Press Release, February 19th, 2009

Press Release Voice Pro 12 – Speak with your computer!

Linguatec, in cooperation with Microsoft, has developed the new speech recognition software Voice Pro 12

In close cooperation with Microsoft, Linguatec has developed the new generation of its high-performance speech recognition program Voice Pro. Whether writing, formatting, navigating or searching for information on the Internet: working with the computer using voice commands has never been more convenient and reliable. The new version of Voice Pro 12 will be presented to the public at CeBIT (3rd-8th March 2009).

For Microsoft, speech recognition is ground-breaking technology that will shape the digital age of the future. The Munich-based speech technology company, Linguatec, is the ideal partner for Microsoft owing to their many years of experience in the field of German speech recognition. More than two years work has gone into developing Voice Pro 12. The acoustic version has essentially been expanded upon by analyzing more than 1,000 new speaker profiles. In addition, the speech models have been considerably improved, as Fil Alleva, General Manager Speech Group, Microsoft Corp., USA, explains: “Linguatec has implemented and optimized new language models for impressive speech recognition results.” The Linguatec text corpus used has a rich vocabulary of over 700 million word forms.

Recognition accuracy of up to 99%

Also remarkable is the considerably improved recognition accuracy of up to 99%. In contrast to the previous version, the recognition errors have been reduced on average by 33%. Users of Voice Pro can thus write as quickly as they speak: on average, Voice Pro 12 is three times quicker than typing – and this is done without any typing or spelling errors. We can see quite plainly how much time users spend every day on routine tasks like typing emails and other texts, in controlling applications and gathering information. The new speech recognition program offers huge time-saving potential and facilitates a noticeable gain in productivity.

Intelligent processing for optimum results

A difficulty which is not to be underestimated when dictating is the differentiation of homophones, i.e. words that sound the same but are written differently. With the completely new SpeechCorrect, the user can simply and intuitively determine the context for a certain spelling. Thus, sentences like “The chili from Chile is excellent, but the climate is rather chilly” are no problem with correct recognition in Voice Pro 12, although “chili” and “Chile” sound exactly the same phonetically.

Smart commands for more convenience and efficiency

Another new feature in Voice Pro 12 is the innovative SmartCommand technology from Linguatec. The user can now combine several individual work processes into one simple speech command. For instance, just say “Write an e-mail to John Smith with the subject Our Meeting”, and all the tasks will be carried out in one go. “What is particularly practical is the smart search by voice, because it searches both on the desktop and on the web using SmartCommand in Google, Wikipedia & Co. and is much more convenient and nifty compared to searching with the mouse and the keyboard”, explains Dr. Reinhard Busch, CEO of Linguatec GmbH.

Mobile dictation

The mobile office is becoming more and more important. The professional versions of Voice Pro 12 are therefore ideally suitable for use with dictaphones. Dictations made on the move are simply converted to text at a later stage using the PC. WAV, MP3 and WMA data formats are supported.

Attractive lifestyle concept

The great advantage of modern speech recognition is the enhanced productivity when carrying out routine tasks on the PC. Voice Pro 12, however, can do far more, by deploying its strengths in the home entertainment arena, e.g. for operating the media player for playing songs or the media center for playing back TV programs or videos. It is a well-known fact that 70% of people do not know how to program their video recorder, With Voice pro 12 it’s easy, one simply has to tell the PC: “Record thenews at 8pm tonight”.

Top-class hardware for top-class software

Also in the new version 12, Linguatec equips all products with top-of-the-range headsets. In Sennheiser, Linguatec has found the optimum partner for superior microphone technology. Jesper Lock, Research & Development Manager at Sennheiser Communications, on the performance of the headsets certified specifically for Voice Pro 12: “The collaboration with Linguatec has given us significant incentives for further optimization of our microphones. The new generation of our headsets uses modern state-of-the-art Noise Cancellation Technology and was optimized for use with speech recognition.”

Along with Voice Pro 12 Standard for private use, Voice Pro 12 Premium for professional use and Voice Pro 12 Premium Wireless for more freedom of movement in the work place, there are Voice Pro 12 Legal for lawyers and Voice Pro 12 Medical for doctors. Voice Pro 12 is available from 27.03.2009.

Voice Pro 12 Standard for beginners UVP 69,- €
Voice Pro 12 Premium for professional use UVP 169,- €
Voice Pro 12 Premium Wireless with wireless headset UVP 249,- €
Voice Pro 12 Legal for lawyers UVP 369,- €
Voice Pro 12 Medical for doctors UVP 369,- €

 

About Microsoft:
Microsoft Corp. is the world’s leading producer of standard software, services and solutions. The Microsoft Speech Group researches and develops technologies for pioneering Human-Machine Interaction. www.microsoft.com

About Sennheiser:
The Sennheiser Group is one of the world’s leading producers of microphones, headsets and wireless transmission systems. Numerous patents and awards, including two innovation prizes from German industry, the Scientific and Engineering Award, Emmy and Grammy, are testimony to the company’s innovative strength. www.senncom.de

About Linguatec:
Linguatec Language Technologies is the leading provider of language technology software in Germany. The core product fields are machine translation, speech recognition and text-to-speech. Linguatec has won the European Information Technology Prize three times.

Press Contact:
Linguatec Sprachtechnologien GmbH
Frau Brigitte Schindler
Gottfried-Keller-StraĂźe 12
81245 Munich
Phone: 089-8966640
Fax: 089-88 91 99 33
www.linguatec.de

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