Speech Technology eWeekly - August 01, 2002

Q & A

David Weiden, Vice President of Marketing, Tellme Networks

David Weiden is the VP of marketing at Tellme Networks. In a Q&A with the editors of NewsBlast, David talks about recent deployments by Tellme, some its product offerings, and more general topics related to the speech technology industry.

David Gleaves, Business Development Manager, 20/20 Speech

David Gleaves is the business development manager for 20/20 Speech. In a Q&A with the editors of NewsBlast, David gives insight into his company as well as other thoughts about speech technology in the United Kingdom and the industry overall.

Laurent Philonenko, Chief Operating Officer, Genesys

With the aquisition of Telera finalized, Genesys adds a voice self-service platform to its contact center software product line. In a Q&A with the editors of NewsBlast, Laurent Philonenko, Chief Operating Officer of Genesys, discusses this and more general topics related to the speech technology industry.

James Wright and Ginny Crowson on Minnesota 511

The state of Minnesota recently deployed a speech-enabled 511 system for its travelers. The system allows people to access advanced travel information via their wirless phones. In a Q&A with the editors of NewsBlast, the deployment is explained further from both a state and national perspective. James Wright of the Minnesota Department of Transportation provides a national look at 511, while Ginny Crowson of the Minnesota Department of Economic Security gives the state's perspective.

Larry Lisser, Vice President of Sales & Marketing, LocusDialog

LocusDialog re-aquired its enterprise group from Infospace in 2001. In a Q&A with the editors of NewsBlast, Larry Lisser, vice president of sales & marketing for LocusDialog, discusses this transaction, as well as other insudtry related topics.

Speech Technology News

Convergys Appoints New Chief Technology Officer

CINCINNATI, OH - Convergys Corporation announces the appointment of two executives to senior management positions.

VeCommerce Announces Major Contract in the European Wagering Market

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - VeCommerce Limited has confirmed its second major European contract to provide its NLSRsolutions to the global wagering markets.

Wizzard Software Expands Relationship with IBM

PITTSBURGH, PA - Wizzard Software has signed a new agreement with IBM that expands their current relationship and positions Wizzard as the Sole OEM Distributor in North and South America for IBM's ViaVoice desktop speech recognition and text-to-speech runtime engines, as well as OEM Versions of the US English General Medical and General Legal Vocabularies.

Gold Systems Partners with Rhetorical

BOULDER, CO and HUDSON, MA - Gold Systems Inc. and Rhetorical Inc. announced the signing of an agreement that names Gold Systems as the exclusive North American reseller of Rhetorical's rVoice text-to-speech software licenses for the Avaya Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system.

FutureCom Technologies and Anexsys Form Partnership; FutureCom's CommUnify Platform now Supports Intel Dialogic Telephony Boards

COLUMBUS, OH - FutureCom Technologies Inc. announces its newest partnership with Chicago-based Anexsys LLC, a provider of technology and e-government solutions.

iVoice Speech Enables Technology Assurance Group - National (TAG)

MATAWAN, NJ - iVoice Inc. announced the successful installation of its Speech Enabled Auto Attendant at the National Headquarters of the Technology Assurance Group (TAG) in Oceanside, CA.

Fast-Talk and Esquire Deposition Services Sign Licensing Agreement

ATLANTA, GA - Fast-Talk announced a licensing agreement with the legal support services provider, Esquire Deposition Services.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada Selects SpeechWorks

BOSTON, MA - SpeechWorks International Inc. announced that Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has selected SpeechWorks to build a speech-enabled application for it's "Hail Out" service.

i3Mobile's Personal Assistant Offers Access to the News

i3Mobile customers can now access the latest news, stocks and weather reports via a speech technology powered mobile personal assistant called Pronto.

Stony Brook University Hospital Chooses SDC

MANCHESTER, NH - System Development Company of New Hampshire Inc. announced that Stony Brook University Hospital will implement SDC's IntelliSPEECH call handling solution to provide a speech-enabled directory & call processing for patients, employees and departments.

