Speech Technology eWeekly - February 01, 2003

Q & A

Gene Cox, Director of Mobile Solutions, IBM Pervasive Computing

Gene Cox is the director of mobile solutions for IBM Pervasive Computing. In a Q&A with the editors of NewsBlast, Gene discusses WebSphere Voice Application Access (WVAA), a new middleware platform, as well as his thoughts on emerging standards and what role this new platform will play.

Lynda Smith, Vice President & Chief marketing Officer, Nuance

Nuance recently announced the Nuance Voice Platform, a platform designed specifically for deploying speech solutions. In a Q&A with the editors of NewsBlast Lynda Smith, vice president and chief marketing officer for Nuance, explains the reasons behind this development, as well as what this means to the Company's partners.

Chuck Buffum, CEO, Vocent

Chuck Buffum is the CEO of Vocent, a company focused on voice biometric solutions. In a Q&A with the editors of NewsBlast, Chuck discusses how the company got started, some of their product offerings, and recent deployments.

Chetan Patel, CEO, speechvantage

Chetan Patel is the CEO of speechvantage. In a Q&A with the editors of NewsBlast, Chetan speaks about the company's main product suit, OLIVE, as well as discusses some of their other offerings and customers.

Keith Byerly, Product Manager, Brooktrout Technology

Keith Byerly is product manager of Brooktrout Technology. In a Q&A with the editors fo NewsBlast, Keith discusses some of the issues that will impact the deployment of speech applications in the future. He also gives us his thoughts concerning mulitmodality and its potential impact on communications.

Lin Chase, CEO, and Yoon Kim, Chief Technology Officer, NeoSpeech

At SpeechTEK 2002, NeoSpeech, a partially owned subsidiary of the Korean speech technology developer Voiceware, was luanched . In a Q&A with the editors of NewsBlast, Lin Chase, CEO, and Yoon Kim, CTO of NeoSpeech, discuss what the Company has been doing since its launch, as well as give us an idea as to where they are headed.

Ted Bray, Senior Voice Product Manager, Edify

Ted Bray is the senior product manager, Voice, at Edify. In a Q&A with the editors of NewsBlast, Ted discusses the importance of self-service automation and how Edify is delivering that to its customers. Ted also gives us his thoughts on standards, and explains this year's focus of Edify's User's Conference, Edification.

Speech Technology News

Loquendo Powers the MART Museum's Automatic Contact Center

TURIN, ITALY - Loquendo technology has been chosen to power the automatic contact center of the recently inaugurated Museum of Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto in northern Italy.

German Ministry of Justice Selects ScanSoft's Dragon NaturallySpeaking

STUTTGART, GERMANY and GENT, BELGIUM - ScanSoft Inc. announced that the ministry of justice of Baden-Wuerttemberg in Germany has selected ScanSoft's Dragon NaturallySpeaking XP Legal Edition for hundreds of courts to replace manual transcription with its automatic speech recognition solution.

PPL Selects Nortel Networks Succession CSE 1000 for Converged, Voice Over IP Network

WASHINGTON, DC - PPL Corporation has chosen a VoIP solution from Nortel Networks as part of a plan to merge its voice and data networks.

NeoSpeech and Automation Intelligence Give Home Automation a Voice

AUSTIN, TX AND FREMONT, CA - Automation Intelligence announced it has selected NeoSpeech as its exclusive provider of voice systems for high-end homes.

Truancy Call Tackles School Truancy with TTS

EDINBURGH, UK - C3 and Rhetorical announced that text-to-speech systems developed by the two companies are being used by Truancy Call to tackle over 3000 cases of truancy from UK schools each day.

Kurzweil Educational Rolls Out Professional Development Program

BEDFORD, MA - The PDP is a training program designed to help school districts and educators integrate Kurzweil 3000 into classrooms.

Swedish Banking Group SEB Chooses Syntellect

PHOENIX, AZ - Syntellect Inc. announced that it has signed an agreement with the Swedish banking group SEB to deploy a voice-driven employee PIN reset solution.

SandCherry Offers Web Services Interfaces

BOULDER, CO - SandCherry Inc. announced SoftServer Version 2.4 which adds Java and Web Services APIs to increase the accessibility of speech for Web applications.

Lloyds TSB Uses Paperless Employee Share Sscheme Registration

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - Lloyds TSB Group plc has started operating a completely paperless employee share scheme by deploying a telephony speech recognition service from SRC.

