Biographical Information
Leonard Klie
Senior Editor, Speech Technology Magazine
Information Today, Inc.
lklie@infotoday.com
212-251-0608 x 110
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Conference Sessions by Leonard Klie
SpeechTEK 2007 - Tuesday, August 21
TRACK D: INNOVATIVE SPEECH APPLICATIONS
4:15 p.m. – 5:15 p.m.
SpeechTEK 2007 - Wednesday, August 22
TRACK D: SOLVING SPEECH APPLICATION PROBLEMS
3:15 p.m. – 4:15 p.m.
Technologies and services combined to allow for a deeper analysis of call center interactions.
The company signs two big clients, demonstrating growing interest among enterprises and carriers.
Banks and card issuers recognize a need to improve fraud reporting and prefer to use direct methods to contact customers.
The company calls its new NexusOne mobile device a "superphone."
New product roadmap expected within 30 days.
The service offers call answering, call routing, voicemail integration, company directory, and more.
New working drafts of standards are released by the Multimodal Interaction Working Group.
New research finds speech recognition outperforms operators and databases in accuracy and speed.
New communications device offers an affordable, simple alternative to IP desk phones.
Intel launches a mobile, speech-enabled handheld device for people with reading or vision problems.
The company says Mandarin Chinese is the first of many languages to be available.
U.S. district court validates voice stress analysis as being as reliable as polygraph examinations.
DLA awards the speech provider a contract to create a voice prototype solution for its worldwide supply chain.
IVR toolkit VBVoice used to quickly develop self-service application.
Rocketvox integrates voice technologies from Ribbit and PhoneTag and provides a single inbox for all types of messages.
New product lets 9-1-1 call centers mine recorded calls, spot trends quicker.
Deal includes all of Motorola's rights to and interest in the VoxGateway VoiceXML browser.
Startup unveils personalized mobile audio content service for commuters.
A new English-to-Arabic speech translator for iPhone is available at Apple's App Store.
As the bidding process ends, Avays comes out on top with its offer for Nortel's Enterprise Solutions, Government Solutions, and DiamondWare business units.
BuzzVoice converts breaking stories to audio in real time, letting consumers listen and multitask everywhere.
Voice stress analyzer measures frequencies to get to the truth.
Users can remotely track, log, and record activity on one phone from another phone.
Loquendo and Digium partner to allow creation of multilingual speech applications based on the Asterisk developer platform.
The software giant announced this week plans to scale back its Response Point small business VoIP and UC solution.
Schools across the country turned to voice broadcasting to reassure parents and address concerns.
Vlingo 3.0 adds enhanced hands-free features and supports more devices.
New visual voicemail service available for Android G1 smartphone users.
The new service will allow users to make collect calls to mobile phones.
New voice channel enables automakers and dealerships to reach out to customers with important information about their cars.
New Tropo platform expands the developer community's programming language choices.
Schools use Blackboard to communicate with the parents of 11 million students to enhance attendance and safety.
EMMA facilitates interaction through keyboard, mouse, voice, touch, or gesture.
The new Office Communications Server 2007 Release 2 that had been in beta testing since October officially launches for worldwide distribution.
The addition of SDC Solutions' product line and customer base strengthens Amcom's call center and emergency management software business.
The acquisition expands Genesys’ hosted contact center solutions portfolio.
Telecommunications systems and services provider seeks credit protection and reorganization in light of faltering global economy.
Alcatel-Lucent, Aspect Software, Avaya, Cisco Systems, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Interactive Intelligence, and Nortel share Gartner's Leaders Quadrant spots.
Voice platform provider expands solutions for enterprise and mobile carriers and extends its European footprint
Children's Christmas wishes can be confirmed by a phone call from St. Nick, all with a goal of raising money for charity.
Green-Ear adds color to gaming arena by designing voice applications for multiplayer games on the Flash platform.
Phone service carrier to offer wireless functionality on landline home telephones.
New video applications expected to add a visual dimension to the caller experience through expanded self-service options.
