Microsoft Releases New Features, Enhancements to .NET Speech SDK

NEW YORK, NY - At the eighth annual SpeechTEK International Exposition and Educational Conference, Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) announced a series of developments related to its .NET Speech family of products that will allow enterprises to build and deploy speech-enabled applications. Microsoft announced the availability of the beta 2 release of the Microsoft(R) .NET Speech Software Development Kit (SDK), as well as a technical preview of the Microsoft .NET Speech platform and a newly established Joint Development Program (JDP). This builds on previously announced strategic alliances with SpeechWorks, Intervoice Inc. and Intel Corp. that will offer customers solutions and leading hardware and software components that integrate with the Microsoft .NET Speech platform. The beta 2 of the Microsoft .NET Speech SDK includes a complete tool set for the creation and testing of Speech Application Language Tags (SALT)-based voice-only telephony applications. It also supports the development of multimodal speech applications on clients such as desktop PCs or Tablet PCs using Internet Explorer browser software. The .NET Speech SDK 1.0 beta 2 offers new enhancements to grammar and prompt creation and editing tools, and debugging tools for both telephony and multimodal applications. New features, such as World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) standards-compatible formats for grammar authoring, a prebuilt library of reusable speech telephony and application controls, and grammar libraries, will provide Web and speech developers with the tools they need to build and test robust speech applications that will soon be viable for enterprise deployments. Microsoft also announced a Joint Development Program (JDP) for enterprise customers and partners committed to building and deploying applications built with the .NET Speech SDK on the Microsoft .NET Speech platform. The JDP, an integral part of the customer-centric product development process at Microsoft, will help provide real-world production-environment-level testing by some of the most demanding Microsoft customers and enterprise partners. These enterprise customers and partners will work closely with Microsoft to help ensure platform quality, reliability and scalability, and will deploy speech-enabled applications on the Microsoft platform. The technical preview of the .NET Speech platform, currently available only to JDP participants, will provide JDP participants with an early opportunity to work with the software and hardware components, resulting in competitive advantage for large-scale speech application deployments in the enterprise. "The rapid progress being made today in the development and deployment of open standards-based, flexible, scalable and economical speech technologies will establish the foundation for mainstream availability of speech technology across a broad range of industries," said Kai-Fu Lee, corporate vice president of the Natural Interactive Services Division at Microsoft. "Microsoft's SALT-based technologies, which are designed to easily extend Web server infrastructure and tools to enable speech access via the telephone, PC, Pocket PC and eventually a wide range of devices, offer a compelling and cost-effective solution that will enable enterprises to create new business opportunities and enjoy the greatest return on investment."