Speech Technology eWeekly - July 01, 2002

Q & A

Steve Parsons, Director of Partnership Marketing, NMS Communications

Steve Parsons is the director of partnership marketing, Network Solutions, at NMS Communications. For this week's issue of NewsBlast, Steve discusses his thoughts on speech technology in the carrier space, as well as other topics related to the speech technology industry.

Andrew Cooper, Public Relations Executive, Ectaco

In a recent white paper, Andrew Cooper, public relations executive for Ectaco, discussed the Universal Translator product by his company. In a Q&A with the editors of NewsBlast, Andrew discusses this product as well as other topics about his company and views on the industry.

Martin Falaro, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales, SpeechWorks

Martin Falaro is one of the newest additions to the SpeechWorks team. He joins them as their new Senior VP of Worldwide Sales. Before coming to SpeechWorks, Martin spent the last 20 years in high technology in Boston at the beginning of some very exciting markets. In the 80's he joined Lotus and participated in the creation of the market for business productivity software. In the 90's, he spent 5 years at PictureTel - a pioneer in the $1B plus video conferencing market. In 2000, he joined Cisco Systems after building a strategic alliance leading to the acquisition of Altiga Networks, where he was VP of Sales & Business Development. In a Q&A with NewsBlast, Martin shares with us his first impressions and other views on the speech technology industry.

Sunil Soares, Program Director of Product Marketing, IBM Pervasive Computing

Recently, IBM has moved its Voice Systems division into its Pervasive Computing Group. For this week's issue of NewsBlast, Sunil Soares, program director of product management for IBM Pervasive Computing, discusses this move, as well as other topics in the speech technology industry.

Speech Technology News

VoiceGenie, Voxeo and Audium Announce SpeechOne Alliance

TORONTON, ON; ORLANDO, FL; NEW YORK, NY - VoiceGenie Technologies, Voxeo Corporation, and Audium announced their new SpeechOne Alliance at the Kelsey Group VOX2002 Conference in San Francisco, CA.

Syntellect's Vista Now Supports VoiceXML

Syntellect announced the general availability of Vista IMR 4.0.

Loquendo Announces Annika, the New Swedish Voice

TORINO, ITALY - Loquendo TTS also speaks Swedish.

Kurzweil Educational Systems Introduces Kurzweil 1000 Version 7

BEDFORD, MA - Kurzweil Educational Systems Inc. announced Kurzweil 1000 Version 7, thelatest version of the reading software for people who are blind or severely visually impaired.

Loquendo Announces New Spanish Female Voice; Loquendo Announces Speaker Verification Technology

TORINO, ITALY - Loquendo presents the latest Loquendo TTS development: Isabel is the new female Spanish voice to accompany Juan.

SpeechWorks and America First Credit Union Offer Speech-Enabled Credit Union Application; Centrelink Selects SpeechWorks and iTa to Deliver Natural Language Speech Recognition Solutions; SpeechWorks Introduces T-S.T.E.P.

BOSTON, MA - SpeechWorks International Inc. deployed a speech-enabled application forAmerica First Credit Union (AFCU).

Chubb Launches New 'Scalable' Errors & Omissions Insurance for High-Tech Industry

WARREN, NJ - The Chubb Group of Insurance Companies has launched a new errors and omissions (E&O) liability insurance policy that can be tailored to meet the needs of small- to large-sized information and network technology companies.

SALT Forum Publishes Speech Application Language Tags Specification Version 1.0

BOSTON, MA - The SALT Forum announced the availability of Version 1.0of the Speech Application Language Tags (SALT) specification.

ArialPhone Corp. Promotes Mike Wagener to President

MUNDELEIN, IL - ArialPhone Corp., a provider of wirelesscommunications devices and voice-enabling software applications, announced the appointment of Mike Wagener to the new position of president.

NetCentrex and Telisma Give a Boost to Consumer Voice Portals

PARIS, FRANCE - NetCentrex and Telisma announced the signature of a worldwide license reseller agreement.

BeVocal, BellSouth to Launch 511 Information Service in Eight States

BeVocal and BellSouth have been selected to deploy a 511 voice recognition system for an eight-state region covering more than 17 million citizens.

