I’ve been looking to buy a GPS navigation system for my car and will likely purchase one soon, however, when conducting my research something alarmed me.

I recently read an article in USA Today about theft and navigation systems. It stated that stealthy miscreants (my words) are looking for cars with GPS navigation systems and garage door openers inside. These thieves know that people enter their home address into their GPS navigation system as a starting or ending point for driving directions, which the crooks can use to get detailed directions to the victims’ home. As they drive up to the house, they simply click on the garage door opener to get access to everything in the garage. If the garage is connected to the house, they have a way of secretly breaking in.

The article mentioned a couple of tips to avoid this: Carry your GPS navigation system with you when you leave the car, or hide it in the car, but be sure the clean off the telltale smudge left on the windshield. And, as an added security measure, don’t enter your home address, but an address several blocks away—well out of the garage door opener’s range.

Good advice. However, this seems like a great opportunity for a speaker verification solution.

Hey Speech-Heads,

If you are anything like my Speech Brother Eric B., you’re freaking out about the details of SpeechTEK Europe.  Well, here’s a quick Sneak Peak.

Although the program for is not yet in print yet, we here at Speech Tech Blog would like to offer up a preview.  To reserve your personal copy of the program, click here.

For users, SpeechTEK Europe will provide you with answer these questions/provide you with the the goods on:

• The future of speech in Europe.
• How to move into new markets.
• Can voice biometrics really validate users?
• Does advanced speech recognition work, and at what cost?
• How can analytics improve your understanding of what your customers are doing?
• Should you run your speech applications on your own servers, or have them hosted by a hosting company?
• How will evolving standards affect the development of new applications?

For developers, SpeechTEK Europe will answer these questions/deliver you with information about:

• How to use voice biometrics
• How to design and implement multimodal applications
• How to manage speech recognition errors
• How will unified communications affect your enterprise?
• How to test and fine-tune speech applications
• What are new uses of text-to-speech synthesis?
• What are the latest technology advances in speech technologies?

It’s Webinar Time, Speech-Heads:

Check out what’s on the Speech Menu this month:

As always, the Webinar will be moderated by Speech Technology Editorial Director David Myron.

Here’s the Run Down:  Speaker Verification In Real-World Solutions.  To quote The Bard and my Speech Brother Eric B: Yowza!  Register Today!

How can your company provide the best security in an easy-to-use and cost-effective way? Find out by joining us for this interactive roundtable discussion about on-demand biometric speaker verification.

In today’s business environment customers, employees, and business partners are touching companies at multiple access points using devices that are rapidly evolving into multimodal communication platforms. At the same time, criminals have become alarmingly adept at compromising those devices and interactions. Companies are struggling to meet the competing demands of security and accessibility at a time when the global economy is pushing companies to their limits.

Join J. Markowitz, Consultants, Convergys, and Tellme for this roundtable discussion about on-demand biometric speaker verification. This roundtable will address how to:

• Improve security, reduce operational expenses, and improve the customer experience associated with identity management and customer authentication.
• Limit capital investment and leverage transactional pricing and fast implementation cycles to accelerate ROI.
• Understand the design and technical challenges that companies should take into consideration when evaluating voice-based authentication strategies.
• Evaluate the options available with pro/con trade-offs to help companies identify the right fit for their needs

Hey Speech-Heads,

As you all may know by know, the print version of Speech Technology is shipping 6 times in 2010 instead of the usual 9 times.  But have no fear, there is still plenty of Speechy Goodness to go around.  If you find yourself jonesing for more speech news, check out our Speech Technology White Papers.

As my Speech Brother Eric B. put is just yesterday: “These babies deliver!”

OK Speech-Heads: Get ready for the first in a series of Holiday Posts focused on giving that Special Someone in your life the Perfect Holiday Gift: Speech Technology.

That’s right, my Speech Brother Eric B. and I are making a list and checking it twice: We know which speech vendors have been naughty and which have been nice.  So before you give Mom TTS when all she wanted was STT, check out our Top 2009 Holiday Gift Picks.

Gift Pick Number One is a rather obvious one: The Amazon Kindle.  As we all know, this baby is going to be HOT HOT HOT this year and is packed to the gills with (controversial) TTS Technology.  So give the Gift of Speech Technology this year.  And tune in later this week for Gift Pick Number 2.