Speech Technology eWeekly - August 01, 2005

Talking Tech

Speech Driven Services at Higher Education Institutes

Guy Alon, marketing manager of NSC, explains how the higher education market can be a "huge potential of using speech recognition."

Speech Recognition and Language Learning: A User's Plea

James Wimberley explains, "A speech recognition module tuned too finely to native speakers would be frustrating for learners; one that trained itself to accept their mistakes uncritically would miss an important learning opportunity."

Voice Site Concepts 101: The Up and Down Arrows

Keep it simple. Such a straightforward goal, but one that is so often sacrificed in the search for engineering efficiency. My latest encounter with this penchant for complexity came in the form of the over-engineered elevator system at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, host to SpeechTEK 2005.

Speech Technology News

i-mate Offers Fonix VoiceDialT and VoiceCentralMobile Device Solutions

The Fonix Speech Group entered an agreement with i-mate.

VoiceGenie Positioned in the Visionary Quadrant for 2005 Enterprise Voice Portals and IVRs Magic Quadrant

NEW YORK - VoiceGenie Technologies Inc. has been positioned by Gartner, Inc. in the visionaries quadrant in the "Magic Quadrant for IVR Systems and Enterprise Voice Portals, 2005"1 report.

Voxify Hires Call Center Sales Executive

ALAMEDA, Calif. - Voxify appointed Roger Nunn as vice president of sales. Nunn has 25 years of enterprise sales leadership experience.

Vertical Communications Selects Vocalocity to Power IP-PBX

NEW YORK - Vertical Communications has selected Vocalocity OpenVXI to be the VoiceXML interpreter inside its integrated IP-PBX and voice application solution.

3PV Adopts Gateway and IP Recording Software from Paraxip Technologies

NEW YORK - Third Party Verification, Inc. (3PV) has selected Paraxip Technologies as its supplier of media gateway and IP call recording software for their next-generation hosted service infrastructure.

SalesForce Expands Customer Service Platform with Genesys to Support Additional 1000 Agents

SAN FRANCISCO - SalesForce expanded its contract with Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories to provide contact center software and services to support an additional 1000 agents across its e*smart call centers in Australia.

JumpStart Reading with Karaoke from Knowledge Adventure Hits Retail Outlets

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - Fonix VoiceIn Speech Interface enhances educational software product teaching kids to read using speech recognition.

Diebold Gives a Voice to Its ATMs

From Bobsguide.com - LONDON - Leveraging ScanSoft's RealSpeak text-to-speech (TTS) technology, Diebold provides accessibility at the ATM. The technology guides visually impaired users through transactions with voice.

Outrigger Hotels & Resorts Selects Echopass and Genesys

SAN FRANCISCO - Outrigger Hotels & Resorts will use Echopass solutions, which feature Genesys technology, to give its customers multi-channel customer service options.

Message Technologies Partners with Pronexus

Pronexus and Message Technologies have reached a reseller and hosting agreement.

Eicon's Diva Server to Enable SIP-based VoIP Telephony

NEW YORK - Eicon Networks Corporation will provide SIP-based gateway software to enable VoIP calls to traverse between Microsoft Office Communicator 2005 and legacy PBX systems by using Diva Server telephony adapters and Microsoft Office collaboration (RTC) applications.

Wizzard Software Releases New Addition to AT&T Offerings

NEW YORK - Wizzard Software Corp. released the newest addition to their AT&T offerings, AT&T Natural Voices for Apple Mac OS v.10.3 Panther and v.10.4 Tiger.

Nationwide Automates Phone Banking with Speech

From Banking Technology - The UK's Nationwide Building Society has gone live with new phone banking technology which gives customers access to self-service telephone banking using speech recognition as well as traditional touchtone controls.

Speech Tools to Be Added to Exchange

From ComputerWeekly.com - Tash Shifrin reports that "Speech technologies will be integrated into future versions of Microsoft Exchange Server."

NewVoiceMedia and telisma Sign UK Speech Recognition Deal

LAVERSTOKE, U.K. - NewVoiceMedia signed an agreement with telisma to deploy 1,700 ports of telisma's speech recognition technology in the UK.

Audium and ClickFox Partner to Offer IVR Solution with Feedback/Design Loop

NEW YORK and ATLANTA - Audium and ClickFox released an integrated solution to provide Audium customers with an IVR design environment with continuous improvement capability.

Newfound Communications Releases the Newfound Outbound Call Queue Engine 1.0

NEW YORK - Newfound Communications released the Newfound Outbound Call Queue Engine 1.0 (OCQE).

Phonologies Releases Voice Blaster

MUMBAI, India - Phonologies released Voice Blaster Solution, which has the option to capture customer feedback via speech recognition.