New contact center solutions reach out to customers and use automated services to improve customer satisfaction and business efficiency.
Single, flexible package consolidates Avaya Communication Manager, desktop and mobility communications tools for little to no additional cost.
Avaya, Mutare, and SpinVox team to deliver the first-of-its-kind solution for corporate environments.
Users Can Receive High-Quality Transcriptions of All Voicemails via SMS or Email
With new text-to-speech system, foreign words or phrases can be spoken like a native.
TravellingWave integrates its VoicePredict speech recognition products with Zi's text-prediction products to speed the typing of text messages.
Mobile Voice Platform, powered by Vangard's Rapid Development Environment, extends to mobile applications anywhere across the enterprise.
Acquisition brings Syntellect and Envox together, strengthening their global reach, distribution channels, market focus, and technology portfolio.
System creates voiceprint database to stop credit card fraud and identity theft.
Pronunciation Lexicon Specification lowers costs and effort through reuse of dictionary components.
Under-the-radar speech news
Cancer Treatment Centers of America rolls out VoIP and IP contact center solutions to improve patient care
Legal issues abound regarding notification and privacy when call centers monitor and capture customer contacts.
Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 is faster and more accurate than the previous version.
Speech solutions helped travel and hospitality companies to manage unplanned call volume spikes as thousands of people evacuated from hurricanes' paths.
Charlie Engle is using speech-to-text technologies from SpinVox to post blogs and other highlights of his cross-America run.
New Alltel Avatars, powered by Vidiator's Xend platform, offer a new way to create and send multimedia messaging.
Advertisers can target specific voice ads to movie-goers with Apptera's MobileAd technology.
Acquisition promises to strengthen Nortel's ability to create real-life virtual communications and conferencing experience for customers.
Evite Mobile Reminders let guests call, say their start location, and receive directions to the event on any mobile phone.
On-demand patient notification service helps pharmacies reach more patients, improve refill efficiency, and optimize pharmacist's time.
Recognizing four user companies that garnered impressive returns as a direct result of the speech deployments.
Blinkx has partnered with ConvoCast, the provider of a voice-enabled platform that lets broadcast and print media companies improve audience participation and interaction, by indexing live broadcast content for posting to the Web.
New platform lets developers build VoIP applications specifically for Apple's smartphone.
Interactive voice response application integrates custom dynamic messaging with prerecorded prompts.
Out-of-court settlement puts to rest a four-year patent war related to analytics solutions and call recording solutions.
SpeechExec Enterprise 2.5 empowers BlackBerry device users with mobile dictation functionality, including enhanced security, intuitive operation, and easy administration.
Skype Communicator starts to speak thanks to IVO Software's Expressivo software.
Japanese software developer builds a text-to-speech product that lets users communicate with their own voices.
The exclusive U.S. carrier of Apple's iPhone is developing a voice mashup that will give users of that device voice access to the mobile Web.
A New York-based transcription services company suggests a few techniques to enhance digital audio recordings for transcription purposes.
Audio search and mining has its roots in the intelligence community, but the corporate world is where it will really flourish.
OHSS offers customers the benefits of hosted service with the security and control that were previously only available in premises-based solutions.
A new speech-enabled service from Google lets users of select BlackBerry smartphones search for businesses on Google Maps.
Suit alleges contract violations with regard to licensing and fees of audio compression system.
Calendar based outbound appointment reminders keep calendars filled and up to date.
New Voice Powered User Interface speech-enables email, text messaging, Web search, dialing, address book, launching applications, and a new "Note2Self."
Strategic agreement combines voice applications with communications-based sports relationship management solution.
Company claims that vlingo violates its patent related to "Adaptation of a Speech Recognition System across Multiple Remote Sessions with a Speaker."
New VoIP solution makes video chat a central part of its service.
Yahoo! today launched Yahoo! oneSearch with voice for English speakers in Singapore and India.
IVO Software's latest TTS version includes free eBook downloads.
