old but good article:
New Devices: The Smaller: Loud And Clear: Speech-Enabled Mobile Units, Standards Alliance Make Their Debut
Jennifer Hagendorf
San Diego -- Speech-enabled mobile devices were a hot topic at the Demo-Mobile 99 conference, held here this month.
While some vendors showcased new products, other companies announced the formation of an alliance to push the development of standards for speech-enabled mobile devices.
Founding members of the Voice Technology Initiative for Mobile Enterprise Solutions (VoiceTIMES) alliance are Dictaphone Corp., Stratford, Conn.; e.Digital Corp., San Diego; IBM Corp., Armonk, N.Y.; Intel Corp., Santa Clara, Calif.; Norcom Electronics Corp., Trumbull, Conn.; Olympus America Inc., Melville, N.Y.; and Philips Electronics, New York.
The goal is to develop a standard for the way voice commands and information are transmitted and received by mobile devices, said W.S. Osborne, general manager at IBM Speech Systems. No standards currently exist, he said.
"The whole objective is to make speech more pervasive in the industry, to drive a conversational interface," said Osborne. "That's where the next frontier is, and we're not that far away."
VoiceTIMES plans to submit its standards recommendations to the World Wide Web Consortium and is working with other standards initiatives, said Osborne.
Noticeably lacking from the alliance are market leaders-and IBM ViaVoice recognition software competitors-Dragon Systems Inc., Newton, Mass. and Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products, Burlington, Mass.
For February, Dragon Systems topped channel sales with $5.2- million, or 74 percent of the voice-recognition market, according to PC Data Inc., Reston, Va. Lernout & Hauspie was second with more than $964,000, or 14 percent, and IBM was third with more than $820,000, or 12 percent.
At DemoMobile, Dragon Systems showed the latest generation of its NaturallySpeaking Mobile Organizer, a handheld digital device that records dictated commands and messages, then carries out the tasks, such as creating and sending E-mail, creating documents or scheduling appointments, once attached to a PC. It will ship in the second quarter for an estimated price of $299. "We weren't even asked or invited to participate [in VoiceTIMES]," said Roger Matus, vice president of marketing at Dragon Systems.
Lernout & Hauspie showed its L&H Voice Xpress Mobile Professional, which bundles continuous speech-recognition software with an Olympus DS-150 digital voice recorder. Also, the ASR300 word-based recognizer gives voice control to CE-based portables. The products will be released in late June, said Klaus Schleicher, senior product manager at the vendor.
Joseph F. Kovar & Stephanie Green contributed to this story.
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