Nuance and ScanSoft Collaborate to Bring RealSpeak Text-to-Speech to Nuance Customers

PEABODY, MA and MENLO PARK, CA - Nuance and ScanSoft, Inc. announced the companies have joined forces to extend their reach in the worldwide telephony market by bringing together the best in Nuance's speech software and ScanSoft's text-to-speech offerings.

Telera Announces New Customer Win: Equant

CAMPBELL, CA - Telera announced that Equant has selected Telera's software to deliver voice services to multinational corporations.

Copytalk Unveils New "Listen and Reply" Service for Email

SARASOTA, FL - Copytalk unveiled "Listen and Reply", whichlets subscribers listen to their email then reply by voice.

VoiceGenie, Voxeo and Audium Announce SpeechOne Alliance

TORONTO, CANADA, ORLANDO/FL and NEW YORK, NY - VoiceGenie Technologies, Voxeo Corporation and Audium Corporation announced their new SpeechOne Alliance at the Kelsey Group VOX2002 Conference in San Francisco, CA.

Ectaco Releases Voice Translator English-Chinese Phrasebank for PocketPC

Ectaco has released English - Mandarin Chinese tourist phrase bank developed on the basis of speech recognition technologies - the Partner(r) Voice Translator English-Chinese Phrasebank for Pocket PC.

LumenVox Improves Core Speech Engine

LumenVox improved its core Speech Recognition Engine v2.6, which also affects their Speech Driven Information System.

LLoquendo Automates Railway Information Service

The automated speech-interaction information service realized by Loquendo for Italy's national railway network & services company Trenitalia - has brought outstanding customer services results.

NSC and Persay to Sign a Cooperation Agreement

RISHON LE-ZION and TEL AVIV, ISREAL - NSC Natural Speech Communications Ltd. and Persay Ltd. announced a partnership agreement to have both technologies available at both companies.

Microsoft Selects Nellymoser's Masquerade Speech Technology for Xbox Live

BOSTON, MA - Nellymoser Inc. announced that Microsoft has licensed their Masquerade software to enable advanced voice chat features for Xbox multiplayer games and Xbox Live.

EarthLink Selects Audiopoint to Provide E-mail-by-Phone Service

FAIRFAX, VA - Audiopoint and EarthLink announced a contractual agreement that will give EarthLink's 4.9 million subscribers instant telephone access to e-mail anytime, anywhere, with E-mail-by-Phone.

Brooktrout, SpeechWorks Partner on Speech Recognition for the Telecommunications Market

Brooktrout Technology has partnered with SpeechWorks to deliver speech recognition on itsTR1000 media resource platform.

NetXentry to Incorporate NSC ASR Boards into its Call Center Services

PHILADELPHIA, PA and RISHON LE-ZION, ISREAL - NetXentry and NSC announce the integration of NSC's Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) Boards to NetXentry call center services.

Interactive Intelligence Upgrades Unified Communications Software

Interactive Intelligence last week released Communite 2.2, the latest version of its large-scale unified communications and messaging software for enterprises and service providers.

iVoice Announces Digital Telephony Solutions for Nortel Platforms

MATAWAN, NJ - iVoice Inc. announced a digital communication solution that incorporates its Speech Enabled Auto Attendant, Voicemail and Unified Messaging applications for Nortel NorStar and Meridian, Private Branch Exchange (PBX) switches.

SpeechWorks Acquires SpeakEZ Verification Technology and Related Patents

BOSTON, MA - SpeechWorks International Inc. announced that it has acquired the SpeakEZ Voice Print patented technology from T-NETIX Inc.

Fonix Releases Fonix SpeakThis 2.0

SALT LAKE CITY, UT - Fonix Corporation announced the availability of Fonix SpeakThis 2.0.

Elan Speech Launches its New Golden Tone TTS Technology, Elan Sayso; Elan Speech Sees The Day

TOULOUSE, FRANCE - Elan speech, provider of text to speech technology, unveils its new TTS technology, Elan Sayso.