Sensory Releases Voice Activation SDK for ARM7

Sensory announced the release of its Voice Activation Software Development Kit (SDK) for the ARM7 family of microprocessor cores.

PIKA Technologies and Voice Robots Partner to Deliver Speech Automation Applications

OTTAWA, CANADA - voice robots selected PIKA Technologies' quad span digital interface voice cards to enable speech automation applications.

RealSpeak Now Available for Mobile and Automotive Apps

PEABODY, MA - ScanSoft Inc. announced the ScanSoft RealSpeak Compact SDK, the text-to-speech (TTS) solution for automotive and mobile applications.

InfoTalk-Speaker Integrates with Edify's IVR System

BEIJING and HONG KONG - InfoTalk Corporation announced that InfoTalk-Speaker, InfoTalk's text-to-speech (TTS) engine, has been successfully integrated with the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system from Edify.

Aculab supports Nuance 8 and Linux

MILTON KEYNES, UK - To ensure the continued development ofapplications utilising the latest technology, Aculab's Audio Provider now supports Nuance 8 and Linuxoperating system.

Aspect Communications Announces IP-BASEd SElf-service with VXML Capabilities; Aspect Communications and Kana Sign Agreement

SAN JOSE, CA - Aspect Communications Corporation announced an IP-based self-service offering with VoiceXML (VXML) capabilities.

FYI Alerts Service Enables Banking Customers To Receive Account Information Anywhere, Anytime

CLEVELAND, OH and CHICAGO, IL - Charter One Bank,announced thelaunch of FYI Alerts, a messaging service that will enable itsonline banking customers to receive a wide range of important accountinformation on mobile phones, work or home phones, pagers, PDAs, email, andfax.

Ectaco Announces Living language

NEW YORK, NY - Ectaco Inc. announces Living language, a special program for corporateclients, with a goal of creating privileged conditionsfor the development of quality products based on Ectaco's linguisticand speech technologies under your company's trademark.

NMS Passes Nortel's Compatibility Testing

FRAMINGHAM, MA - NMS Communications announced its narrowband voice quality enhancement systems have passed Nortel Networks' compatibility testing and have been certified to operate with Nortel's Wireless MTX10 platform.

Sierra Pacific Power Chooses Syntellect

PHOENIX, AZ - Syntellect Inc. announced that Sierra Pacific Power has contracted with Syntellect to designand implement a customer-facing outage management, outage notification andself-service solution using its Vista IMR (Interactive Media Response)software platform.

VoiceGenie Announces Expansion in the US and Europe

TORONTO, CANADA - VoiceGenie Technologies Inc. announced its further expansion in the United States and the United Kingdom. The introduction of two offices in New Haven, CT and London, UK provides international customers with local sales and solutions support.

Ectaco Releases Its Speech-to-Speech Dictionaries on CD-ROM

NEW YORK, NY - Ectaco Inc. has released a collectionof its speech-to-speech and text-word translation dictionarieson CD-ROM.

Voice Signal Partners with Samsung

DALLAS, TX and WOBURN, MA - Samsung Electronics and Voice Signal Technologies announced a worldwide strategic partnership to provide users of new Samsung wireless phones with voice activation technology.

VoiceObjects Factory 1.0; VoiceObjects and IBM Partner

GERMANY - The dynamic generation of speech dialogues from objects - so called VoiceObjects - is the core element and concept of VoiceObjects Factory for which a patent application has been submitted.

SALT Forum Contributes Specification to World Wide Web Consortium

BOSTON, MA - The SALT Forum announced thatit has contributed the Speech Application Language Tags (SALT)specification to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Speech-Integrated IVR Platform Available from FutureCom

FutureCom Technologies announced the release of CommUnify - a next-generation IVR platform with full speech technology integration.

