October 17, 2000

So to speak
Voice tools speed development of speech-based products

On the road to voice-driven services, consumers need devices that enable them to speak commands rather than punch keys, and Web developers need sites that will let Web-ready portable devices make use of speech-recognition technology.

Conversa has been busy crafting products and services that do both. The company has just enabled its CASSI speech-recognition technology for Windows CE-based PDAs, smart phones, and Internet appliances. The CASSI engine runs on single or dual-processor hardware, providing continuous speaker-independent speech recognition. The core engine also boasts text-to-speech (TTS) capabilities, which allows system developers to implement speech recognition and TTS with fewer system requirements or hardware reconfigurations.

Additionally, Conversa's Web Conversation Development Kit helps Web developers who are looking to create speech-enhanced content on the Pocket PC platform create Web content with audio and speech, offering features such as HTML-based objects and JavaScript-based behaviors on one GUI. Systems running Macromedia Dreamweaver 2.0 or 3.0 and Windows can integrate the CDK with Conversa Web, a voice-activated browser and player for conversational content, as a simulation environment for speech-enhanced Pocket PCs. Both products can be downloaded from Conversa's site.

More recently, Conversa released Conversation Server, which acts as a gateway between wireless phones and the Internet, enabling the development and hosting of voice portals. The software package is designed to provide a visual-free interface to network content via a telephone connection, so that users can have conversational access to any network-based information. AirTrac integrated the initial version of Conversation Server into its "EveryWhere Office" remote access business solution, a service that can be configured to access corporate data for tasks such as checking inventory, ordering, and contacting help desks. The company points out that, since Conversation Server does not require C++ coding, deployment can be quick and maintenance can be low in cost.

For more information: www.conversa.com

—Leah Jiorle