I originally interviewed Mike Wehrs, Nuance’s vice president of evangelism and industry affairs for an FYI about vSearch in the July/Aug issue of Speech Technology Magazine.

Unfortunately, the time crunch was such that we weren’t able to slot the quotes into the story.

(Editor: You really need to meet your deadlines.

Ryan: I’ll work on that later.)

Mike gave some substantive quotes, however, and since it can’t get into the magazine proper, the blog is a good forum to host the interview transcript. Read it after the jump.

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This week’s New Yorker has, of all things, a feature on speech technology. Unfortunately, only the abstract is available online, however the magazine is available on newstands throughout the week. As an added bonus, the magazine also has a piece by George Saunders, a fascinating profile on Keith Olbermann, James Wood reviews Rivka Galchen’s first novel (she’s a really interesting writer–exceptional at splicing technological conceits with great fiction), and David Denby reviews The Incredible Hulk (Surprise, he doesn’t like it).

But back to what interests us. The piece, by staff writer John Seabrook, appears in the Annals of Technology section and provides a general overview of speech technology for the uninitiated (towards the end, he starts to list various applications of speech technology, finishing with Nemesysco’s voice risk analysis technology). There’s some interesting material on the history of speech technology, as well as some explanation on the way speech and hearing work.

Implicit, however, in the New Yorker’s coverage is that speech tech is becoming much more mainstream, notwithstanding the IVRs that so many consumers know and still seem to loathe (from the article: “North Americans spent forty-three billion minutes on the line with an IVR in 2007; according to one study, only one caller in ten was satisfied with the experience”). Both Wired and the New York Times have in recent months offered coverage of speech tech advances. People–and by people I mean industry agnostics–are genuinely interested in it as an interface, and the amount of coverage it’s getting outside of the trade pubs can only bode well for the industry, and the technology it offers, as a whole.

Today we cast aside the black veils, cease mourning for Lauren, and resume blogging.

Yesterday, we posted a story about SpinVox’s involvement with MTV’s Staying Alive foundation, which aims to educate young people about sex (we called the story Sex with SpinVox, which we’re going to have to change because when we send it out on our e-newsletter, the word “sex” automatically triggers the spam filters. Context, people!).

While the cause is good, I wonder about the delivery method. A SpinVox spokeman pointed out that “there’s no denying the power of voice on a variety of levels. The idea is to have a spontaneous discussion about sex, sex education, and the issues around HIV, AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.” (more…)