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To: cool who wrote (6283)	6/7/1999 6:00:00 PM
From: cool	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10081

Jun 07, 1999 (Tech Web - CMP via COMTEX) -- Speech and language technology developer Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products (L&H) plansto launch a joint-development partnership with Intel later this month that will focus on natural-language products and systems. As part of the effort, both companies will concentrate on developing systems with embedded real-time speech-recognition capabilities that will be enabled for use over the Internet. These systems will also make use of telephony technologies to enable users to call into Internet-based systems and corporate Web servers to retrieve information without using a computer. The technology and related products are scheduled to ship this fall. Information will be retrieved by voice commands, translated via natural-language technologies, and then transcribed back to the user, said Gaston Bastiaens, L&H CEO and president. "The technology will allow us to communicate with computers over the telephone with natural-language conversational dialogue, communicate with a server, and the server will respond intelligently," he said from L&H's world headquarters in Belgium. "This technology is also very important to the expansion of electronic-commerce business." L&H plans to demonstrate its real-time Multi-Lingual Chat technology for the first time in public this week at the TechTalks speech conference and exhibition in Boston. A key aspect of the software is its ability to learn a user's voice patterns in five minutes or less and then respond to questions and queries in the user's voice, Bastiaens said. Previously, this learning curve took up to a half hour. L&H signed the joint-venture agreement with Intel in early May to develop e-commerce and telephony solutions using the company's speech and language technologies. These include L&H's Natural Language Technology, intelligent content management, and machine translation and speech synthesis. "Combining Intel's leadership in the high-performance, connected computing platforms together with L&H's leading technologies presents exciting possibilities for Web-based products and services," said Ron Whittier, senior vice president and general manager of Intel's Content Group. Target devices include stand-alone and client/server PCs, connected smart devices, and the wireless telephones. Under terms of the agreement, 51 percent of the new venture -- based in both Santa Clara and the Flanders Valley facility in Ieper, Belgium -- will be owned by Intel and 49 percent by L&H. These facilities will be staffed by employees from both companies. L&H also maintains a U.S. headquarters in Burlington, Mass. In April, Intel signed a letter of intent to invest $30 million in L&H in the form of non-voting securities and non-interest-bearing convertible bonds into L&H common stock. L&H continues to work with a number of technology partners in developing and marketing its speech products, especially in medical and call-center applications. Since 1996, L&H also has expanded its business beyond technology development into systems integration. The company now has three divisions: Technologies and Solutions, Applications and Consulting, and Services. Revenue for L&H's first quarter, ended March 21, was $70.7 million, an increase of 10 percent over reported revenue of $35.1 million for the year-ago quarter.