Angel.com Launches Transaction Voice Pages

MCLEAN, VA - Angel.com announced that it has launched a set of extensions to its patented, online, self-service platform.

Moapa Valley Telephone Deploys Telelogue's Voice Directory Application

ISELIN, NJ - Telelogue announced that Moapa ValleyTelephone Company (MVTC) launched Telelogue's Voice Directory Assistance(VDA) to provide 411 services to its subscribers for all 140+ million U.S.residential, business and government directory listings.

speechvantage Offers New VAR Program

HORSHAM, PA - speechvantage Inc. announcedthat it has launched its Value-Added Reseller (VAR) Program withagreements in place with several strategically-aligned technology andinfrastructure development companies.

SVOX's TTS in Fonix VoiceDial 1.2

CANNES, FRANCE - Fonix Corporation and SVOX AG announce the availability of SVOX's embedded TTS for the Fonix VoiceDial solution for cellular handsets and wireless devices being demonstrated at the 3GSM World Congress.

The Blackfoot Telecommunications Group Deploys Telelogue's Voice Directory Application to Automate Directory Assistance

ISELIN, NEW JERSEY - Telelogue announced that Blackfoot Telecommunications Group has launched Telelogue's Voice Directory Application (VDA) to provide 411 services to its subscribers with live operator services when needed.

Speaker Verification on Cusp of Infiltrating Mainstream Markets

SCOTTSDALE, AZ - Given the increasing number of passwords people are required to remember, and the expanding importance of security, demand for speaker verification technology is bound to increase, according to In- Stat/MDR.

VoiceXML Forum Endorses W3C's Release of VoiceXML 2.0

SAN DIEGO, CA - The Forum sees VoiceXML 2.0 as a stable standard for creating voice applications, providing a key building block for enabling multimodal interaction on the World Wide Web.

20/20 Speech Announces Commercial Take-up of Aurix tts Software

LONDON, ENGLAND - The latest product to incorporate Aurix tts software is "Wireless Logistix", a new job control, proof-of-delivery system from Wireless Delivered.

Avaya Teams With Sun Microsystems to Provide New Platform

LAS VEGAS, NV - Avaya Inc. introduced Avaya Interactive Response, a configurable multi-media voice response system that enables companies to automate service functions.

Right Seat Software Introduces Vox Proxy Version 2

GOLDEN, CO - Right Seat Software Inc. introduced Vox Proxy Version 2, an enhanced version of its Vox Proxy, 3D talking animated character software.

IBM Global Services Israel To Implement Persay's Voice Verification

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - Persay LTD announced that IBM Global Services Israel is to implement Persay FreeSpeech, Persay's speaker verification solution, in Bank Leumi, as a part of IBM's comprehensive call center solution.

Kirusa Demonstrates Simultaneous Multimodality Operating on Wireless Handsets

CANNES, FRANCE - Kirusa announced a solution in mobile multimodal technology that will be demonstrated on the Orange SPV device at the 3GSM World Congress.

AlphaCell Licenses Speech Technologies from ART

CANNES, FRANCE - AlphaCell announces that it has signed a technology cooperation agreement with ART Advanced Recognition Technologies Inc.

Glenayre Responds to BellSouth Infringement Suit

ATLANTA, GA - Glenayre Technologies Inc. responded toallegations by BellSouth that Glenayre infringed upon BellSouth's "PersonalNumber Communication System" patent.

iVoice Introduces New Feature to its Speech Recognition Solution

MATAWAN, NJ - iVoice Inc. announced a new feature to its Speech Enabled Auto Attendant that provides a virtual office for off-site employees.

LIPSinc Co-Founder Launches New Venture

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC - Donovan Moxey,Ph.D, co-founder of LIPSinc, has recently founded a new company, InteractiveMultimedia Solutions Inc.

SpeechWorks' Speechify Selected by Boeing

BOSTON, MA - SpeechWorks International Inc. announced that The Boeing Company has selected its Speechify TTS engine to support a portion of the on-board alert warning system in the next-generation AH-64D Apache Longbow multi-role combat helicopter.

Parlance Provides Hewitt Associates with Speech-activated Employee Directory

Parlance announced that Hewitt Associates is utilizing the NameConnector Service throughout its organization.

Aspect Communications Obtains Microsoft .NET-Connected Certification

SAN JOSE, CA - Aspect Communications Corporation announced that the Aspect Enterprise Contact Server has been certified a .NET Connected Logo compliant application by Microsoft.

