Loquendo, the world's leading innovator in speech technology, today announced that Loquendo TTS has been awarded "Best Innovation in Text to Speech" at AVIOS-SpeechTEK West 2007, in San Francisco, for the third year in a row. The prize was awarded for Loquendo TTS Automotive Solution, a complete and multilingual solution developed for manufacturers of GPS navigation devices and in-car telematics. The Avios-SpeechTEK 2007 award is a clear recognition of Loquendo's position at the leading edge of speech-synthesis technology. The AVIOS-SpeechTEK Awards are presented to companies for their innovations in technology, and are chosen by a committee appointed by board members of the American Voice Input/Output Society (AVIOS).

Loquendo TTS Automotive Solution, available in 20 languages, includes a wide portfolio of navigation prompts, pre-recorded using the same human speaker, which are automatically detected in the text and seamlessly played in the TTS output.

Loquendo's unique and patented Mixed Language Capability, enhanced by the native support of Teleatlas® and Navteq™ SAMPA phonetic alphabets, results in each voice being able to read both domestic and foreign addresses, road signs and points of interest with the highest quality TTS, regardless of the language.

The solution can be tailored to fit any navigation device constraints, by supporting the widest range of sampling rates (8, 11, 16, 22, 32 and 44 kHz) and a rich bouquet of encoding bit rates, thus providing maximum flexibility in choosing the right quality/memory trade-off.

Loquendo TTS Automotive Solution is available on all major platforms, always with the same expressive voices and the same core engine. It has been adopted by, among others, TomTom, JVC and Magneti Marelli (for Peugeot, Citroën, and other prestigious car brands).

About Loquendo - Vocal Technology and Services
With over 30 years experience in speech technology, Loquendo is at the forefront of the global speech market. Loquendo TTS, Loquendo ASR, Loquendo Speaker Verification and the Loquendo VoiceXML and CCXML Platform are high-quality, high-performance technologies that guarantee systems integrators the best solutions in 20 languages with 47 voices.

Loquendo is the only speech technology vendor that provides a complete product line for navigation and handheld devices, desktop PCs and telephony servers, guaranteeing the same portfolio of languages and the same core engine in all these environments. Loquendo Automotive Solution is already guiding millions of drivers all over the world.

For more information about Loquendo, and to hear demos of all the Loquendo voices, go to www.loquendo.com.