Maybe they will announce something along these lines:
Can You Hold It Down? My PC's Talking To Me
By Jim Forbes
REDMOND, Wash. -- Microsoft is inching closer to its stated goal of
making technologies such as speech recognition and social interfaces
part of mainstream Windows computing. Earlier this month, the company
turned on Microsoft Agent, a software tool set you can use to create
animated characters that can interact with you as you work on your
computer. (Microsoft Agent can be found online in the developer section
of the company site.) Program manager Tandy Trower, who oversees Agent,
said the code needed to create software agents is already in the hands
of some commercial developers and site creators who plan to use it in
forthcoming applications and on commercial Websites.
For the past few years, Microsoft chairman and co-founder Bill Gates has
publicly demonstrated prototype agents that could appear in future
Microsoft applications. In addition, the company has implemented this
technology in at least two programs -- the ill-fated Microsoft Bob from
its consumer products division, and Microsoft Office 97, which includes
an animated software agent.
Microsoft Agent's newest release is accompanied by software libraries
that let developers create their own characters that use speech.
Developers can use existing characters Microsoft previously created.
Agent also includes technology that helps the developers synchronize the
animated characters' mouths to spoken words.
So far, however, Microsoft is the only company that's put its agent
technology to work in commercial applications. Trower said other
developers are also working on programs that will use this technology,
and that users can expect to see products later in 1998. Of course, the
technology could just as easily appear before then on another Microsoft
product. Sources close to the company said the latest version of
Microsoft's Internet browser, IE 4.0, could include a software agent
module.
Another hot technology, automatic speech-to-text conversion, is about to
become a commercial reality. Later this fall, Microsoft is expected to
announce that Win CE 2.0 will support a feature that lets some devices
transform speech on handheld PCs into text that can be displayed on
screen and is even stored in the device. At least two companies --
including Philips, maker of the Velo -- are considering adding support
for this feature on the next version of their hardware.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is increasingly turning to outside agencies and
organizations to popularize social interface technology as part of the
Windows computing experience. Much underlying research for Microsoft
Agent's animated characters was done at Stanford University in
California. And the company recently signed a deal with text-to-speech
developers Lernout and Hauspie. |
