Sponsors of the New March Event Include Call Genie, IBM, Loquendo, Nexidia, Novauris, Nuance, Vlingo, VoiceBox, and West Interactive
In August, AVIOS (the Applied Voice Input Output Society) and Bill Meisel (president of TMA Associates and Editor of Speech Strategy News) announced the new Voice Search Conference in San Diego, California, March 10 - 12, 2008. Voice Search takes advantage of advances in speech recognition, text-to-speech synthesis, and other advanced speech technologies to create applications such as:
* Directory assistance and location-based services;
* Information services supporting mobile users;
* General web search by voice;
* Search of audio/video sources on the web or in enterprises by content;
* Transcription of voice mail and other audio content to make them searchable;
* Integrated “personal-assistant” services that add features to voice search;
* Using voice search technology within the call center; and
* Contact center solutions that address increased call volumes and responses to mobile ads resulting from voice search.
Voice Search will have a major impact -- not only on consumers and customers — but on service providers, content providers, marketing strategists, call centers, and their vendors.
Companies delivering Voice Search technology and applications agree, judging by the range of sponsors. Call Genie, IBM, Nuance Communications, VoiceBox Technologies, and Vlingo Corporation are supporting the conference as primary sponsors. Call Genie is a leading provider of enhanced Voice-enabled Mobile Local ("VoMoLo") search products and services to Wireless Carriers, Directory Assistance providers, and Yellow Pages publishers. As a pioneer in speech recognition technology, IBM is focused on taking this technology to the various touch points of an increasingly mobile world. Nuance Communications is a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Vlingo delivers a voice-powered interface for mobile phones. VoiceBox develops Conversational Voice Search software that lets people search, navigate and discover content and services … simply by using natural, free-form language.
Loquendo, Nexidia, Novauris, and West Interactive are supporting sponsors. With over 30 years’ speech technology experience, Loquendo is a leading innovator in automatic speech recognition and speech synthesis -- providing a complete range of technologies for server, embedded and desktop solutions. Nexidia is the market-leading provider of highly scalable and accurate rich media search and speech analytics software. Novauris’s core speech recognition/search technology offers unparalleled speed and accuracy for large-scale client-server and embedded voice mobile search applications. West Interactive is a world-class provider of automated customer contact solutions.
Media/Analyst sponsors are Opus Research and Speech Strategy News.
AVIOS sponsors an annual speech application development contest for students (www.avios.org), and the winners will be announced at the Voice Search Conference. The contest is supported in part by Google, Microsoft, Samsung, and VoiceObjects.
Program details and registration information can be found at www.voicesearchconference.com.
THE VOICE SEARCH CONFERENCE
Search technology, in some cases supported by advertising, is an increasingly important method of reaching customers and is well established as a text-based Web solution when using PCs. Speech access can extend this success to mobile phones, and this process is beginning with speech-enabled business directory assistance and other services. When the current phase of trials is complete and the services are widely (and competitively) promoted, usage will grow rapidly. Voice search will have subsidiary effects as users get increasingly comfortable and familiar with automated speech services that go far beyond augmenting touch-tone solutions. At the same time, the ability to search audio and video for content, or to convert audio to text will allow efficiencies and analytics that substantially impact business practices. The conference will cover these evolving opportunities for companies, service providers, and vendors.
See www.voicesearchconference.com, or contact Peggie Johnson (info@avios.org).
PRINCIPAL SPONSORS
About Call Genie
Call Genie, Inc. is a leading provider of enhanced Voice-enabled Mobile Local ("VoMoLo") search products and services to Wireless Carriers, Directory Assistance providers, and Yellow Pages publishers. Offered as a turnkey or ASP solution, Call Genie's Enhanced Voice Directory (EVD™) platform enables companies to offer a comprehensive, voice-enabled business category search service to consumers and business customers. EVD™ is network, handset and location independent, and can be incorporated into any existing DA service or deployed as a stand-alone offering. Call Genie won the 2006 Yellow Page Association Industry Excellence Award for Marketing Innovation in North America, the 2006 Whitaker Innovation Award in Europe, and the 2006 118 Tracker Award for Technology Innovation in the UK. For more information, visit www.callgenie.com
About IBM
As a pioneer in speech recognition technology, IBM is focused on taking this technology to the various touchpoints of an increasingly mobile world. You will find IBM speech software enhancing the driver's experience including features like the control of the car radio and the navigation system. IBM software, hardware, and services are transforming healthcare delivery, helping children learn to read, providing improved customer service and new business insight through self service and deep analytics. IBM is combining speech and translation technologies with services to provide solutions that remove the language barrier to allow people to communicate in foreign countries and to expand commerce and collaboration for the globally-integrated enterprise. IBM shares its speech software with clients and partners, providing intellectual property, engineering expertise and design services to improve their products and solutions.