The Santos Logistics Group Deploys Ydilo Solution

MADRID, SPAIN - The Santos Logistics Group and Ydilo Advanced Voice Solutions, S.A. announced the deployment of a voice service aimed at speeding the flow of shipping and delivery information within Santos and between the company and its customers.

Sunny Capital Chooses NMS Communications for Voice over Broadband Product; NMS Communications Teams With WiseSpot to Deliver Interactive Services to M-Channel

FRAMINGHAM, MA - NMS Communications worked with network equipment provider Beijing Sunny Capital Communications to deploy a voice over broadband solution at Leshan Telecom, a China Telecom subsidiary.

ABN AMRO Mortgage Group Inc. Achieves R.O.I. Milestones With NetByTel Solution

BOCA RATON, FL - The refinancing boom of 2001 gaveABN AMRO Mortgage Group Inc. a good problem at its Sunrise, Fla., location: too many phonecalls.

InterVoice-Brite Realigns Organization Into Unified Global Structure

DALLAS, TX - InterVoice-Brite Inc. announced that effective Aug. 1, it is converging its market-specificdivisions into a single unified organizational structure due to changingmarket demands.

Philips Launches SpeechPearl 8.0 Speech Recognition Engine

AACHEN, GERMANY and DALLAS, TX - Philips Electronics' announced the availability of its SpeechPearl 8.0 softwarepackage.

Phonologies Announces InterpreXerT

MUMBAI, INDIA - Phonologies Private Limited announced the release of it's VoiceXML 2.0 Interpreter, InterpreXerT.InterpreXerT, which supports the latest features released by the VoiceXMLForum in the last draft, has been made available for beta testing.

Audium Releases Audium 3

NEW YORK, NY - Audium announced the general availability of Audium 3, a package for enterprises and voice service bureaus to create, build, and run voice applications.

OnStar to Implement General Magic's magicTalk Enterprise Platform

SUNNYVALE, CA - General Magic Inc. announced thatOnStar Corp., a subsidiary of General Motors Corp. will licenseGeneral Magic's magicTalk Enterprise Platform

ThinkEngine Networks Partners with VoiceGenie

ThinkEngine Networks and VoiceGenieTechnologies announced the integration of VoiceGenie's VoiceXML Gateway software suite within ThinkEngine's TEN1000 Voice Services Platform.

InfoTalk Unveils New Chapter in Internet Browsing Technology

BEIJING and HONG KONG - InfoTalk Corporation announced that InfoTalk-Recognizer has been applied in the Voice Internet Keyword Browsing Service.

BeVocal Cuts 40% of Staff, Will Phase out Voice Hosting

BeVocal, a provider carrier-grade voice platforms and applications software,has laid off 42 employees, approximately 40% of its staff, as it begins itsexit from the voice hosting business to focus solely on its software, according to VentureWire.

HeyAnita Develops SALT Browser

HeyAnitahas developed a SALT browser. HeyAnita's FreeSpeech SALT Browser will enable companies to deploy multimodal SALT applications.

NMS HearSay to Bring Mobile Messaging to the Tour de France

FRAMINGHAM, MA - NMS Communications is providing its NMS HearSay voice services system to Cegetel's SFR subsidiary to give thousands of mobile phone subscribers in France real-time, detailed Tour de France updates through cell broadcast messages.

AT&T Announces Instant Messaging Buddies

United Leisure announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, United Internet Technologies (UIT), entered into a licensing agreement with AT&T.

Audiopoint Selects Nuance for Advanced Speech Technologies

MENLO PARK, CA - Nuance announced that Audiopoint selected Nuance's text-to-speech, voice authentication and speech recognition software to be the engines powering Audiopoint's array of voice applications and services.

General Magic Unveils Enhanced magicTalk Enterprise Platform

SUNNYVALE, CA - General Magic Inc. announced aseries of important enhancements to its magicTalk Enterprise Platform suiteof software that increases the ability of enterprises todevelop and deploy self-service voice applications accessible bytelephone.

Syntellect Broadens Sales Distribution in Deal with Callista

Syntellect has entered into a distribution agreement with Toronto-based Interactive Voice Response and Computer Telephony solutions provider Callista Computer Telephony.

