IN-DEPTH

In this issue the main article focuses on describing the importance of speech in in-car navigation solutions, and it will illustrate the innovations of the Loquendo Automotive Solution.
The article includes several audio clips to better highlight the quality and impact of TTS in this domain. Click here.

>> Go to the article.

It is our pleasure to host an interview with Dr. Dave Raggett of Volantis and a W3C Team member, one of the leading people in the birth and evolution of the Web. He will give his opinion on the current status of the Web, the impact of speech technology and the evolution towards the "Ubiquitous Web".

>> Go to the article.

STANDARDS CORNER

• Call for Participation in the Second W3C Workshop on Internationalizing the SSML
  March, 17 2006
  Following a successful Workshop in Beijing, China, W3C will hold a second Workshop on "Internationalizing the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML)" on 30-31 May, hosted by the Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH) in Heraklion, Crete, site of the W3C Office in Greece.
  The goal of this second workshop is to identify and prioritize extensions and additions to SSML, and to improve its ability to render non-English languages.
  The workshop is open to the public. However, position papers are required to participate. Each organization or individual wishing to participate must submit a position paper by April 14.
  The full call for participation is at http://www.w3.org/2006/02/SSML/cfp.html.
  
  
• W3C Plenary Meeting and VB/MMI meetings in Cannes
  March, 1 2006
  A whole week of meetings and conferences was held in Mandelieu near Cannes (France), from February 27th to March 3rd. For a summary of the work done by the Voice Browser working group click here, and for the Multimodal Interaction working group click here.
  On March 1st the W3C Technical Plenary meeting took place, with the participation of more than 300 people. The presentations and panels were focused on recent advances in W3C standardization activities. Click here for the agenda and slides.
  
  
• Distributed Multimodal Synchronization Protocol first draft released by IETF
  February 6, 2006
  The document proposes a Distributed Multimodal Synchronization Protocol (DMSP) designed to enable multimodal interaction for mobile devices by accessing services in the network. More specifically, this protocol coordinates events of interest between a visual browser or application running on a mobile device with a VoiceXML (Voice Extensible Markup Language) browser running in the network.
  Anyone interested can join the group, which is chaired by Chris Cross (IBM). It meets twice monthly via phone conference and has a IETF mailing list dmsp@ietf.org.
  
  
• Workshop on the Ubiquitous Web held in Japan
  March 9-10, 2006
  Keio Univeristy in Tokyo hosted a successful workshop on the "Ubiquitous Web" co-chaired by Prof. Larry Rudolph, of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and Prof. Hideyuki Tokuda, of Faculty of Environmental Information at Keio University.
  The Ubiquitous Web seeks to broaden the capabilities of browsers to enable new kinds of web applications, particularly those involving coordination with other devices. Some examples include connecting a camera phone to a nearby printer, using a cell phone to give a business presentation with a wireless projector, and viewing your mailbox while listening to your messages.
  Click here to access the position papers and material of the workshop.
  
  

LOQUENDO Products

• Loquendo Releases New Acoustic Models for Loquendo ASR
  March 28, 2006
  Loquendo announced the new release of Loquendo ASR, with two significant developments: acoustic models for the Aurora Distributed Speech Recognition (DSR) now in UK English and German, and acoustic models for the French language now with greatly enhanced accuracy.
  In response to calls from many of our customers, Loquendo has now developed acoustic models in UK English and German for the ETSI Aurora Distributed Speech Recognition, fully compliant with the ETSI ES 202 050 and ES 202 212 specifications.
  Developments have also been made for the French language acoustic models: these acoustic-phonetic models are based on an optimized version of the set of phonetic units and trained on an improved corpora.
  >> More

Clients & Partners

• Loquendo and TomTom Announce Collaboration to Deliver Navigation Products with Loquendo Text-to-Speech
  March 13, 2006
  Loquendo and TomTom, a leading provider of solutions for personal and in-car navigation, announced the integration of Loquendo's multi-lingual Automotive Text-to-Speech Solution with TomTom's new flagship product, the TomTom GO 910.
  This new product is TomTom's top of the line, feature-rich, all-in-one portable navigation device. It has been developed specifically to meet the needs of TomTom's most demanding customers. Loquendo Automotive Solution offers a high quality, multi-lingual portfolio of speech technologies. This solution, combining lifelike, embedded text-to-speech software and pre-recorded prompts, gives the user intelligible and natural-sounding instructions and information in the language of their choice. It also reads aloud SMS messages using Loquendo's unique Expressive TTS, rendering messages ever more personal and pleasing to listen to.
  >> More
• Roche Integrates Loquendo's Leading Edge Text to Speech Technology
  March 9, 2006
  Loquendo and Roche , the healthcare-solutions provider based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, announced the integration of Loquendo's Text to Speech into Roche's automated call centre.
  Thanks to this important new technology, Roche's customers can now call the service 24 hours a day, while previously the service was available only during business hours by means of a staffed call centre. Roche's IVR was developed by CTI Dealer.
  Roche's product - a tester for people with diabetes, called Accuchek - has been in great demand. Now customers need only dial in their postcode and they are given all the details of the nearest two drugstores where they can find the Accuchek product.
  >> More

EVENTS

• Desayunos de Trabajo - Altitude,
  Bilbao, Hotel Hesperia, Spain – Portales de Voz, 4 April 2006.
  
  
• SECA 2006,
  Paris Expo, Porte de Versailles, Hall 4, STAND G27, 4-6 April 2006.
  
  
• ACE 2006,
  Budapest, 4-7 April 2006
  San Francisco, 8-11 May 2006.
  
  
• TCD 2006,
  Utrecht, Netherlands, STAND C 035, 25-27 April 2006.
  
  
• GenieSummit 2006,
  Montreal, Hyatt Regency Montreal, Canada, 17-19 May, 2006.
  
  
• VOCAL EXPO,
  Paris, Concorde Lafayette, 20 June 2006.
  
  
• SpeechTEK 2006,
  New York, Marriott Marquis, 7-10 August 2006.