SpeechWorks Upgrades Open Source VoiceXML Interpreter To Support Newly Released VoiceXML 2.0 Standard

Newsletters

Content

- Articles
- Columns
- Training
- Library
- Glossary

Career Center

- Career Center Home
- View Jobs
- Post A Job
- Resumes/CVs
- Resource Center

Marketplace

- Marketplace Home
- Software Products
- Wireless Market Data
- Technical Books

News

- Daily News
- Submit News
- Events Calendar
- Unsubscribe
- Delivery Options

Community

- Discussion Boards
- Mailing List
- Mailing List Archives

About Us

- About WirelessDevNet
- Wireless Source Disks
- Partners
- About MindSites Group, LLC
- Advertising Information

Wireless Developer Network - Daily News

SpeechWorks Upgrades Open Source VoiceXML Interpreter To Support Newly Released VoiceXML 2.0 Standard

URL(s): www.speechworks.com

BOSTON, Oct. 31, 2001-- Industry's Only Open Source VoiceXML Interpreter Complements SpeechWorks' OpenSpeech Product Suite, Popular Among Developers SpeechWorks International, Inc. (Nasdaq: SPWX), a global leader in speech recognition and text-to-speech (TTS) technologies and services, today announced the general availability of OpenVXI, an open source VoiceXML Interpreter that supports the VoiceXML 2.0 specification recently announced by the W3C. OpenVXI is available today as a free download from http://fife.speech.cs.cmu.edu/openvxi/. Since SpeechWorks announced an earlier version of OpenVXI based on the VoiceXML 1.0 specification in January 2001, over 1,000 developers have downloaded the software.

In addition to OpenVXI, SpeechWorks provides a complete line of products optimized for VoiceXML 2.0 in its OpenSpeech product line. SpeechWorks also offers an array of development services for VoiceXML applications, as well as an extensive training program and Rapid Prototyping Center focused on VoiceXML.

"Wingcast is designing the next generation of platforms for telematics services using SpeechWorks' VoiceXML-oriented products, including the OpenSpeech Recognizer and OpenSpeech Browser Platform Integration Kit," said Gilad Odinak, vice president, advanced technologies at Wingcast. "We are very impressed with SpeechWorks' products and support and they are critical to our advanced technology work." Wingcast, LLC (http://www.wingcast.com ) is dedicated to the development and delivery of advanced wireless applications and telematics services that deliver on the promise of `connected freedom' for mobile users both in and outside of vehicles.

Advanced VoiceXML Support

OpenVXI is a standards-based, open source package that allows developers to add VoiceXML capabilities to their products without having to develop that technology on their own. In addition, OpenVXI allows developers to track changes and additions to the VoiceXML standard over time. OpenVXI was first released in January 2001, and was based on the VoiceXML 1.0 specification. The upgrade, available today on the Carnegie Mellon website, supports the VoiceXML 2.0 specification and therefore includes many advanced aspects of the specification to provide a superior VoiceXML speech solution, such as:

--applications can be written without using proprietary extensions, allowing greater application portability;

--global language capabilities are now supported, including Asian double-byte characters;

--system monitoring through the -log- tag, providing a standards-based means for developers to refine applications quickly;

--Speech Synthesis Markup Languages (SSML) support for sophisticated text-to-speech audio responses;

--W3C speech recognition grammar format support for easy application development; and

--N-Best results for sophisticated recognition disambiguation, resulting in higher task completion rates.

Complements SpeechWorks' OpenSpeech Product Line, Created with SpeechWorks' VoiceXML Expertise

OpenVXI complements SpeechWorks' OpenSpeech product suite optimized for the VoiceXML 2.0 standard. OpenSpeech products include:

--OpenSpeech Recognizer(TM)speech recognition engine;

--OpenSpeech DialogModules application building blocks;

--OpenSpeech Browser Platform Integration Kit, developers' kit based on SpeechWorks' OpenVXI;

--OpenSpeech Server(TM) client-server architecture environment.

The SpeechWorks' OpenSpeech product line was developed to meet customers and partners' needs and further extends the Company's leadership in the VoiceXML industry. Since the VoiceXML forum began in October 1998, SpeechWorks has been an active participant on four committees. SpeechWorks engineers have helped create and edit the SSML and VoiceXML 2.0 specifications. In addition, the Company claims a series of product firsts related to VoiceXML including: the first to release a speech recognition engine optimized for VoiceXML (OpenSpeech Recognizer), the first standards-based VoiceXML objects (OpenSpeech DialogModules), the first open source code that implements VoiceXML (OpenVXI), and the first text-to-speech engine that supports SSML (Speechify(TM)). SpeechWorks continues its deep commitment to making VoiceXML products available that fully support standards and can operate with other vendors' technologies.

Recently, the ICCM (Incoming Call Center Management) 2001 Show and Call Center Magazine awarded SpeechWorks for its leading role in designing open solutions that adhere to the VoiceXML standard.

"SpeechWorks is pleased to offer a suite of VoiceXML product offerings," said Steve Chambers, vice president of worldwide marketing, SpeechWorks. "The powerful combination of our OpenSpeech product suite and OpenVXI, along with our Speechify text-to-speech and SpeechSecure(TM) speaker verification engines that can be integrated easily with VoiceXML, offers organizations a complete package with which to build worldclass, standards-based speech services."

Learn More About VoiceXML 2.0 at Free Web Seminar on Thursday, November 8th at 1:00 p.m. Eastern Time

Andrew Hunt, product architect at SpeechWorks and a noted contributor to the VoiceXML 2.0 specification, will conduct a free web seminar for those interested in learning more about VoiceXML 2.0 features and what the new standard means for companies deploying speech applications. Insight into integrating VoiceXML interpreters, building VoiceXML system architectures, and writing VoiceXML applications in the 2.0 specification will be offered. A Q&A session will follow. Interested parties may register at: http://www.speechworks.com/learn/seminars/on_the_web.cfm.

About SpeechWorks International, Inc.

Through the power of SpeechWorks technologies, the human voice is all a caller needs to access instant information and conduct transactions from any landline or wireless phone. Around the world, customer service innovators such as America Online, Credit Suisse First Boston, FedEx and TD Waterhouse Australia are realizing returns on SpeechWorks applications that consistently delight and serve customers 24 hours a day. With over 100 partners, SpeechWorks (Nasdaq: SPWX) delivers natural language speech recognition, speaker verification and text-to-speech (TTS) solutions to leading corporations, telecommunications providers and government organizations worldwide. For a description of our products, services and unique customer programs such as the SpeechWorks HereTM Guarantee, call 617.428.4444 or visit www.speechworks.com.

Sponsors