World Wide Web Consortium Publishes Speech Recognition Grammar Specification

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Open Invitation to Test Critical Component of W3C Speech Interface Framework

Testimonials

 

http://www.w3.org/ -- 26 June 2002 -- The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has issued the Speech Recognition Grammar Specification as a W3C Candidate Recommendation. Speech grammars allow voice-based application authors to create rules describing what users are expected to say after listening to each application prompt.

Advancement of this document to Candidate Recommendation is a statement that the specification is stable, and an invitation to the Web development community at large to make further implementations and provide technical feedback.

Talking and Listening to the Web Requires a Framework

The W3C Voice Browser Working Group is defining a suite of markup languages covering dialog (VoiceXML 2.0); speech synthesis (Speech Synthesis Markup Language); speech recognition (Speech Grammar, Stochastic Language Models, Semantic Interpretation for Speech Recognition, Natural Language Semantics); call control (Voice Browser Call Control: CCXML) and other aspects of interactive voice response applications. All of these contribute to the W3C Speech Interface Framework.

"W3C is working on expanding the Web to include access from the one billion plus telephones worldwide," explained Dave Raggett, W3C Voice Browser Activity lead and W3C Fellow from Openwave Systems. "People will be able to interact via spoken commands and listening to recorded speech, synthetic speech and music. This will also benefit people with visual impairments or needing Web access while keeping theirs hands & eyes free for other things."

The Speech Recognition Grammar specification is the first of the W3C Speech Interface Framework suite to be advanced to Candidate Recommendation status.

Speech Grammars Provide XML Rules for Understanding Speech

Speech Grammars allow authors to specify rules covering the sequences of words that users are expected to say in particular contexts. The W3C Speech Recognition Grammar specification defines an XML language for context-free speech grammars.

In more practical terms, Speech grammars make it easier to allow for variations in the way people answer questions. For example, people may say "Yes", "Sure", or "Fine", or may say dates as "Tomorrow", "July 8th" or "8 July". The Speech Recognition Grammar Specification provides an XML language for application authors to define rules covering all the expected combinations of words that users are likely to say in a given context.

Because the set of rules are independent of any individual markup language, they may be used with versions of VoiceXML, or with other dialog markup languages.

Implementers Encouraged to Further Build on Speech Interface Framework

W3C welcomes implementation reports for the Speech Grammar specification. The Implementation Report Plan provides an extensive set of test cases; there is already significant implementation experience amongst the companies involved in the W3C Voice Browser Working Group that developed the specification. W3C expects at least two interoperable implementations of each required feature in the specification as a condition on advancing it to Proposed Recommendation status.

Leaders in Voice Industry Produce Speech Grammar Specification through W3C Consensus-Based Process

The W3C Voice Browser Working Group consists of W3C Members and invited experts who hold leadership roles in the development of Voice Interaction technologies. Those active in the Speech Grammars specification include BeVocal, Cisco Systems, Comverse, IBM, Locus Dialogue, Lucent, Microsoft, Nuance Communications, Openwave, Philips, PipeBeach, Scansoft, SpeechWorks International, Tellme Networks and Unisys. Many have provided testimonials for the Speech Grammar specification, indicating current and planned product support.

About the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C]

The W3C was created to lead the Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability. It is an international industry consortium jointly run by the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (MIT LCS) in the USA, the National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA) in France and Keio University in Japan. Services provided by the Consortium include: a repository of information about the World Wide Web for developers and users, and various prototype and sample applications to demonstrate use of new technology. To date, nearly 500 organizations are Members of the Consortium. For more information see http://www.w3.org/

 

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Testimonials for W3C's Speech Recognition Grammar Candidate Recommendation

Loquendo | Nuance | Openwave Systems | Philips | PipeBeach | ScanSoft | SpeechWorks | TellMe Networks | Unisys | VoiceGenie Technologies

Loquendo

Loquendo is very pleased to have participated in the collaborative effort for producing an XML-based interoperable grammar formalism which is now a W3C Candidate Recommendation. As a leading company in speech technologies and voice platforms, Loquendo believes SRGS will be a major market driver for VoiceXML speech applications.

