Speech Technology eWeekly - June 01, 2005

Q & A

Dan Miller, senior analyst, Opus Research

Dan Miller, senior analyst at Opus Research, explains that "while many of the tools are developed to suit the needs of single users, the future is in developing software to support multi-tenant applications that give individual customers the ability to monitor, tweak and manage their individual applications."

Talking Tech

Why Can't You Listen to Your Information on Your Way to Work?

Gary Tjaden, founder and CEO of the Cocomo ID Company, explains that "there is a much more cost-effective approach to speech-audio publishing than the current digitized speech approach, which is to use a text-to-speech (TTS) engine embedded in a PDA or cell phone to speak general information downloaded as small text files.

Speech Technology News

Witness Systems Appoints Chief Customer and Chief Learning Officers

ATLANTA - Witness appointed Keith Cooley as its first chief customer officer (CCO) and Bill Byron Concevitch as its first chief learning officer (CLO).

Pfizer Selected ICT GROUP to Provide Customer Support Services for Helpful Answers Program

NEWTOWN, Pa. - Pfizer Inc. has selected ICT GROUP, Inc. to provide customer assistance services in support of its Pfizer Helpful Answers™ initiative.

W3C Advances the VoiceXML 2.1 Specification to Candidate Recommendation

The W3C published the VoiceXML 2.1 specification as a Candidate Recommendation to indicate that the document is believed to be stable and to encourage implementation by the developer community.

Voice Technologies Launches Voice Messenger Powered by SpeechMagic

PAISLEY - Voice Technologies launched Voice Messenger, a new speech recognition solution based on the SpeechMagic engine from Philips Speech Recognition Systems.

LDHC Launches Product Powered by IBM ViaVoice Technology

Learning Differences Help Center (LDHC) has launched its Simply Speaking product, which was developed with assistance from Wizzard's services team.

Hanson Robotics Selects Acapela to Speak for Philip K. Dick Robot

Hanson Robotics Inc has chosen Acapela text-to-speech to voice enable its robots.

Wizzard Software Offering AT&T Natural Voices for Apple Mac OS X

PITTSBURGH - AT&T Natural Voices will soon be available for Apple Mac OS 10.3 in English, French, German and Spanish.

Telstra Appoints New CEO

SYDNEY, Australia - Solomon (Sol) Trujillo has been appointed to chief executive officer and executive director of the company.

ScanSoft Introduces SpeechPAK Utilities Suite 2.0

BURLINGTON, Mass. - ScanSoft, Inc. released SpeechPAK™ Utilities Suite 2.0, the latest release in its series of packaged application kits.

Digium and Cepstral Enter Text-To-Speech Partnership for Linux Telephony

PITTSBURGH and HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - Digium and Cepstral partnered to provide Cepstral Swift Text-To-Speech (TTS) languages and voices for Digium's Linux telephony platforms and applications.

Nortel and BCE Elix Sign Partnership Agreement

MONTREAL, Quebec - BCE Elix and Nortel signed a partnership agreement for the delivery of contact center solutions.

MacSpeech Releases Update to Italian Version of iListen

SALEM, N.H. - MacSpeech released an update to the Italian version of their iListen program.

Aculab Releases Prosody X

MILTON KEYNES, UK - Aculab launched its next generation media processing resources platform - Prosody X.

Intervoice and Carrius Sign OEM Agreement

DALLAS and RICHARDSON, Texas - Intervoice, Inc. and Carrius Technologies, Inc. have formalized an OEM agreement in which Intervoice will use the Carrius Compleat-200 as a media and signaling gateway component for its Omvia® family of network products.

MCI to Deploy Brooktrout's SnowShore IP Media Server for Its Next Generation Multimedia Services

CHICAGO - MCI, Inc. has selected Brooktrout Technology, Inc.'s SnowShore IP Media Server™ to support the delivery of IP communications solutions across its global network.

Fordham University Selects Automated Operator for Education from Speech Technology Associates

Fordham University has selected Speech Technology Associates' Automated Operator, a speech recognition and CTI-enabled auto-attendant solution for the Fordham University Enrollment Group.

Acapela Releases Acapela Multimedia for Mac OS X SDK

Acapela brings its text-to-speech to Macs.

