Lucent and Unisys Propel Speech Technology Deployment with Expanded Alliance.BLUE BELL, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 8, 1999-- Integration of Tools from Speech Technology Leaders Ease and Accelerate Development of Mass-Market Speech Applications Unisys Corporation (company) Unisys Corporation - The company formed in 1984-5 when Burroughs Corporation merged with Sperry Corporation. This was when the phrase "dinosaurs mating" was coined. and Lucent Technologies, Inc. today announced an agreement allowing Lucent to license Unisys award-winning Natural Language Speech Assistant (NLSA NLSA National Library of South Africa NLSA Northern Lights Software Associates NLSA National Lutheran Schools Accreditation NLSA North London Strategic Alliance NLSA Neighborhood Legal Services Association NLSA Natural Language Speech Assistant ) tool suite. Under terms of the agreement, Lucent will integrate NLSA with its CentreVu Response Solutions, a suite of offerings that provides customer care applications based on Integrated Voice Response (IVR (Interactive Voice Response) An automated telephone information system that speaks to the caller with a combination of fixed voice menus and data extracted from databases in real time. ) technology. CentreVu Response Solutions is based on Lucent's INTUITY CONVERSANT CONVERSANT. One who is in the habit of being in a particular place, is said to be conversant there. Barnes, 162. platform. The integration of the two companies' technologies dramatically simplifies the development of natural language understanding speech telephony applications, making speech systems accessible to a broader market. As a result of the agreement, Unisys pioneering NLSA technology now will be available to Lucent IVR developers worldwide, enabling them to build complex speech-based applications for CentreVu Response Solutions more quickly and easily. Natural language speech systems often replace touch-tone menu systems for applications such as phone banking. The systems select key words and phrases Words and Phrases® A multivolume set of law books published by West Group containing thousands of judicial definitions of words and phrases, arranged alphabetically, from 1658 to the present. that callers speak in a natural voice, such as "I want to open a new account." This capability simplifies the caller's experience and dramatically expands the potential for new types of self-service applications A software application that allows a user to obtain information or complete a business transaction on the computer that has traditionally required the help of a human representative. Voice response systems and Web sites are widely used for self-service applications. See kiosk. , providing businesses with substantial cost savings and opportunities for new revenue. Unisys NLSA simplifies the development and deployment of natural language applications with easy-to-use tools that streamline voice-user interface design, testing, grammar creation and word meaning analysis. Average development and testing time is reduced from months to days. Unisys NLSA is also the only natural language technology that is speech-recognizer independent, offering Lucent developers a common interface for developing spoken language applications without being tied to the speech recognition engine deployed. This allows developers to "snap" speech recognition engines in and out of their programs based on business requirements or technology improvements. "We want speech application development to be as easy and open as possible," said Denis Denis, king of Portugal: see Diniz. Aull, director of Response Offers, Lucent Technologies. "Integrating the Unisys NLSA and INTUITY CONVERSANT technology delivers the strongest, yet simplest, solution we've seen for developing and deploying speech-based applications. It opens our platform to many speech recognition engines." Unisys and Lucent: Joining to Simplify Speech Application Development The agreement marks the second integrated offering under an alliance formed by the two companies in November, 1998, when Unisys and Lucent Speech Solutions agreed to integrate NLSA with Lucent's state-of-the-art text-to-speech and automatic speech recognizer engines. This integrated software package Software that combines several applications in one program, typically providing at least word processing, spreadsheet and database management. Presentation graphics, page layout, paint, calendar, address book, e-mail and other applications may also be included. , which will be available in the second quarter of 1999, provides a seamless connection between the speech recognition tools and engines, allowing developers to dramatically reduce development time and enable faster deployment of speech-based applications. "Tools like NLSA that make it faster and easier to develop and deliver speech applications without requiring complex programming skills help bring more natural speech applications to the market," said Joe Yaworski, vice president and general manager, Unisys Natural Language Understanding business initiative. "By working with Lucent, we are giving developers around the world who are familiar with the Lucent CONVERSANT environment access to these benefits." As part of the new agreement, NLSA also will be integrated with Lucent's Voice@Work, which enables developers to create custom applications for the INTUITY CONVERSANT platform. Because the Unisys Natural Language Speech Interpreter will be incorporated into CentreVu Response Solutions, developers can dramatically cut the time to deploy speech applications. The environment will include support for multiple languages, formats for speaking dates, numbers and currencies in any language supported by the speech recognizer engine. A true innovation for developers, the combination of Voice@Work with NLSA opens the platform to a wide range of speech engines in a single development environment. Unisys NLSA will be available as part of Lucent's CentreVu Response Solutions in May, 1999. About Lucent's CentreVu Response Solutions Lucent's CentreVu Response Solutions, based on the INTUITY CONVERSANT platform, uses advanced voice response technology to collect and provide a wide array of information to callers through voice and fax. CentreVu Response Solutions can respond to inquiries and handle entire transactions 24 hours a day. With advanced software, INTUITY CONVERSANT can transfer callers to the correct line after callers speak the desired name, and can support natural language speech recognition. About the NL Speech Assistant The Natural Language Speech Assistant is an advanced speech application development tool set. Unisys NLSA provides application developers not only with the tools for designing and creating speech applications, but also provides for application project management, development methodology and testing. Unlike all other natural language technology, Unisys NLSA keeps developers' applications from becoming obsolete by providing open tools to design and develop across multiple platforms Refers to two or more operating environments, which typically include the CPU family and operating system. For example, if versions of a program run on Windows and the Macintosh, the software is said to support multiple platforms. and speech recognizers. Unisys has a complete reseller An organization that sells hardware and software to the general public. Resellers purchase products from software publishers and hardware manufacturers. program for NLSA, including platform integration, marketing and sales support, technical support and training. Visit http://www.marketplace.unisys.com/nlu for more information. About the Companies Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, New Jersey
Unisys (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :UIS (graphics, programming) UIS - A VMS graphics programming interface package for VAXstations. ) is more than 33,000 employees helping customers in 100 countries apply information technology to solve their business problems. Unisys solutions are based on a broad portfolio of global information services See Information Systems. including systems integration, outsourcing, "repeatable" application solutions, consulting, network integration, remote network management, and multivendor maintenance and support, coupled with enterprise-class servers and associated middleware Software that functions as a conversion or translation layer. It is also a consolidator and integrator. Custom-programmed middleware solutions have been developed for decades to enable one application to communicate with another that either runs on a different platform or comes from a , software and storage. Repeatable solutions are focused on key vertical markets including financial services The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page. , transportation, telecommunications, government, publishing and other commercial markets. Headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania Blue Bell is a census-designated place (CDP) in Whitpain Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, its population was 6,395. , in the Greater Philadelphia area, Unisys had 1998 annual revenue of $7.2 billion. Access the Unisys home page on the World Wide Web -- http://www.unisys.com -- for further information. Unisys is a registered trademark and NL Speech Assistant and NL Enabled are trademarks of Unisys Corporation. CentreVu and CONVERSANT are registered trademarks and INTUITY is a trademark of Lucent Technologies. All other brands and products referenced herein are acknowledged to be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. |
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