Fujitsu Selects Nuance Technologies to Power Japanese IVR

Nuance announced that Fujitsu's new voice-driven Interactive Voice Response product line, VoiceScript, is powered by Nuance 8.0 speech recognition technology.

IBM Technology Gives Hondas a Voice Embedded Navigation System

SOMERS, NY - IBM announced it has provided voice recognition technology for a navigation system thatwill be a feature in select 2003 model Honda Accords.

Philips Announces Availability of SALT Browser

DALLAS, TX - Philips Speech Processing developed the new SALT Browser to meet the increasing customer demand for standardization and flexibility of application development.

SeeStorm Brings Voice Modification Software Package to the Market

ENCINITAS, CA and MOSCOW, RUSSIA - SeeStorm Inc. announced the release of its Voice Modification complete software package.

Omaha Public Power District Invests in Syntellect Technology

Syntellect has been awarded a contract by the Omaha Public Power District to design and implement a Vista Interactive Media Response solution.

VoiceGenie and Phonetic Systems Voice-Enable IVR With Caller Authentication

TORONTO, CANADA and BEDFORD, MA - VoiceGenie Technologies and Phonetic Systems announced the integration of VoiceGenie's Gateway with Phonetic Systems' Phonetic Name Identifier.

SpeechWorks Provides Standards-Based Speech Solutions For Avaya Voice Applications Platform

BOSTON, MA - SpeechWorks International Inc. announced the availability of its VoiceXML optimized, OpenSpeech products including OpenSpeech Recognizer in the client-server architecture of OpenSpeech Server and OpenSpeech DialogModules on the latest interactive voice response (IVR) system from Avaya Inc.

VeCommerce Awarded Contract in Australia

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - VeCommerce Limited announced that it has beenawarded a contract by one of Australia's diversified financialservices groups.

InternetSpeech.com Selects Voiceware's TTS "VoiceText"

SEOUL, KOREA - Voiceware Co. announced a licensing agreement with InternetSpeech, Inc. to integrate their Voiceware TTS, VoiceText, into InternetSpeech's netECHO product.

Brown University to Voice-Enable Its Capus Directory

TAHOE, NEVADA - Phonetic Systems announced that Brown University has chosen PhoneticOperator to voice-enable the university's main phone directory. The directory of over 5,000 records will be available for use by university staff, faculty and students.

Portugal Telecom Inovacao Chooses Telisma

PARIS, FRANCE and AVEIRO, PORTUGAL - Portugal Telecom Inovacao and Telisma announce the signature of a worldwide agreement.

Philips Electronics Brings Speech-Enabled Directory Assistance Service to Japan

TOKYO, JAPAN - Philips Electronics and Infocom Corp. announced the launch of a new service providing automated, speech-enabled directory assistance for Japan Multimedia Service (JMS) Corp.

SpeechWorks S.T.E.P. Program Delivers Results for Over 150 Companies Worldwide; SpeechWorks Introduces T-S.T.E.P.

BOSTON, MA - SpeechWorks International Inc. unveiled new milestones in its SpeechWorksS.T.E.P. program, designed to help organizations achieve the highest levels of success and payback from speechservices.

Neiman Marcus Delivers Speech-Enabled Applications from InterVoice-Brite

Neiman Marcus has deployed InterVoice-Brite's speech-enabled customer service applications to provide a premier shopping and service experience for its customers.

Convergys Buys Speech Recognition Division of iBasis

CINCINNATI, OH - Convergys Corporation announced it has purchased the iBasis Speech Solutions lineof business from iBasis Inc.

SALT Forum Completes Version 1.0 of SALT Specification and Announces New SALT-Based Products

On Monday, July 15, the SALT Forum reached a new milestone with its announcement of the finalized and published Version 1.0 of the Speech Application Language Tags (SALT) specification. Now available on the SALT Forum website (http://www.saltforum.org), the specification defines a set of lightweight tags as extensions to commonly used Web-based programming languages in order to speech-enable telephony and multimodal applications.

SRC Powers Hemscott Telephone Service

SRC has designed and implemented a speech recognition share information telephone service, open to all, launched by business information and research company, Hemscott.

