An early version of an emerging technology that will allow users to
control software applications by speech has been released to
developers.
A group featuring Microsoft and Speechworks International, known as
the SALT Forum - short for Speech Application Language Tags - has
released the first public specification of its technology. When
completed, the technology would allow developers to add speech
"tags" to Web applications written in XML and HTML, allowing those
applications to be controlled through voice commands rather than a
mouse or a keyboard.
Other founding members of the SALT Forum include Cisco, Comverse,
Intel and Philips Electronics. Nearly 20 other companies have
announced support for the effort, according to information at the
group's Web site.
Version 0.9 of the SALT Forum specification, which is available for
download at
www.saltforum.org
includes early design details for how a developer would go about
adding a speech interface to an application.
It also offers suggestions about how developers might consider
using the technology to voice-enable Web applications, creating
what are known as "multimodal" programs that can be controlled by
both voice and traditional input methods. The SALT specification is
also designed for applications that don't have a visual user
interface, such as those accessed by telephone.
Microsoft said it plans to make use of SALT in three major product
areas. It will release in May the beta version of an add-on tool
for Visual Studio.net that will allow developers to voice-enable
applications. Those developers will also be provided with the test
release of a voice-enabled version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer
Web browser. Finally, by the end of the year the company plans to
offer a SALT-compliant text-to-speech engine for its .net
initiative, said James Mastan, group product manager for
Microsoft's.net speech technologies group.
After collecting comments from developers who review the
specification, the SALT Forum said it plans to submit the
technology to a standards body for review. Microsoft said it
expects the specification to become an open standard that will be
available on a royalty-free basis.
A rival effort is under way to develop a standard for speech
interfaces based on a technology called VoiceXML. That effort is
led by a group of companies including IBM, Motorola, AT&T and
Lucent Technologies. First announced in early 1999, VoiceXML was
originally designed to make accessible by telephone. Efforts are
under way to add the capability to voice-enable applications that
are accessed using the Web.
The VoiceXML effort is under review by the W3C (World Wide Web
Consortium), an international standards body, and is expected to be
discussed when the W3C meets next week in Cannes, France. Microsoft
said it expects the early SALT specification also to make an
appearance at that meeting.
The SALT Forum is online at
www.saltforum.org.
Information about VoiceXML can be found online at
www.voicexml.org.