Warwickshire Council deploys automated Speech Dialler to drive service efficiency

[nik's note: they say "Dialler" but it seems they really mean "Auto Attendant". Oh well, it seems speech technology still remains a mystery to some... ]

Warwickshire County Council (WCC) has invested in a Macfarlane automated Speech Dialler in the latest stage of its Service Transformation programme. The Dialler will answer incoming customer calls with an automated greeting and then ask callers for the name of the person they wish to speak to. Using advanced speech recognition techniques, the system will then match spoken names to those contained in its database, and route calls through to the correct telephone extensions. [click heading for more]

Eckoh on the right track with new deal

[nik's note:]

Technology developed Eckoh plc and BT is being used to underpin a new text-based rail journey planning service from National Rail Enquiries.
TrainTracker Text (TTT), which went live in April, is the SMS equivalent of National Rail’s automated speech service TrainTracker and allows customers to obtain real-time arrival and departure information for UK journeys.Hemel Hempstead-based Eckoh and BT have been strategic partners in speech recognition for last five years and were both behind the launch of TrainTracker in January 2005, which currently handles an average 15,000 calls a day and up to 50,000 calls per day during severe rail service disruptions.TTT will be fully integrated with National Rail Enquiries’ journey planning engine, ensuring that up to the minute and consistent information is given to travellers, irrespective of channel. It uses the same ‘built in intelligence’ as the speech service to recognise callers and to anticipate their requests. [click heading for more]

Telesoft OKEFORD VoiceXML 2.0 compliant

BLANDFORD, ENGLAND: Telesoft Technologies, a leading provider of carrier-grade next generation Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems, announced that its OKEFORD Media Platform has been certified as VoiceXML 2.0 compliant by the VoiceXML Forum. The VoiceXML Forum is a global industry organization chartered to promote and to accelerate the adoption of VoiceXML-based applications. [click heading for more]

Nuance alleges Vlingo infringed on its patents

Nuance Communications Inc., a Burlington maker of speech-recognition products, has sued the Cambridge start-up Vlingo Corp., alleging patent infringement. The lawsuit, filed in US District Court in Texas, seeks monetary damages and an order against any continued infringement. Vlingo, which develops speech-recognition technology for mobile phones, raised $20 million in April in a funding round led by Yahoo Inc. A spokesman would not say how much money Nuance's suit seeks. A Vlingo spokeswoman said only that the company is reviewing the lawsuit.

Speech Recognition and Text to Speech Comes to Manhattan

speech technology provider Loquendo (News - Alert) has announced the opening of new offices on Fifth Avenue in New York City.

The new NYC offices will become the company's operational base for the North American markets and will help to strengthen the company's presence on the East Coast.

Headquartered in Turin, Italy, Loquendo is a Telecom Italia company. Their new U.S. offices are located in Sparkle’s American headquarters on the 27th floor at 745, Fifth Avenue. Sparkle American is a global connectivity and service provider of the Telecom Italia Group.

Loquendo offers a number of languages and voices with more always in development. These include: U.S. and U.K. English, Canadian French, French, American Spanish, Mexican, Chilean and Argentinean Spanish, Castilian, Catalan, Valencian, Galician, Brazilian, Portuguese, Italian, Esperanto, German, Dutch, Greek, Mandarin Chinese, Swedish, Turkish, and Polish in both male and female voices. [click heading for more]

Mobile Startup Yap Secures $6.5 Million in Series A Funding

Yap Incorporated is pleased to announce that it has secured $6.5 million in Series A financing. Led by SunBridge Partners, the round also features participation by Harbert Venture Partners, Pittco Capital Partners, and existing individual investors. Yap will use the capital to fuel expansion of its business and accelerate its advanced research and development initiatives. As part of the round, partners from SunBridge and Harbert are joining Yap's Board of Directors, with Timothy Biltz continuing to serve as Chairman of the Board. "Yap is truly a leader in freeform speech recognition and driving innovation in the mobile user experience," said Paul Grim, General Partner at SunBridge Partners. "It is increasingly clear that the fastest, easiest, and safest way to interact with services on a mobile device is using your voice, and Yap makes this both possible and intuitive. We are excited to help them deliver on a vision in which carriers, device makers, and web portals are all able to provide an entirely new experience for their users." [click heading for more]

Robot Asimo can understand three voices at once

Advanced humanoid robot Asimo just got a new superpower – it can understand three humans shouting at once.
For now the modified Asimo's new ability are being used to judge rock-paper-scissors contests, where three people call out their choices at once. But the number of voices and the complexity of the sentences the software can deal with should grow in future. [click heading for more]

Voice search for the iPhone? Maybe someday

For years, people have wondered when they would be able to voice a command to a digital device, have it understand the query, and respond with some degree of intelligence. That day still isn't here, but speech-technology companies like Nuance are working on it.
On Tuesday, Nuance, maker of Dragon Naturally Speaking for the desktop, said that it has developed a prototype for voice search on Apple's iPhone. In August, the company plans to start selling a downloadable application for the iPhone that lets them speak a question to the phone to retrieve search results from Google or another search engine, according to Steve Chambers, Nuance's president of mobile and consumer services. Chambers said that Nuance hasn't set a price for the application yet. [click heading for more]

IVR: Hosted, On-premises, or Both?

Hosted solutions and SaaS models have recently garnered a lot of attention, largely because of the cost benefits they offer. Of course, the on-premises market is still thriving as well. But an interesting hybrid has also emerged, with companies like Voxeo, which offers both on-premises and hosted solutions that enable businesses to develop and deploy voice applications for a variety of uses easily and quickly — and affordably. [click heading for more]

Mobile Search: Look, Ma, No Hands

No matter how the soap opera of Microsoft's (MSFT) efforts to acquire Yahoo! (YHOO) turns out, there's one area where a merger would clearly benefit consumers. Both companies have launched voice-based mobile search services, and Yahoo oneSearch and Microsoft Tellme have strengths and weaknesses that neatly complement each other.
At best, it will be a long time before these services are consolidated. In the meantime, consumers can take advantage of two interesting experiments in speech recognition. [click heading for more]