It’s with slumped shoulders and puffy eyes (not shown in this picture) that I say good-bye to this blog and Speech Tech. I’m going on to a new job in the city, and tomorrow’s my last day. I have so enjoyed working here; especially with David, our editorial director, and Information Today’s amazing IT team (shout-outs to Bill Spence and J.D. Thomas!) on starting this blog. It was a hope of mine that the speech technology field would get another place to read more about the industry, and hopefully laugh a few times in the process. Ryan and I have tried to provide unbiased, up-to-date stories about developments within the speech tech field – I just hope our readers think we’ve done a good job.

Whether it was 3G phones or synthesized speech for RPGs, I had a great time writing on here with such an awesome guy (that’s you, Ryan!). I’ll miss our readers and everyone within the industry. You helped me along at the beginning when I didn’t know the difference between TTS and ASR, and had no clue what VoiceXML meant. I’ve watched the magazine grow and change, and feel like I know way more about IVRs than any 23-year-old should. I’ll keep you all in mind when I have a great contact center experience,  or I’ll Get all Human when I find myself slamming the zero button.

Special thanks to Susan Hura, Melanie Polkosky, and Nancy Jamison (yay for women in speech tech!) for helping me learn about VUI, human factors, and other speech technologies, and doing it with a smile; James Larson for always giving us insight into nearly EVERY speech tech industry development; and the lovely people at SpeechCycle, Angel.com, CallMiner, Nuance, Aspect, Nexidia, Datamonitor, Gartner, Forrester, and Verint for always being so willing to set up last-minute interviews.  And, of course, every busy and tired analyst, consultant, and marketing director who ever provided me with a few choice soundbytes for a news story, feature, or blog post. Our managing editor, Len Klie, and astoundingly talented art director Laura Hegyi already know how I feel about them — I’ll miss you guys. And, of course, not seeing my best friend Ryan Joe in the office is a harsh, sad reality.

See you around :]

- Lauren

SCXML, or the “State Chart extensible Markup Language” provides a generic state-machine based execution environment based on CCXML and Harel State Tables. The fourth Working Draft of SCXMLhas been published at:

http://www.w3.org/TR/scxml/

The main differences from the previous draft are:
1. the modularization of the language,
2. the introduction of profiles and
3. a revision of the algorithm for document interpretation.

The document as a whole has changed significantly and the W3C Voice Browser Working Group welcomes review. Please send comments to www-voice@w3.org

Jim Larson
Co-chair, W3C Voice Browser Working Group

Q) Dammit, Jim, what is this?

A) State charts are a used by software developers to specify the “flow of control.” State charts can be though of as a type of flow chart that describes the order and sequence of things that happen during the execution of an application. Basically, a state chart consists of “states” and “transitions”. Think of “state” as a something that the the application does, and a “transition” as the rules for moving from one position to another.

State charts were originally developed by the mathematician David Harel and is included in the Universal Modeling Language (UML). State charts offer a clean and well-thought out semantics for sophisticated flow control constructs such as sequential, conditional, and parallel flow control. State chart have been defined as a graphical specification language, however, and hence do not have an XML representation. The goal of this document is to combine Harel semantics with an XML syntax.

We expect that the SCXML notation specified in this document will be used to specify the flow control of multimodal and speech only applications. The notation may also be used to specify flow control for other types of applications.

Featured below is a special guest column written by Judith Markowitz, Ph.D. In addition to being a columnist for Speech Technology Magazine, she is also an independent analyst in the speech and voice biometrics fields. She can be reached at judith@jmarkowitz.com. She attended and spoke at the Voice BioCon in NYC last week, and sent us some of her impressions of the show.

The theme of the Opus Research Voice Biometrics Conference was “connecting the dots.” In his conference keynote Dan Miller made it clear that the dots Opus wanted to connect were business and market. Then, Miller established the groundwork for those connections by advocating that all segments of the industry view voice biometrics from a broad, business perspective. “Remember,” he said, “technology does not equal product, and product does not equal solution.”

[Click "More" for the rest of Dr. Markowitz's report.]

(more…)

Opus Research’s third annual Voice Biometrics Conference in NYC today.  As we’re actually preparing to ship the June issue, I’m not live blogging from it, so I can’t give a thorough convention report.

Voice biometrics strikes me as an area that people have a great deal of hope for, even if there aren’t a great deal of publicized consumer-facing deployments (especially in the US).  Still, Opus senior analyst Dan Miller thinks the market will pretty huge by 2011.

My understanding of it is that while the technology is there, vendors are still experimenting with how best to deploy it. Additionally, enterprise customers, as always, are a little hesitant to adapt this new technology.

