Opera And IBM Team UP To Develop Voice Browser

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March 23, 2004 (11:03 AM EST)

Opera And IBM Team UP To Develop Voice Browser

Opera Software is teaming up with IBM to develop speech-recognition technology for Opera's future, upgraded browser. Opera said the technology will be initially developed for its desktop browser, but it will appear later in its software for cell phones and PDAs.

"By making this technology available today for the wider Web audience, the serious work of voice-enabling the Web can commence," said Opera's VP of engineering Christen Krogh in a statement. Opera is utilizing IBM's Embedded ViaVoice speech technology in developing the voice features of the browser.

The Norwegian firm said that by building on standard XHTML+Voice (X+V) technology, developers can add voice input and output to existing graphically based Web pages to achieve natural voice functionality.

At first, Opera expects the voice browser to be available in English for Windows users, although the firm plans to offer it later in additional languages. The technology will be initially aimed at enterprise customers and developers, Opera said.

One early application is likely to involve Microsoft's PowerPoint presentations. Simple voice commands like "turn page" can be used to flip to the next slide without using a keyboard.

In the more distant future, a user could set the browser to respond to simple commands. For instance, by saying "Find Techweb.com," the browser would go to the Techweb.com site on the Internet.

The X+V technology, backed by Opera, IBM, and Motorola, received the endorsement last week of the VoiceSML Forum. It competes with the Speech Application Language Tags (SALT) standard, which is backed by Microsoft.

The opera browser is offered free, while an advertising-free version is offered for $39; both can be downloaded from the Web.