VoxSurf Reveals That Frustrated UK Mobile Users Are Baffled by Traditional Voicemail Systems

LONDON, U.K. - Research from VoxSurf reveals that more than one-third of UK mobile users are so confused by their voicemail systems that they can do little more than check for new messages.

Carrius Supports WIN and CAMEL on Compleat-200

Carrius Technologies' Compleat-200 has added support for the Wireless Intelligent Networks (WIN) protocol and the Customized Applications for Mobile network Enhanced Logic (CAMEL) protocol.

Nuance Releases Nuance Voice Creation Tools

MENLO PARK, Calif. - Nuance's custom voice creation toolset, used in tandem with Nuance's Vocalizer 4.0 text-to-speech engine, is designed to make custom text-to-speech (TTS) voice development manageable for customers needing multiple custom voices.

Kirusa and Acapela Group Expand Partnership to Speech-enable Multimodal Solutions

Kirusa and Acapela Group have signed a strategic reseller agreement reinforcing the partnership set up between the two companies in 2003.

Nokia Integrates Imagetalk Symbol Writer for Nokia 7710 with Acapela Text-to-speech

Imagetalk Symbol Writer for the Nokia 7710 multimedia smartphone is a symbols-based mobile communication solution with Acapela built-in text-to-speech.

Loquendo Opens Office in France

TURIN, Italy - Loquendo opened its new office in Paris, France. Also, Philippe Poux has joined the company's international team to distribute Loquendo technology throughout the country.

Voice Partners Launches UK Design Practice, Studio and Training Facility in London

PALO ALTO, Calif. - Voice Partners opened its UK subsidiary and design office.

GECIS, GE Capital Affiliate Deploys Mass Production Implementation of NICE Perform

RA'ANANA, Israel - GECIS, a GE Capital affiliate, has deployed the first mass production implementation of NICE Perform

Genesys Integrates Loquendo Technology

TURIN, Italy - Loquendo and Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc. unveiled the interoperability between Loquendo's multilingual text-to-speech (TTS) technology and the Genesys Voice Platform.

NextiraOne and UAC Sign a Multi-year Agreement to Jointly Service Voice Maintenance Enterprise Customers in North America

HOUSTON - NextiraOne, LLC and United Asset Coverage (UAC) have signed a multi-year agreement to jointly service voice maintenance enterprise customers in North America.

Envox Worldwide Appoints Mark D. Flanagan CEO

Envox Worldwide's board of directors has appointed Mark D. Flanagan as CEO, expanding his previous role as the company's president and chief operating officer.

Eicon Networks Supports Microsoft Speech Server 2004 R2

ORLANDO - Eicon's Diva Server product line will be providing support for Microsoft Speech Server (MSS) 2004 R2.

Vonage Customer Service Selects Avaya IP Telephony Contact Center Solutions

Vonage announced its sales and service subsidiary, Vonage America, has chosen Avaya's SIP-based telephony and contact center solutions to expand its call center capacity and productivity.

Nortel Releases Nortel Applications Center Platform

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Nortel released the Nortel Applications Center that brings together contact center, speech, unified messaging, and multimedia collaboration into an application environment.

AgileTV Appoints Bob Greiner to Executive Post

MENLO PARK, Calif. - AgileTV appointed Bob Greiner as senior vice president of sales.

VoiceObjects Integrates Loquendo Technology

TURIN, Italy - VoiceObjects integrates Loquendo's multilingual VoiceXML platform VoxNauta™ into VoiceObjects X5™.

DaimlerChrysler Customer Assistance Center to Implement Witness Systems' Quality Monitoring Software

ATLANTA and LONDON, U.K. - The DaimlerChrysler Customer Assistance Center (CAC) based in Maastricht in the Netherlands, will implement Witness Systems' contact center quality monitoring solution.

The Pythia Consortium Selects VoiceWeb and Loquendo Technology to Power Taxi Dispatching System

TURIN, Italy - Pythia Consortium has selected VoiceWeb to develop a taxi dispatching system leveraging Loquendo's VoxNauta™ Platform.

Nexidia Releases "Nexidia Enterprise Speech Intelligence 5.0"

ATLANTA, Ga. - Nexidia released its Nexidia Enterprise Speech Intelligence (ESI) 5.0.

Freedom Scientific LSG Selects Wizzard Software to Provide New Voices for WYNN 4.0

PITTSBURGH - Freedom Scientific Learning Systems Group (LSG) has chosen Wizzard's offering of AT&T Natural Voices for use in WYNN 4.0.