Glenayre Unveils 'The Edge' Alliance Program

ATLANTA, GA - Glenayre Technologies has introduced The Edge, an alliance program designed to promotecooperation and knowledge-sharing between communications applicationdevelopers, content providers and industry technology leaders.

iVoice and ComPort Distributions, Ltd. Enter Distribution Agreement

MATAWAN, NJ - iVoice Inc. announced a new distributionpartner, ComPort Distributions Ltd.

Interactive Intelligence Upgrades Blended Dialer Software

nteractive Intelligence released its upgraded Interaction Dialer software, version 2.2.

VoiceMethods Creates Polish and Russian Speech Recognition System Development Tools

New York, NY - VoiceMethods LLC has begun licensing three new speech corpuses made especially for the development of speech recognition systems in Polish and Russian.

Study Reveals SpeechWorks' Surveyed Customers Save Over $1 Million Annually; New NOAA Weather Radio Voices Debut in Nation's Capital

BOSTON, MA - SpeechWorks International Inc. announced findings from a comprehensivereturn on investment (ROI) study of nine SpeechWorks' enterprise andcarrier customers who have deployed advanced speech recognition (ASR)solutions.

Voxpilot Partners with Kirusa

DUBLIN, IRELAND and BERKELEY HEIGHTS, NJ - Kirusa has teamed up with Voxpilot to integrate their multimodal platform (KMMP) with Voxpilot's voxBuilder Gateway services.

New Addition to VeCommerce

AUSTRALIA - VeCommerce Limited has announced that Dr. Clive Summerfield has joined the company.

AT&T Adds French and UK English to Natural Voices TTS

AT&T announced French and U.K English language support for the AT&T Natural Voices Text-to-Speech (TTS) Engine.

SpeechWorks Restructures Operations

BOSTON, MA - SpeechWorks International Inc. announced that it is taking steps to achieve an approximate 20% reduction of its current expense base over the next four quarters, including a reduction of its workforce by about 17% primarily in the current quarter.

Philips, Telephonetics Enter Partnership

Telephonetics has entered a three-way partnership withconverged communications solutions provider Philips Business Communications(PBC) and Philips Speech Processing (PSP).

NSC and TalkerNet Declared Partnership

RISHON LE-ZION, ISREAL - TalkerNet and NSC has announced a partnership. TalkerNet develops speech gateway technology based on NSC's speech recognition engine.

Kirusa And SpeechWorks Announce First GPRS Trial Of Multimodal Applications On Bouygues Telecom's GPRS Network

BERKELEY HEIGHTS, NJ, BOSTON, MA, and PARIS, FRANCE - Kirusa together with SpeechWorks International Inc. announced the initiation of a multimodal trial on the French mobile operator Bouygues Telecom's GPRS networks in France.

SandCherry and Kirusa Team at VOX

BOULDER, CO - SandCherry Inc. and Kirusa will team at VOX to showcase their integrated wireless multimodal solution.

SPIRIT Announces Telephony Add-ons for TI's C54CSTChip

MOSCOW, RUSSIA - SPIRIT has announced a set of software add-ons for Texas Instruments' C54CST chip (CST - Client Side Telephony).

NMS and Colibria Team to Offer Wireless Enhanced Services

FRAMINGHAM, MA - NMS Communications announced a partnership with Colibria, a Norway-based developer of mobile applications such as Instant Messaging (IM), Friends Finder (location-based application), and mobile community solutions.

IBM Gives Voice to Mobile Communications Technologies

SOMERS, NY - IBM announced the latest software toolsandmiddleware for the development of multimodal technology. IBM's multimodaltoolkit for developers and the addition of multimodal capabilities to itsrecently announced WebSphere Everyplace Access (WEA), are IBM's latestefforts designed to help companies extend e-business from the desktop to agrowing range of devices.

LocusDialog Chosen by National Bank

MONTREAL, CANADA - National Bank of Arizona has deployedthe recently introduced LocusDialogSTS Lite speech recognition system.The Lite system allows callers to request a name or a service andget connected without requiring a live operator.