-- Daniele Sereno, Vice President Voice Platform, Loquendo

 

Nuance

As a pioneer in speech recognition technologies, Nuance is pleased to actively support W3C and the advancement of the Speech Recognition Grammar Specification to W3C Candidate Recommendation. We anticipate that this new open standard will benefit developers and end-users alike, and spur the creation of innovative and effective new speech applications.

-- Lynda Kate Smith, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Nuance

Openwave Systems

Openwave sees the Speech Recognition Grammar Specification as an important step in the creation of a unified standard for accessing Internet content on a wide range of devices and modalities. Openwave continues its commitment to open standards, particularly with our contributions to VoiceXML 2.0 through the efforts of Dave Raggett, Voice Browser Activity Lead, W3C Fellow, and Senior Architect at Openwave. We are pleased to see the quality of the W3C's ongoing endeavors in creating specifications that can be built upon by other prominent industry fora, such as the Open Mobile Alliance.

-- Bruce Martin, Vice President, Technology; Openwave Systems Inc

Philips

Philips Speech Processing regards standardisation key to creating broad adoption of a technology. That is the reason why we have heavily contributed to standards in the W3C Voice Browser working group, most notably to the Speech Recognition Grammars. The ability to build libraries and other re-usab components, even across recognisers, is essential to speeding up time to market and increasing quality.

-- Matthias Pankert, Director of Product Strategy and Planning; Philips Speech Processing.

PipeBeach

PipeBeach congratulates W3C on the Speech Recognition Grammar Specification reaching Candidate Recommendation. Through our CTO, Dr. Scott McGlashan, PipeBeach is a leading contributor to W3C speech standards, including VoiceXML 2.0. We see the grammar specification as a powerful business enabler for the rapid development of interoperable speech services. The PipeBeach speechWeb platform provides extensive multi-lingual support for the grammar specification using world-class recognition engines. We are proud to have deployed our speechWeb platform with European mobile operators since 2001.

-- Christer Granberg, Chief Executive Officer, PipeBeach

ScanSoft

ScanSoft is pleased to have played an active role in the development of the W3C Speech Recognition Grammar Candidate Recommendation. As the industry grows, businesses and vendors alike will depend on technologies and solutions that are based on open standards and are easy to use and work across multiple platforms. We commend the W3C for the work it has done on reaching this milestone, and we look forward to working with it and other interested organizations on ways to further enhance standards and common technologies for the speech industry.

-- Robert Weideman, Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, ScanSoft

SpeechWorks

SpeechWorks welcomes the advancement of the Speech Recognition Grammar Specification to W3C Candidate Recommendation as part of a set of standards that facilitates easy, portable application development for speech-enabled services. SpeechWorks has demonstrated its commitment to W3C open standards by taking the responsibility for lead editorship for this new specification. Our partners and customers have embraced SpeechWorks' OpenSpeech product suite which fully supports this specification, VoiceXML 2.0 and other W3C standards."

-- Steve Chambers, Chief Marketing Officer, SpeechWorks

Tellme Networks

Today marks another important milestone in the growth and maturity of VoiceXML. A vendor-independent grammar standard is a significant development for the industry, enhancing the flexibility and portability VoiceXML 2.0 gives to large enterprises working with partners like Tellme to transform how they use the phone in their business.

-- Brad Porter, Platform Architect, Tellme Networks

Unisys

Unisys believes that the work done by the W3C Voice Browser Working Group in developing a standard for speech grammars represents a major step toward interoperability of speech applications and therefore intends to incorporate W3C grammar support into Unisys Voice Portal Solutions. A standard grammar format will benefit Unisys customers by reducing application development time, improving reusability of applications, and reducing development costs because it will no longer be necessary to support multiple proprietary grammar formats.

-- Larry Srader, vice president, Strategy and Marketing, Unisys Global Communications Industry

VoiceGenie Technologies

VoiceGenie is committed to being a key player in the evolution of the voice services industry. As such, we fully support W3C's initiatives to establish standardization processes to facilitate the integration of diverse speech technologies. The introduction of open standards for speech recognition grammar specifications with speech resources will be a great step forward in providing customers with best-of-breed choices for ASR.

-- Stuart Berkowitz, President & CEO; VoiceGenie Technologies Inc.

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