Speech Technology eWeekly - May 01, 2003

Q & A

Jim James, Chief Technology Officer, Globus

Globus recently chose Edify to upgrade its overall customer support capabilities. In a Q&A with the editors of NewsBlast, Jim James, CTO of Globus, explains how this initiative is helping to differentiate Globus in the marketplace.

Jack Reilly, CEO, Parlance

In a Q&A with the editors of NewsBlast, Jack Reilly, CEO of Parlance, discusses how the NameConnector Service is saving money for Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center. He also provides his insight into the future of speech technology.

Karan Kapur, Head of Customer Contact & E-Business, Mashreqbank

Karan Kapur is the head of Customer Contact and E-Business for Mashreqbank's Retail Banking Group. In a Q&A with the editors of NewsBlast, Karan discusses the recent deployment of toll free voice recognition banking for their customers and how those customers are reacting to the new system.

Sassine Mazraani, Managing Director, Emerging Technologies

Sassine Mazraani is the managing director of Emerging Technologies. In a Q&A with the editors of NewsBlast, Sassine discusses how Emerging Technologies is differentiating itself with the development of solutions in Arabic, as well as a recent deployment of an email reader solution for telephone & mobile users in Saudi Arabia.

Talking Tech

The Role of Speech in Multimodal Applications

The visually-oriented graphical user interface (GUI) is a powerful, familiar, and highly functional approach to interacting with computers. But, as speech technology becomes increasingly available, it's natural to think about how speech could be used in GUI interfaces as well as voice-only interfaces.

Maintaining and Increasing Customer Satisfaction Through Voice Automation of Directory Assistance

Several billion times each year consumers call over wireline and wireless networks and pay a transaction fee to get a telephone number. Directory Assitance (DA) Service Providers in North America spend hundreds of millions of dollars to offer this service, with most of the money paying the cost of the operators.

Speech Technology News

Rhetorical Develops English/Spanish Voice

EDINGURGH, SCOTLAND - Rhetorical has created a new voice capable of switching between Spanish and U.S. English.

VoiceGenie Launches New SpeechGenie VoiceXML Platform

TORONTO, CANADA - VoiceGenie Technologies Inc. announced the availability of a feature-extended release of SpeechGenie.

SpeechWorks Implementation at Credit Lyonnais

PARIS, FRANCE and BOSTON, MA - SpeechWorks International Inc. announced that its call routing application for Credit Lyonnais has serviced more than onemillion calls using SpeechWorks' speech recognition technology.

Former VP of Speechworks Joins Unveil

WALTHAM, MA - Unveil Technologies Inc. announced that Joseph A. Murphy has joined the Company's senior management team as executive vice president of Worldwide Sales and Service.

ART's smARTspeak XG Available on TI's Newest GSM/GPRS Platforms

ATLANTA, GA - ART Advanced Recognition Technologies Inc. announced the porting of its smARTspeak XG speech recognition solution to the latest additions to Texas Instruments' TCS family of 'antenna-to-applications' chipset solutions.

Angel.com Launches CRM by Voice

MCLEAN, VA - Angel.com announced the launch of CRM by Voice, allowing companies to deploy voice-enabled, interactive virtual call center and CRM applications.

V-Enable Showcases MultiModal Solution on SYMBIAN OS

SAN DIEGO, CA - V-Enable Inc. announced an integration of it's multimodal technology, veANYWAY,onto the SYMBIAN OS v6.1.

LumenVox and NEX Computing Solutions Form Strategic Collaboration

LumenVox announced that a strategic partnership has been formed between LumenVox and NEX Computing Solutions.

HeyAnita Announces VoiceCare Suite

BURBANK, Calif. -- HeyAnita has recently released VoiceCare, a suite of voice-automated call center applications.

Metro One Launches Directory and Personal Assistant Service

PORTLAND, R - Metro One Telecommunications Inc. announced that it haslaunched "Infone" - a new service that provides enhanced directory andpersonal assistant services directly to consumers.

Hughes Software Systems and Audiocodes Complete Interoperability Testing

NEW DELHI, INDIA - HSS and Audiocodes have completed full interoperability testing of HSS' Softswitch, SIP Server and Gatekeeper Network Infrastructure Frameworks with AudioCodes' Analog Media Gateways and AudioCodes' Digital Media Gateways.

Jet Multimedia Chooses Elan Sayso

TOULOUSE, FRANCE - Jet Multimédia has integrated Elan Sayso into two of the company's hosting offers: Contact SVI and Contact Access.

SandCherry and Voxpilot Sign VAR Agreement

BOULDER, CO and DUBLIN, IRELAND - SandCherry Inc. and Voxpilot Ltd. have joined forces in a Value Added Reseller agreement for SandCherry's SoftServer platform.

SysMedia to Incorporate Aurix Detector in Subtitling Software

LONDON, UK - SysMedia has signed up to the latest speech detection software from 20/20 Speech - Aurix(r) detector.

Voicebrook Demonstrates Integrated Speech Recognition with Per-Se

LAKE SUCCESS, NY - At TEPR 2003, Voicebrook will demonstrate the use of speech recognition, integrated directly with Per-Se's electronic medical record (EMR).

