During the first and second quarters of 1998, Lernout & Hauspie will invest
$10 million to add Japanese and Chinese to its machine dictation service, and
$10-$20 million to add Japanese and Chinese to its machine translation
service, Bastiaens said.
Lernout & Hauspie operates in four related speech and language business
segments. The company is unique in that it offers products incorporating all
core types of speech technology, including speech recognition, which enables
computers to understand voice instructions, text-to-speech, which translates
written text into a humanoid electronic voice, and digital speech compression,
which lets computers compress, store and transmit data input vocally.
Core technologies, or speech technologies licensed to other software
companies for use in their products, accounted for 29% of total revenue in
1997, while dictation generated 27%, translation 32%, and machine translation
12%.
'In 1998, core technologies' licensing should (generate) 30%, with the
development of car navigation becoming very important in it,' Bastiaens said.
Bastiaens said that in four to five years the majority of cars will be
equipped with an Auto personal computer.
In January, L&H said its speech technology was compatible with Microsoft
Windows CE applications, a user interface used to activate and control the
Auto PC.
'We will in relation with Microsoft continue to develop the car navigation
system,' Bastiaens said.
Bastiaens pointed out that the short-term cooperation with Microsoft will
focus on further cooperation in data gathering and in installing more L&H
voice command products in Microsoft's operating systems. |
