EIG UNVEILS SHADOWPROMPT DIALOGUE DESIGN SOLUTION.

EIG Labs, the research and development division of Enterprise Integration Group (EIG), has unveiled ShadowPrompts, a new solution to an old and stubborn user interface problem. Aimed at interactive voice response (IVR) and voice portal applications, the algorithm allows speech recognition and touchtone to seamlessly co-exist. The methodology is patent pending.

"Until now, callers to most speech-enabled systems had to make an up-front choice between speaking or using a touchtone keypad," said Rex Stringham, president of EIG. "Nobody figured out a good way to put the two together."

The new EIG ShadowPrompt approach includes techniques for interjecting comments that guide callers between speech and touchtone as often as they want, and at every step of the application. The solution includes design guidelines for when and how to provide prompting, offer navigation alternatives, and assist with language selection.

Bruce Balentine, vice president of Speech Technologies and head of EIG Labs, explained that ShadowPrompt scripting can be used with both directed dialogue and natural language speech applications. "No matter how sophisticated speech recognition gets, there are times when callers still prefer to use a touchtone telephone," said Balentine. He added that callers choose the telephone keypad for privacy, security, or other personal reasons- sometimes switching between speech and touchtone arbitrarily.

"Gone are the days of callers having to endure 'press or say one' dialogues," said Balentine. Recent research by EIG has shown this design approach to be inefficient and ineffective.

"EIG has developed a novel way to enhance the use of speech recognition for many callers," said Judith Markowitz, author of Using Speech Recognition and president of J. Markowitz, Consultants. "Rather than perpetuating the competition between speech recognition and touchtone technology, ShadowPrompts focus on improving usability of the underlying application."

Stringham went on to say that with the use of ShadowPrompts, there is no need to build parallel touchtone and speech recognition applications. "Not only does this save time and expense," said Stringham, "it also eliminates the need to ask callers to choose whether they want to use touchtone or speech recognition at the front of the dialogue." The solution lowers costs for developers who require a hybrid design that exploits the full capabilities of speech recognition and touchtone.

Enterprise Integration Group, Inc. is an independent consulting firm specializing in improvement of voice portal and interactive voice response self-service solutions for both touchtone and speech recognition. Design specialists at EIG address client needs from the customer's perspective - ensuring that processes and systems get the right information to the right person at the right time in a convenient and cost-effective manner.

Enterprise Integration Group, Inc. can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.eiginc.com.

For more information, call 888/344-4487 or 925/362-1700.