Infor*Med Integrates the Acoustic Magic Voice Tracker

LOS ANGELES, CA - Infor*Med Medical Information Systems announced that it has entered a partnership agreement with Acoustic Magic to sell the Voice Tracker array microphone with its Praxis Medical Records Software.

Leo Todd Joins NewVoiceMedia From THUS

TORQUAY, UK - NewVoiceMedia Ltd. announces that Leo Todd will join the Board of the Torquay-based interactive services company.

Voxpilot and Newfound Communications Establish Partnership

DUBLIN, IRELAND and LAWRENCE, MA - Newfound Communications and Voxpilot have established a partnership to bring Newfound Communications' technology to Voxpilot's developer community and end-customers.

Sensory to Offer Speech Recognition on OMAP Platform for Mobile Devices

SANTA CLARA, CA - Sensory Inc. announced it has ported its Fluent Speech technology to TI's OMAP platform.

InfoTalk and Korea's Dacom Chollian Form Strategic Alliance

HONG KONG and SOUTH KOREA ¨C InfoTalk Corporation announced a strategic alliance with Dacom Chollian, a landline carrier and an Internet and e-commerce service provider in Korea.

SpeechWorks Taps Steve Chambers to Lead Worldwide Sales and Marketing

BOSTON, MA - SpeechWorks International Inc. announced that SpeechWorks' chief marketing officer, Steve Chambers, will assume the position of senior vice president of worldwide sales and chief marketing officer, effective immediately.

Hill Dickinson Selects SRC Digital Dictation for a Pilot Program

Commercial law firm Hill Dickinson seeks to improve productivity and increase efficiency with the aid of digital dictation workflow from solution provider, SRC.

Interactive Intelligence, Bertelsmann Sign Service Provider Agreement

Interactive Intelligence and Bertelsmann mediaSystems signed a service provider partner agreement that gives Bertelsmann-owned companies and select external customers network-based and customer premises equipment-based unified messaging and contact center solutions using interaction management software from Interactive Intelligence.

Neo Car MP3 Jukebox Integrates Fonix iSpeak

SALT LAKE CITY, UT and LYNBROOK, NY - FonixÒ Corporation and SSI America announced the release of the Fonix iSpeak application for SSI America's Neo Car Jukebox.

ArialPhone Software Turns Wearable Device Into Wireless, Voice-Activated Microphone

ArialPhone introduced software that turns its ArialPhone telephone communications device into a wearable, wireless microphone for the PC.

University of Maine Chooses SDC to Speech Enable Campus Call Handling

MANCHESTER, NH - System Development Company of New Hampshire Inc. (SDC) announced University of Maine, Orono, will implement SDC's IntelliSPEECH.

NMS Communications Provides the Engine for Voice Mobility's New Messaging Platform

FRAMINGHAM, MA - NMS Communications is providing the telecommunications engine to Voice Mobility International Inc. for its carrier-grade enhanced messaging systems.

Audium Announces Managed VoiceXML Service

NEW YORK, NY - In the first of a series of announcements from the recently formed SpeechOne Alliance, Audium has announced a new Managed VoiceXML Service agreement with SpeechOne partner Voxeo.

SVOX Introduces Concatenative TTS for Symbian OS

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND - SVOX AG announced a new development in its TTS software. With SVOX Mobile, the embedded product line for mobile phones, SVOX launches a concatenative text-to-speech for the Symbian OS.

Ectaco Development Center Releases New English Speech Synthesis System

NEW YORK, NY - Ectaco Development Center has created an English-language text-to-speech (TTS) speech synthesis system.

Audium 3 Now Available in Australia and New Zealand

NEW YORK, NY and SYDNEY, NSW - Audium announced the availability of Audium 3 for customers in Australia and New Zealand through a software distribution agreement with VRT Communications Ltd.

