Form RB By: mmbull
Reply To: NoneWednesday, 27 Oct 1999 at 12:09 PM EDT
Post # of 87371
IBM Voice Times news
News October 27, 11:15 Eastern Time
(NOK.A) IBM and Nokia to Collaborate on Speech Technology Research and Development: IBM Unveils New Speech Industry Developments with VoiceTIMES
NEW YORK, Oct 27, 1999 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- IBM and Nokia today extended
their global partnership to include shared research and development for
the growth of speech recognition in the mobile marketplace.
The two companies, together, hope to drive the proliferation of open
industry standards for speech technologies and will collaborate on a
wide range of speech technology projects in the areas of speech
recognition, conversational systems, text to speech and speaker
recognition. IBM and Nokia will also share resources for long-term
research and development, with a focus on VoiceXML, multi-modal
Internet browsing, and other speech-enabled applications.
In addition, IBM also led the introduction of the first audio
specifications for digital recorders, making it easier for companies to
speech-enable mobile devices. The collaboration between IBM and Nokia
-- as well as the availability of audio specifications for digital
recorders and speech recognition applications from the Voice Technology
Initiative for Mobile Enterprise Solutions (VoiceTIMES) -- are key
components to IBM's overall initiative to drive open standards and make
speech a common interface for mobile devices.
"The speech interface will become an important, integrated part of
future personal mobile terminals and a wide variety of communications
services. The partnership with IBM for developing VoiceXML based
solutions is consistent with Nokia's strategy to bring the Internet to
everyone's pocket. With the help of IBM's extensive portfolio of speech
technologies in different languages Nokia will continue to lead in user
interface innovation in both terminals and applications," says Mr.
Juhani Kuusi, Senior Vice President, Nokia Research Center.
In connection with the speech technology partnership, Nokia has
licensed IBM's ViaVoice Directory Dialer, which allows the company to
deliver automated directory assistance and call routing. Users need
only dial one phone number and, after a quick prompt, state the name of
the person they want to call; the caller is then connected to that
person's extension, or provided requested information such as e-mail
address, pager or fax number. IBM's ViaVoice Directory Dialer enables
universal access to data quickly and easily.
"By forging innovative relationships with industry leaders such as
Nokia, IBM is making it easier for the increasing number of mobile
users to gain access to information anytime from anywhere. Our goal in
developing these industry relationships is to accelerate the growth of
speech recognition beyond the PC and make it easy to use on any mobile
device," says W.S. "Ozzie" Osborne, general manager, IBM Speech and Pen
Systems. "Working closely with Nokia and VoiceTIMES will further
enhance open standards to make speech the common interface."
VoiceTIMES Specifications
IBM and the seven inaugural VoiceTIMES members have developed
comprehensive audio specifications for digital recorders and speech
recognition applications. These specifications will make it easy and
cost-effective for mobile users to compute from any hand-held device.
The open specifications offer technical guidelines for companies
integrating voice technology into their mobile solutions and enterprise
computing software. The goal of the VoiceTIMES specifications is to
accelerate the acceptance of speech technology as the universal
interface for today's mobile devices from digital recorders to the
Smart Phone and beyond. The specifications are available for download
at ibm.com.
"Speech technology is critical for computer users as well as
corporations and enterprise computing environments," says Jim Forbes,
executive editor, Demo Letter. "Hardware and speech recognition
technology will converge in the near future. Speech and voice
recognition technologies can be used to build intuitive interfaces and
enterprise applications as well as client-based systems that make
computing easier and more instinctive. VoiceTIMES and the
specifications will play a large role in making that happen."
IBM strategic relationships and alliances have helped move speech
beyond the desktop by incorporating voice recognition technologies into
other products that create a more natural human-to-computer interface.
Just like VoiceXML, Java and ViaVoice for Linux, the IBM/Nokia
relationship and the VoiceTIMES specifications are the next steps for
IBM driving open standards technology to one day eliminate the
complexity of doing business enterprise-wide.
At SpeechTEK Show in New York City, IBM demonstrated a variety of
leading-edge technologies, including the first VoiceXML-enabled Web
browser, which allows you to access the Web via the telephone.
Developers now have the tools needed to create and test voice-enabled
sites and applications. IBM is currently supporting selected customers
to create pilot applications and encourages developers to download code
from IBM's alphaWorks site at alphaworks.ibm.com.
About IBM
As a pioneer in speech recognition, the company is focused on
developing and supporting open standards that help accelerate the
creation of content, servers and browsers that allow speech recognition
technology to be easily integrated into voice, data and applications
infrastructures. IBM's ViaVoice speech recognition technology is based
on 30 years of speech recognition research and development. With a
portfolio of more than 100 patents, an established R&D business
worldwide and a robust, proven speech technology available in many
languages, IBM is a worldwide leader in speech recognition.
About Nokia Nokia is paving the way to the mobile information society
with its innovative products and solutions. Nokia is the leading mobile
phone supplier and a leading supplier of mobile, fixed and IP networks
including related services. It also supplies multimedia terminals and
computer displays. In 1998, net sales totaled EUR 13.3 billion (USD
15.7 billion). Headquartered in Finland, Nokia is listed on the New
York (NOK), Helsinki, Stockholm, London, Frankfurt and Paris stock
exchanges and employs more than 53,000 people.
For more information:
Visit IBM's Web site at www.ibm.com/software/speech or contact Nokia,
Corporate Communications Tel. + 358 9 1807 459
Certain matters discussed in this release contain forward looking
statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties. IBM
assumes no obligation to update the information in this release. In
addition, the following risks and uncertainties should be considered:
This announcement describes an MOU, which is not legally binding on the
parties. Numerous issues relating to joint research and development and
service efforts contemplated in the MOU have yet to be worked out.
There can be no assurance that the parties will be able to resolve all
outstanding issues and sign any additional definitive agreements
contemplated in the MOU. |
