Lernout & Hauspie Ships L&H Voice Xpress Version 5; Product's Significantly Improved Accuracy, Usability Appeals to General Users.Business/Technology Editors BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 30, 2000 New Features Include Support for E-mail, Internet and Additional Office Applications; Product Employs Award-Winning L&H RealSpeak Text-to-Speech Lernout & Hauspie (NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on : LHSP LHSP List Hosting Service Provider LHSP Left Handed Starting Pitcher , EASDAQ See European Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation. : LHSP) (L&H) today announced the shipment of L&H Voice Xpress(TM) version 5, the newest offering in its family of award-winning continuous speech recognition products. The new version includes significantly improved accuracy and usability and support for e-mail, Internet browsing and chat applications. These features, and other enhancements are designed to make the product more intuitive and to meet general consumers' needs, helping to drive the use of continuous speech recognition among a broader audience of consumers. As part of its accuracy enhancements, L&H Voice Xpress version 5 includes Nothing But Speech (NBS (National Bureau of Standards) See NIST. NBS - National Bureau of Standards: part of the US Department of Commerce, now NIST. )(TM) Technology, a new disfluency filter that eliminates "ahh" and "umm", sounds users often make while speaking that can increase errors in dictation. The product also employs the award-winning L&H(TM) RealSpeak(TM) text-to-speech (TTS (1) See text-to-speech. (2) (Transaction Tracking System) Software that monitors a transaction until completion. In the event of a hardware or software failure, it ensures that the database is brought back to its former state before the attempt to ) engine to enable users to have text read back with a human sounding voice. "By offering support for the industry's widest variety of applications and desktop utilities, and increasing product ease of use, version 5 of L&H Voice Xpress delivers the benefits of speech to a broader range and number of users than ever before," said Bill DeStefanis, Senior Director of Product Management, L&H PC Applications Division. "This product family, more so than any other speech product on the market today, demonstrates that a speech only interface is ready for mainstream computing." There are four new products in the version 5 family suite - L&H Voice Xpress Professional, Advanced, Standard and L&H Voice Xpress Mobile Professional, which enables mobile users to conveniently dictate with the Olympus(R) DS-150 digital hand-held recorder while away from their computer. L&H Voice Xpress Professional version 5 tightly integrates L&H(TM) Natural Language Technology(TM) (NLT NLT abbr. night letter ) with Microsoft(R) Word 2000/97 and '95, Microsoft(R) Excel 2000/97, Microsoft(R) PowerPoint(R) 2000/97, Microsoft(R) Outlook(R) 98/2000 and Corel(R) WordPerfect(R) 9. Product Family Features and Benefits All of the products in the L&H Voice Xpress version 5 family include a variety of features to provide fast, easy, accurate dictation for users. These features include: Improved L&H(TM) XpressStart(TM) Technology -allows users to start dictating with highly accurate results after training the software for only about 5 minutes. Nothing But Speech (NBS) Technology -L&H Voice Xpress version 5 is the first speech recognition product to offer disfluency filter technology which eliminates the "ahh" and "umm" sounds that frequently cause errors among speech recognition users. L&H(TM) Xpress Cafe -a new fun and casual interactive learning environment in which users can learn to use L&H Voice Xpress and become more productive at home or at the office. On Desktop Sample Commands -provides a visual list of the most commonly used application-specific commands right on the desktop, helping to familiarize users with the ways in which they can say the various commands. The feature also allows users to add their own favorite commands to the list. L&H RealSpeak Technology -L&H's award winning, human sounding text-to-speech reads on-screen on·screen or on-screen adj. & adv. 1. As shown on a movie, television, or display screen. 