IP Unity Launches Three-Phase Roadmap, Enhances Mereon Unified Messaging and Conferencing Applications, and Launches Mereon 3000 Media Server

CHICAGO, Ill. - IP Unity launched a multiphase roadmap for IMS compliance; Mereon 3.0 - a host of upgrades and enhancements to the messaging, applications server and conferencing applications software on its Mereon 6000 Media Server; and its IP Unity Mereon 3000 Media Server.

Trinitas Hospital Goes Live with Automated Operator for Health Care from Speech Technology Associates

Trinitas Hospital is in full production with Automated Operator for healthcare, a speech-enabled auto-attendant solution developed for patient-care facilities by Speech Technology Associates.

Mount Carmel St. Ann's Hospital Selects ScanSoft Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical 8

Mount Carmel St. Ann's Hospital, a health care provider in central Ohio, has implemented ScanSoft Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical 8.

NICE Completes Acquisition of Dictaphone's Communications Recording Systems Business

RA'ANANA, Israel - NICE Systems completed the acquisition of Dictaphone's Communications Recording Systems (CRS™) business.

Voice2Form Supports Web Site Integration Using Voice and Speech Recognition Technology

Voice2Form, which holds a patent for a voice recognition system to help people fill out forms for a variety of commercial and governmental agencies, now supports commercial Web site integration using Voice2Form patented technology.

The VoiceXML Forum Continues Vendor Certification

The VoiceXML Forum's platform certification program continues to gain momentum.

CPT Teams with Excel Switching

CPT International partnered with Excel Switching Corporation to provide call routing based on Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

Loquendo Expands Emotional TTS Range with Paola and Luca

Loquendo presents two new Emotional TTS Voices: Italian personas Paola and Luca.

ScanSoft VoCon Games Speech SDK Available for Free Evaluation by PC and Console Developers

From gameinfowire.com - ScanSoft, Inc.'s family of VoCon Gaming Speech Software Developer Kit (SDK) products is available for free download and evaluation for qualified PC and video game developers.

Argos Selects Voxware's VoiceLogistics to Voice-Enable Distribution Centers

Argos selected Voxware's VoiceLogistics, and is nearing the completion of its first phase deployment involving approximately 200 workers at Argos' Basildon, Mossend, and Wolverhampton facilities in the UK.

AgileTV and SeaChange Release VOD Solution for On-Demand Television

MENLO PARK, Calif. and MAYNARD, Mass. - AgileTV and SeaChange International released a voice-activated VOD solution for the cable industry.

Restoration Hardware Selects Voxify Automated Agents

ALAMEDA, Calif. - Home furnishings retailer, Restoration Hardware, has selected Voxify to improve customer service.

SpeechSwitch Becomes HP Authorized Business Development Partner

iVoice's SpeechSwitch has become an HP Authorized Business Partner.

Active Voice and ScanSoft to Deliver New Speech-Enabled Automated Attendant System

SEATTLE & PEABODY, Mass. - Active Voice, LLC and ScanSoft, Inc. have agreed to provide a speech-enabled automated attendant application for organizations worldwide.

Metaphor Releases a Toolset that Allows Mainstream .NET Developers to Build Speech IVR Applications

WELLESLEY, Mass. - Metaphor Solutions released version 3.0 of its speech IVR application development toolset, Metaphor Conversation Manager (MCM).

Sensory Software Integrates Acapela's Text-to-speech

Sensory Software has selected Acapela text-to-speech for its software - The Grid.

Don Johnston Selects Acapela Text-to-Speech for SOLO

Don Johnston, a learning intervention resources provider that has dedicated the last 25 years to helping struggling students around the world, has chosen Acapela's text-to-speech to voice enable its solution.

Gold Systems Appoints Northwest Territory Sales Manager

Gold Systems expanded its coverage by appointing Pieter Knight to the position of Northwest Territory sales manager.

Avatier Extends End-to-end Password Management with Three Modes for Phone Password Reset

SAN RAMON, Calif. - Avatier's new product suite includes three different methods for resetting passwords over the phone, including using an employee configured Personal Identification Number (PIN), voice identification and RSA SecurID token.

AVST Provides Communications Offering to Small Companies and Branch Offices

FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. - Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. released a new communications solution that delivers AVST's technology to smaller companies and enterprise branch offices.