Speech Recognition Trains Next-Generation of Air Traffic Controllers

MENLO PARK, CA - Nuance (Nasdaq: NUAN) announced that the company's speech recognition software has been selected for Adacel's MaxSim, the air traffic control simulator.

InfoTalk Signs On as Contributing Member of SALT Forum

HONG KONG - InfoTalk Corporation announced that the company has joined the Speech Application Language Tags (SALT) Forum as a contributing member.

Glenayre Provides Versera Messaging Platform to Pakistan Telecom Mobile Limited

ATLANTA, GA - Glenayre announced it will supply its Versera Solution platform to Pak TelecomMobile Limited (PTML), a subsidiary of Pakistan Telecommunications CompanyLimited (PTCL).

Alcatel Completes Acquisition of Telera

PARIS, FRANCE - Alcatel announced that, after finalizing all customary closing procedures, the acquisition of Campbell, California-based Telera Corp. has been completed.

Philips and Etisalat Contact Centre Team Up to Develop Arabic-Language Speech Recognition Solutions

AJMAN, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES and AACHEN, GERMANY - Royal Philips Electronics announced it has joined forces with the Etisalat Contact Centre in the United Arab Emirates to develop Arabic-language speech recognition solutions to serve the Arabian Gulf, Northern Africa and the Middle East.

LamarTech To Offer Systems Integration Services for Aspect Communications

SAN JOSE, CA - Aspect Communications Corporation announced that LamarTech will resell and offersystems integration services for Aspect's business communications software.

Telephonetics Launches an Automatic Appointment Reminder

A new appointment reminder system has been unveiled by speech technology specialists Telephonetics.

Sakrament Company Embeds its TTS Engine in a Platform of 32 -bit Microprocessor Toshiba TMPR3912

MINSK, BELARUS - Sakrament company announced that it has embedded its TTS Engine in a platform of 32 -bit microprocessor Toshiba TMPR3912.

iVoice Announces Compatibility Certification by NEC America

MATAWAN, NJ - iVoice Inc. announced that its Speech Enabled Auto Attendant is now certified for operation by NEC America Inc. for compatibility with select members of the NEAX family of private branch exchange telephone systems.

Diaphonics Launches Spike Server

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA - Diaphonics announced the availability ofSpike Server - a hardware and software solution that guards againstfraud and enhances the security of telephone and Internet transactions.

Edify Delivers CRM for Cole National

SANTA CLARA, CA - Edify Corporation announced that Cole Managed Vision has selected Edify and Digital DataVoice to implement a next-generation platform for managing text-to-speech, voice recognition, and interactive voice response (IVR) solutions.

LocusDialog and MacroVoice Networks Announce Reseller Agreement

MONTREAL, CANADA - LocusDialog announced a reselleragreement with MacroVoice Networks to distribute the LocusDialogSTS Litesystem as an integral component of the MacroVoice business communicationsproduct line.

ArialPhone Partners with Vonage Internet Calling

MUNDELEIN, IL - ArialPhone Corp. and Vonage announced apartnership that combines the capabilities of the wearable ArialPhone with the Vonage's DigitalVoice unlimited localand long distance calling plan.

Reader's Digest Improves Customer Service While Reducing IT Operating Costs

MEDFORD, MA - Parlance Corporation announced it has implemented its NameConnectorService in the corporate headquarters of Reader's Digest Association Inc.

Kelsey Group Names Nuance Speech Software Leader in Global Telecommunications Market

MENLO PARK, CA - Nuance announced that the Kelsey Group named Nuance the speech software leader in the global telecommunications market.

iVoice and Toshiba Announce System Compatibility

MATAWAN, NJ and IRVINE, CA - iVoice Inc. and Toshiba America Information Systems Inc., Telecommunication Systems Division (TAIS TSD) announced systems compatibility for its business communications solutions.

Loquendo TTS Introduces New U.S. English Voice

TORINO, ITALY - His name is Dave and he's the latest addition to Loquendo TTS for U.S. English.