Voice recognition
Talking around the Web becomes a reality
From: Infoworld - September 13, 1999 - page 10
By Ephraim Schwartz

As the number of users browsing the Web, using e-mail, and sending instant
messages surpasses the number of people using word processors,
voice-technology companies are ramping up their efforts. 

Next month, Lernout & Hauspie (L&H), one of the three leading
voice-technology software developers, will introduce Now You're Talking on
the Web, a $50 software package that will allow users to dictate to Microsoft
Outlook, Lotus Notes, and other e-mail packages, as well as letting users
input Web links and instant messages. 

While voice-based desktop Web browsing may not be compelling, voice command
promises to become the only practical solution for cellular phones and
handheld devices without usable keyboards. 

"Messaging is the killer app for mobile data services," said David Hayden, a
senior analyst at Mobile Insights, in Mountain View, CA. 

The L&H package will also feature what Paul McNulty, product manager at L&H,
calls a new language model for instant messaging that understands chat jargon. 

"If I say 'by the way' in instant- message mode, 'BTW' will appear on the
screen rather than spelling out the entire phrase," McNulty said. 

The package will also include Web command and control features and the
ability to number all links to facilitate movement between sites. 

Last week, IBM's speech division announced ViaVoice Millennium in three
versions: Web, Standard and Pro. Both the Web and Pro versions give users
speech-enabled Web browsing for America Online Microsoft Internet Explorer,
or Netscape products. Other new features include an acoustic-learning
capability, which increases the accuracy of voice recognition over time by
learning to adjust to a users intonation and regional accent. 

Users will also be able to use speech-to-text in online chat rooms and create
emoticons with voice commands. The estimated street price of ViaVoice
Standard Millennium is $59.95; ViaVoice Web Millennium is $79.95; and
ViaVoice Pro Millennium is $179. Products are shipping now. 

Dragon Systems was the first to ship its voice-control of the Web in Version
4 of Dragon Naturally Speaking last month. Prices for its products start at
about $99. 

Roger Matus, vice president of marketing at Dragon, maintains a very
realistic view of voice recognition on the Web. 

"Speech vendors are trying to learn how they are going to interact with the
Web. Talking to a graphical user interface on a PC is not the ultimate
solution. The question is, where is it going to go?" Matus said. 

Matus suggests, like Hayden, that the answer is in telephones and handheld
devices. But the future of voice control on the desktop is also being widely
debated. 

"Desktop speech recognition has to be perfect and it has to make sense, a lot
of sense, for its use in a particular situation," said Bill Hills, a senior
analyst with the Aberdeen Group, in Boston. 

"Voice control will come in a gradual series of steps that will bring us to a
full command and control PC. This will be important and highly valuable in
special situations," Hills said. 

Lernout & Hauspie, in Burlington, MA, can be reached at http://www.lhs.com.
IBM Corp., in Armonk, NY, can be reached at http://www.ibm.com. Dragon
Systems Inc., in Newton, MA, can be reached at http://www.dragonsys.com. 


Talking around the Web

Voice-control features are now available for Web browsing, sending and
receiving e-mail, and using instant-messaging. 

Users say a URL to access a Web site 

Numbered graphical links for easy access 

The ability to put spoken emoticons in messages 

Text-to-speech technology for instant messaging 

Spoken access to address books
