The telephone was invented in the 1870s and continues to be a very important means for people to communicate with each other. The Web by comparison is very recent, but is rapidly becoming a competing communications channel. The convergence of telecommunications and the Web is now bringing the benefits of Web technology to the telephone, enabling Web developers to create applications that can be accessed via any telephone, and allowing people to interact with these applications via speech and telephone keypads. The W3C Speech Interface Framework is a suite of markup specifications aimed at realizing this goal. It covers voice dialogs (VoiceXML), speech synthesis (SSML), speech recognition (SRGS, SISR), pronunciation lexicon (PLS), call control (CCXML, SCXML) and other requirements for interactive voice response applications, including use by people with hearing or speaking impairments.
The Working Group concentrates on languages for capturing and producing speech and managing the dialog between user and computer, while a related Group, the Multimodal Interaction Working Group, concentrates on additional input/output modes including keyboard and mouse, ink and pen, etc.
The Voice Browser Working Group was rechartered to develop W3C Recommendations that will enable the widespread deployment of Voice-based Web applications.
The updated Charter includes the following specifications:
The Voice Browser Working Group published an updated Candidate Recommendation of Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.1 on 27 August 2009. Although the Working Group had not formally identified any features as being at-risk, as a result of the previous CR publication, the group understanded that some features might not receive adequate implementation experience. This second CR identifies them in the status section and asks for feedback.
The group also published Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 3.0, the next generation dialog framework, as the second Working Draft on June 2 and as the third Working Draft on August 25, while State Chart XML (SCXML) is published as the fifth Working Draft on May 7. Voice Browser Call Control (CCXML) 1.0 is making steady progress.
The group held the Workshop on Speaker biometrics and VoiceXML 3.0 on March 5-6 in Menlo Park, US hosted by SRI International. Both the summary and detailed minutes from the workshop are available. The major takeaways of the workshop include (1) clarification on Resource control and distributed decision making and (2) Menlo Park model, an architecture for SIV applications.
The group plans to focus on the two major specifications, VoiceXML 3.0 and SCXML 1.0, for the next charter period, though the group continues the work to make the other two existing specifications, SSML 1.1 and CCXML, W3C Recommendations. The next Working Draft of VoiceXML 3.0 is planned in mid November after discussion at the next face to face meeting on November 5-6, while the Last Call Working Draft of SCXML is expected in the fourth quarter of 2010. SSML 1.1 is expected to transition to a Proposed Recommendation right after getting sufficient implementation reports. And the Candidate Recommendation of CCXML is planned to be published shortly.
The group plans to hold the next face to face meeting on November 5-6 during the upcoming TPAC 2009 (W3C Technical Plenary / Advisory Committee Meetings Week) .
| Group | Chair | Team Contact | Charter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voice Browser Working Group (participants) | Jim Larson, Scott McGlashan | Matt Womer, Kazuyuki Ashimura | Chartered until 31 January 2012 |
This Activity Statement was prepared for the November 2009 W3C Advisory Committee Meeting (Members only) per section 5 of the W3C Process Document. Generated from group data.
Kazuyuki Ashimura, Voice Browser Activity Lead
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