Voicenet software drives WordUp

By ADAM GIFFORD

The New Zealand branch of Australian software company Voicenet has taken a technology leap - and ensured its survival - by developing the software behind Telecom Mobile's new WordUp voice portal.

Telecom Mobile customers can use the portal to check or send e-mail, listen to news from IRN and weather, check Lotto results or hear their horoscope.

Julie Schultz, Voicenet's speech recognition division chief, said the technology behind WordUp represented a $3 million investment for the Perth-listed company, not including the money invested by Voicenet's Chilean subsidiary on a Spanish-language portal.

Its components include RealSpeak, from Lernot and Hauspie, for text-to-speech recognition, which is used to read out the email; ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition), from Nuance Technologies, which interprets the user's commands and turns speech into text; Cubix servers, to provide the processor-intensive grunt speech applications require; Dialogic technology cards and Intel processors.

WordUp is a joint venture between Voicenet and Telecom. Voicenet owns the server, which sits in a Telecom network centre, while Telecom handles the marketing and pays for content. Users are charged no more than the price of an ordinary cellphone call.

"We get a percentage of that fee from Telecom Mobile. If no one uses it, we get nothing," Ms Schultz said.

Unlike WAP (wireless application protocol), WordUp uses any existing handset. Users send and receive information by voice. All its services are navigated by voice commands, and requested information is read back to the user.

Other services being considered for WordUp include stock trading, voice dialup, and directory and referral services such as calling a taxi or choosing and booking a restaurant.

Longer term, location-based services and business applications such as procurement could be incorporated.

Voicenet New Zealand was originally Orator Technologies, a value-added reseller of call centre applications and Dragon voice recognition software. It was bought by ASX-listed Voicenet shortly before a change in Voicenet management led to its getting out of software distribution, with the Dragon agency being picked up by Harvey Norman.

The Auckland office was closed, and it was down to four staff in Wellington. About the only piece of business left was the "old trout" voice dial system for Telecom, which part of WordUp now replaces.

Telecom Mobile stepped up to the plate last May and the team started growing under the direction of voice technology guru Dr Mark Forsyth. Voicenet now employs 16 people fulltime on WordUp.

Ms Schultz said Telecom had the first voice portal in Australasia, but there was keen interest elsewhere.

In the US, Qwest and Sprint have launched portals, and America On Line has bought voice portal company Quack.com.



Analysts Kelsey Group predict the voice portal industry is expected to grow to $US12 billion ($30 billion) by 2005, with around 128 million callers.

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WordUp

Voicenet