The PELORUS Group Recognizes Witness Systems for Recording Solutions

ATLANTA - According to the June 2005 "World Contact Center Recording Systems Market" report published by The PELORUS Group, Witness Systems holds a 35 percent share in the recording software and services global market. Additionally, the report shows Witness Systems having a 46 percent share in the selective recording global market.

Queen's Student Receives Microsoft Excellence Award

Queen's University Computer Science graduate Ióseph O Loingsigh, from Four Winds in Belfast, is the first ever winner of a major national award.

West Awarded VoiceXML 2.0 Certification

West's VoiceXML Platform has been awarded 2.0 certification by the VoiceXML Forum.

TuVox Certifies Its Speech Applications on IBM's WebSphere Voice Server

CUPERTINO, Calif. - TuVox certified its speech application on the IBM WebSphere Voice Server and IBM WebSphere Application Server for TuVox conversational speech applications.

Apptec Voice Solutions Releases Digital Dictation System

NEW YORK - Apptec Voice Solutions released a new Brooktrout based speech platform for its next generation of digital dictation and transcription products.

Aspect Communications and TuVox Enable Contact Center Deployment of Speech-Enabled Voice Self-Service

NEW YORK - Aspect Communications Corporation and TuVox team to enable deployment of speech-enabled voice self-service.

The Speech-Enabled Maps of Teleatlas- PhonoMultiNet Are Now Compliant With Loquendo Speech Technologies

TURIN, Italy - The speech-enabled maps of TeleAtlas are now compliant with Loquendo's speech technologies.

Sonum Technologies Releases Machine Translation and Call Analytics

Sonum Technologies unveiled its beta release of two new product lines.

Newfound Communications Releases the Newfound MediaMixer 1.3 [VoiceXML Edition]

NEW YORK - Newfound Communications released the Newfound MediaMixer 1.3 [VoiceXML Edition].

CPT International and Vocalocity Partner to Deliver Hosted VoiceXML Solutions

ATLANTA - CPT International and Vocalocity plan to add Vocalocity's VoiceXML Voice Browser and GUI application development environment to CPT's Voice Harbor application hosting infrastructure.

iVoice Partners with HTIS

HTIS has become an authorized reseller of the iVoice Speech Enabled Auto Attendant.

CITEC Integrates Loquendo Speech Technologies With Aspect's Customer Self-Service Application

Loquendo and CITEC integrated Loquendo's multilingual text-to-speech and automatic speech recognition engines with the Aspect* Customer Self-Service (CSS) interactive voice response (IVR) application.

Wizzard Software Provides the Voice "Response" for VoiceGate Emergency Alert System with AT&T Natural Voices for Server

VoiceGate has licensed AT&T's Natural Voices TTS SDK for Server to incorporate into their emergency message alert system, aptly named "The Emergency Response."

Loquendo TTS and ASR Technologies Now Support MRCP v2

Loquendo's speech technologies support Media Resource Control Protocol (MRCP) v2 Loquendo through its software-only server solution Loquendo Speech Suite 7.0.

Frost & Sullivan Names BeVocal Product Differentiation Innovation Award Recipient

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - BeVocal has received Frost & Sullivan's Product Differentiation Innovation Award.

Message Technologies Announces Strategic Partnership with ifbyphone

As a result of this agreement, MTI will provide speech IVR hosting services to ifbyphone, a new media company focused on the distribution of recorded and text-based information and family friendly entertainment via voice.

VeCommerce Continues Its Expansion in New Zealand

VeCommerce Limited continues its global expansion with the opening of its newest office in Wellington and Jack Riley joins VeCommerce as business development manager.

Loquendo Presents VoxNauta 7.0.

TURIN, Italy - Loquendo released Voice Platform solution, VoxNauta 7.0, a voice platform that allows the optimal exploitation of Loquendo TTS, Loquendo ASR, and Loquendo Speaker Verification technologies.

GM Voices Enhances Remote Direction System

GM Voices has enhanced its capabilities to include its customers in the recording process with its Remote Direction System.

Newfound Communications and Voice Partners Enter Partnership

BOSTON, Mass. and PALO ALTO, Calif. - Newfound Communications and Voice Partners, LLC partnered to improve the audio experience over-the-phone using the Newfound MediaMixer 1.3 [VoiceXML edition].

Pronexus and Aculab Introduce EasiVoIP

OTTAWA, Canada & MILTON KEYNES, U.K. - Pronexus Inc. and Aculab released EasiVoIP - a starter kit for enterprise application software in VoIP that enables developers to create and test software-based IP telephony applications.

BOC Gases Partner Network and their Agent Support Center Selects VeCommerce for a Voice-enabled Self-service System

The system, named AVRIL, which stands for Automated Voice Response Information Line, was developed to automate account status, sales transactions and credit card payments.

IBM and Avaya Team to Integrate Audio with Collaboration Tools

SOMERS, N.Y. & BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - IBM and Avaya entered an agreement to integrate Avaya audio based communication within IBM's enterprise email, Web conferencing and instant messaging offerings.

