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Voice Processing Developments and Futures

The future of voice processing is very bright, indeed. While such systems initially were a North American phenomenon, they are now commonplace in Europe and are gaining greater acceptance in Asia and other regions. Specific technology futures include archival, multimedia/unified messaging, voice-to-text, voice-to-fax, and language translation.

Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) has had an impact on voice processing, and will continue to have an impact in the future. Some CTI application software allows the voice processor to actually process the call, connecting the caller to the target station without the involvement of the switch.

Archival technology has been developed to allow voice messages to be archived, either for an individual or for a work group, on an external archival system and in the form of digitized audio files. The technology is in its early stages and is not widely available. Currently, voice processing systems allow the user to archive a message within the system. Internal memory limits the number and length of messages that effectively can be saved in this fashion.

Multimedia messaging, also known as unified or integrated messaging, allows a compound document to be developed and networked. A voice message can be associated with a text or image document. For instance, a voice processor acting as a front-end might recognize a fax tone and store the fax along with the voice message. Subsequently, the target user can listen to the voice message while viewing the fax document.

Voice-to-text and voice-to-fax technologies have been demonstrated which will convert voice messages to text or fax messages, and vice versa. While the technology is in development stage, a number of commercially available products will convert text to speech for applications such as remote e-mail access from a telephone. Manufacturers include Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), Berkeley Speech Technologies, Rhetorix, Dialogic, Natural MicroSystems, Active Voice, and Applied Voice Technology [5-23].

Speech recognition software allows the caller to speak commands to the voice processing system, rather than entering commands via the telephone tone pad. Although all but the most expensive systems currently are limited in vocabulary, such technology will become increasingly affordable and, therefore, prevalent in the foreseeable future. IBM, for instance, has developed speech recognition technology to the point that computer system vocabularies are in excess of 50,000 words [5-17] and [5-24].

Language translation systems also have been demonstrated which will accomplish language conversion. The technology, which also is in development, is planned for implementation by AT&T and other IXCs, replacing human translators currently providing such services.

Voice processing systems are destined to become even more commonplace, to the chagrin of many who bemoan the fact that they no longer can talk to a live human being. While users often hide behind voice mail in order to be more productive in the workplace, callers understandably get frustrated at their inability to reach them. Additionally, many systems are set up intentionally to defeat the caller’s attempts to reach any live person—this phenomenon is known as voice mail jail.

Electronic Mail (e-mail)

Once upon a time, letter writing was the way we communicated. Then came the telegraph, which was used sparingly—telegrams were expensive and rarely brought good news. Some 50 years later, the telephone arrived, and eventually became the primary means of communications. Federal Express and other courier services have become a routine means of sending written documents, to the point that we wonder how we ever got along with snail mail. Fax machines then became affordable and popular, allowing instantaneous transmission of documents. Now comes electronic mail (e-mail). Electronic mail (e-mail) is an application software system originally intended for textual messaging, but which now allows the attachment of other forms of information, including binary files, images, graphics and even digitized voice and video. Nonetheless, its primary use remains textual messaging (see Figure 5.3).


Figure 5.3  Electronic mail growth.

According to a 1995 Lou Harris survey of 505 chief information officers and senior executives, 62% of corporate employees, and 83% of government employees use e-mail. BIS Strategic Decisions estimates that the worldwide messaging market will grow from 45 million mailboxes in 1995 to 67 million in 1998 [5-25]. Others suggest that there already exist over 100 million e-mail addresses. It is estimated that well over 1 billion e-mail messages are sent monthly across the Internet, alone. For many of us, e-mail is the first thing we check at the start of the business day and the last tool we touch at day’s end. It has, indeed, become a fundamental mode of communications.

E-mail provides the ability to distribute information to large numbers of people, virtually instantaneously and very inexpensively. For instance, a 50-page document can be transmitted coast-to-coast in approximately 30 seconds using a high-speed modem. The cost of such a transmission is in the range of pennies rather than tens of dollars for overnight delivery via Federal Express or a similar service [5-26]. The dark side of e-mail, however, includes the fact that once the mouse is clicked, the message is sent and is irretrievable. Gone forever are the days when one dictated a sensitive letter and let it rest overnight in a desk drawer while emotions cooled so that it could be reread and edited in the light of brighter day. Getting darker, still, e-mail is a way for reckless employees to instantaneously expose company secrets, damage reputations, offend coworkers and create a host of legal problems [5-27].


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