Speech Technology eWeekly - January 01, 2005

Q & A

Peter Ryan, analyst, Datamonitor

Peter Ryan, analyst, Datamonitor, predicts that, in terms of CALA, while annual growth is expected to be rapid, the actual number of deployments will still be relatively small.

Jo Taylor, head of marketing communications, Aculab

Jo Taylor, head of marketing communications at Aculab, explains how and why the key to making the deployment of speech easier and simpler is understanding.

Speech Technology News

Voice2Form Goes Live with Telephone Self-Service Solutions from NetByTel

BOCA RATON, Fla. - Voice2Form announced that it has gone live with an application developed and managed by NetByTel. Voice2Form's technology has multi-language capability.

Mountain Medical Technologies Selects ScanSoft Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical

Mountain Medical Technologies (MMT) will integrate ScanSoft Dragon NaturallySpeaking Medical to enable speech recognition within its CYRAMED electronic medical records (EMR) system.

The SAAQ Deploys a New Contact Center Solution

MONTREAL, Québec - The SAAQ (Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec) announced the deployment of a new contact center solution from BCE Elix.

Rogers Wireless Selects ScanSoft and TeleMessage to Power TXT 2 Landline Service

PEABODY, Mass. and ACTON, Mass. - Rogers Wireless has selected TeleMessage SMS to Landline solution, powered by ScanSoft RealSpeak, for its TXT 2 Landline service.

Wagner College Selects iVoice for Auto Speech Attendant

MATAWAN, N.J. - Wagner College installed the iVoice Speech-Enabled Auto Attendant with directory service.

ScanSoft Closes Acquisition of Art Advanced Recognition Technologies

ScanSoft announced that it has closed the acquisition of ART Advanced Recognition Technologies.

Speech Recognition Ware Launches Transcription Aid

Speech Recognition Ware announced the launch of Transcription Aid for Dragon NaturallySpeaking

Aculab and Pronexus Bundle Designed to Speed up Application Development

MILTON KEYNES, UK - Aculab and Pronexus announced the availability of their new speech bundle.

CULLMANN's Selects ScanSoft Speech Technology for Universal Hands-free Kit for Mobile Phones

PEABODY, Mass. & GHENT, Belgium - CULLMANN GmbH selected ScanSoft VoCon® speech recognition solution to speech-enable the variocom VC4.

Envox Worldwide Introduces Envox 6 VoiceXML Studio

WESTBOROUGH, Mass. - Envox Worldwide introduced Envox 6 VoiceXML Studio, a graphical development environment that enhances the company's Envox 6 Communications Development Platform.

AT&T Selects InPhonic for Its New Mobility Solutions

WASHINGTON - AT&T announced a two-year agreement with InPhonic, Inc.

Global Enterprise Investment in Transactional Voice Solutions to Net Technology Vendors in Excess of $300 Million

NEW YORK - A new report by independent market analyst, Datamonitor, is predicting a seven-fold rise in global enterprise expenditure on transactional-enabling voice solutions.

Loquendo TTS at the Service of Dortmund Firefighters

DORTMUND, Germany - The "Share" project develops a Push-To-Share mobile service that will provide critical multimodal communication support for emergency teams, such as firefighters, during rescue operations.

VenturCom's BXP Software Selected by Time Warner Cable for Its Greensboro, NC Call Center Operations

WALTHAM, Mass. - Time Warner Cable's Greensboro, NC system has selected VenturCom's BXP software for its call center operations.

VoiceMatch Joins RAINS Homeland Security Coalition

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - VoiceMatch announced that it has joined RAINS (Regional Alliances for Infrastructure and Network Security), a private/public partnership focused on promoting the development and use of technology for homeland security and public safety.

ScanSoft Speech Technology Enhances the New Mario Party 6 for Nintendo GameCube

PEABODY, Mass. - Nintendo has implemented a ScanSoft speech solution for the Nintendo GameCube™ game entitled Mario Party® 6.

Syntellect Re-Launches Vista and Interchange as Continuum

Syntellect re-launches Vista and Interchange as a combined offering to be called Continuum

Empirix Launches New Solution for Nortel Network's MPS 1000

BEDFORD, Mass. - Empirix® Inc. launched a new solution to help companies manage and improve the performance of Nortel Networks MPS 1000 interactive voice response (IVR) platforms.

