AT&T Ups the Ante in Speech Recognition
From: CNet - 11/18/2010
By: Marguerite Reardon 

AT&T says it has devised technologies to boost the accuracy of speech and
language recognition technology as well as broaden voice activation to other
modes of communication. AT&T's Watson technology platform is a cloud-based
system of services that identifies words as well as interprets meaning and
contexts to make results more accurate. AT&T recently demonstrated various
technologies such as the iRemote, an application that transforms smartphones
into voice-activated TV remotes that let users speak natural sentences asking
to search for specific programs, actors, or genres. Most voice-activated
remotes respond to prerecorded commands, but the iRemote not only recognizes
words, but also employs other language precepts such as syntax and semantics
to interpret and comprehend the request's meaning. AT&T also is working on
voice technology that mimics natural voices through its AT&T Natural Voices
technology, which builds on text-to-speech technology to enable any message
to be spoken in various languages, including English, French, Italian,
German, or Spanish when text is processed via the AT&T cloud-based service.
The technology accesses a database of recorded sounds that, when combined by
algorithms, generate spoken phrases. 

Read the entire article at:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-20023189-266.html

Links:
Watson
http://web2.research.att.com/projects/WATSONASR/index.html

Assistive Technology: iRemote & EPGAAC
http://www.research.att.com/projects/AssistiveTechnology/index.html

Natural Voices
http://web2.research.att.com/projects/Natural_Voices/index.html

Speak4It
http://www.speak4it.com/

Vlingo
http://www.cnet.com/8301-19736_1-20005918-251.html