by designing voice applications for multiplayer games on the Flash platform.

Cincinnati Bell Brings SpinVox Home

Phone service carrier to offer wireless functionality on landline home telephones.

SpeechStorm Prepares to Unveil Mobile IVVR

New video applications expected to add a visual dimension to the caller experience through expanded self-service options.

Avaya Delivers New Outreach Solutions For Financial and Healthcare Industries

New contact center solutions reach out to customers and use automated services to improve customer satisfaction and business efficiency.

Avaya Announces Unified Communications All Inclusive

Single, flexible package consolidates Avaya Communication Manager, desktop and mobility communications tools for little to no additional cost.

Avaya Enhances UC with Voicemail-to-Text

Avaya, Mutare, and SpinVox team to deliver the first-of-its-kind solution for corporate environments.

YouMail Announces New Voicemail Transcription Services

Users Can Receive High-Quality Transcriptions of All Voicemails via SMS or Email

SVOX Introduces Polyglot TTS

With new text-to-speech system, foreign words or phrases can be spoken like a native.

Voice Risk Assessment Solutions

Speech Helps Hurricane Evacuees

Voxify's speech solutions handle call spikes from those forced out of their homes.

Digium and Skype Collaborate on Business Phone Systems

Vendors combine on low-cost Skype for Asterisk for smaller firms.

Communications Unified

The pieces of the puzzle are coming together as companies start taking UC seriously.

Market Spotlight: Financial Services

A Market Is Ready to Make Money Mobile.

TravelingWave Launches Voice-Based Text Messaging

TravellingWave integrates its VoicePredict speech recognition products with Zi's text-prediction products to speed the typing of text messages.

Vangard Voice Systems Introduces Mobile Voice Platform

Mobile Voice Platform, powered by Vangard's Rapid Development Environment, extends to mobile applications anywhere across the enterprise.

Enghouse to Acquire Envox Worldwide for $14 Million

Acquisition brings Syntellect and Envox together, strengthening their global reach, distribution channels, market focus, and technology portfolio.

Victrio Launches Voice-Based Call Screening System

System creates voiceprint database to stop credit card fraud and identity theft.

W3C Standard Simplifies Creation of Speech-Enabled Applications

Pronunciation Lexicon Specification lowers costs and effort through reuse of dictionary components.

Assistive Technologies

The Case for Call Recording

Legal issues abound regarding notification and privacy when call centers monitor and capture customer contacts.

A New Dragon Emerges

Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 is faster and more accurate than the previous version.

Overheard/Underheard

Under-the-radar speech news

Unified in Care and Communications

Cancer Treatment Centers of America rolls out VoIP and IP contact center solutions to improve patient care

Speech Helped Hurricane Evacuees

Speech solutions helped travel and hospitality companies to manage unplanned call volume spikes as thousands of people evacuated from hurricanes' paths.

SpinVox Logs a Cross-Country Run

Charlie Engle is using speech-to-text technologies from SpinVox to post blogs and other highlights of his cross-America run.

Alltel Wireless Lets Users Send Animated Talking Messages

New Alltel Avatars, powered by Vidiator's Xend platform, offer a new way to create and send multimedia messaging.

Moviefone to Monetize Phone Calls

Advertisers can target specific voice ads to movie-goers with Apptera's MobileAd technology.

Nortel to Acquire 3-D Voice Provider DiamondWare

Acquisition promises to strengthen Nortel's ability to create real-life virtual communications and conferencing experience for customers.

Dial Directions Gives Evite Guests a Voice-Activated Mobile Service for Directions

Evite Mobile Reminders let guests call, say their start location, and receive directions to the event on any mobile phone.

Varolii Automated Patient Notifications Help Mom Take Her Meds

On-demand patient notification service helps pharmacies reach more patients, improve refill efficiency, and optimize pharmacist's time.

Mass Message Delivery Systems

Consumers Voice Their Banking Concerns

Customers are worried about security issues when giving information over the phone to a contact center agent.

Overheard/Underheard

Under-the-radar speech news

Google Speaks to Voters and Drivers

The search engine giant launched two speech-enabled search products in July.