Sound Advantage Releases SANDi 3.0

IRVINE, CA - Leveraging its integrated communications software, Sound Advantage announces SANDi 3.0, a Virtual Communications Assistant (VCA).

Elan Sayso Reads News Reports for AFP

TOULOUSE, FRANCE - AFP, with its partners Atos Origin and A2PRL (Lagardere group), has recently launched a new Audiotel information service to provide access to the latest news reports.

Broad Daylight Launches Voice-Activated Self-Service Product

SANTA CLARA, CA - Broad Daylight Inc. announced the release of VoiceFAQs, a self-service application that usesspeech recognition technology intended to provide increased cost-efficiency and improved customer service.

Audiopoint Launches Enhanced Voice Terminal 2.0

FAIRFAX, VA - Audiopoint announced the launch of its enhancede-mail reader, Voice Terminal Service 2.0 (VTS) for consumer & businessusers.

Loquendo and V-Enable Announce a Strategic Partnership

SAN DIEGO, CA and TURIN, ITALY - V-Enable Inc. and Loquendo announced a joint marketing agreement leveraging Loquendo's multilingual speech technologies to deliver enhanced multimodal solutions to carriers.

Comverse Unveils InSight Environment

WOODBURY, NY - Comverseannounced the availability of InSight, its new open, value-addedservices environment for Total Communication and infotainment Services.

20/20 Speech Announces Aurix Activator

LONDON, ENGLAND - A two-way speech interface for Microsoft Windows based PDAs is the latest technology development from 20/20 Speech, the equity venture between NXT and QinetiQ.

Genesys Nets 31 New Software Patents in 2002

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Inc. announced that its continued development of customer service technologies has resulted in the receipt of 31 new patents in 2002.

Wizzard Considers Opting Out of the DTC Share Transfer System

PITTSBURGH, PA - Wizzard Software announced that the board of directors has authorized the company to formally investigate and proceed to opt out of the DTC Share Transfer System if management feels it will protect Wizzard shareholders from naked short selling.

Telelogue Adds to Senior Leadership Team

ISELIN, NJ - Telelogue disclosed that it had broadenedthe directory assistance expertise on its senior leadership team over thelast few months.

ART and UIQ Technology Announce Cooperation On Speech Recognition

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL - UIQ Technology will use ART's advanced recognition technologies for closer integration of 3rd party speech recognition solutions on UIQ user interface.

Text-To-Speech, Intelligibility Testing Report

Voice Information Associates (VIA) announces the pre-release of its"Intelligibility Testing" of the leading TTS products.

Genesys Expands Global Reach of Voice Portal Software

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Inc. announced extended functionality of its Genesys Voice Portal.

PIKA Technologies and ICG Deliver Voice in the Air and at Sea

OTTAWA, CANADA - International Communications Group Inc. (ICG) uses PIKA Technologies' voice cards to enable the voice services in ICG's remote and mobile communications systems.

SRC to Provide Speech Recognition Services for Freeview

One of Europe's highest volume speech recognition telephone services has been implemented to support Britain's new free-to-view digital terrestrial television service, Freeview.

Cesky Telecom Migrates To New Messaging System

WOODBURY, NY - Comverse announced that the Czech operator Cesky Telecom has deployed Comverse messaging solutions.

Lava Serial 16550 UART Boards Have QNX Support

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Lava Computer MFG Inc. announced full support for users of Lava 16550 serial boards who are developing or implementing QNX Neutrino-based systems.

SRC Wins Innovation Award for Dragon Professional Vocabularies

LONDON, ENGLAND - UK-based SRC's work in developing vocabularies for use with speech recognition software has been recognized by ScanSoft awarding the company its inaugural Award for Innovation.

Aspect Communications Announces Scheduled Callback

SAN JOSE, CA - Aspect Communications Corporation announced Scheduled Callback, a way to match contact center personnel resources with customer needs.

Tell-Eureka Launches LevelOne Customer Care Self-Service Solution

NEW YORK, NY - Tell-Eureka Corporation launched LevelOne Virtual CSR, a customer care solution intendd to enhance existing contact center environments with speech-based self-service applications that are integrated with the Web.

PipeBeach and SVOX Announce Alliance

STOCKHOLM, SWEDEN and ZURICH, SWITZERLAND - PipeBeach AB and SVOX AG announced an alliance with the aim toprovide mixed-lingual synthesized voices with the PipeBeach speechWebsystem for telephony services.

