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View Full Version : "Microsoft Brings Vision for Mainstream Speech Technology to Life With Launch of Microsoft Speech Server 2004"


Jason Dunn
03-24-2004, 10:00 PM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/mar04/03-24SpeechServer04LaunchPR.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/...r04LaunchPR.asp</a><br /><br /></div>"Microsoft Corp. today took another step forward in its strategy to make the business value of speech technology more broadly available to mainstream enterprise companies as Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates launched Microsoft® Speech Server 2004 at the co-located AVIOS~SpeechTEK Spring 2004, Microsoft Mobile Developer Conference (DevCon) 2004 and Fawcette Technical Publications' VSLive! San Francisco 2004 events. Speaking to an audience of more than 4,000 during his keynote address, Gates spoke about the developer opportunities and business value Speech Server will enable, which analysts say will change the industry dynamic.<br /><br />...Microsoft is breaking new ground in the speech industry by becoming the first company to offer a single platform that combines Web technologies, speech-processing services and telephony capabilities. The Speech Server enables companies to unify their Web and telephony infrastructure and extend existing or new ASP.NET Web applications for speech-enabled access from telephones, mobile phones, Pocket PCs and Smartphones."<br /><br />I wonder what kind of applications and services we'll see come from this? Put your brainstorming hat on - what sorts of services could you see yourself benefiting from that were based on voice technology?

omikron.sk
03-24-2004, 10:14 PM
Cool.........maybe soon there will be no mobile phones and all you will have to do will be to take out youe pocket pc, connect to the Wi-Fi found everywhere and call using services like these.
One day.........may be...........

kagayaki1
03-24-2004, 10:17 PM
E-mail read to me via Wi-Fi. Death to the landline phone companies and their high rates!

joelevi
03-24-2004, 11:18 PM
"Postpone my dentist appointment for two weeks"
Computer then "talks" with the Dentist's computer, finds the best spot in both of our schedules for ~two weeks in the future, makes the adjustments to both calendars.

"I'd like some Pizza"
Computer asks if I want the same thing as last time, to which I concur. Computer then "talks" to (insert favorite pizza place here)'s computer, orders the same thing I ordered last time, charges the credit card on accout, and less than 30 minutes, my order arrives at my door-step, piping hot.

Computer says "Your wife's birthday is coming up, shall I order flowers for you?" When you answer in the affirmative the order is places, card is charged, and the flowers delivered. (Even more interaction and "cool stuff" if it's a significant birthday, or anniversary.)

Computer notices the power has failed (you're running on a UPS, of course). Right before the UPS tells the computer to hybernate the computer "talks" to the power company's computer, tells it the problem you're having, address, and time-stamp. You're put in queue and the power is fixed before you get home from work. (This one doesn't have anything to do with voice, but it'd be cool!)

Ah... the utopia of a truely interconnected world...

Jason Dunn
03-24-2004, 11:25 PM
Very, very cool ideas Joe! :way to go: I'd like to live in that world. :-)

joelevi
03-24-2004, 11:38 PM
Very, very cool ideas Joe! :way to go: I'd like to live in that world. :-)

If I remember correctly, in the days before Office XP, when the 'Office Assistant' technology was called Microsoft Agent 2.0 (?) MS had (still has?) an entire API out for Voice Recognition and Text-to-Speech. You could even build it into a web page and navigate/interact with the agent on the page... I did some playing around with it, and it had a LOT of potential...

They also had a technology demo video on their website where a gentleman was interacting with his "Office Assistant" with regards to calendar and scheduling. (I don't remember if it was Clippy he was talking with or if it was Merlin...)

Anyone remember this video clip? Anyone save a copy of it?

ctmagnus
03-25-2004, 04:30 AM
Was that the one where he swore a whole bunch? ;)

joelevi
03-26-2004, 01:33 AM
Was that the one where he swore a whole bunch? ;)

LOL!!! :rotfl:

I don't remember any cussing... Though I can just imagine saying "Computer: Order me a pizza" and have the computer reply "One unlimited porn pass coming right up, sir."

"No! That's not what I said!!! I want a Pizza!!"

"I'm sorry, did you want to order Fred a pizza?"

"No!! I want a pizza! Not Fred!"

"It looks like you're writing a letter... " :twisted: