Ladies and gents, all aboard, the review train is coming. It was a great morning today down at the Speech Tech offices. A huge package arrived from Nuance just stuffed to the brim with copies of NaturallySpeaking 10.

You see, my brother Adam B. and I have been angling to get some review copies for a couple of days so that we could give you fine folks an unbiased and unvarnished look at it, and Nuance has delivered. Unfortunately, we’re probably not going to be able to get cracking on it until the week after next since I’m going to be down San Diego-ways for Voice Search, but keep those eyes peeled for a full spread.

Everyone in the office will be taking a look, charting their experiences with clipboard and air of scientific impartiality. Our editors have even started taking to wearing lab coats around the office (though admittedly that’s unrelated and has more to do with our having turned the conference room into a meat locker). In any case, the results will be tallied, tabulated, and delivered to you in full. Look for a possibly multi-part, multi-post spread in the coming days.

In the meanwhile, if you have any questions or any specific things you want us to look for, try out, or focus on, leave us a comment!

Happy MLK Day, Speech Heads! It’s going to be a big week for America for sure. We’re all a titter in the office about it—that and our deadlines.

As our editor once said, “Speech waits for no man, woman, or child”—or in this case history.

Here in New York, it’s that busy time of the when we’re all running around like chickens with our heads cut off, trying to bring you the finest March print edition of Speech Technology the world has ever seen. As you might expect, the blog may suffer some lapses in our usual rigorous daily posting, but fear no speech starvation in these lean times, Dear Readers.

Today’s blog post brings you an open-source software solution that will help you get in touch with your unconscious Speech Id for weeks to come: Portable Virtual Hypnotist, Version 5.6.700.

This fully customizable solution simulates a hypnosis session, complete with subliminal messages, video, audio, and SPEECH SYNTHESIS and SPEECH RECOGNITION!

Sweet Svengali! The thing is so speech enabled that it’s practically a sentient being. Incredible.

My brother Adam B. has already used it to recover a number of traumatic repressed childhood memories of interactions with terrible IVR systems. For my part, I learned that, despite years of denial, I was always in love with the girl next door for the way she synthesized speech naturally.

Uncover your own deep rooted secrets with your own copy of Virtual Hypnotist, downloadable here or here.

Ever feel like manually pressing the buttons on that remote control is too much work?

Me too.

Well, fear not, Gentle Reader: Things are about to get a whole lot easier.

Oki Japan and a team from Waseda University are working on a speech recognition powered remote control that pulls a single target voice from background noise and the voices of other speakers.

Apparently, the new remote relies on four embedded microphones and “a proprietary algorithm for voice frequency analysis [that] detects talking that originates from directly in front of the device and automatically separates this out from other sounds being picked up by the microphones.”

Here are some links that are sadly not speech enabled and will have to be clicked:

Link 1

Link 2

Computer and Video Game Publisher Ubisoft has released Tom Clancy’s End War, which is controlled by Speech Recognition Technology.

Well, sort of.

From a review on bit-tech.net:

“The developer, Ubisoft Shanghai, has cheated a little though.  Rather than use the software to recognise actual words, it is used to recognise the sounds that make up those words – the system used looks out for particular sounds that go to make up a word. This cunningly gets around the need for a large amount of training generally required with standard speech recognition software, and also gets around the problem of accents: the main sounds of a word are essentially the same, regardless of your accent. The problem has been simplified even further by only recognising a handful of words – about eighty or ninety, according to Ubisoft.”

Below, check out a couple of stories about Tom Clancy’s End War:

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Now that Google has released Voice Search for it’s Google Mobile App for iPhone, reports of problems with the speech recognition are being reported.

Evidently, Voice Search works really well in North America, but is posing some challenges for users Britain.

For example, one user spoke a search for “fish,” only to retrieve the search results for “sex.”

Of course, we at Speech Tech Blog can relate.  Every time I do any type of web search, I only get search results about sex.  But maybe that’s just me.

Below are a number of stories about similar problems with Voice Search:

Link 1

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Link 3

Link 4

So, I came across this strange and oddly worded press release today, which announces the creation of a toolbar for Internet Explorer that enables speech recognition for Google’s search engine.

According to the release, when the program–created by developers from the Ukraine–is installed, users may enter a search by voice and then either click the search button or say “search!” This redirects users to www.voicesearchbar.com where they will see the results of their search.

From the release: “Authors of the program recommend launching the training mode to enhance the quality of speech recognition. After 3-4 launches of a training mode program recognizes speech pretty good.”

Hmmm.

Apparently, the VoiceSearchBar toolbar is available for download at www.voicesearchbar.com.

I visited the site–it features an attractive blond woman (who evidently likes speech enabled internet searches) and comes with a special dedication: “Dedicated to Bill Gates: ‘In five years, Microsoft expects more Internet searches to be done through speech than through typing on a keyboard.’”

Hmmm.

The site also features an About page that allow users to make donations.

Hmmm.

I really don’t know what to make of this. Part of me feels like if I were to download VoiceSearchBar, my bank account would be instantaneously drained, a vast array of pornographic images would be sent to everyone in my email address book and my computer would explode.

In search of a second opinion and in an effort to not malign what could be a perfectly legitimate product, I contacted a friend in the Speech Tech World.  He seemed to think that my instincts were correct.  He also thought it odd that VoiceSearchBar was being released for Internet Explorer, which is not an open source browser.

I don’t know: Maybe VoiceSearchBar is totally legitimate.  Maybe not.  Does anyone out there have any information about this?

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]

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]

Well, I would, if it hadn’t already passed, and I was Catholic. You may remember my announcement last week that I’m testing a new product and will post my reviews on the ST blog. So, which vendor am I reviewing? Hints: it’s related to mobile, free [I <3 beta], and integrates Web 2.0 into its business plan. The full scoop after the jump!

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Whoa. Remember when IBM promised they would spend $100 million on UC software? Well today, British voicemail-to-text provider SpinVox got news that they raised $100 million in funding from Goldman Sachs and other investors. According to an article from CNet.com, this $100 million is only part of the company’s funding — so far they have raised $200 million total, including this latest round.

SpinVox says it plans to increase the number of countries and languages serviced by its VTT software, as well as form more partnerships with companies like Skype, and other mobile providers. What does all this mean for the company’s long-term future? Well, according to that same article, SpinVox’s CEO, Christina Domecq, “isn’t looking for a buyout or an IPO, but is keeping her options open.” Indeed.