🚀 go-pugleaf

From: Owner-OS2News@teamos2.org

Subject: OS2News: Speech Engine to be Integrated in Merlin

InfoWorld

Posted at 7:45 p.m., PT, Feb. 16
IBM will deliver on its promise to bring its speech-recognition
technology to Merlin, the code name for the next generation of OS/2
Warp, due later this year. "Merlin will have an integrated speech
engine that will support navigation and dictation," said John Schwarz,
IBM's vice president of OS/2 marketing and brand management, in
Austin, Texas. IBM will bundle a new VoiceType Dictation engine --
along with navigation and dictation technology software -- with Merlin
in the second half of this year, Schwarz said. The engine will allow
users to dictate to word processors, such as Lotus Development Corp.'s
WordPro, as well as navigate through common desktop tasks using voice
commands. Voice Pilot, the navigation and dictation applications built
atop the VoiceType Dictation engine, were licensed from Miami-based
Voice Pilot Technologies Inc., according to Richard Grant, Voice
Pilot's chief technology officer. Voice Pilot was released in the
middle of last year to industry applause, but its success was hampered
by lukewarm IBM marketing and its price -- a hefty $999 that included
a special voice card that drove the VoiceType Dictation engine. Now
Voice Pilot has taken flight again, according to sources close to IBM,
borne on the wings of the new engine that works on a common Sound
Blaster card. The engine made it possible to bundle Voice Pilot with
Merlin, the sources said. In the future, many OS/2 applications will
be Voice Pilot-ready via an OpenDoc component called SpokenDoc, Grant
said. Lotus SmartSuite will be among the first, sources said. But
users will be able to talk to existing applications by using Voice
Pilot with Merlin to create speech-enabled macros, Schwarz said.