Office Depot and NetByTel Announce One-Year Extension of Telephone Self-Service Agreement

BOCA RATON, Fla. - Office Depot, Inc. announced that it has signed a one-year extension of its agreement with NetByTel.

VoiceVantage Announces Intent to Sell Proprietary Voice Verification Technology Assets

VoiceVantage announced its intent to sell its proprietary speaker authentication assets.

Crescendo Launches Speech Recognition Solution for UK Law Firms

LONDON - Crescendo Systems Limited introduces the back-end speech recognition solution, Crescendo Speech Processing, to the UK legal market.

Invores Systems Launches VoIP/SIP Voice Web Application Hosting Service

Invores Systems announces the availability of an interactive voice application hosting/subscription service for businesses, Total e-Call.

Voice Partners Expands European Presence with Two VUI Consultants

PALO ALTO, Calif. —¬ Voice Partners announced the addition of two European VUI consultants to their international team: Stephen Mailey, formerly head of consulting for Fluency (UK), and Diego Montefusco, formerly of Tiscali, Italy.

Local Developer Signs with ScanSoft

From iTnews.com.au - An agreement signed with SpeechWorks enables System Solutions to incorporate ScanSoft's SpeechWorks automatic speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) products into its MESSAGEmanager VoiceXML server.

ScanSoft Speech Enables Cyramed

From Computer Business Review Online - Mountain Medical Technologies will integrate ScanSoft Dragon NaturallySpeaking® Medical to enable speech recognition within its Cyramed electronic medical records system.

Apptera Appoints New Chief Executive Officer

SAN BRUNO, Calif. - Apptera announced the appointment of Marketta Silvera as the company's new chief executive officer.

MacSpeech Releases Free PDF Tutorial for iListen

SALEM, N.H. - MacSpeech has released a free PDF tutorial for its iListen program.

Meet Saskia, the New Dutch Female Voice

Loquendo announced Saskia, the new Dutch female voice to accompany Willem, the Dutch male persona.

Roxann Swanson of Nortel Named Frost & Sullivan's 2005 Enterprise Applications Executive of the Year

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Roxann Swanson, vice president and general manager, Multimedia Applications at Nortel, received the 2005 Enterprise Applications Executive of the Year Award from Frost & Sullivan at the Excellence in Information & Communications Technologies Awards Banquet.

MacSpeech Releases ScriptPak for Word 2004

SAN FRANCISCO - MacSpeech announced its new ScriptPak for Microsoft Word 2004 at the Macworld Expo.

Empirix Acquires CT Labs

Empirix has acquired CT Labs.

ScanSoft SpeechPAK TALKS Nominated for Global Accessibility Award

PEABODY, Mass. - ScanSoft's SpeechPAK TALKS™ solution has been nominated for the 2005 GSM Association Awards for "Best Use of Mobile for Special Needs and Accessibility."

Enterprise Fertile Area for Voice Biometrics

From TechNewsWorld - Jack M. Germain explains that biometrics devices have been slowly finding favor with business IT managers and some high-tech consumers. Specifically, voice recognition technology has been enthusiastically embraced by financial institutions and enterprise operations that rely on phone access to services.

VoiceObjects' Voice Application Demo Center Deployed on Voxpilot's Open Media Platform

COLOGNE and DUBLIN - VoiceObjects has deployed its voice application demo center on Voxpilot's Open Media Platform, hosted by Monaco Telecom.

Hammacher Schlemmer Selects Voxify to Automate Catalog Services

ALAMEDA, Calif. And NRF, N.Y. - Hammacher Schlemmer selected Voxify's Automated Agents™ to help clients track purchases and returns, as well as, request a catalog or change their mail preference.

NextiraOne Enhances ServiceSelect Offering

NextiraOne introduced its ServiceSelect network support service.

Amiura Selects Brooktrout's Voice and Fax Products for Lotus Domino Applications

ORLANDO - Brooktrout Technology, Inc. announced that Amiura, a member of IBM PartnerWorld focused on IBM Lotus Notes and Domino* products, now supports Brooktrout's TR1034™ and TruFax® series of intelligent fax boards in its Amiura Fax Server (AFS), and Brooktrout's TR1000™ voice platform in its Amiura Voice Gateway.

Vocent Appoints Jeff Scheel as CEO

Vocent Solutions announced that Jeffrey A. Scheel has joined the company as president and CEO

Cepstral Breaks the Two MB Voice Barrier

PITTSBURGH - Cepstral LLC announced a new software release capable of producing general unit selection text-to-speech (TTS) voices that are less than two megabytes in size.