West Selects Vocalocity to Support Its VoiceXML Platform

West has selected Vocalocity software to support VoiceXML within its speech-enabled customer care solutions.

Audium and Voice Partners Enter Strategic Partnership

NEW YORK and PALO ALTO, Calif. - Audium and Voice Partners, LLC entered a strategic partnership to improve over-the-phone speech-enabled services by combining Voice Partners' experience in voice user interface design with Audium's VoiceXML application software.

Eicon Networks and Vocalocity Enter Voice Browser Alliance

NEW YORK - Eicon Networks Corporation and Vocalocity have entered into a strategic OEM alliance.

Emblaze Mobile Phones to Use Silent Communication Software

Silent Communications' solution makes it possible to complete wireless calls when a party is unavailable using TTS.

VISA Desjardins Selects BCE Elix and Nü Echo Help to Manage Customers on the Move

MONTREAL, Québec - VISA Desjardins deployed a BCE Elix and Nu Echo solution to automate its change of address calls.

New Avaya IP Self Service Solutions Deliver Communications Through Speech Automation

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - Avaya Inc. released the next generation of its Internet protocol (IP)-based speech self service solutions.

Envox Worldwide Adds CPT International as a Partner to Deliver Hosted Voice Solutions

WESTBOROUGH, Mass. & ATLANTA, Ga. - Envox Worldwide has added CPT International as a partner.

Eastern Distributing Acquires SRT Distribution

Eastern Distributing acquired the speech recognition distribution company, SRT Distribution.

Brooktrout, Esnatech and Iwatsu Partner to Provide Speech-Enabled Unified Messaging Solution

NEW YORK - Brooktrout Technology, Esnatech, and Iwatsu released a speech-enabled unified messaging solution for small to medium businesses.

CPT International and Vocalocity Partner to Deliver Hosted VoiceXML Solutions

ATLANTA - CPT International and Vocalocity plans to add Vocalocity's VoiceXML Voice Browser and GUI application development environment to CPT's Voice Harbor application hosting infrastructure.

VoiceXML Platform Certification Program Gains Momentum

NEW YORK - The VoiceXML Forum announced that 12 companies have certified VoiceXML platform implementations through the Forum's Platform Certification Program.

iVoice Executes National Distribution Agreement with Comdial

Comdial has become a direct distributor of the iVoice Speech Enabled Auto Attendant.

Brooktrout Technology and Apptec Voice Partner

NEW YORK - Apptec Voice Solutions has selected Brooktrout's speech platform for its next generation of digital dictation and transcription services.

CYGCOM Supports MicrosoftSpeech Server with SpeechWatch Release

CYGCOM unveiled Release 1.2 of the SpeechWatch Monitoring, Alarming and Notification Console for the Microsoft Speech Server environment.

Adeptra Standardizes on Envox 6 for New Auto-Resolution Services

Adeptra has standardized on Envox 6, the company's communications development platform, for their new Auto-Resolution Services for Collections, a virtual contact center solution featuring next generation two-way voice and alerting capabilities.

TuVox Launches Global Expansion and Hires Industry Veteran to Manage International Expansion

CUPERTINO, Calif. - TuVox launched its global operations, including establishment of its international headquarters in the United Kingdom, and appointed Alexander Evans to the position of international managing director.

Auckland District Health Board Selects VeCommerce

Auckland District Health Board (ADHB) has signed a contract with VeCommerce Limited to provide a voice self-service solution with the goal of automating 45 percent of general calls currently answered within their contact center.

VoiceGenie Launches the VoiceGenie 7.0 VoiceXML Media Platform

NEW YORK - VoiceGenie Technologies Inc. released the VoiceGenie 7.0 Media Platform.

SPIRIT-DSP Powers Macromedia Flash for Multi-point Voice Conferencing

SAN FRANCISCO - SPIRIT's voice products are integrated into Macromedia Breeze 5, to ensure voice quality in a Flash-based enterprise communication and collaboration solution.

Brooktrout Enters Agreement to be Acquired by EAS Group

Brooktrout, Inc. has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by EAS Group, Inc., the privately held parent of Excel Switching Corporation. Brooktrout will host a conference call, August 18, 2005, at 10:00 a.m. EST to discuss the transaction.

TuVox Launches Voice-Enabled Knowledge Base Speech Applications and CVR 5.0 Lifecycle Management Suite

CUPERTINO, Calif. - TuVox released its Voice-Enabled Knowledge Base speech applications and its CVR 5.0 Lifecycle Management Suite.

NSC Adds Spanish-US Support to its ASR Engine

RISHON LEZION, Israel - Natural Speech Communication Ltd.'s (NSC) ASR engine supports Spanish as spoken in large parts of the US (Spanish-US).