The 2008 Star Performers

Recognizing four speech technology vendors that have greatly contributed to industry growth through innovative product launches and corporate leadership.

The 2008 Implementation Awards

Recognizing four user companies that garnered impressive returns as a direct result of the speech deployments.

The 2008 Market Leaders

Recognizing the leading speech engine, speech self-service suite, speech security, speech analytics, professional services, and mobile application vendors.

Market Spotlight: Retail

Talking to Customers Goes High Tech

ConvoCast Selects blinkx to Power Audience-Generated Content and Conversation

Blinkx has partnered with ConvoCast, the provider of a voice-enabled platform that lets broadcast and print media companies improve audience participation and interaction, by indexing live broadcast content for posting to the Web.

GIPS Enables VoIP on the iPhone

New platform lets developers build VoIP applications specifically for Apple's smartphone.

Digium Offers Cepstral “Allison Voice” TTS for Asterisk Telephony Systems

Interactive voice response application integrates custom dynamic messaging with prerecorded prompts.

Verint and NICE Resolve Patent Disputes

Out-of-court settlement puts to rest a four-year patent war related to analytics solutions and call recording solutions.

Philips Unveils Dictation Solution for BlackBerry

SpeechExec Enterprise 2.5 empowers BlackBerry device users with mobile dictation functionality, including enhanced security, intuitive operation, and easy administration.

Skype Gets a New Voice

Skype Communicator starts to speak thanks to IVO Software's Expressivo software.

OKI Brings a Unique Voice to TTS

Japanese software developer builds a text-to-speech product that lets users communicate with their own voices.

AT&T Developing iPhone Speech Apps

The exclusive U.S. carrier of Apple's iPhone is developing a voice mashup that will give users of that device voice access to the mobile Web.

Is Speech to Blame for Bad Transcripts?

A New York-based transcription services company suggests a few techniques to enhance digital audio recordings for transcription purposes.

Good Enough for the G-Men

Audio search and mining has its roots in the intelligence community, but the corporate world is where it will really flourish.

Speech Fills the Docket

Since mid-May, the courts have decided a number of high-profile patent disputes between speech technology vendors, while many more cases have been filed or still await a decision.

On the Road to Success

Phone self-service puts Volkswagen Financial customers in control of their money 24/7.

Market Spotlight: Education

Speech as a Reading Aid: Voice solutions that combine speech recognition, speech -to-text, and text-to-speech technologies with properly timed interventions are solving problems for those learning to read and write.

Verizon Launches Hosted Speech Platform

OHSS offers customers the benefits of hosted service with the security and control that were previously only available in premises-based solutions.

Google Tests Maps with Voice

A new speech-enabled service from Google lets users of select BlackBerry smartphones search for businesses on Google Maps.

Nuance Sued for $30 Million in Fees by Vianix

Suit alleges contract violations with regard to licensing and fees of audio compression system.

CTL Offers a Virtual Assistant Even SMBs Can Afford

Calendar based outbound appointment reminders keep calendars filled and up to date.

Vlingo Offers Total Voice Control of BlackBerry Smartphones

New Voice Powered User Interface speech-enables email, text messaging, Web search, dialing, address book, launching applications, and a new "Note2Self."

Speech Jumps into the NCAAs

Strategic agreement combines voice applications with communications-based sports relationship management solution.

Nuance Files Patent Suit Against Vlingo

Company claims that vlingo violates its patent related to "Adaptation of a Speech Recognition System across Multiple Remote Sessions with a Speaker."

Skype Starts Beta Testing of Version 4.0.

New VoIP solution makes video chat a central part of its service.

Yahoo Extends oneSearch with Voice to Asia

Yahoo! today launched Yahoo! oneSearch with voice for English speakers in Singapore and India.

Buy Speech, Get Books

IVO Software's latest TTS version includes free eBook downloads.

Acapela Empowers Dolphin Easy Reader

Latest version of the software provides the missing link in Microsoft's 'Save as DAISY XML' plug-in.