2. Within public view; in public. text to help users while they are editing their documents. My Commands -(formerly Personal Commands) allows users to employ voice only to place entire common sections of text and bitmaps (such as a signature) into a document. My Commands also includes a keystroke key·stroke n. A stroke of a key, as on a word processor. key  stroke and desktop macro recorder A program routine that converts menu selections and keystrokes into a macro. A user turns on the recorder, calls up a menu, selects a variety of options, turns the recorder off and assigns a key command to the macro. When the key command is pressed, the selections are executed. that allows users to record keyboard or desktop activities and play the recording back by issuing a voice command. SayLinks for Microsoft(R) Internet Explorer Microsoft's Web browser, which comes with Windows starting with Windows 98. Commonly called "IE," versions for Mac and Unix are also available. Internet Explorer is the most widely used Web browser on the market. It has also been the browser engine in AOL's Internet access software. -allows users to "click" page links just by speaking them. TalkingTools(TM) -an improved version of the essential voice-powered tools that let users search the Internet, solve math problems, schedule appointments, track contacts and more using voice only. L&H Voice Xpress version 5 allows users to easily transfer information in the Voice AddressBook, Voice Scheduler, and Voice To-Do to and from Palm(TM) handheld computers. Chat 2 Chat -the feature that instantly converts chat jargon and emoticons and includes a comprehensive suite of commands to control chat and Instant Message environments. L&H Voice Xpress Family of Products The L&H Voice Xpress family of products improve productivity by enabling users to dictate, edit and format documents on their PC using continuous speech. L&H Voice Xpress products allow users to create memos, e-mails, and spreadsheets - even chat on the Internet - by voice. All four new products in the version 5 family feature L&H Natural Language Technology (NLT), allowing users to employ natural conversational speech to navigate in and between applications and execute formatting and editing functions. L&H Voice Xpress 5 Family: Pricing, System Requirements To be used efficiently, all computer software needs certain hardware components or other software resources to be present on a computer system. These pre-requisites are known as (computer) system requirements and are often used as a guideline as opposed to an absolute rule. and Availability L&H Voice Xpress 5 family products are optimized for the Intel(R) Pentium(R) III, Intel(R) Pentium(R) II, Intel(R) Pentium(R) with MMX (MultiMedia EXtensions) A set of 57 additional instructions built into the Pentium MMX chip for improved multimedia and modem performance by performing mathematical operations on multiple sets of data at the same time (see SIMD). (TM), Intel(R) Celeron(TM), AMD (Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Sunnyvale, CA, www.amd.com) A major manufacturer of semiconductor devices including x86-compatible CPUs, embedded processors, flash memories, programmable logic devices and networking chips. (R) K6(R) -2, AMD(R) K-3 with 3D and AMD Athlon(R) processors. The products are designed for Microsoft(R) Windows(R) 95, Windows(R) 98, Windows(R) 98 second edition, Windows(R) 2000 and Windows NT (Windows New Technology) A 32-bit operating system from Microsoft for Intel x86 CPUs. NT is the core technology in Windows 2000 and Windows XP (see Windows). Available in separate client and server versions, it includes built-in networking and preemptive multitasking. (R) 4.0 (with SP-4 or greater) operating systems Operating systems can be categorized by technology, ownership, licensing, working state, usage, and by many other characteristics. In practice, many of these groupings may overlap. . System requirements for L&H Voice Xpress version 5 family of products include 64 MB RAM for Windows(R) 98 for Advanced, Professional, Mobile (128 MB RAM Recommended); 48 MB RAM for Windows(R) 98 (Standard); 96 MB RAM for Windows NT(R) 4.0 and Windows(R) 2000; 250 MB free disk space; VGA (Video Graphics Array) The display standard for the PC. All PC display adapters support VGA, and Windows machines boot up in "VGA mode" before switching to higher resolutions. or better monitor; Creative Labs Sound Blaster A very popular family of sound cards from Creative Labs. In the days of DOS, Sound Blaster was the de facto interface for gaming sounds. Monaural Sound Blaster cards were introduced in 1989, and stereo cards followed in 1992 (Sound Blaster Pro). (R)16 compatible or sound board supporting 16-bit 22 KHz recording; CD-ROM drive A device that holds and reads CD-ROM discs. CD-ROM drives generally also play audio CD discs by sending analog sound to the sound card via a 4-pin cable. For specifications of 10x, 20x, etc. drives, see CD-ROM drives. See CD-ROM, CD-ROM changer, CD-ROM server and CD-ROM audio cable. for installation; speakers (for listening to TalkingText(TM) and Learning Application) and a Plantronics(R) noise-canceling headset microphone (included). The estimated prices of version 5 for L&H Voice Xpress Standard, L&H Voice Xpress Advanced, L&H Voice Xpress Professional and L&H Voice Xpress Mobile Professional are $49.99, $79.99, $149.99 and $229.99 respectively. Each product includes software on a CD-ROM CD-ROM: see compact disc. CD-ROM in full compact disc read-only memory Type of computer storage medium that is read optically (e.g., by a laser). , documentation, and a noise-canceling microphone. L&H Voice Xpress version 5 is expected to be available in over 3,500 retail locations in North America, including but not limited to: Best Buy, CompUSA, Computer City, Fry's, Micro Center, Office Depot, Office Max and Staples. All of the L&H Voice Xpress version 5 products are scheduled to be available in the coming weeks. L&H is offering an upgrade to all current users of previous versions of L&H Voice Xpress. Interested parties can get additional information by calling 800-380-1234. About Lernout & Hauspie Lernout & Hauspie (L&H) is a global leader in advanced speech and language solutions for vertical markets, computers, automobiles, telecommunications, embedded products, consumer goods consumer goods Any tangible commodity purchased by households to satisfy their wants and needs. Consumer goods may be durable or nondurable. Durable goods (e.g., autos, furniture, and appliances) have a significant life span, often defined as three years or more, and and the Internet. The company is making the speech user interface (SUI Sui (swā), dynasty of China that ruled from 581 to 618. This short-lived dynasty reunified China in 589 after 400 years of division and laid the foundation for further consolidation under the T'ang dynasty. ) the keystone of simple, convenient interaction between humans and technology, and is using advanced translation technology to break down language barriers. The company provides a wide range of offerings, including: customized solutions for corporations; core speech technologies marketed to OEMs; end user and retail applications for continuous speech products in horizontal and vertical markets; and document creation, human and machine translation services, Internet translation offerings, and linguistic tools. L&H's products and services originate in four basic areas: automatic speech recognition (ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) Using voice recognition to replace keypad entry for telephone voice menus. Typically used to speak the digits 0 through 9 insted of keying them, ASR systems may be able to recognize a limited vocabulary. See voice recognition and AVSR. ), text-to-speech (TTS), digital speech and music compression (SMC SMC Saint Mary's College SMC Santa Monica College SMC Solaris Management Console SMC Smooth Muscle Cell SMC Small Magellanic Cloud (also see LMC) SMC Safety Management Certificate (maritime shipping) ) and text-to-text (translation). For more information, please visit Lernout & Hauspie on the World Wide Web at www.lhs.com or www.lhsl.com. This press release contains forward-looking information. Such statements include, without limitation, statements involving L&H's plans, objectives, expectations and intentions regarding the introduction of the L&H Voice Xpress version 5 family of products. There can be no assurance that actual results will not be materially different from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned that such forward- looking statements involve risk and uncertainties, including, without limitation, the risk that the company or one or more of the companies involved in this project will not successfully complete the development of these products on a timely basis, that the technologies will not perform as anticipated, that the features of the product will not perform as anticipated, that the product will not be successful in the market, and the general risks associated with the intense competition and rapid technological change characteristic of the speech technology market. The forward-looking statements are also subject to risks set forth in L&H's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements contained herein speak only as of the date of this Report. L&H expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statement to reflect any change in L&H's expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. L&H, L&H Voice Xpress, Natural Language Technology, Nothing But Speech (NBS), RealSpeak, Talking Tools, and XpressStart are either registered trademarks or trademarks of L&H in the United States and/or other countries. The remaining brand names, product names and other trademarks mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners. |
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