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May 7, 2002
ADDITIONAL 19 CONTRIBUTORS JOIN SALT FORUM TO
COOPERATE IN DEVELOPMENT OF SPECIFICATION FOR MULTIMODAL AND
TELEPHONY APPLICATIONS
Expanded Membership Demonstrates Increasing
Support for Speech Application Language Tags
AVIOS Speech Expo - Boston, MA - May 7, 2002 - The SALT
Forum, a group of companies with a shared goal of accelerating the
use of speech in multimodal and telephony systems, today announced
that 19 additional companies have joined the Forum as Contributors
to support development of the Speech Application Language Tags
(SALT) specification. The new members, evidence of growing industry
endorsement of the SALT specification as the basis for innovative
multimodal and telephony speech applications, were introduced at the
AVIOS Speech Expo in San Jose, California.
The goal of the SALT Forum is to create an open, royalty-free
standard for speech-enabling multimodal and telephony applications
that gracefully extends existing Web programming models and markup
languages. The SALT specification will allow developers to add
powerful speech interfaces to Web pages using familiar tools and
techniques.
The Forum’s selective membership has allowed for swift
convergence in technical deliberations but includes industry leaders
that represent a broad range of viewpoints and technical expertise.
As the SALT specification nears completion, the endorsement of
additional Contributors will accelerate the availability of
SALT-based products, increase SALT-based application development,
and encourage further investment in the SALT specification.
The newest participants in the 43-member SALT Forum include the
Association of Electronic Technology for Automobile Traffic and
Driving of Japan; Brooktrout Technology, Inc.; Conita Technologies;
CosmoCom, Inc.; Digital GlobalSoft Limited; GetVocal; Hitachi Ltd.;
InfoSpace, Inc.; IP Unity, Inc.; One Voice Technologies, Inc.;
Orange Imagineering; SandCherry Networks, Inc.; Satyam Computer
Services Ltd.; SVOX AG; TranXactive; Unisys Corporation; V-Enable,
Inc.; VoxSurf Limited; and West Corporation.
"The addition of new Contributors reflects a wider community of
solutions providers eager to build multimodal and telephony speech
applications," said Daniel Miller, senior vice president of Voice
& Wireless Commerce for The Kelsey Group. "The SALT
specification will be a key component of emerging standards for
extending self-service applications to phones, wireless handsets and
communicating PDAs."
The SALT specification is nearing completion and will be
submitted to an international standards body within months. Recent
technical progress has benefited greatly from participation by
Contributors and comments received since a draft SALT specification
was released for public appraisal. The specification has been
refined to improve usability, clarify feature requirements, and
enhance harmonization and interoperability with existing
standards.
"The new Contributors to the SALT Forum underscore the widespread
industry interest in accelerating the adoption of speech and
multimodal interaction with the Web," said SALT Forum representative
Kevin Wiant. "The rapid progress that the SALT Forum has made in
creating the SALT specification and attracting new members is
indicative of our commitment to promoting an open standards-based
approach towards expanding the adoption of speech technologies."
The announcement of the first products based on the draft SALT
specification will be made at the AVIOS Speech Expo, marking a
significant milestone for the SALT Forum. Show attendees will have
an opportunity to learn about how the SALT specification is being
used in practical applications and hear from numerous SALT Forum
members on many topics related to speech-based systems. Sessions
will examine the opportunities and challenges for the SALT
specification in the global market, showcase tools for developing
SALT-based applications, and detail how SALT applications can be run
in service provider networks.
About the SALT Forum
The SALT Forum brings together a diverse group of companies
sharing a common interest in developing and promoting speech
technologies for multimodal and telephony applications. Founded in
2001 by Cisco, Comverse, Intel, Microsoft, Philips, and SpeechWorks,
the Forum seeks to develop a royalty-free standard that augments
existing Web markup languages to provide spoken access to many forms
of content through a wide variety of devices.
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The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may
be the trademarks of their respective owners.
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