Ericsson Worldwide, Affiliates and Divisions to License Speech Technology From Lernout & Hauspie
BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 20, 1998--
Contract Points to L&H's Popularity among Telecomm Providers
Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products (Nasdaq:LHSPF)(Easdaq:LHSP-ED) (L&H) today announced that Ericsson has signed a software licensing agreement under which L&H will provide Ericsson worldwide, including all of its divisions and its affiliates, with speech recognition, text-to-speech and speech compression technology. The telecomm giant selected L&H from a field of speech technology vendors, underscoring L&H's growing market dominance. Within the past quarters L&H has signed contracts to provide speech technology to several telecommunications providers, including companies such as [ÿMotorolaÿ] , Deutche Telekom, Northern Telekom, Intellivoice Communications and others.
"Telecommunications applications are an outstanding example of how a speech user interface (SUI) can increase the power and ease of use of a product," said Jan Ahrenbring, vice president marketing and communications, Ericsson Mobile Communications. "By building SUIs into telecommunication applications, not only can people talk to one another, but they can talk to their communication devices and their devices can respond. We're working with L&H because no one has accomplished more with speech technology than they have."
"Our partnerships with telecommunication leaders like Ericsson is a natural, just as speech is the natural user interface for a wide variety of applications," said Jerry Calabrese, president of L&H's Core Technologies Division. "Devices such as cell phones, for example, often require hands-free operation and are used in very busy environments. A speech user interface is an ideal solution to address these challenges. "
L&H speech and language technology will be used in a wide variety of telecomm applications, including:
-- hands-free dialing and automated directory assistance applications;
-- phone-based access to e-mail operations, and devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and caller ID systems that speak; and
-- applications that need compressed speech and music for storage or transmission, including Internet telephony, videoconferencing, digital answering machines, voice recorders and voice pagers.
Ericsson is expected to announce new products that incorporate L&H technology in the future. About Ericsson
Ericsson's 100,000 employees are active in more than 130 countries. Their combined expertise in fixed and mobile networks, mobile phones and infocom systems makes Ericsson a world-leading supplier in telecommunications. Global information about Ericsson and its products is available on the World Wide Web at ericsson.com. About Lernout & Hauspie
Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products (L&H) is a global leader in advanced speech and language solutions for computers, automobiles, telecommunications, embedded products, consumer goods and the Internet. The company is making the speech user interface (SUI) the keystone of simple, convenient interaction between humans and technology, and it is blending the best of human and machine translation technology, tools and services to instantly break down language barriers around the world. L&H's products and services originate in four basic areas: automatic speech recognition (ASR), text-to-speech (TTS), digital speech and music compression (SMC) and text-to-text (translation). For more information, please visit Lernout & Hauspie on the World Wide Web at www.lhs.com.
This news release contains forward-looking information that involves risks and uncertainties, including statements about the company's plans, objectives, expectations and intentions. Such statements include, without limitation, discussions concerning the company's new product introductions and developments. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, the company's reliance on sales by its customers to generate recurring revenues, the early stage of the speech technology market, the ability of the company to develop and successfully market new products, rapid technological change and competition. The forward-looking statements contained herein speak only as of the date of this news release. The company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statement to reflect any change in the company's expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstance on which any such statement is based.
Except for Microsoft Windows(TM), all product names and trademarks mentioned herein are trademarks of L&H and their respective subsidiaries.
(Copyright 1998) |