About Nuance Communications
Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:NUAN) is a leading provider of speech and imaging solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications, and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with information and how they create, share, and use documents. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance’s proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.
About Vlingo
Vlingo Corporation (www.vlingo.com) delivers a voice-powered interface for mobile phones. Leveraging a new technology called adaptive Hierarchical Language Models (HLMs), vlingo's approach allows carriers and mobile application providers to quickly and inexpensively voice-enable any application – without custom engineering or in-house speech expertise. Unlike conventional voice recognition technologies that require individual purpose-built applications and rely on constrained grammars and scripted interactions, vlingo's open approach eliminates a costly and intensive manual effort and scales to tasks as broad as open mobile search. As a result, consumers get quick, easy and accurate access to mobile applications, which translates into new revenue streams.
About VoiceBox Technologies
VoiceBox develops Conversational Voice Search software that lets people search, navigate and discover content and services … simply by using natural, free-form language. Commitment to speech innovation drives the VoiceBox vision: to make conversational voice search the de facto intuitive interface that will give people anywhere-anytime access to what they need. Incorporated in 2001, the privately held company’s patent-pending voice search processes are applied across telematics and infotainment, music and entertainment, navigation, mobile and VoIP markets. Visit http://www.voicebox.com.
SUPPORTING SPONSORS
About Loquendo
With over 30 years’ speech technology experience, Loquendo is the leading innovator in automatic speech recognition and speech synthesis -- providing a complete range of technologies for server, embedded and desktop solutions. Currently available in 21 languages with 51 voices, Loquendo’s best-in-breed technologies guarantee integrators enhanced customer satisfaction at greatly reduced costs.
About Nexidia
Nexidia is the market-leading provider of highly scalable and accurate rich media search and speech analytics software. By transforming audio and video data into business intelligence, Nexidia allows both government and commercial enterprises, in industries such as Healthcare, Insurance, Financial Services, Technology, Media Creation and Aggregation, Telecommunications and Outsourcing, to leverage untapped information previously locked away in audio-video content. Based on years of research and development, Nexidia’s phonetic engine is the only technology that allows the user to search on proper names, places, industry terms and jargon without extensive training and cumbersome dictionaries. The process is adaptable to a range of audio analyses and excels across the full spectrum of audio quality. For more information, please visit www.nexidia.com.
About Novauris
Novauris’s core speech recognition/search technology offers unparalleled speed and accuracy for large-scale client-server and embedded voice mobile search applications. It can, for example, recognize within a few seconds any US street address spoken as a single input. In Verizon Wireless’s Get It Now® Search — the world’s largest deployment of multimodal mobile search — it provides millions of users with voice access to the million-item VCASTSM Music/Get It Now catalog, including MP3 tracks, ringtones, games, etc.
About West Interactive
West Interactive is a world-class provider of automated customer contact solutions. We combine advanced touch-tone and speech recognition technologies, with a highly scalable standards-based infrastructure, to help companies more effectively conduct multi-media transactions. Our hosted and managed solutions are designed to help our clients connect with their customers, deliver superior service and maximize the value of every customer interaction. Services include custom speech applications, automated notifications, customer surveys, virtual call routing and Professional Services.
MEDIA/ANALYST SPONSORS
About Local Mobile Search – An Opus Research Advisory Service
Local Mobile Search captures the emerging opportunities created when wireless, real-time communications and content delivery are aligned with location-targeted advertising and transactions. Search initiates relevant content discovery and mobility extends the Web-based experience into the dynamic need-it-now environment of wireless. Geo-targeting creates value for both advertisers and communities of users. For more information, see www.localmobilesearch.net.
About Speech Strategy News
Speech Strategy News is a no-ads, paid-subscription newsletter that provides comprehensive coverage of products and services made possible by speech recognition and other advanced speech technologies. Written by Bill Meisel with a guest VUI Visions column and interviews, the newsletter saves time and provides insights for professionals involved with using and developing such applications and services. See www.tmaa.com for more information.
CONFERENCE ORGANIZERS
About AVIOS
The co-conference organizer, the Applied Voice Input Output Society (AVIOS) is a non-profit professional society, created a quarter-century ago, dedicated to promoting the development and diffusion of real world applications of speech technology. For more on AVIOS, see www.avios.org.
About Bill Meisel and TMA Associates
William Meisel, president, TMA Associates, is publisher and editor of Speech Strategy News and a consultant on market and product opportunities created by the maturing of speech technology. For more on TMA Associates or Speech Strategy News, see www.tmaa.com.