Allfirst Bank Chooses Syntellect to Optimize CRM

PHOENIX, AZ - Syntellect Inc. announced that it has been awarded acontract by Allfirst Bank to design and implement a Vista Interactive MediaResponse solution.

Phone-Or and ART Cooperate to Bring Speech Recognition Application to Market; ART to Offer Its Latest smARTspeak XG on 2.5G, 3G Mobile Devices

OR-YEHUDA, ISRAEL, and ATLANTA, GA - Phone-Or Ltd. and ART Advanced Recognition Technologies Inc. announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding that will enable the companies to work together to provide an enhanced speech recognition application to the growing telematics market.

HAL Has New Voices; Control Your Music by Voice

LAUREL, MD - Home Automated Living (HAL) announces the release of two new HALvoices designed to make HAL's natural speech home control software more human sounding as it confirms user commands and reads Internet information like stock quotes, Email and more.

Glenayre Solutions Support More than 1.4 Million Cricket Customers

ATLANTA, GA - Glenayre Technologies Inc. announced that Cricket Communications Inc., asubsidiaryof communications company Leap Wireless International Inc. has installed Glenayre's Versera Messaging platform in its marketsnationwide.

UK Government Agencies Adopt Speech Technologies

HM Land Registry lawyers and 95 judges within the Immigrations Appellate Authority have adopted customized desktop speech recognition solutions developed by speech and digital dictation solution provider, SRC, to help improve operational efficiency.

IBM and Opera Software Team to Develop Multimodal Browser

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - IBM and Opera announced that they will jointly develop a multimodal browser based on theXHTML+Voice (X+V) specification.

Fonix To Deploy Speech Solutions to a 2.5G Device

SALT LAKE CITY, UT - Fonix Corporation announced it will offer Automatic Speech Recognition and Text-To-Speech capabilities on commercially available products that use Texas Instruments' OMAP framework.

Acoustic Magic Launches USB Version of its Array Microphone

SUDBURY, MA - Acoustic Magic Inc. launched the USB version of its Voice Tracker desktop array microphone, designed to bring clarity to users of speech recognition word processing/command and control software as well as to participants in teleconferences.

NMS Communications Adds Echo Cancellation and Studio Sound Products to Texas Instruments' Third Party Program

FRAMINGHAM, MA - NMS Communications is now offering its echo cancellation DSP software and Studio Sound software as standalone products, and has added these offerings to Texas Instruments' third-party program.

SPIRIT and MadWaves Announce MP3 Software Product Licensing Agreement.

LONDON, ENGLAND; MOSCOW, RUSSIA - SPIRIT announced an agreement where it will license its MP3 software decoding product to MadWaves for use in the MadPlayer.

Unisys Launches Global Voice Portal Solutions

ATLANTA, GA - Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS) unveiled Unisys Voice Portal Solutions.

Noble Systems Offers ATOMS Solution Suite Upgrades

Noble Systems Corporation has announced several offerings for the ATOMS solution suite within the last 120 days.

TDC to Offer Automated Directory Enquiry Service Based on Philips' Speech Technology; University of Nebraska Implements Philips' Voice ReQuest Campus Edition

AACHEN, GERMANY and DALLAS, TX - Philips Electronics announced that TDC Tele Danmark has selected Philips for the commercial roll-out of a fully-automated, speech-enabled, directory enquiry system.

PipeBeach and Marand Deliver Carrier-grade VoiceXML Platform to Mobitel

STOCKHOLM SWEDEN - PipeBeach, together with Marand, announced the deployment of thePipeBeach carrier-grade speechWeb VoiceXML platform by Slovenian mobiletelephony operator Mobitel.

Joey Wolpert Installed as VP of OEM Sales for AKG Acoustics

NORTHRIDGE, CA - AKG Acoustics GmbH is pleased to announce that Joey Wolpert has been installed as VP of OEM Sales for the US market.

Loquendo TTS Broadens its Offering for Spanish-speaking Countries

ITALY - Loquendo presents two new voices: Diego for Argentinean Spanish andFrancisca for Chilean Spanish.

SVOX Opens Representative Office in Austria

Zurich, SWITZERLAND - SVOX AG announced the opening of their new representative office in Vienna, Austria.