Latest version of the software provides the missing link in Microsoft's 'Save as DAISY XML' plug-in.
Hands-free service provider voice-activates cell phones with JAJAH applications.
Free consumer voicemail service brings Visual Voicemail to iPhone, BlackBerry, Blackjack, Treo, and more.
Group2Call adds a feature that allows group messaging recipients to send text or audio replies.
New application enables SMBs to broadcast messages from Apple devices.
New dictation products threaten to end Windows PCs' lock on the market.
Partners and enterprises are already lining up for the latest contact center technology.
Phoenix's new unified communications solution supports 14,000 city employees.
Industry spending on telecommunications services will hit $55 billion by 2013, according to a report by Insight Research.
Visitors to Lacoste's Web site can voice their thoughts on tennis in 2083.
Working with appliance manufacturer Indesit, Loquendo and Amuser take the voice interface into the home.
Users of Microsoft Word can now produce content in popular assistive technology format.
Industry associations discuss their industry and speech recognition's affect on it with members of Congress.
Companies are singled out for transforming customer service with Dynamic Contact Centers.
Despite a rise in Web traffic for customer interactions, phone traffic has not gone down, Genesys reports.
Just a few days after officially launching its Intelligent Customer Front Door (ICFD) solution to help enterprises optimize the critical first touch point in customer care, Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories announced at its G-Force customer conference that partners and enterprises are already lining up.
Personalized Voice Portal allows customized access to EarthLink's news and information using voice commands.
KomBea's ProtoCall solution uses predefined call flows and prerecorded audio files to regulate the contact center call flow.
Screaming Bee this week released ScriptVOX Studio, a text-to-speech software application to help writers prototype their stories.
But despite its promise, going natural will take work.
Hands-free, eyes-free system provides voice-activated, one-way translation capabilities to deploying soldiers in Mid East
Raj Reddy receives international recognition for applying tools of artificial intelligence in the development of speech recognition technologies.
New services promise to ease caller frustration when dealing with large companies.
The addition of Simulscribe voicemail-to-text expands Salesforce.com services available by phone through Angel.com IVR.
Wireless carrier lets customers personalize voicemail greetings with famous voices.
Your World. Your Language connects residents and tourists with vital businesses and services.
GIPS releases the first software-based multiparty high-definition video conferencing solution.
Software giant looks to swallow up search provider for $44.6 billion.
While electronics were very popular gift items this holiday season, slightly less than a quarter of those who bought smartphones this year ended up returning them to the retailer, according to new research by Opinion Research.
Following a special program partnership between NotifyMD and the Iroqois Healthcare Alliance, doctors throughout most of upper New York State may almost never have to pick up their office phones again.
Ask.com Mobile launches speech-activated mobile driving and walking directions.
Traditional machine translation software uses English as a bridge between other languages, but Language Weaver is breaking the mold by offering direct translation pairs that remove English as the middle step.
Wainhouse Research and In-Stat earlier this week released a global forecast that predicts that the unified communications products and services market will hit the $48.7 billion mark by 2012, a 13 percent increase from current levels.
Software on a USB drive gives universal access for visually-impaired computer users.
Korean start-up company Mouscan, a company with scanning and mouse expertise, today announced a licensing agreement with HP that will offer people a way to listen to printed text.
Unified Command and Control (UCC) from Aspect Software centralizes reporting, routing, administration, and workflow management in a single console capable of handling 40,000 agents within a single site or across multiple locations.
Pilot with Japanese-to-English technology is the first on a cell phone that didn't require external help.
Online community pulled out all the stops in a multimedia conference involving author Stephen King.
Phone, navigation, and entertainment systems to remain hot, but other applications are possible.
NICE Systems SmartCenter application suite isolates only those calls that require managers to follow up.
Albert Heijn, a unit of the worldwide retail food conglomerate Royal Ahold, has deployed Voxware's voice picking solution in four regional distribution centers (DC's) throughout the Netherlands, and plans to begin installing it in two national DC's in January.