For instance: End customers still don’t know what exactly the technology is. To the extent that the public thinks about biometrics at all, Hollywood has given them images of retinal scans (see: Demolition Man, Minority Report) or fingerprint scans (see: Men in Black, Bourne Ultimatum–though, ok, that movie did showcase voice biometrics being compromised).

So how do enterprises educate customers about voice biometrics?

Julia Webb, VoiceVault’s EVP of sales and marketing said user involvement is critical: enterprises should explain the benefits of voice biometrics to callers during the enrollment process, even at the expense of longer call durations.

In fact, Rex Stringham, president and CEO of EIG, said during a test, callers preferred a longer enrollment process so long as the benefits and the technology were explained. (He also said that the sampling was “sizable” though not statistically significant).

Stringham also said that immediately bombarding the caller with detailed explanations tended to lead to refusals to enroll. Start the dialogue, he said, assuming that no help is needed: “Assume everyone’s a power user until they prove you wrong.”

Miller pointed out that none of the voice biometrics panelists agreed on how to enroll a customer into the system. Problem: how do you make sure that the person whose voice print you’re collecting is in fact the person he claims to be?

Stringham conceded that voice biometrics offered a “semi-secure” password in that “once it’s established, it’s secure.”

Studies conducted by both Stringham and by Harris Interactive (on behalf of Nuance) indicated that customers wanted a combination of security and convenience. Occasionally, these can be mutually exclusive. So if the enrollment process is too convoluted, customers will opt out. Of course, if the enrollment process itself isn’t secure…well, that pretty much undermines voice biometrics as a useful layer of security.

How to reconcile this?  I don’t think there’s any agreement yet. Webb mentioned two extremes: on the one hand, you can send a password through the mail. On the other hand the FIPS 201 standard actually has people physically show up to register. They’re fingerprinted and a square inch of flesh off their back is hacked off and preserved for future reference (kidding about that last part).

Anyway, voice biometrics companies will have to come up with an effective middle ground.

So, a few days ago HP bought EDS. Today, CBS is buying CNET.com, a technology news and reviews Web site. In the battle of the acronyms, who will come out as the best acronym-laden acquisition? While the CBS/CNET deal is chump change ($1.8 billion) compared to HP/EDS ($13.9 billion), it’s still nothing to laugh at.

Why did CBS buy? Well, it may have a little something to do with getting more Internet traffic. And, as has been noted, advertising is one of the few mediums whose revenue is not being too harshly affected by the recession. And what’s one of the fastest-growing channels for advertising? Yep; the Internet. In addition, CNET’s traffic numbers played a big role in the deal.

According to a press release, the acquisition will make CBS one of the top 10 “most popular” Internet companies, with a combined 54 million unique users per month. Of course, we love nothing more than the totally weird PR-speak that goes into press releases, so I can’t resist this choice quote from CBS Interactive’s Quincy Smith:

“The core businesses of CNET Networks and CBS Interactive represent near perfect category symmetry in premium online content.”

That’s about five adjectives and one verb. Well done. In the meantime, I’m begging CBS to let me know when they will start airing a new season of the reality TV show Kid Nation. That was an hour of television whose content was both premium and near perfect. [TechCrunch]

So it turns out I could have cashed in my government bonds and bought EDS, guys. Because I own almost $14 billion in bonds, right? Sure. Anyway, HP announced today that it’s buying Texas-based Electronic Data Systems. You might recognize EDS from our own little magazine–EDS’ Alex Halikias writes a column for us called “Inside Outsourcing.”

The announcement means HP will be able to stake a claim in the technology outsourcing space, and directly compete with IBM. As more ginormous companies and government agencies turn to outsourcing tech projects, the market is expected to grow, according to analysts quoted in the news article. The acquisition means HP will now have 210,000 employees in 80 countries. Whoa — we have three editors at Speech Tech.

HP makes the big bucks in selling printers, PCs, and servers, but also made $16.4 billion in revenue in business consulting. The EDS acquisition will only further strengthen the company’s grip on business and technology consulting. We’ll keep you updated with news when we hear more. Also, EDS’ CEO, Ron Rittenmeyer, will stay on board with the same title. [MercuryNews.com]

In other news– Though Nuance ended its second fiscal quarter with revenue above expectations, the stock has been sliding. Goldman Sachs analyst Derek Bingham is quoted in the article as saying:

“Nuance’s March report showed that the company’s Network Speech business is not immune from macro slowing, consistent with slowdowns we’ve seen in other large-deal areas of software.”

The company’s stock is down almost 7 percent today. [Barron's]

[Image: LearnMergers.com]

Hope you had a nice weekend! It’s raining here, and pretty miserable. We’ve been out for awhile due to an issue close, but should be back in action this week. Based on some news from RSS feeds, it looks like the day is getting off to a nice start, news-wise. And yes, that is a picture of William Shatner in his Star Trek days. And yes, this post mentions William Shatner as he relates to voice biometrics.

