AOL TO USE LUCENT VOICE RECOGNITION IN MOVIEFONE
AOL MOVIEFONE ENHANCES POPULAR PHONE
SERVICE IN DALLAS WITH SPEECH RECOGNITION
CAPABILITIES
BUSINESS/TECHNOLOGY EDITORS NEW
YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--JULY 20, 2000-- MR.
MOVIEFONE JOINS SEINFELD'S
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 20, 2000--
Mr. Moviefone Joins Seinfeld's Kramer in Saying,
"Why Don't You Just Tell Me the Name of the Movie You'd Like to See?"
Dallas moviegoers calling AOL Moviefone, the leading movie guide
and ticketing service, are now able to get movie listings and tickets
faster and easier than ever by simply speaking into the phone. AOL
Moviefone today announced it has added speech recognition technology
developed by Bell Labs, the research and development arm of Lucent
Technologies (NYSE:LU.N), to enhance its popular interactive telephone
service, 444-FILM, in Dallas.
Moviegoers in the Dallas/Fort Worth area now can use their own
voice to speak to the well-known and frequently imitated voice of the
service, Mr. Moviefone ("Hello and Welcome to AOL Moviefone!"). In
fact, they can do as Seinfeld's Kramer once suggested in one of the
show's most memorable episodes. In the episode, Kramer's phone number
is changed to one that is confusingly similar to New York's 777-FILM,
and he imitates Mr. Moviefone to provide unsuspecting callers with
movie information. When he is unable to understand their touch-tone
entries he asks, "Why don't you just tell me the name of the movie
you'd like to see?" Now moviegoers can do just that.
Since Moviefone's inception in 1989, callers have made selections
using the buttons on their touch-tone keypad. The enhanced service,
which will be available in more than 35 major markets over the course
of the next year, now enables moviegoers to select a movie or enter
additional information, such as their zip code or credit card number,
by speaking into the phone. This announcement comes on the heels of
other recent Moviefone innovations aimed at improving the moviegoing
experience, including the launch of the newly redesigned Moviefone.com
site, the elimination of the service charge for buying tickets online,
and the ability to print movie tickets at home.
According to AOL Moviefone CEO, Andrew Jarecki, "Our new speech
recognition feature has generated a great deal of excitement with
moviegoers in New York, Los Angeles, and other cities since our launch
in April. Moviegoers love the service because we simultaneously make
moviegoing more convenient and present a more fun and entertaining
service. We're sure that moviegoers in Dallas will enjoy this new
feature as well."
"People today are more mobile than ever and are demanding instant
access to information," said Dan Furman, president of Lucent Speech
Solutions. "Moviefone's latest enhancement is a great example of how
Bell Labs technology can be used to give callers the information they
need quickly and easily."
The heart of the new technology is Lucent's high-density speech
recognition board, which provides an economical solution by supporting
a large number of simultaneous conversations in a small space.
Designed by Bell Labs, Lucent's speech recognition technology is
accurate enough to handle a broad range of voice pitches and accents,
while drowning out background noise and echoes. Its high-capacity
database also supports large vocabularies, which is essential to
recognize Moviefone's ever-changing movie titles. Capable of
recognizing both spoken words and numerals, the technology can quickly
process the credit card information used to purchase movie tickets.
About Lucent Technologies
Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., designs
and delivers the systems, software, silicon and services for
next-generation communications networks for service providers and
enterprises. Backed by the research and development of Bell Labs,
Lucent focuses on high-growth areas such as optical and wireless
networks; Internet infrastructure; communications software;
communications semiconductors and optoelectronics; Web-based
enterprise solutions that link private and public networks; and
professional network design and consulting services. For more
information on Lucent Technologies,visit its Web site at
lucent.com.
About AOL Moviefone
AOL Moviefone, a wholly owned subsidiary of America Online Inc.
(NYSE:AOL.N), is the leading online and offline movie listing,
information, and ticketing service. Through its online service
Moviefone.com, and its 777-FILM telephone service, the company
provides millions of moviegoers each week with a complete, free
directory of movies, showtimes, theater locations, the ability to
purchase tickets, and other content of interest to moviegoers. AOL
Moviefone is a part of the AOL Interactive Properties Group. |