Designing speech applications with the user in mind is the closest thing you'll find to an industry standard.
Dictation/transcription software is the perfect remedy for a medical group's high report-generating costs.
When the U.S. Air Force rolls out its newest fighter jet, the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, pilots will be talking to it instead of physically manipulating controls and display panels in the cockpit.
The arrival of competition in the energy market drove Northern Ireland Electicity (NIE) Supply, a power utility serving 758,000 home and business customers in Northern Ireland, to implement a speech-enabled customer self-service application recently.
Jury Systems, a provider of jury management systems for courts around the country, added interactive voice response (IVR) capabilities to its JURY+ Next Generation suite of products. Jury Systems is branding the IVR product as the Jury+ Voice solution.
Blind and visually impaired customers have started legal action against the cell phone industry to improve cell phone accessibility with features like speech output for people who cannot read the phone's display screen.
A global election watchdog group uses Virtual Call Center to monitor and report voting irregularities
Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories CEO Wes Hayden joined Nuance Communications Oct. 1 as president of the company's new Enterprise Division. In this new position, Hayden will be responsible for managing strategy operations, marketing, professional services, and engineering for Nuance's enterprise products and solutions.
Companies are unifying their self-service strategies to tightly integrate all self-service channels, including speech
Voice analysis technologies provider Nemesysco will provide its layered voice analysis (LVA) technologies to BVR Systems, a provider of training and simulation solutions, for use in its virtual flight simulators for the military.
Under a co-marketing agreement reached yesterday, ICT Group, a provider of customer management and business process outsourcing solutions, will begin offering voice biometrics solutions from VoiceVerified to its customers.
Beginning today, U.S. wireless carrier Sprint-Nextel is offering customers a new Microsoft Web and local business search application using GPS and voice recognition technologies.
Excendia, a developer of speech-enabled unified communications and speech mobility solutions, recently signed a deal with IBM to include its Excendia Virtual Assistant (EVA) on IBM WebSphere Voice Server.
Network General Corp. recently released survey findings showing that unified communications (UC) applications are contributing significantly to network traffic and performance problems, something that it says is poised to become even more pronounced.
With about 90 percent saturation in the large enterprise segment, vendors in the North American interactive voice response (IVR) market are looking to small- and mid-sized businesses for future growth opportunities, according to a research report from Frost & Sullivan.
Selecting this year's winners for the Speech Luminaries awards was no easy task. We received nominations for candidates in the areas of research and development, speech science, systems engineering, system implementation, and corporate and organizational leadership. All of these individuals have had a hand in advancing the causes of their respective companies and the industry as a whole, and worked tirelessly to increase awareness and acceptance of speech technologies during the past 12 months.
Portable navigation device provider TomTom has selected speech solutions from Nuance Communications to power its TomTom GO family: the TomTom GO 520, TomTom GO 720 and the TomTom GO 920.
SVOX yesterday enhanced its text-to-speech offerings to include Japanese, bringing to 18 the number of languages its speech technologies support.
IBM earlier this week acquired Web conferencing service provider WebDialogs in a flurry of activity surrounding its unified communications offerings.
The Automobile Club of America is well-known for providing travel information, mapping expertise and road service. Now, AAA's southern California chapter is bringing those services to mobile phones, allowing members to gain information and turn-by-turn directions, spoken to them through their cell phone.
Marchex, an online advertising company and publisher of local content, will acquire VoiceStar, a provider of call-based advertising services, including pay-per-phone-call and call tracking, for local advertisers, for $28 million.
Blind and visually impaired customers are taking legal action against the cell phone industry to force cell phone manufacturers and service providers to better incorporate assistive technologies for the blind into their products.
Imagine using your voice to tell your Media Center to play MP3 or iTunes music, call to order a pizza, set the thermostat or home theater lighting, play a photo slideshow, watch and record live TV, read and send email, or initiate a video chat session with a friend.
As part of a productivity initiative, the U.S. Attorneys Office will roll out Nuance Communications' Dragon NaturallySpeaking Professional dictation solution to its 15,000 employees across multiple locations throughout the country.
