Language Technology News for 2005

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Jerk-O-Meter rates phone chatter
2005/08/11

http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,68502,00.html?tw=newsletter_(...)
Ever wonder if that spouse, friend or co-worker on the other end of the phone is really paying attention? The "Jerk-O-Meter" may hold the answer.

NSC Adds Spanish-US Support to its ASR Engine
2005/08/10

http://www.nsc.co.il//news/spanishus.html
By adding Spanish-US to its list of supported languages, NSC now supports 7 languages, including North American English, Russian, German, British English, Hebrew and Arabic.

Spanish-German Dictionary links to Canoo.net for Grammar Content
2005/08/09

http://www.canoo.com/news/dix.html
Canoo announced that it is cooperating with the Spanish-German dictionary, DIX, to provide further grammatical information during dictionary lookup for DIX users. Similarly to Canoo's collaboration with the world's largest English-German dictionary, LEO, the Spanish dictionary now newly includes Canoo.net grammar links.

Hearing aids for the unimpaired
2005/08/08

http://wired-vig.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,68419,00.html
HearWear -­ The Future of Hearing, a new exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert Museum, shows off trendy deaf-tech prototypes like gadgets that can filter out annoying noises and memory glasses that replay the last few seconds of conversation -- handy for wearers who might have missed someone's name.

A talking newspaper - navigating with voice commands
2005/08/08

http://dbs.cordis.lu/fep-cgi/srchidadb?ACTION=D&SESSION=&TBL=EN_OFFR&R(...)
A "talking newspaper", the AthosNews, was developed using the platform in order to assist visually-impaired persons. The user is able to navigate through the newspaper using voice commands. Article titles can be retrieved via a search mechanism. Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) of the user's voice is achieved with Nuance grammar.

Swiss Speech Technology excels in Automotive Industry
2005/07/29

http://www.svox.com/doc/487606227418082005.pdf
Due to its innovative speech output solutions, Zurich speech technology company SVOX has established itself as the European market leader for incar navigation systems. Given the firm’s compelling performance, a group of investors led by Beat Curti, a member of the Board of Directors, has provided additional capital for the firm’s further expansion.

2005 Most Innovative Solutions Awards
2005/07/22

http://www.speechtechmag.com/issues/9_10/cover/12044-1.html
According to Daniel Hong, voice business analyst at Datamonitor, the global voice business value chain* will grow from $716 million for 2004 to $1,939 million by 2009 at a CAGR of 22 percent.

The GUI and the VUI (Voice User Interface)
2005/07/22

http://www.voice-community.de/index.aspx?page=279
The user interface has proven critical in the evolution of technology markets where users interface directly with technology. The most obvious example is the Graphical User Interface (GUI).It would seem obvious that the advance in usability of speech recognition over touch-tone should drive the Voice User Interface (VUI) toward being the ubiquitous and dominant user interface in telephony.

BBN Technologies awarded $2.9 million to develop second phase of DARPA's Advanced Speech Encoding Program
2005/07/22

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view(...)
BBN Technologies announced it has been awarded $2.9 million to lead a multi-year program under the second phase of DARPA's Advanced Speech Encoding program to develop a noise-robust ultra-low bit rate vocoding radio.

Dan Miller for SpeechTechMag: The experience of voice
2005/07/22

http://www.speechtechmag.com/issues/9_10/speechbusiness/12048-1.html
Listening to the “experience of voice” yields a totally different set of conclusions. From a DA caller’s perspective, the ultimate measure of satisfaction is successful resolution of queries. To achieve high levels of success, DA service providers have fine-tuned the interfaces between computer terminals and directory databases.

Egypt wants back the Rosetta Stone
2005/07/22

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=936786
Egypt is launching a campaign for the return of five of its most precious artefacts from museums abroad, including the Rosetta Stone in London and the graceful bust of Nefertiti in Berlin.

Microsoft sues net pioneer for 'going Google
2005/07/21

http://www.contractoruk.com/news/002205.html
Microsoft yesterday filed a lawsuit against former vice president Kai-Fu Lee and archrival Google for the executive’s decision to take “trade secrets” across to its competitor, within one year of quitting the Redmond-based software company.

TuVox: Anatomy of a deal
2005/07/18

http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=12707&hed=TuVox
In late 2003, TuVox board members met to consider whether they were thinking too small. The two-year-old speech software startup was responding to a challenge by a potential board member, an executive at a major enterprise software company.

Science non Fiction ...
2005/07/13

http://pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/trib/regional/s_352806.html(...)
Grace was one of 19 robots participating in the conference's 14th annual Mobile Robot Competition and Exhibition. Her job was to entertain the crowd and allow her Carnegie Mellon University team of creators to test how she uses social interactions, rather than sight and sound.

Poker-playing robots battle for $100,000 pot
2005/07/12

http://informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=165701734(...)
It's not just fun and games and cash. The winner of the World Poker Robot Championship will help artificial intelligence meet a tough challenge: solving problems in the face of incomplete and inaccurate information.