Kirusa, SandCherry and Telisma Partner to Showcase Speech Solutions

CANNES, FRANCE - Partners Kirusa, SandCherry and Telisma have joined forces at the 3GSM World Congress to display an end-to-end carrier-grade solution.

Edify Previews VoiceXML Browser

SANTA CLARA, CA - Edification 2003 will highlight Edify's VoiceXML solution and detail how Edify users can preserve their current investments in Edify applications while upgrading to VoiceXML with Edify 8.

Eckoh and Auctionworld Launch 24-hour TV Phone Shopping Channel

UNITED KINGDOM - Eckoh Technologies in collaboration with Auctionworld have launched Phoneworld, the UK's 24-hour TV phone shopping channel.

Avaya Teams With Sun Microsystems to Provide New Platform

LAS VEGAS, NV - Avaya Inc. introduced Avaya Interactive Response, a configurable multi-media voice response system.

Loquendo Powers Anthropics 'Talking Head' Message Service

TURIN, ITALY and LONDON, ENGLAND - Anthropics and Loquendo announced that Loquendo Speech Technology is to power Anthropics Technology's multi-lingual FaceWave text-to-speech mobile messaging service.

Nuance Ships Delivers Software Platform Optimized for Speech Solutions

MENLO PARK, CA - Nuance announced the immediate availability of Nuance Voice Platform, an open, standards-based software platform optimized for speech solutions.

Brooktrout Launces Consultant Access Network

NEEDHAM, MA - Brooktrout Technology Inc. announced the Brooktrout Consultant Access Network, a new program designed to bring together qualified, third-party development consultants with customers and prospects who are seeking development assistance.

VoiceObjects Factory Now Available on Voxpilot's VoiceXML Gateway

BLACKROCK, IRELAND - VoiceObjects Factory, a Open Voice Application Platform for the creation of speech-driven services, has been fully integrated with Voxpilot's VoiceXML Gateway.

Nortel Networks Announces Enhanced Contact Center, Self-Service Solutions

LAS VEGAS, NV - Nortel Networks announced the availability of enhanced contact center and self-service solutions designed to help improve business results and build customer retention by meeting or exceeding customer demands.

Clarity Announces Changes to Management Team

TROY, MI - Clarity LLC announced that it added wireless industry veteran senior sales executive David H. Brown to its management team and promoted Fred Nussbaum to head its newly created division, ClarityLabs.

Vocent Unveils Voiceprint Authentication Prototype

Vocent showcased a voiceprint authentication prototype applicable to securely conducting e-commerce transactions or gaining access to secure data in an enterprise network.

SpeechWorks and VoiceGenie to Deliver Standards-based Speech Solution to McKesson

BOSTON, MA - SpeechWorks International Inc. announced that McKesson Corporation will expand the capacity of its existing, proprietary speech system and upgrade to a VoiceXML-compliant speech system.

JP Financial Selects Genesys

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Inc. announced that Jefferson Pilot Financial has selected Genesys to enhance its customer service strategy.

PipeBeach and SVOX offer mixed-lingual telephony services

STOCKHOLM SWEDEN, ZÜRICH, SWITZERLAND - PipeBeach AB and SVOX AG announced an alliance with the aim to provide mixed-lingual synthesized voices with the PipeBeach speechWeb system for telephony services. The mixed-lingual text-to-speech technology enables end-users to listen to correctly pronounced content provided as text in more than one language.

Verint Introduces ULTRA IntelliFind

WOODBURY, NY - Verint Systems Inc. announced the introduction ofULTRA IntelliFind, a new analytical solution for generating actionable intelligence fromfree-form speech.

speechvantage and Day-Timers Introduce Speech-Enabled Call Center Solution

HORSHAM, PA - speechvantage Inc. and Day-Timers announced the measurable success of speechvantage's customer-centric IVR system, a component of Day-Timers' phone-order business.

Voxpilot Announces Support of VoiceXML 2.0 Candidate Recommendation

DUBLIN, IRELAND - Voxpilot announced the latest release of its platform, including full support for the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) VoiceXML 2.0 Candidate Recommendation, published on January 28, 2003.

Glenayre Selects Teltier for Presence and Availability Platform

CLARK, NJ and ATLANTA, GA - Teltier TechnologiesInc. announced that Glenayre will broaden its enhanced servicesofferings by adding Teltier's presence and availability platform andapplications to Glenayre's Versera Solutions.