Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Voice recognition... is utter nonsense in computing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stak who wrote (31)	11/1/1998 12:20:00 AM
From: stak	Respond to of 112

October 30, 1998 PC Week via NewsEdge : NEW YORK--Establishing standards is shaping up as the next hurdle that speech- recognition vendors must vault before they see widespread adoption of the technology. Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq:SUNW) released one such standard, its Java Speech API 1.0, this week at the SpeechTek conference here. The API, which (NYSE:IBM) IBM and Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products USA Inc. have already implemented in their respective speech-recognition engines, lets developers write Java applications that can take advantage of underlying speech-recognition technology such as IBM's ViaVoice. Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT) is promulgating its own API--Speech API 4.0-- which supports C++, ActiveX or Component Object Model development environments. "The Java API vs. the Microsoft API is back to the same issue between C++ and J++," said W.S. "Ozzie" Osborne, general manager of IBM's Speech Systems business unit, who delivered the conference keynote Tuesday. "We're investing a lot of development into Java because it is cross platform from an applications point of view," Osborne said. Moving mainstream The Java API will spur development of speech-recognition applications, which is the next step in moving the technology into the mainstream, pledged Andrew Hunt, Sun's principal investigator for speech applications, in Chelmsford, Mass. But APIs are only one area that must be addressed in the speech-recognition arena. There is the whole interface paradigm," said Roger Matus, vice president of North American marketing for Dragon Systems Inc. "[Microsoft's speech] API doesn't even come close to that issue. The real question is, how do you get a common way of doing things, and that's a broader issue than just speech," Matus said. So what's the holy grail? That would be a universal interface for speech- enabled systems and devices such as VCRs and wearable computers, agreed most participants on a nine-member panel of vendors at the conference. First things first Before that can be achieved, there are other standards to tend to, according to Osborne. For example, the PC 99 hardware specification outlined by Intel Corp. and Microsoft needs to expand its audio definition to a stricter noise tolerance level, he said. Interference from extraneous noise persists as a roadblock to speech- recognition applications, hampering their adoption in areas such as the factory floor, rental car check-ins and border patrols. IBM is also working with the World Wide Web Consortium to develop speech extensions to Extensible Markup Language. Another area is a standard for human languages. "We'll see that through APIs," Osborne said. "We'll define some of those interfaces, and some will stay proprietary." The technology is already being more widely endorsed by PC OEMs, Osborne said. IBM has added speech capabilities to its Aptiva line of consumer PCs and has cut deals with Fujitsu America Inc., six of the top PC makers in China and Packard Bell NEC Inc. in Europe to bundle speech-recognition technology. Deals with more vendors are in the works, he added. And more software, such as databases, will be speech-enabled. Philips Speech Processing, a division of Dutch consumer electronics giant Philips Electronics N.V., is reportedly talking to the top database vendors about using its speech- recognition engine, and IBM is working on adding speech capabilities to DB2. "Using voice is a great way to access a database," Osborne said.

To: stak who wrote (31)	11/1/1998 12:25:00 AM
From: stak	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 112

SI Inbox (1) \| Folders Intel hosts Beijing speech forum By Stephanie Miles Staff Writer, CNET News.com October 30, 1998, 5 p.m. PT URL: news.com Intel will host the first International Speech Forum in Beijing on Monday, an effort to advance speech recognition technology for Chinese markets. Intel and other companies back QUOTE SNAPSHOT October 30, 1998, 1:01 p.m. PT Intel Corp. INTC speech recognition applications because they have the potential to be a "killer app" that needs powerful PCs to work well. Additionally, China is seen as a huge possible market for speech recognition, because the language's complex character system does not lend itself easily to touch typing. "In China, they have difficulty in getting character input into a Western keyboard," said Rob Sullivan, director of content technologies for Intel. "This is a way to increase the adoption of PCs in China." Dragon Systems, Microsoft, Lernout and Hauspie, and IBM, whose ViaVoice 98 is the first available Chinese speech recognition application, will join Intel in the presentation. "IBM has been in China over three years, and we're very excited to see our partner Intel over there as well. It's a big market and we've seen great success already," said a spokesperson for IBM's speech division. "Keyboards are much more challenging there--on average, it takes six keystrokes per symbol." "Historically, Intel has taken a pretty broad look at enabling technologies," Sullivan said. "The algorithms [for speech recognition] are very computer-intensive--the grammar-checking and broader sentence checking that is necessary to get accuracy." The two-day forum will look at accelerating speech recognition, with the goal of incorporating voice into all desktop applications. More than 500 software developers and peripheral vendors are expected to attend. "What we know is the computer is really going to change over the next five years," Sullivan said. "There is so much opportunity to integrate technology into applications."