January/February 2006

Magazine Features

Clarkston Chrysler Jeep Rolls out a New Line for Speech

With a global workforce of 384,723 employees, Daimler-Chrysler sold approximately 4,006,700 passenger cars and 712,200 commercial vehicles in 2004. At year's end of 2004, Chrysler's total revenue reached $67 billion. Keeping these numbers in mind, it is not surprising that Chrysler has a five star requirement for its sales and services providers around the globe. However, it is a little surprising to find that this large corporate parent company allows its individual dealerships the freedom…

Internet Technologies in the Contact Center

The telecommunications industry is undergoing a major change from proprietary hardware-based systems to software-based systems built on open standards. Standards such as VoiceXML, CCXML, SIP, Service-Oriented Architecture, and other Internet technologies are radically changing how contact center applications are built and deployed. But these enabling technologies are only the means to an end. The real goals of applying new technologies to the contact center remain: improving the customer's experience (Happy customers are better than disgruntled,…

Point/Counter Point on Personas

A good voice user interface (VUI) is central to any successful speech application. Although VUI's are made up of many components, if the persona is very memorable, users' perceptions of it can dominate their opinions about the entire system, overwhelming all other aspects of the system in the users' minds. As such, a good or bad persona can have major consequences for the success of a system. …

Revisiting the ROI of Speech

A good voice user interface (VUI) is central to any successful speech application. Although VUI's are made up of many components, if the persona is very memorable, users' perceptions of it can dominate their opinions about the entire system, overwhelming all other aspects of the system in the users' minds. As such, a good or bad persona can have major consequences for the success of a system. …

Show Some Emotion

Humans are emotional beings. We are highly skilled at crafting voice output - on the fly - that expresses a broad spectrum of emotions and intensities that range from minor irritation and mild amusement to tumultuous outbursts. Managing the expression of emotion in the speech applications that our customers build is also part of our work as speech-technology professionals. Today, we rely on trained actors (voice talent) to craft emotion-laden speech, but some of our…

Speech Technology: Finally, a Competitive Necessity

Innovative technologies that are eventually successful follow a typical timeline. The capabilities and markets are over-stated in early stages as struggling start-ups try to make a case to investors and the press, leading to over-hype and disappointment. The core technology improves, and several early applications are identified where the use of the technology is particularly needed and is cost-effective, providing a base for growing businesses. Core technology continues to improve, making possible more marketable applications, but moving out…

Deployments

Blurring the Lines: Merging Speech and VoIP

Late-at-night homeseekers in the Fredricksburg area of Virginia pass a home with a Coldwell Banker Elite "for sale" sign. They don't have to wait until the next day to get more details. If they call the real estate agency's phone number and enter the code listed on the sign, they will hear information about the particular listing spoken using text-to-speech synthesis. …

WPS Insures Its Customers With Better Service Through Speech

Providing better service to maximize customer satisfaction and increase customer retention represents an imperative as much as an opportunity for the business success of every organization. Many organizations will make operational changes, create retention-marketing programs and introduce new products in their effort to be proactive in insuring customer satisfaction and retention. But how can they be sure that the changes, programs and new products are offering their customers what they need and want? …

Editor's Letter

Why Make It So Hard?

In a hilarious Seinfeld episode, George asks for movie information and Kramer pretends to be an automated response system. George ultimately ends up frustrated even as "the system" finally gets to where "the customer" wanted to be in the first place. When Kramer says, "Why don't you just tell me the movie you selected?" we laugh because one, it is just funny and two, because we've all been George.

Forward Thinking

Detecting Emotion

Metalanguages and AJAX

Because many telephones do not have hardware that supports speech processing, a voice server is placed in the network to act as a client on behalf of telephones.

Human Factor

The Alpha Bail

A View from AVIOS

2006: The Continued Emergence of Natural Language Speech Applications

Voice Value

Innovations: Speech Technology with Impact - New Company, New Breakthrough

At the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas this week, Sensory, Inc., (http://www.sensoryinc.com /) debuted their new subsidiary, 3Dmsg, which is developing technology and applications for the cell phone and wireless handset markets. Ho hum, you say, but it's not so. 3Dmsg - yes - that is 3D messaging - is about to do for the improvement of personalization and avatars, what advances in intonation, accents, and accuracy did for text-to-speech. …

Is the Game Over for Speech Recognition?

FYI

Industry Dashboard: Datamonitor

This is the first of several studies that Datamonitor will be contributing to Speech Technology Magazine in 2006. These studies, called the Industry Dashboard series, provide insight into the uptake of speech recognition technology across various market segments in the industry. As industry analysts, it is prudent that we constantly track customer wins in order to align our information with the latest trajectory of the industry, identify new trends and provide accurate uptodate market sizing data.…