The Speed of SPEECH.FIRST WE HAD e-commerce, then m-commerce; now we have v-commerce. And if you guessed that the "v" stands for voice, you're right. The major trend this year--for wireless and wired users alike--is speech recognition technology. In fact, Allied Business Intelligence predicts that the worldwide market for v-commerce in 2001 will be valued at $787 million. This figure will rise to $1.6 billion in 2002 and it will reach $22.3 billion by 2005. Although the industry is still in its infancy, companies are racing to get an assortment of voice recognition tools for v-commerce and other voice applications onto the market. Here, a sampling of the recent debuts: Onstar's Virtual Advisor offers... * A hands-free voice interface linked to location-specific advice and Internet content in selected General Motors vehicles. The product is based on General Magic's magicTalk platform and hosted in a network center to provide drivers with news, weather, sports, stock quotes, and their e-mail. * Additional services, such as restaurant reservations or tickets to events. PIPEBEACH's speechWeb offers... * A speech portal that creates dialogues from Web pages by reading text with synthesized syn·the·sized adj. 1. Relating to or being an instrument whose sound is modified or augmented by a synthesizer. 2. Relating to or being compositions or a composition performed on synthesizers or synthesized instruments. speech and plays recorded audio files and audio streams. * A personalized per·son·al·ize tr.v. per·son·al·ized, per·son·al·iz·ing, per·son·al·iz·es 1. To take (a general remark or characterization) in a personal manner. 2. To attribute human or personal qualities to; personify. newscast newscast Radio or television broadcast of news events. News gathering and broadcasting by the radio networks began in the mid-1930s and increased significantly during World War II. The television newscast began in 1948 with 15-minute programs that resembled movie newsreels. , Web mail, teleticket booking, online shopping, and tourist guides. Philips Speech Processing Speech processing is the study of speech signals and the processing methods of these signals. The signals are usually processed in a digital representation whereby speech processing can be seen as the intersection of digital signal processing and natural language processing. SpeechPearl 2000 offers... * A speech recognition engine that is integrated into third-party voice processing The computerized handling of voice, which includes voice store and forward, voice response, voice recognition and text to speech technologies. platforms to provide an interface for directory assistance, Internet voice browsing, personal call assistants, and control of unified messaging Having access to e-mail, voice mail and faxes via a common computer application or by telephone. For example, unified messaging may send faxes and digitized voice mail to a mail server that turns them into e-mail attachments. . * A 200,000 word vocabulary in 20 different languages and switching between vocabularies and languages. Lernout & Hauspie's Voice Xpress series offers... * Continuous speech dictation software available in U.S./U.K. English, German, French, and Spanish. It allows users to create documents, edit and move text, access commands within Microsoft Office Microsoft's primary desktop applications for Windows and Mac. Depending on the package, it includes some combination of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Outlook along with various Internet and other utilities. , and launch programs and control the desktop. * A special edition of the software for medicine, law, and public safety, with vocabulary tailored to each field. For example, L&H Clinical Reporter and PowerScribe enable dictation/report generation for a number of specialties including pathology, radiology radiology, branch of medicine specializing in the use of X rays, gamma rays, radioactive isotopes, and other forms of radiation in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. , and emergency medicine. |
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