Casio Partners With ART to Offer Voice Recognition to Japanese Cassiopeia Handheld PC Users; ART Voice Recognition for New Japanese HPC Will Be Available on Casio Website.

CHATSWORTH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 22, 1997--Advanced Recognition Technologies Inc. (ART), a developer of technologically superior speech and handwriting recognition engines, today announced a strategic partnership with Casio Computer Co. LTD., Tokyo, Japan, outlining the bundling of three ART speech recognition software utilities for customers of the Cassiopeia running Japanese Windows CE.

smARTcontact, smARTmemo, and smARTcommand can be used with the built-in microphone available on the new Japanese Cassiopeia. The ART software, dubbed Voice Manager, can be downloaded by current Japanese Cassiopeia customers from the Casio web site, http://www.casio.com and will be included with all new shipments.

"With the emergence of speech as a popular interface for the handheld PC, the ART products are essential ingredients for our Cassiopeia handheld PC offering," said Daryl Scott, director of development and marketing for the Cassiopeia. "We chose ART in order to offer Cassiopeia users the highest quality voice recognition software in their handheld PC."

"U.S. software companies often find it difficult to partner with Japanese-based companies due to differences in operating systems and the language," said Richard McCaskill, executive vice president and general manager. "Since a benefit of ART voice recognition is that it is entirely trained by the individual, our products overcome these international barriers."

The Cassiopeia Voice Manager will be comprised of three ART voice products: smARTcontact, smARTmemo, and smARTcommand.

smARTcommand allows users to perform a wide range of everyday tasks, such as launching and controlling applications with simple, programmable voice commands. Prompts and helpful browsers simplify programming. smARTcommand is based on a highly flexible speech recognition engine that adapts to each individual user's voice, regardless of language or accent.

Users can say commands in a normal speaking voice, as smARTcommand compensates for variations in tone and background noise using advanced signal processing and pattern recognition technologies. All the user needs to do is say the command, such as 'Word', and in this case, Pocket Word will be launched. smARTcommand can be trained to voice activate any application or program so that a shortcut can be created under Windows CE.

"The engine's patented built-in noise immunity ensures high recognition accuracy regardless of the types of background noise present. In addition, the programs use less than 100Kbytes of memory on the HPC," stated McCaskill. "This engine makes smARTcommand ideal speech recognition for the diverse mobile environments of an HPC."

Users can add new words to smARTcommand's vocabulary to build their own personal voice library. The software was designed to work with the new HPC equipped with a microphone, such as the new Cassiopeia.

smARTcontact enables a speech recognition capability for the contact manager supplied with the Windows CE operating system software. smARTcontact will look up the contact name after the user speaks it into the HPC's microphone. Once found, the user can say 'Dial' and the program will dial the contact's phone number, using DTMF tones through the built-in HPC speaker, or by saying 'E-mail' and the program will launch the Internet Explorer e-mail program and automatically insert the contact's e-mail address in the address field. smARTcontact uses the same, accurate speech recognition engine as smARTcommand.

smARTmemo provides a voice memo function to the HPC and allows users to record a voice or other sound as a file using the HPC's microphone. Once the voice or sound is recorded, the file can be played back by simply saying 'Playback' or be deleted by saying 'Delete.' The program comes with a handy memo manager that provides easy sorting, look-up, playback, or deleting of stored memos.

The Japanese Cassiopeia A-50 model with 4MB of RAM, and the A-51 model with 8MB of RAM come with Windows CE built in, containing Microsoft Schedule, Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, and Pocket Internet Explorer. In addition, the Cassiopeia offers the unique Casio QV-LINK connection software for transferring images to and from Casio QV digital cameras.

The ART Voice Manager software for the Cassiopeia will be available in late October from the Casio web site: http://www.casio.com . The software will be bundled later in the CD-ROM offering packaged with the Cassiopeia itself.

Other ART voice and handwriting recognition products are available now through the smARTshop page on the ART website, located at http://www.artcomp.com .

CASIO Computer Co., Ltd., is one of the leading consumer electronics companies in the world. Established in 1957, CASIO has been active in the development of electronic calculators, musical instruments, digital cameras, LCD TVs, pagers and other communications devices. More information on CASIO and its products are available on its web site at http://www.casio.com .

Advanced Recognition Technologies Inc. (ART) develops and markets innovative and technologically superior products that allow the human voice and handwritten letters or symbols to control cellular phones, computer applications and electronic devices. The company is based in Southern California, with an R&D subsidiary in Tel Aviv, Israel and sales offices in Japan and Singapore. More information on ART and its products is available on its web site at http://www.artcomp.com .

CONTACT: Advanced Recognition Technologies Inc.

Rick McCaskill, 818/678-3999

[e-mail]

or

Shotwell Public Relations Inc.

Russell Barber, 408/727-4356

[e-mail]

or

CASIO Computer Co. LTD.

Daryl Scott, 408/467-3226

[e-mail]