Dial2Do Does More for the Cell Phone

Hands-free service provider voice-activates cell phones with JAJAH applications.

YouMail Delivers Free Visual Voicemail For Smartphones

Free consumer voicemail service brings Visual Voicemail to iPhone, BlackBerry, Blackjack, Treo, and more.

Group Messaging Works Both Ways

Group2Call adds a feature that allows group messaging recipients to send text or audio replies.

Ifbyphone Launches on the iPhone

New application enables SMBs to broadcast messages from Apple devices.

Breaking Windows

New dictation products threaten to end Windows PCs' lock on the market.

Mission-Critical Communications

Phoenix's new unified communications solution supports 14,000 city employees.

Genesys Opens the Customer Front Door

Partners and enterprises are already lining up for the latest contact center technology.

Healthcare Spending on Telecom, IT to Soar

Industry spending on telecommunications services will hit $55 billion by 2013, according to a report by Insight Research.

Speech for the Future

Visitors to Lacoste's Web site can voice their thoughts on tennis in 2083.

A Kitchen First: A Fully Voice-Controlled Oven

Working with appliance manufacturer Indesit, Loquendo and Amuser take the voice interface into the home.

Microsoft Add-On Lets Anyone Create Talking Documents (Almost)

Users of Microsoft Word can now produce content in popular assistive technology format.

Medical Transcriptionists Take Their Case to Washington

Industry associations discuss their industry and speech recognition's affect on it with members of Congress.

AT&T, Stream Energy Take Genesys’ North American Customer Innovations Awards

Companies are singled out for transforming customer service with Dynamic Contact Centers.

Speech on a Network

Tear down the silos before adding voice to a services-oriented architecture.

Declaration of Independence

A speaker-independent voice system proves valuable for a Midwest warehousing firm.

Market Spotlight: Travel & Hospitality

The Sky's the Limit for IVRs

The Phone Keeps Pace with the Web

Despite a rise in Web traffic for customer interactions, phone traffic has not gone down, Genesys reports.

Momentum Builds for ICFD

Just a few days after officially launching its Intelligent Customer Front Door (ICFD) solution to help enterprises optimize the critical first touch point in customer care, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories announced at its G-Force customer conference that partners and enterprises are already lining up.

Making Sure Agents Stick to the Script

KomBea's ProtoCall solution uses predefined call flows and prerecorded audio files to regulate the contact center call flow.

Audiopoint ‘Links’ Internet and Phone with Voice

Personalized Voice Portal allows customized access to EarthLink's news and information using voice commands.

TTS to Bring Stories and Screenplays to Life

Screaming Bee this week released ScriptVOX Studio, a text-to-speech software application to help writers prototype their stories.

NLP on Fertile Ground

But despite its promise, going natural will take work.

Getting It Right the First Time

A call center boosts first-call resolutions with call recording technology.

Market Spotlight: Healthcare

Speech Is the Cure for Medical Records

Fort Hood Purchases Wearable Language Translators

Hands-free, eyes-free system provides voice-activated, one-way translation capabilities to deploying soldiers in Mid East

Speech Pioneer Raj Reddy to Be Honored by IEEE

Raj Reddy receives international recognition for applying tools of artificial intelligence in the development of speech recognition technologies.

Say 'Goodbye' to IVR Menus

New services promise to ease caller frustration when dealing with large companies.

Transcription Makes a Call to Salesforce.com

The addition of Simulscribe voicemail-to-text expands Salesforce.com services available by phone through Angel.com IVR.

Don't Spend It All at Once

How to get the most out of your speech tech budget

Retailer Is Sold on Hosted IVR

A speech application lets salespeople concentrate on closing sales rather than opening unnecessary phone dialogues.

Speech in the Next 'Digital Decade'

Microsoft pledged to continue development of more natural user interfaces, including voice, as part of a new technical revolution

The Personal Touch

Wireless carrier lets customers personalize voicemail greetings with famous voices.

Free Phone Interpreters Available in NYC

Your World. Your Language connects residents and tourists with vital businesses and services.

Conferencing Goes Hi-Def

GIPS releases the first software-based multiparty high-definition video conferencing solution.