ScanSoft Selects Voicebrook as Impact VAR of the Year

Lake Success, NY - At the Solutions 2003 Conference held in Cambridge, Voicebrook wasrecognized by ScanSoft as the "Impact VAR of the Year 2002."

Domino's Pizza Uses Jacent's Voice-ordering Systems with PIKA Technologies' Voice Cards

OTTAWA, CANADA - Jacent Technologies has chosen voice cards from PIKA Technologies to complete their new OrderStream platform.

Voice-enabled Marketing Campaign for Austrian Elections

DUBLIN, IRELAND and VIENNA, AUSTRIA - Voice Business and Voxpilot have carried out a telephone-based marketing campaign to capture the mood before the Austrian local elections.

Babel Increases Language Options for BrightSpeech TTS Engine

MONS, BELGIUM - Babel Technologies S.A. announced version 1.2 of BrightSpeech, its text-to-speech technology.

Philips and AnNoText to Taunch European Speech Recognition Competence Center

VIENNA, AUSTRIA and MUNICH/DURIN, GERMANY - Royal Philips Electronics, Wolters Kluwer Germany and AnNoText have joined forces to consolidate their experience in speech recognition and processing technology.

IP Unity Announces Upgrade of Harmony6000 Version 2.0

MILPITAS, CA - IP Unity Corp. announced the general availability of Harmony60002.0, featuring VoiceXML 2.0 and SIP capabilities.

Phonologies Announces InterpreXer SME Edition

MUMBAI, INDIA - InterpreXerSME Edition is a Linux based pre-packaged VoiceXML2.0 Browser with in-built DTMF and Synthesized Speech functionality and SIPsupport.

Loquendo Announces New Greek Female Voice

TURINO, ITALY - Afroditi is the new female voice accompanying the existing voice of Artemis for the Greek language from Loquendo.

SNT Nederland Selects ScanSoft and VoltDelta

PEABODY, MA and SUNBURY-ON-THAMES, UK - SNT Nederland has selected ScanSoft and VoltDelta for its automated directory assistance service.

SpeechWorks Introduces SpeechSecure Server to Support Distributed Network Architectures

BOSTON, MA - SpeechWorks International Inc. announced the immediate availability of its SpeechSecure Server 2.0 speaker verification software.

Convergys Enhances Advanced Tech Support Program

CINCINNATI -- Convergys announced an enhanced, end-to-end Advanced Technical Support Program.

Emerging Technologies Teams with Nuance

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Emerging Technologies announced plans to deliver Nuance speech solutions to the Gulf and Levant Area.

Emkay Innovative Products Changing Name

ITASCA, IL - Effective June 1st, Emkay Innovative Products will be named Knowles Acoustics.

Motive and Genesys Align to Bring Service Automation to the Phone

AUSTIN, TX and SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Motive Communications Inc. and Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories Inc. announced that Motive has joined the Genesys Interacts Program as a Strategic Member.

Franklin Electronic Publishers Selects Babel's TTS Engine

MONS, BELGIUM - Babel Technologies S.A has announced that Franklin Electronic Publishers Inc. is embedding PocketBabil in its electronic books.

VoltDelta Forms Strategic Partnership with Envox Worldwide

NEW YORK, NY and WESTBOROUGH, MA - VoltDelta announced that their strategic partnership with Envox Worldwide continues to generate sales of automated Operator Services solutions.

Emergency Notification Vendor Joins Pronexus VAR Program

OTTAWA, CANADA - Pronexus Inc. announced that Voice Technologies Inc. of Richmond, VA has joined the Pronexus VAR program.

Avaya Selects Babel's BrightSpeech

MONS, BELGIUM - Babel Technologies S.A. announced that Avaya has deployed Babel's BrightSpeech text-to-speech engine on its R1 Avaya Interactive Voice Response system.

BeVocal Announces Support for Sun ONE App Server

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - BeVocal announced its support for the Sun ONE Application Server 7, Standard Edition.

ATX Launches vRM

DALLAS-FORT WORTH, MAY 20, 2003 - ATX announced deployment of its Tele Aid Dealer Connect telematics service linking motorists with their preferred Mercedes-Benz dealer service center by the press of a button and single voice command.

Nuance Named Speech Recognition Market Share Leader by Frost & Sullivan

MENLO PARK, CA - Nuance announced that the Company was named the leader in two markets -- the North American speech technologies license market and the North American telephony-based automatic speech recognition technology market -- by industry analyst firm, Frost & Sullivan.

QSAccess and Vocomo Announce Patient Reminder

ST. LOUIS, MO and CUPERTINO, CA - QSAccess LLC and Vocomo Software Corporation have introduced the Opti-Schedule AutoReminder Option, an automated reminder solution for the optical industry.

VocaLabs Introduces Interactive Drill Down

EDEN PRAIRIE, MN - Vocal Laboratories introduced Interactive Drill Down for improved survey analysis.

VoiceGenie Announces GenieBuilder Graphical Application Development Environment

TORONTO, CANADA - VoiceGenie Technologies Inc. announced the availability of GenieBuilder, an open-standards voice application software package for use on VoiceGenie's Next-Gen IVR platform.

Forward Thinking

Driving into the Future

Concept cars are visions of the future created by automotive manufacturers. Several 2003 concept cars also include visions of speech recognition. One of them, Ford Motor Company's Model U concept SUV is described as beginning Ford's second century of innovation.