SAN FRANCISCO-A company that claims to be a pioneer in voice recognition technology will be demonstrating its product for the first time at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association’s Wireless ’97 show in San Francisco this week.
VoiceCue Technologies of Naperville, Ill., says its product is being used by carriers in Chicago, the southeastern United States, Canada, Germany and New Zealand.
Because cellular customers are seeking more hands-free applications, the wireless communications industry has become a strong potential market for voice recognition providers.
VoiceCue said it spent nearly four years developing the software-based applications, which run on a standard hardware platform. The platform was developed with voice recognition as its primary function, the company said.
“Many of VoiceCue’s competitors have backed into voice recognition by trying to meld their platforms, such as voice mail to voice recognition,” according to VoiceCue. “The company pioneered voice-activated, continuous digit dialing and holds a patent for its directory assistance call completion methodology for the cellular marketplace.”
The VoiceCue voice recognition unit can handle up to four voice recognition applications as a stand-alone unit or in a networked configuration. It connects to the service provider’s switched network through T1 trunks in the United States and E1 trunks in Europe.
Applications include directory assistance, call completion, voice dialing, prepaid calling and personal assistant services. The applications operate on either Windows ’95, Windows NT or DOS.
VoiceCue is marketing the product to cellular carriers, 1900 MHz carriers and landline telephone operators.
VoiceCue is privately held, owned by two private investors, and 40 percent by Cellutech, a Cellular One reseller in Chicago. VoiceCue was formerly Voice Tech Communications.