Microsoft Bids for Yahoo!—Again!

Software giant looks to swallow up search provider for $44.6 billion.

Holiday Smartphone Buyers Want Their Money Back

While electronics were very popular gift items this holiday season, slightly less than a quarter of those who bought smartphones this year ended up returning them to the retailer, according to new research by Opinion Research.

Market Spotlight: Automotive -- Voice Fuels the Car's Future

We're not likely to see Michael Knight and his talking supercar KITT cruising the highways anytime soon, but by 2013, people speaking to their cars will be commonplace.

Taking Doctors Off the Line

Following a special program partnership between NotifyMD and the Iroqois Healthcare Alliance, doctors throughout most of upper New York State may almost never have to pick up their office phones again.

Need Directions? Give Your Thumbs a Rest

Ask.com Mobile launches speech-activated mobile driving and walking directions.

Language Weaver Expands Automated Translation Roster

Traditional machine translation software uses English as a bridge between other languages, but Language Weaver is breaking the mold by offering direct translation pairs that remove English as the middle step.

One for All: UC to See Huge Growth

Wainhouse Research and In-Stat earlier this week released a global forecast that predicts that the unified communications products and services market will hit the $48.7 billion mark by 2012, a 13 percent increase from current levels.

Ai Squared Lets Users Take Screen Reader with Them

Software on a USB drive gives universal access for visually-impaired computer users.

HP, Mouscan Team Up for Mobile Text-to-Speech Solution

Korean start-up company Mouscan, a company with scanning and mouse expertise, today announced a licensing agreement with HP that will offer people a way to listen to printed text.

Gaining Control Over All Aspects of the Call Center

Unified Command and Control (UCC) from Aspect Software centralizes reporting, routing, administration, and workflow management in a single console capable of handling 40,000 agents within a single site or across multiple locations.

NEC Puts Speech-to-Text Translation on Cell Phone

Pilot with Japanese-to-English technology is the first on a cell phone that didn't require external help.

Paltalk Expands Videoconferencing to Thousands at Once

Online community pulled out all the stops in a multimedia conference involving author Stephen King.

Automotive Voice Technology Market Expected to Hit $6.5 Billion by 2013

Phone, navigation, and entertainment systems to remain hot, but other applications are possible.

Solution Presents a NICE Way to Handle Cranky Holiday Calls

NICE Systems SmartCenter application suite isolates only those calls that require managers to follow up.

Leading Dutch Grocer Uses Voxware to Voice-Enable Warehouses

Albert Heijn, a unit of the worldwide retail food conglomerate Royal Ahold, has deployed Voxware's voice picking solution in four regional distribution centers (DC's) throughout the Netherlands, and plans to begin installing it in two national DC's in January.

The User Becomes a Standard Bearer

Designing speech applications with the user in mind is the closest thing you'll find to an industry standard.

Documented Savings Abound

Dictation/transcription software is the perfect remedy for a medical group's high report-generating costs.

Nuance Names Wes Hayden to Head New Enterprise Division

Microsoft Finds the First Client for Its Tellme Technology

Speech Technologies Take to the Skies in Newest Fighter Jet

When the U.S. Air Force rolls out its newest fighter jet, the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, pilots will be talking to it instead of physically manipulating controls and display panels in the cockpit.

Northern Ireland Electricity Powers Customer Service with Voice

The arrival of competition in the energy market drove Northern Ireland Electicity (NIE) Supply, a power utility serving 758,000 home and business customers in Northern Ireland, to implement a speech-enabled customer self-service application recently.

Speech Takes the Pain out of Jury Duty

Jury Systems, a provider of jury management systems for courts around the country, added interactive voice response (IVR) capabilities to its JURY+ Next Generation suite of products. Jury Systems is branding the IVR product as the Jury+ Voice solution.

Nuance Names Wes Hayden to Head New Enterprise Division

Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories CEO Wes Hayden joined Nuance Communications Oct. 1 as president of the company's new Enterprise Division. In this new position, Hayden will be responsible for managing strategy operations, marketing, professional services, and engineering for Nuance's enterprise products and solutions.

