SpeechWorks Expands Voice Offerings for Speechify; The Industry's Most Natural Sounding Text-to-Speech Software

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Wireless Developer Network - Daily News

SpeechWorks Expands Voice Offerings for Speechify; The Industry's Most Natural Sounding Text-to-Speech Software

New, Synthesized U.S. English Voice "Speechify Tom" Seamlessly Integrates with Recorded Prompts Creating An Engaging and Cost-Effective Dialog with Callers

BOCA RATON, Fla., Oct 7, 2002 - SpeechWorks International, Inc. (Nasdaq: SPWX), the global leader in speech technologies and services, today introduced Speechify Tom, a synthesized U.S. English male voice for its award-winning, Speechify(TM) 2.1 text-to-speech (TTS) software.

Speechify 2.1 software offers the industry's most natural sounding TTS for network-based applications and delivers significant cost savings in place of expensive studio recordings. In addition, Speechify Tom seamlessly integrates with the recorded prompts of a speech service to create an engaging dialog with callers resulting in a natural and engaging caller experience.

Speechify Tom is the latest voice offering for SpeechWorks Speechify 2.1 TTS software, which converts text into spoken language for delivery over any phone and communications device. Speechify 2.1 is ideal for network-based applications, allowing users to for example, listen to email and calendar appointments, or hear account information, news, weather, traffic updates and other dynamic information on demand. To hear for yourself how natural Speechify Tom can sound, visit http://www.speechworks.com/demos/speechify.cfm.

"Speechify Tom provides best-in-class voice quality that really shines through its delivery of information in a smooth, natural sounding manner," said Jonathan McIntosh, Senior Vice-President, Operations and Technology at West Corporation, a leading provider of integrated, outsourced customer care solutions. "We expect customers will find Speechify Tom to be approachable and easy to interact with, creating a pleasant experience for callers of our speech services."

Organizations can combine Speechify Tom - or a uniquely created custom voice based on Speechify 2.1 software - with recorded prompts from an automated speech recognition (ASR) application. This capability - allowing the same voice talent to be used for both TTS and ASR- seamlessly integrates TTS and real speech into one application, enabling a more natural dialog to take place with callers. It also adds flexibility to applications because edits and updates can be made instantly, and lowers the cost of speech services because less studio recording time is required.

"Speechify Tom further demonstrates that voices of extremely high quality can be developed for organizations that want to use a unique, branded voice in their speech services," said Steve Chambers, chief marketing officer at SpeechWorks. "This capability will accelerate the role of TTS throughout the enterprise by delivering speech services that reinforce a corporate identity across multiple customer touch-points."

Speechify uses concatenated speech synthesis where segments of recorded human voice are used to speak out the text. The product also uses advanced unit selection algorithms to model voice quality and overall rhythm and intonation and, as a result, produces a synthetic voice that sounds highly natural, and is difficult to distinguish from actual voice recordings.

Text-to-Speech Leadership

Speechify is the North American TTS market leader in quality, deployments and integration with other speech technologies. Speechify customers include America Online, Bell Canada, Microsoft, National Weather Service and Yahoo!.

SpeechWorks also provides TTS software for embedded applications in mobile devices, handsets, PDA's, telematics, set-top boxes and home entertainment systems. SpeechWorks embedded TTS software products include Speechify Solo(TM) software for devices that can support memory from 4MB to 16 MB; and ETI-Eloquence(TM) software for applications requiring less than 2MB of memory.

Pricing and Availability

Speechify 2.1 software is available today in U.S. English, UK English, French, Japanese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and German. Currently in development are voices in Australian English and Canadian French. Custom voices are available upon request.

Speechify software is priced at $650 per port. Speechify 2.1 is compliant with Microsoft's SAPI 5.x and the SSML (Speech Synthesis Markup Language) standards. Please contact your SpeechWorks sales representative for more information.

About SpeechWorks

Organizations around the world trust SpeechWorks to manage their customer conversations. As the leading provider of speech technologies and services, SpeechWorks helps companies create and implement unique Speech Strategies that ensure maximum financial return and the highest levels of caller satisfaction. The Company provides speech recognition, text-to-speech (TTS) and speaker verification for network and embedded environments, including new multimodal devices with both an audio interface and visual display. SpeechWorks' customers include carriers, corporations and government organizations, such as America Online, Citibank Europe, CIBC Bank, IRS, Microsoft, and United Airlines. For more information, please call 617.428.4444 or visit www.speechworks.com.

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