ViaVoice now available for Linux

["Bryan Smart" <bsmart@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I haden't seen anyone post this and thought that you people would find it
exciting.

I don't believe that the ViaVoice TTS engine is included yet, but, if it is
(or is soon), this may be the software speech solution that many of us have
been seeking.

Bryan
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  IBM ANNOUNCES FIRST SPEECH RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY FOR THE LINUX OPERATING
SYSTEM ViaVoice for Linux Available Immediately from Red Hat, Caldera
Systems Distribution Planned  SOMERS, NY -- April 26,1999 -- IBM today
announced its award-winning ViaVoice speech recognition technology is
available for the Linux operating environment. ViaVoice is the first
commercial speech recognition technology to be ported to the Linux
environment.  "Speech is the next user interface for computing," said W.S.
"Ozzie" Osborne, general manager for IBM Speech Systems. "By offering our
speech engine and libraries to the growing community of Linux developers,
IBM is encouraging the development and proliferation of new interactive and
conversational applications."  IBM's initial Linux offering will include a
beta version of IBM ViaVoice Software Developers Kit (SDK) for Linux, IBM
ViaVoice Run Time Kit for Linux and open source sample applications. These
technologies provide the foundation for application developers to
incorporate speech recognition technology into the next generation of
applications. The initial beta version of ViaVoice engine and SDK for Linux
is available in U.S. English. Red Hat Software will be the first to
distribute IBM's speech technology as part of the company's Linux 6.0
Application CD, also announced today. In the coming months, IBM plans to
extend its ViaVoice for Linux offering to support a variety of languages,
additional content and distribution channels, including Caldera Systems.  In
addition to offering its ViaVoice SDK and engine for Linux, IBM will host a
Web site for new technology downloads and a discussion group for technical
information and collaboration with fellow developers. For more information
about these services, visit IBM at www.software.ibm.com/speech and select
"Linux".  According to IDC Research, Linux is the fastest-growing server
operating environment. In 1998, some 750,000 Linux servers were installed,
reflecting a 212 percent growth rate and 17 percent of all new server
placements. IBM's new release of ViaVoice speech recognition technology for
Linux underscores the company's commitment to support Linux with a broad
range of hardware, software and service solutions. IBM, in collaboration
with commercial Linux distributors, such as Red Hat Software and Caldera
Systems, Inc., supports the growth opportunity for Linux solutions.
"Combining IBM's speech recognition technology with the stability and
flexibility of Linux is another reason that Linux is a premier computing
platform," said Paul McNamara, vice president of business development, Red
Hat Software. "Bringing advanced applications, such as ViaVoice, to our
users is of prime importance to us."  "This is an important technological
advancement for both Linux and IBM," said Ransom Love, president and CEO of
Caldera Systems, Inc. "ViaVoice technology is exactly what OpenLinux
customers have been asking for -- speech recognition is very important to
the enterprise. Add that to IBM"s online Web collaboration with Open Source
developers and Linux for Business moves to the next level."  IBM Speech
Systems  IBM is a pioneer in speech recognition research and development.
The company is focused on supporting open standards that help accelerate the
creation of content, servers and browsers that allow speech recognition
technology to be easily integrated into voice, data and applications
infrastructures.  IBM is a member of a variety of industry efforts including
VoiceTIMES, VXML, W3C and Java Technology Consortiums.  IBM's ViaVoice
speech recognition technology is based on more than 30 years of speech
recognition, user interface and human-to-computer interaction research and
development. With an established R&D business worldwide and more than 100
patents in the area of speech recognition, speech synthesis, identification
and natural language understanding, the company continues to set the
direction for consumer and business applications. The company was one of the
first to offer consumer speech recognition software, and as a result has
established a reputation as the worldwide leader in continuous, natural
language command speech software. IBM ViaVoice software is available in
eight languages and sold in more countries than any other speech recognition
software product.  For more information about IBM Speech Systems, visit the
World Wide Web at www.software.ibm.com/speech.  ###  Editor Note: * For more
information about Red Hat Linux 6.0 and the Application CD, please see
redhat.com.  IBM and ViaVoice are trademarks or registered trademarks of
International Business Machines Corporation. Linux is a registered trademark
of Linus Trovalds. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are
registered to their respective owners. References to products or offerings
do not necessarily imply that IBM intends to make these products or
offerings available to every country in the world.



--
Bryan Smart
E-mail: bsmart@xxxxxxxxxxx

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