Bridging the Gap

Companies are unifying their self-service strategies to tightly integrate all self-service channels, including speech

IVR Ensures the Validity of Foreign Elections

A global election watchdog group uses Virtual Call Center to monitor and report voting irregularities

Blind Customers Demand a Voice in Cell Phones

Blind and visually impaired customers have started legal action against the cell phone industry to improve cell phone accessibility with features like speech output for people who cannot read the phone's display screen.

Flight Simulators Get a Voice

Voice analysis technologies provider Nemesysco will provide its layered voice analysis (LVA) technologies to BVR Systems, a provider of training and simulation solutions, for use in its virtual flight simulators for the military.

VoiceVerified Expands Marketing Effort

Under a co-marketing agreement reached yesterday, ICT Group, a provider of customer management and business process outsourcing solutions, will begin offering voice biometrics solutions from VoiceVerified to its customers.

Microsoft Finds The First Client for Its Tellme Technology

Beginning today, U.S. wireless carrier Sprint-Nextel is offering customers a new Microsoft Web and local business search application using GPS and voice recognition technologies.

With EVA, the Office Is Just a Call Away

Excendia, a developer of speech-enabled unified communications and speech mobility solutions, recently signed a deal with IBM to include its Excendia Virtual Assistant (EVA) on IBM WebSphere Voice Server.

The Problems You See with UC

Network General Corp. recently released survey findings showing that unified communications (UC) applications are contributing significantly to network traffic and performance problems, something that it says is poised to become even more pronounced.

ASR Technologies Seen as Key to Growth in the IVR Market

With about 90 percent saturation in the large enterprise segment, vendors in the North American interactive voice response (IVR) market are looking to small- and mid-sized businesses for future growth opportunities, according to a research report from Frost & Sullivan.

New Patent Claims Priority in NLP Development

Parus Interactive, a provider of speech-enabled unified communications software solutions, received a Notice of Allowance from the U.S. Patent Office July 19 for a patent covering natural language processing (NLP) technologies.

The 2007 Speech Luminaries

Selecting this year's winners for the Speech Luminaries awards was no easy task. We received nominations for candidates in the areas of research and development, speech science, systems engineering, system implementation, and corporate and organizational leadership. All of these individuals have had a hand in advancing the causes of their respective companies and the industry as a whole, and worked tirelessly to increase awareness and acceptance of speech technologies during the past 12 months.

Nuance Powers Latest TomTom Navigation Devices

Portable navigation device provider TomTom has selected speech solutions from Nuance Communications to power its TomTom GO family: the TomTom GO 520, TomTom GO 720 and the TomTom GO 920.

SVOX Adds Languages to Its TTS Technology

SVOX yesterday enhanced its text-to-speech offerings to include Japanese, bringing to 18 the number of languages its speech technologies support.

IBM Makes Major Moves on UC Front

IBM earlier this week acquired Web conferencing service provider WebDialogs in a flurry of activity surrounding its unified communications offerings.

AAA Joins the Mobile Search Spree

The Automobile Club of America is well-known for providing travel information, mapping expertise and road service. Now, AAA's southern California chapter is bringing those services to mobile phones, allowing members to gain information and turn-by-turn directions, spoken to them through their cell phone.

Marchex Adds Call-Based Advertising Services with VoiceStar Acquisition

Marchex, an online advertising company and publisher of local content, will acquire VoiceStar, a provider of call-based advertising services, including pay-per-phone-call and call tracking, for local advertisers, for $28 million.

Blind Customers Target Cell Phones

Blind and visually impaired customers are taking legal action against the cell phone industry to force cell phone manufacturers and service providers to better incorporate assistive technologies for the blind into their products.

One Voice Technologies and LTB Audio Partner to Create the Digital Home

Imagine using your voice to tell your Media Center to play MP3 or iTunes music, call to order a pizza, set the thermostat or home theater lighting, play a photo slideshow, watch and record live TV, read and send email, or initiate a video chat session with a friend.

