copied from yahoo.....
Translation company or speech recognition
company ?????
by: jdcruyen
6123 of 6123
Goolie2 wrote:
My concern, besides the obvious accounting issues outstanding, is that I have yet to
see a ramp up in demmand for their technology. My greatest fear is that speech tech
is rapidly becomming a commodity. Dragon, L&H, IBM, Philips et al, offer speech
tech. Yes L&H is the leader in translation, but this historically has been a slow
growth business......
So my origninal reason to own L&H was for the speech and translation play, now
translation is the only play, and I don't know if there is alot of upside for L&H if it's a
translation company..........................
Your message is somewhat contradictory. You fear that speech technology will
become a commodity but on the other hand you fear that L&H is only a translation
company.
The answer is simple : L&H is a speech technology company AND a translation
company and the latter is a big advantage over competers like Dragon and IBM.
Why?? Because L&H can be certain of a stable and growing revenue in translation
business which provide them with enough money do further research in speech
technology. Personally, I believe that it is L&H that keeps the prices for speech
recognition so low for the moment, because they know that other companies (f.e.
Dragon) will become in trouble because they don't have other sources of revenue.
Look at the chemical industry, profit margins are low and unpredictable, that is the
reason that all these companies want a pharmaceutical division to be sure of a
non-cyclic revenue.
Furthermore, I do not agree that translation business will grow slowly. It is a market
that will explode!!! Even in Belgium, where we are so proud that a lot of people
speak different languages, I estimate that only a maximum of 10% of the people is
really speaking and understanding a little bit of English (of course most people
connected to the internet have basic bbut adequate English knowledge, but in
Belgium the majority of people on the internet are people with higher education and
not the working man on the street). If companies like f.e. Amazone will be a succes
here, they will need a flewish website, and in Danemark a Danish and in Poland
etc.... Think of the expansion of the European Community (now already 11
languages).
L&H is currently working on more than 30 languages!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Last remark: L&H is preparing to be a leader in artificial intelligence (AI). Since
artificial intelligence could no make the promises it claimed in the seventies, fa lot of
people are convinced that AI has no future. However, now technology (neural
networks, genetic algorithms) reached a point that AI can break through. What has
this to do with L&H?? Language is the basis of AI. I REPEAT: WITHOUT
NATURAL LANGUAGE UNDERSTANDING NO AI IS POSSIBLE. When you
can learn a language to a computer, this computer will be able to learn on its own
(f.e. reading all the web pages at an unbelievable speed). Don't think this is science
fiction: computers were also science fiction some 40 years ago. L&H is investing
rapidly in the field of artificial intelligence; look to their recent press releases.
Long on L&H.
Kenneth
Posted: Feb 12 1999 5:53AM EST as a reply to: Msg 6111 by Goolie2
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