Adobe Releases Speech-Recognition Indexing

 

 Via several non-official Adobe-centered blogs and news articles, Adobe has released a Soundbooth Beta that showcases a host of new features, including new speech recognition technology that lets users create transcripts of dialogue tracks quickly and search them for words and phrases across their timeline.

 

 Adobe hasn't yet published any official press releases, so this feature may be a tad undocumented and in early beta form to date.

 They also have not disclosed which engine they are using (if it's not propreitary) to parse spoken audio tracks for speech recognition indexing.

 We've blogged about the two most popular such engines, Everyzing's "Ramp" and it's predecessor and core technology, MIT's "Lecture Browser" from CSAIL (Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory) and it's very likely this indexing uses these platforms or variations thereof (IOHO), although new "automated indexing of video's spoken audio" technology is emerging from several new entities, including IBM.

 

Tweet by phone.. TwitterFone!

 

 Yes, it's true.. Now you can Tweet by phone.

 

 We didn't get an invite yet, but we'll be sure to post more when we do..

 

SPEAK: Speech-enabled auto attendant for SMB's!

 

 Active Voice has rolled out a turnkey speech enabled auto-attendant that's priced and aimed at small to mid-sized business markets, named "SPEAK".

 

 Via the press release & web page:
"The engineering framework of SPEAK is designed to be a sophisticated turnkey solution that is considerably more affordable, while being easy to implement, easy to deploy and easy to use. Thus, SPEAK provides SMBs a practical solution for speech attendant, corporate directory as well as mobility access."

 Some productivity features the maker notes:

Upgrades customer service while reducing “zero-out” calls

Eliminates the push button frustration as well as the need to search for numbers

Provides total 24/7/365 self-service information such as employee and department directories, company information, driving directions, business hours, etc.

Performs dynamic call routing to ensure all incoming callers are treated in a personalized and professional manner

Frees front desk support to deal with important face-to-face matters

Keeps mobile workforces connected efficiently and provides hands-free access for safety

Reduces the need for maintaining and printing company directories

Secures access to your telephony resources across all networks

 Per Eyal Inbar, General Manager of Marketing and Product Development:
 "Active Voice SPEAK leverages LumenVox's cutting-edge Speech Engine and Digium's open standard hardware, enabling SPEAK to be offered at a price point that is unbeatable in the market and at a level of sophistication that is yet to be experienced by SMBs. The bottom line of SPEAK is simplicity, affordability and ease of use."

 

Plug-n-Play medical speech recognition from Dolbey

 

 Dolbey has announced the release of "Voice2Text" (powered by Royal Philips Electronics); the first medical speech recognition transcription system that allows medical customers to keep their existing document platform!

 

 Via the Dolbey PDF product sheet:
 "Voice2Text is unique in that the speech recognition has been integrated with Dolbey’s Fusion Voice digital dictation system and provides simple, yet functional integration to a company’s existing document platform."

 Voice2Text is unique in yet another area;
"This non-invasive approach to applying back-end speech is uniquely being offered in a pay-as-you-go model to minimize upfront investment"(Dolbey's Product PDF).

  It's certainly exciting to see these recent advances in speech recognition, particularly as they become simpler and more effective..

 

Speech recognition grows by 100% in the military

 

 According to a Businesswire.com article today;
 Nuance's Dragon NaturallySpeaking® Medical software has seen a one hundred percent growth over the last year.

 Via the businesswire.com article;
 "Dragon Medical has extended its value into the Federal government through its seamless integration with AHLTA, the military’s electronic health record, to enable clinical documentation through accurate voice-to-text speech recognition. According to a survey performed across 17 distinct Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps medical treatment facilities, 79.9 percent of those surveyed chose Dragon Medical as their preferred method for documenting care within AHLTA."

 

 Craig Rohan, Staff Pediatrician at the Peterson Air Force base in Colorado is quoted as saying:
“Speech recognition technology allows for more thorough and expedited documentation of our patient encounters. Since using Dragon Medical I find that medical statements are more easily captured during routine clinic workflow. The comprehensive medical vocabulary Dragon Medical works off of ensures that the symptoms or diagnosis we say are correctly documented”
and
“More advanced users of Dragon Medical can take advantage of features such as 'macros', 'shortcuts' and other tools that further streamline documentation by producing a partially, or in some cases fully populated medical record when prompted by the command ‘normal study,’ for example. We’ve seen significant productivity improvements across those who have embraced speech recognition to document care.”

 President Bush has set a goal for Americans to have an electronic health record by 2014. The DOD began AHLTA; an always available electronic health record for all active military, retirees and their families and expects to have it fully implemented by 2011.