U.S. Attorneys Office Standardizes on Nuance Dictation Software

As part of a productivity initiative, the U.S. Attorneys Office will roll out Nuance Communications' Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional dictation solution to its 15,000 employees across multiple locations throughout the country.

NSC Will Supply Key Word Spotting Technology to European Government

RISHON LEZION, Israel - Natural Speech Communication (NSC) and Tadiran Communication will team up to provide a major European Defense Ministry with a solution for improving the sound quality of intercepted communications and then analyzing the audio for key words that could indicate a potential security risk.

AT&T’s Free DA Rolls-Out Across California

SAN BRUNO, Calif. -- Upon the successful completion of a controlled trial in three U.S. cities, AT&T officially rolled out its free 1-800-YELLOWPAGES directory assistance service across California yesterday.

Speech Synthesis and Emotion

Wes Hayden, CEO and President, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories

As the speech industry continues to advance, customers are learning to accept IVR technology, Hayden says in an exclusive interview with Speech Technology magazine.

Small: The Next Big Thing?

Small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) are growing in importance among speech industry vendors.

IP Communications Are Set to Soar

With VoIP gaining traction in recent years, businesses are realizing that the benefits of IP telephony exceed mere cost reductions.

Nuance Communications Expands Its Mobile Presence

Slightly more than a month after announcing its acquisition of VoiceSignal Technologies, Nuance Communications announced June 21 that it will acquire Tegic Communications.

Recognizing Each Student's Potential

Speech-enabled Reading Assistant helps students across the country gain reading proficiency.

Treatment's Not Lost in Translation

Audio/video conferencing technology helps a Dallas hospital deliver proper care to all patients, regardless of their preferred languages.

Jingle Networks and Skype Partner on Free DA Service

MENLO PARK, Calif. - Under a strategic partnership announced yesterday, Jingle Networks is now offering its voice-enabled 1-800-FREE-411 directory assistance service to Skype subscribers in the United States.

Businesses May Want to Back Off the iPhone Buzz

While personal users may be lining up for the Apple iPhone, the much-hyped device may not be the best for the business user, an analyst warns.

Speech Tech Research Center to Open at Johns Hopkins

BALTIMORE -- The Johns Hopkins University here has been awarded a long-term, multimillion-dollar contract to establish and operate a new research facility that will primarily work toward new strategies related to speech technologies like speech recognition, speaker identification, speech analytics, and language processing.

Army Hospital Turns to Speech Technologies to Improve Patient Care

FORT STEWART, Ga. -- Winn Army Community Hospital here is now using new voice-enabled communications solutions from Avaya, Interactive Northwest Inc., Verint Systems, and Nuance Communications to help more than 75,000 soldiers, military retirees, and their families.

Voice-Based Real Estate Sales Tool Expands Nationwide

Oyster Bay, N.Y. -- Invores Systems' HouseCallsAudioTour.com voice-enabled real estate sales and marketing system has expanded into 12 states and is now being used by four of the top five real estate companies nationwide.

MTI, Fastrak Retail Create Virtual Sales Associate

New in-store signage interacts with customers using natural language speech technologies.

Web Tool Lets Users Hear News, Blog Text

Pushing a button presents Web text as audio files.

It's a Persona, Not a Personality

In IVR design, it should be about finding the right voice, not the right character.

Implementing a Bright IVR Idea

A Florida triple-play provider doubles self-service and splits transfers between agents in half with a speech application.

Voice-Based Search Expands Among Major Web Players

Voice-based mobile search technology has already become the new battleground for speech technologies, and now major Web search leaders Yahoo! and Google are poised to add their names to an ever-growing list of participants.

Traditional Voice Holds Amid IP's Growth

Voice services continue to be the mainstay for most communications service companies in the United States and Canada, even in the face of emerging growth opportunities in things like video and broadband, according to new research by Frost & Sullivan.

Videogame Voices Go 3-D

In the ultra-competitive home videogame landscape, game developers can ill afford to sit on their hands. Many are turning to new voice technologies as a way to enhance the experience for players and differentiate themselves from their peers.

