SVOX today announced that it has joined forces with Open Handset Alliance members to enable speech user interfaces on the Android platform, according to SVOX CEO Martin Reber.

SVOX has joined the Open Handset Alliance and shares its vision to develop an open, complete and free platform for mobile devices. The company will enrich the mobile experience of consumers by contributing a speech output solution known under its development name SVOX Pico.

The SVOX contribution to Android platform is comprised of the SVOX Pico text-to-speech (TTS) engine, six language packages (US and UK English, German, French, Spanish, and Italian), and tools that can be used to create new languages and voices. The company's speech solutions portfolio, with more than 20 languages, covers all major markets.

Reber said that "SVOX is committed to bringing high quality speech to the mobile market, with first-class support and integration services. This is the first step in our mission to bring natural-language technology to the Android community."

He added: "Device manufacturers, service providers and application vendors will all benefit from the newest TTS being part of the Android Platform."