RISHON LEZION, Israel - Natural Speech Communication (NSC) and Tadiran Communication will team up to provide a major European Defense Ministry with a solution for improving the sound quality of intercepted communications and then analyzing the audio for key words that could indicate a potential security risk.
SAN BRUNO, Calif. -- Upon the successful completion of a controlled trial in three U.S. cities, AT&T officially rolled out its free 1-800-YELLOWPAGES directory assistance service across California yesterday.
With VoIP gaining traction in recent years, businesses are realizing that the benefits of IP telephony exceed mere cost reductions.
Audio/video conferencing technology helps a Dallas hospital deliver proper care to all patients, regardless of their preferred languages.
Small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) are growing in importance among speech industry vendors.
As the speech industry continues to advance, customers are learning to accept IVR technology, Hayden says in an exclusive interview with Speech Technology magazine.
Speech-enabled Reading Assistant helps students across the country gain reading proficiency.
Slightly more than a month after announcing its acquisition of VoiceSignal Technologies, Nuance Communications announced June 21 that it will acquire Tegic Communications.
MENLO PARK, Calif. – Under a strategic partnership announced yesterday, Jingle Networks is now offering its voice-enabled 1-800-FREE-411 directory assistance service to Skype subscribers in the United States.
While personal users may be lining up for the Apple iPhone, the much-hyped device may not be the best for the business user, an analyst warns.
BALTIMORE -- The Johns Hopkins University here has been awarded a long-term, multimillion-dollar contract to establish and operate a new research facility that will primarily work toward new strategies related to speech technologies like speech recognition, speaker identification, speech analytics, and language processing.
FORT STEWART, Ga. -- Winn Army Community Hospital here is now using new voice-enabled communications solutions from Avaya, Interactive Northwest Inc., Verint Systems, and Nuance Communications to help more than 75,000 soldiers, military retirees, and their families.
Oyster Bay, N.Y. -- Invores Systems’ HouseCallsAudioTour.com voice-enabled real estate sales and marketing system has expanded into 12 states and is now being used by four of the top five real estate companies nationwide.
New in-store signage interacts with customers using natural language speech technologies.
Pushing a button presents Web text as audio files.
Voice services continue to be the mainstay for most communications service companies in the United States and Canada, even in the face of emerging growth opportunities in things like video and broadband, according to new research by Frost & Sullivan.
Voice-based mobile search technology has already become the new battleground for speech technologies, and now major Web search leaders Yahoo! and Google are poised to add their names to an ever-growing list of participants.
In IVR design, it should be about finding the right voice, not the right character.
A Florida triple-play provider doubles self-service and splits transfers between agents in half with a speech application.
In the ultra-competitive home videogame landscape, game developers can ill afford to sit on their hands. Many are turning to new voice technologies as a way to enhance the experience for players and differentiate themselves from their peers.
Microsoft announced in mid-April a free hosted trial for business customers to experience its Exchange Server 2007, one of the key components of its unified communications offerings that are due for release later this year.
New IVR lets bus riders plan trips and get bus info by phone.
Move brings rivals together and expands Nuance's presence in mobile market
LIBERTYVILLE, Ill. -- LifeOnRecord, an audio journaling company, is introducing two new services that take the traditional means of recording memories one step further.
TVGuardian software offers another level of parental control.
Triple-play provider to roll out unified messaging application to its Web platform.
Incoming phone calls to benefits centers to be monitored for voice changes.
With Microsoft expected to release its unified communications offerings this summer, an independent solutions evaluator reviewed an early beta version of the software solution and gave it a glowing endorsement.
The latest speech application development tools allow programmers to incorporate video applications as well.
Cisco announced March 15 that it will acquire WebEx, a market leader in on-demand collaboration, networking, and conferencing solutions, for $3.2 billion.