Microsoft Puts Exchange Server Out for Free Trial

Microsoft announced in mid-April a free hosted trial for business customers to experience its Exchange Server 2007, one of the key components of its unified communications offerings that are due for release later this year.

Interactive Voice and Video Response

Phoenix Transit Rolls Out New Voice Service

New IVR lets bus riders plan trips and get bus info by phone.

Nuance to Acquire VoiceSignal

Move brings rivals together and expands Nuance's presence in mobile market

Audio Service Launches New Method for Preserving Stories of Life

LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. -- LifeOnRecord, an audio journaling company, is introducing two new services that take the traditional means of recording memories one step further.

Technology Filters Out Bad Words

TVGuardian software offers another level of parental control.

Comcast Brings Voicemail to the Web

Triple-play provider to roll out unified messaging application to its Web platform.

Brits to Try Lie Detectors for Benefits Seekers

Incoming phone calls to benefits centers to be monitored for voice changes.

Bringing Video to the Voice Arena

The latest speech application development tools allow programmers to incorporate video applications as well.

Cisco Will Acquire WebEx

Cisco announced March 15 that it will acquire WebEx, a market leader in on-demand collaboration, networking, and conferencing solutions, for $3.2 billion.

Hosted Outpaces On-Premises in IVR

Microsoft to Acquire Tellme Networks

Microsoft announced plans March 14 to acquire privately held Tellme Networks, a provider of nationwide directory assistance, enterprise customer service, and voice-enabled mobile search, in a move that will dramatically advance the software giant's presence in the $7 billion mobile search market.

Positive Marks for UC Offerings

With Microsoft expected to release its unified communications offerings this summer, an independent solutions evaluator reviewed an early beta version of the software solution and gave it a glowing endorsement.

Improving Workflow and Patient Care with Voice

A Pennsylvania nursing home saves more than $150,000 in staff overtime with Vocollect’s AccuNurse system

Mobile Devices

New and improved mobile technologies that converge voice and data allow workers to stay connected, responsive, and productive, whether in the office or a half a world away.

Don't Discount Voice Yet

New research reveals staying power of traditional voice services

Call Centers ARE Doing a Better Job

Despite improving satisfaction scores, call centers need to be more proactive.

Voice System Allows for Group Messages

New panic button feature allows schools to respond to emergencies via voice or text message.

Microsoft Puts Exchange Server Out for Free Trial

Product will serve as the basis for new unified communications offering.

Nortel Offers Targeted Solutions for SMBs

New 'My Business' campaign makes it easier for smaller firms to integrate voice technologies.

Yahoo! Now Has Eyes on Voice-Based Mobile Search

Web search provider is latest to express an interest in growing speech application.

Google Tries Its Hand at Mobile Search

New voice-enabled service is latest experiment by Web search leader.

.NET Tools

A number of tools are available to more smoothly and easily program and coordinate speech-based applications on the .NET platform.

The Art and Science of War

U.S. forces in Iraq are stepping up field testing of speech translation devices.

Not Everyone Has a Phone Voice

The right voice is everything on an IVR, auto attendant, automatic call distributor, or voicemail system.

Planning a Trip in Austin Just Got Easier

City's transit authority rolls out IVR to handle basic bus information.

IVR Security Is A Necessary Evil

British firm Biometric Security warned last month that the unceasing need for customers to remember new PINs and passwords is becoming unsustainable and could lead to customer churn.

Voicemail-to-Text Goes Wireless

Cincinnati Bell is becoming the first U.S. wireless carrier to offer a service that converts wireless voicemail messages into text messages or email.

New Voice Service Handles Phone Downloads

ClearSky Mobile Media enables consumers to ask their phones for a favorite ringtone or wallpaper

Wawa to Voice-Enable Recruiting and Hiring

IVR to handle convenience store chain's job applications process.

Cell Ads Not Bad, Consumers Say

New research finds growing acceptance for targeted advertising sent to cell phones.

FreedomVOICE Systems Launches TalkText

New service converts voicemail to text over Web, email, or SMS

3-D World Goes Interactive With Voice

Second Life to incorporate voice into everyday virtual interactions

Would You Do This?