* BlackBerry announced its new BlackBerry Bold 9000, a new smartphone equipped with 3G capabilities. BlackBerry is one of a line of companies that have beat the new iPhone to the 3G finish line. Apple’s new version of the iPhone is expected to see a release this summer. The Bold phone is, “banking on the … sleek appearance to win over executives and field workers who’ve grown tired of sacrificing style for functionality.” I think that’s PR-speak for, “Please buy this instead of the iPhone. We made it look cooler.” [CRN]

* My favorite British pharmacy, Boots, announced it has chosen Intervoice to develop its natural language self-service application. [TMC]

* Another woman has joined the high ranks in the speech technology field — Susan Almeida will serve as vice president of global services for speech analytics provider CallMiner. You go, girl. [EarthTimes]

* Speech technology for Danish people. Yay! [PR.com]

* Sensory’s BlueGenie Lite = speech synthesis for Bluetooth devices. Todd Mozer, Sensory’s CEO, says in the article: “We’re able to replace all these awkward presses and beeping with speech.” Awkward presses and beeps – GONE. [Wireless Week]

* Every employee’s worst nightmare: Companies’ HR departments using voice biometrics to detect lying about sick days. Don’t ask me what ’skivers’ are; but it’s another funny British word to say. [Birmingham Post]

* Mother’s Day was yesterday, but I just found this article today. It’s about cool presents to buy your mom. My favorite is the ‘SmartShopper’, which uses voice recognition to store grocery lists. Great – groceries! Just what every mom wants to be reminded of on her special day. I’m also imagining the totally awesome possibilities regarding how this device could seriously mess up utterances. [The Sudbury Star]

* When I was growing up, my mom’s idea of enhancing my cognitive abilities was reading to me, and letting me watch PBS. Today? “Smart toys.” Experts say the toys, “contain technological enhancements that enable a child to form dynamic, emotional relationships. Smart toys incorporate microchips, voice recognition and wireless capability so that toy and child can spend quality time together.” This is so incredibly sad. Another ‘Baby Einstein’? I hope not, because it has been proven that ‘Baby Einstein’ does absolutely nothing that would make your child more intelligent. [The Telegraph]

* Umm…apparently William Shatner has an award called ‘William Shatner’s Heartbeat of America’ that he gives away. This year it went to a voice biometrics company. Voice biometrics: the heartbeat of America. [PR Web]

We’re closing an issue this week, so expect us to be M.I.A. from blogging until Thursday or Friday. See you then.

Wall-E

Just when I thought my life was complete, Disney makes a possibly life-changing (for me) announcement. In preparation for the much-hyped and mind-blowingly adorable new Pixar movie, Wall-E, the company will release a line of Wall-E products, including a robot! So what if it’s $190? I can drop that kind of cash for anything that does all this (and includes voice controls)–

With voice activation and a follow-me mode, WALL·E can follow the sound of a human voice and detect someone entering a room. He also has several emotional states and an easy system for programming thousands of combinations of movements with the remote. Numerous sensors allow him to detect and respond to his environment, including infrared sensors that allow him to detect obstacles and steer around them, sonic ears that detect sound direction, and touch sensors.

Can I please get one? Please? In the meantime, follow the jump and watch the Wall-E preview for further explanation of why I’m so excited for this movie. And why everyone at work is going to make fun of me for posting something so sappy. [Source: MakerFaire.com; Image: FirstShowing.net]

Since the announcement yesterday that the Boston Subway system would introduce new TTS voices to its line-up, I got to thinking about the differences I’ve noticed in various public transportation systems. When I was living in London, the Tube’s persona closely mimicked that of the typical British lady in her 50s – calm, contained, and overly polite. Of course, the woman behind the voices (Emma Clarke) was recently fired following public statements she made regarding the Tube’s shoddy service. Here’s a video that should give a taste of what it’s like to ride the Tube:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppxsC3uF3Ds&feature=related[/youtube]

Next up, one of my favorite countries – Espana! Their Barcelona subway system, called el Metro, just got tricked out with new trains, which feature male voices. Call it machismo or consistency.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhWluisRw70&feature=related[/youtube]

Alas, Oslo’s T-Bane has no persona! Fellow Norwegians, I beg of you…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5AWyCpqciQ&feature=related[/youtube]

And, of course, NYC’s own subway … which has no real name aside from “somewhat unreliable” or “increasingly annoying.” Here’s a video of the L train, which runs from Manhattan to northern Brooklyn, and has some of the newest personas.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYokRtmM3Ng&feature=related[/youtube]

Have a great weekend!