Vocalis launches SpeecHTML™, a revolutionary development that allows voice activated Web access via the telephone

Access to the World Wide Web is about to undergo a dramatic advance thanks to a new service developed by Vocalis, the Cambridge-based speech recognition telephony company.

SpeecHTML, the new interactive voice service allows users to access and obtain information from Websites using only a telephone and with the ease of spoken commands. The result is, millions of new users around the world who do not have a computer - still the vast majority - will now be able to access the Web. This will also allow those who do have access to remain in contact even when on the move, without the need to use portable computers.

SpeecHTML is based on two core technologies: advanced speech recognition (ASR), in which Vocalis is a world leader, and text to speech (TTS) conversion. SpeecHTML combines these with Vocalis's expertise in the telephony arena into a gateway package that creates an interactive wholly voice-driven way of accessing a Website. SpeecHTML allows users to interrogate a Website for information and get the textual parts of the site read back to them, therefore giving the user the data they require.

"This product will enable the entire Internet community to create a huge and varied range of interactive voice response (IVR) services, which can be changed simply by making changes to Web pages," explains Mike Williams, Business Development Director for Vocalis.

SpeecHTML will act as a highly economical add-on facility that any company with a Website will be able to afford, and which will be extremely simple to implement. Any organisation wishing to use the SpeecHTML service will be able to do so using generic templates or "Wizards" that will make setting up services even easier. An example of this is the creation of a booking service. Vocalis will maintain the service through a Website, through which companies will also be able to register to use SpeecHTML.

"SpeecHTML allows companies who have previously been unable to offer IVR services over the telephone, due to cost, to control their own IVR service without having to purchase anything other than a SpeecHTML licence and a Website," comments Williams. "Some initial modifications to any established Web pages may be needed but these will be relatively minor."

With the licence, SpeecHTML users receive a specific telephone number that connects callers to their Website's data via voice. Like any standard site, this data is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Any updates can be done quickly and easily to their site and are automatically made available to voice access by SpeecHTML.

SpeecHTML will be available both for licensing by end users, and as a system that equipment vendors and service operators can buy to incorporate as a powerful product differentiator.

"The potential market for SpeecHTML is huge, since it is a highly effective way for the more than 20 million current Website owners to reach those members of the public who until now have had no way of accessing the Web," claims Williams. "Interacting with a Website via speech creates a whole new dimension to the Internet phenomenon."