Weil, Gotshac and Manges Mobilizes its Workforce

Global law firm Weil, Gotshal and Manges switched from its legacy Octel voicemail system to CallXpress.

Alcatel's Genesys to Deliver Converged Enterprise Communications

SAN FRANCISCO - Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc. has signed a strategic agreement with Microsoft.

Pronexus Continues to Expand into International Telephony Markets

OTTAWA, Canada - Pronexus announced the win of several accounts in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia.

IBM Enhances Eclipse-based Tools for Mobile Access to Enterprise Applications

SOMERS, N.Y. - IBM announced the availability of three new computing technologies for download via its alphaWorks emerging technology Web site.

Oracle Earns Genesys Validated Integration Status

SAN FRANCISCO and REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. - Oracle has become a charter Genesys InterActs member and received validated integration status for their Oracle Telephony Adapter.

Rapid Message Service v2.0 Made Available in Five Countries

HeyAnita released Rapid Message Service (RMS) v2.0.

Angel.com Launches Emergency Hotline Solution

Angel.com launched the Emergency Hotline solution, which can be accessed by DTMF codes or speech.

Witness Systems Completes Acquisition of Blue Pumpkin

ATLANTA - Witness announced the completion of its acquisition of Blue Pumpkin Software, Inc.

IP Unity Names Carrier Veteran Augie Cruciotti as Chief Operating Officer

MILPITAS, Calif. - IP Unity announced that two industry veterans in carrier network operations and new service delivery have joined the company's executive team.

Sakrament Begins Testing English Speech Synthesis Module

Sakrament started testing and debugging the English language module for Sakrament TTS Engine v 3.0 speech synthesis system.

Syntellect Re-Launches Vista and Interchange as Continuum

Syntellect re-launches Vista and Interchange as a combined offering which is to be called Continuum

MIPS and Developers of VoIP Solutions Enable Multi-Channel Voice on a Single Chip

From SymbianOne.com - MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - MIPS Technologies, Inc., together with D2 Technologies, HelloSoft, RADVISION and Trinity Convergence, announced a solution for multi-channel VoIP applications, including VoIP residential gateways, IP phones, VoWLAN (Voice over Wireless LAN) phones and terminal adapters.

VoodooPC Launches Voodoo VIBE f:50

CALGARY, Alberta - Voodoo VIBE f:50 supports Blue Tooth for communication with cellular phones.

NextiraOne Appoints New CEO

HOUSTON - New CEO Dale Booth realigns NextiraOne's strategy.

CPT's Voice Harbor Integrates with VoiceGenie's NeXusPoint

VoiceGenie Technologies' NeXusPoint software is now supported by CPT's Voice Harbor

Loquendo Releases Loquendo ASR 6.5

TURIN, Italy - Loquendo announced the release of Loquendo ASR 6.5.

MERA Systems Announces 2004 Milestones

TORONTO - MERA Systems announced performance results for 2004.

Pronexus Introduces VBVoice 5.3

OTTAWA, Canada - Pronexus Inc. released VBVoice 5.3, an application development environment for creating telephony applications.

Ai-Logix Signs Agreement with Accelerant Sales Group

MONTVILLE, N.J. - Ai-Logix has entered into an agreement with Accelerant Sales Group™.

Samsung Telecommunications America Debuts Phones with Speech-to-Text Capabilities

LAS VEGAS - Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung) introduced speech-to-text dictation on cell phones.

Telstra Launches Service Provider Solutions in the U.S. Market

NEW YORK - Telstra announced its new Service Provider Solutions offerings.

Women's Retailer Rings Up New Voice-Enabled Solution for Customer Gift Cards

Talbots created a new voice-enabled gift card balance application.

Asia Telecom Deploys MERA's Session Controller to Power Its International Calling Services

TORONTO - Asia Telecom has deployed MERA's MVTS Session Controller for delivery of international direct dialing services to customers in over 220 countries across the globe.

Sensory Launches Speech Recognition Technology for Embedded Applications

SANTA CLARA, Calif. - Sensory, Inc. released FluentChip™ technology for the RSC line of microcontrollers.

iVoice Delivers IVR Application Generator 3.0 with RDVE

MATAWAN, N.J. - iVoice, Inc. announced the release of its Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Application Generator 3.0 with an enhanced Rapid Development Visual Environment (RDVE).