Vendors are betting that you will as they move toward a one-call-to all unified communications strategy

Heightened Level of Alert

As more risks become associated with VoIP, companies that did not take security into account before will need to start

Speech as a Fan Favorite

Prerecorded marketing boosts an NBA team's game attendance

Speech Comes Standard in Microsoft Vista

Microsoft released its Windows Vista operating system on Jan. 30, calling it the most significant product launch in the company's 32-year history. At the same time, it also released its Office 2007 product suite—one of the key components of Microsoft's unified communications offering that is expected to ship this summer (see story on page 14).

Cellphone Users Prefer Live Agents to ARS

Customer service issues that are handled by a computer automated response system (ARS) on the telephone generate significantly lower customer care ratings than those handled by a live agent, according to the J.D. Power & Associates Wireless Customer Care Performance Study released Jan. 25.

Speech-Enabled Transcription/Dictation

A report that used to take eight hours to complete can be done in about 15 minutes<

Airport Inspections Become Speech-Enabled

Vanguard Voice, Astegic team up to add voice to mobile inspection platform.

Implementing Speech Doesn't Have to Mean Trade-Offs

Opening keynote speakers say system upgrades are key to overcoming speed, accuracy hurdles.

IBM Puts Speech on Display

Company execs cite vision to break down barriers with speech-enabled services.

New Genesys Platform Supports VoIP and Video

Support for updated voice standards also follows latest company release.

RightNow Delivers New Voice Solutions

SaaS provider offers integrated voice with customer service, marketing, and sales solutions.

Agent-Assisted Speech Recognition

Many businesses are finding themselves victims of their own success, overwhelmed by the increasing volume of incoming customer calls to place orders, complete transactions, or seek information.

Doctors On Call

Altura designs and implements a VoIP network for Michigan health system.

IBM Drafts the Standard in Text-to-Speech

IBM in mid-December released a new application programming interface, or middleware, that expands the ability of screenreading programs like Freedom Scientific's JAWS and GW Micro's Window-Eyes, to convert on-screen text and graphics to audio for the blind or visually impaired.

SpinVox Voicemail-to-Text Service To Make U.S. Debut

SpinVox to Offer Limited Number of Gamma Accounts In Advance of Impending Carrier Roll-Outs

Study Finds Cellphone Users Prefer Live Agent

J.D. Power survey gives lower marks to automated call centers for customer care issues.

IVR to Help Job Seekers

New recruiting tool allows phone-in applications

Avaya Looks to Acquire Ubiquity Software

Software platform integrates communications technologies and business processes>

Microsoft Adds Voice to Ford Cars

System allows drivers to control phones, MP3 players and more with voice commands.>

FTC to Delay Enforcement on Pre-recorded Messages

The Federal Trade Commission will extend beyond Jan. 2 its policy of not bringing enforcement against telemarketers that deliver pre-recorded messages to consumers, pending further agency review of current policies.>

New Application Detects VoIP Liars

Application registers voice changes to tell when someone's not being completely honest.

Skype to Start Charging a Flat Fee

VoIP provider to charge $30 a year for unlimited calls.

Speech Recognition to Hit School Cafeterias

CellMax Systems teams with POS provider PCS to offer voice-based school lunchroom ID.

SONUS First With Emergency VoIP System

Sonus supports National Security and Emergency Preparedness standards with its Internet-based voice solutions.

Nuance to Acquire MobileVoiceControl

Deal will expand speech-enabled mobile application offerings.>

NovaLogic Selected Fonix VoiceIn for New Delta Force - Black Hawk Down: Team Sabre Video Game

SALT LAKE CITY - NovaLogic, Inc., a global entertainment software developer and publisher, released the PlayStation2 version of Delta Force - Black Hawk Down: Team Sabre featuring Fonix VoiceIn Game Edition.

Voice Joins Gaming Battle

New video games incorporate speech recognition technology to enhance player experience.

Oracle Expands VoIP to its Outside Workforce

Plantronics' wireless headsets are the latest addition to the software giant's global VoIP integration efforts.