Microsoft announced plans March 14 to acquire privately held Tellme Networks, a provider of nationwide directory assistance, enterprise customer service, and voice-enabled mobile search, in a move that will dramatically advance the software giant's presence in the $7 billion mobile search market.
New research reveals staying power of traditional voice services
Despite improving satisfaction scores, call centers need to be more proactive.
New panic button feature allows schools to respond to emergencies via voice or text message.
Product will serve as the basis for new unified communications offering.
New 'My Business' campaign makes it easier for smaller firms to integrate voice technologies.
Web search provider is latest to express an interest in growing speech application.
New voice-enabled service is latest experiment by Web search leader.
City's transit authority rolls out IVR to handle basic bus information.
U.S. forces in Iraq are stepping up field testing of speech translation devices.
The right voice is everything on an IVR, auto attendant, automatic call distributor, or voicemail system.
British firm Biometric Security warned last month that the unceasing need for customers to remember new PINs and passwords is becoming unsustainable and could lead to customer churn.
Cincinnati Bell is becoming the first U.S. wireless carrier to offer a service that converts wireless voicemail messages into text messages or email.
ClearSky Mobile Media enables consumers to ask their phones for a favorite ringtone or wallpaper
IVR to handle convenience store chain's job applications process.
New research finds growing acceptance for targeted advertising sent to cell phones.
New service converts voicemail to text over Web, email, or SMS
Second Life to incorporate voice into everyday virtual interactions
Microsoft released its Windows Vista operating system on Jan. 30, calling it the most significant product launch in the company's 32-year history. At the same time, it also released its Office 2007 product suite—one of the key components of Microsoft's unified communications offering that is expected to ship this summer (see story on page 14).
Vendors are betting that you will as they move toward a one-call-to all unified communications strategy
Prerecorded marketing boosts an NBA team's game attendance
As more risks become associated with VoIP, companies that did not take security into account before will need to start
Customer service issues that are handled by a computer automated response system (ARS) on the telephone generate significantly lower customer care ratings than those handled by a live agent, according to the J.D. Power & Associates Wireless Customer Care Performance Study released Jan. 25.
Vanguard Voice, Astegic team up to add voice to mobile inspection platform.
Opening keynote speakers say system upgrades are key to overcoming speed, accuracy hurdles.
Company execs cite vision to break down barriers with speech-enabled services.
Support for updated voice standards also follows latest company release.
SaaS provider offers integrated voice with customer service, marketing, and sales solutions.
Altura designs and implements a VoIP network for Michigan health system.
IBM in mid-December released a new application programming interface, or middleware, that expands the ability of screenreading programs like Freedom Scientific's JAWS and GW Micro's Window-Eyes, to convert on-screen text and graphics to audio for the blind or visually impaired.
SpinVox to Offer Limited Number of Gamma Accounts In Advance of Impending Carrier Roll-Outs
J.D. Power survey gives lower marks to automated call centers for customer care issues.
New recruiting tool allows phone-in applications
Software platform integrates communications technologies and business processes>
System allows drivers to control phones, MP3 players and more with voice commands.>
The Federal Trade Commission will extend beyond Jan. 2 its policy of not bringing enforcement against telemarketers that deliver pre-recorded messages to consumers, pending further agency review of current policies.>
Application registers voice changes to tell when someone's not being completely honest.
VoIP provider to charge $30 a year for unlimited calls.
CellMax Systems teams with POS provider PCS to offer voice-based school lunchroom ID.
Sonus supports National Security and Emergency Preparedness standards with its Internet-based voice solutions.
Deal will expand speech-enabled mobile application offerings.>
SALT LAKE CITY - NovaLogic, Inc., a global entertainment software developer and publisher, released the PlayStation2 version of Delta Force - Black Hawk Down: Team Sabre featuring Fonix VoiceIn Game Edition.
New video games incorporate speech recognition technology to enhance player experience.
Plantronics' wireless headsets are the latest addition to the software giant's global VoIP integration efforts.
A customer care solutions package from Verint Systems is helping Pitney Bowes address agent and customer turnover.