e.Digital Corporation (fka EDIG)

[emit]

DEARBORN, Mich., July 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Visteon Corporation (NYSE: VC) and SpeechWorks International, Inc. (Nasdaq: SPWX), today announced a joint licensing and development alliance with the goal of creating a vast array of voice-enabled products and applications for both the automotive and consumer markets. This partnership is expected to take the voice and telematics industries to the next level.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20001201/DEF008LOGO )

Visteon and SpeechWorks will work together to bring to market new, speech- enabled products and services for telematics, multimedia, information services, personal productivity, banking, finance, and other applications.

Under the terms of the agreement, SpeechWorks is licensing Visteon's C- REC(TM) technology, a continuous, speaker-independent, phonetic-based speech recognition engine, designed specifically for embedded devices. Together with Visteon, SpeechWorks will enhance C-REC capabilities with its own speech recognition technology and user interface design expertise. This will accelerate C-REC's deployment into vehicles and other devices and the development of distributed speech recognition (DSR) systems. These enhancements will be targeted at applications such as mobile telephony handsets, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and cable set-top boxes as well as automotive. The DSR systems will provide an intuitive user interface for access to information services such as stock quotes, news, weather, traffic and e-mail -- all through natural voice commands.

In addition, Visteon is licensing SpeechWorks' text-to-speech (TTS) technology, known as ETI-Eloquence(TM), to bring more personality and functionality to speech-enabled car services. With ETI-Eloquence, for example, car owners may hear, "Bear left at Route 1; You have one new e-mail from John Smith." Other dynamic information read to occupants in an intelligible voice is scheduled to include e-mails, directions, news, weather and traffic reports.

Visteon plans to integrate ETI-Eloquence into its future telematics and multimedia products and services. Currently, Visteon Voice Technology(TM) is available to consumers on several production vehicles. It allows drivers to use voice commands in the vehicle to adjust the temperature, tune the CD and radio, make phone calls with voice activated dialing capabilities such as, "Call dad at home."

"Our partnership with SpeechWorks is ideal because they have the technology, user interface expertise, and marketing leadership to help us commercialize our embedded speech recognition technology and bring it to markets well beyond the telematics industry," said Michael Johnston, Visteon's President and Chief Operating Officer. "Speech applications in their initial phase have won strong support from vehicle manufacturers and owners alike and they already are asking for more sophisticated 'hands-free' services that can help them get the information they need quickly and safely. Working with SpeechWorks will accelerate our ability to deliver these innovative, new capabilities."

Stuart R. Patterson, CEO of SpeechWorks said, "The introduction of speech recognition and TTS solutions into telematics and mobile computing devices will drastically change the way consumers interact with these devices and with online services over the next few years. We are thrilled that Visteon, a leader in the telematics industry, has chosen to work with us to bring our combined technologies to telematics and other markets such as mobile devices and cable set-top boxes."

Visteon Corporation is a leading full-service supplier that delivers consumer-driven technology solutions to automotive manufacturers worldwide and through multiple channels within the global automotive aftermarket. Visteon has about 80,000 employees and a global delivery system of more than 130 technical, manufacturing, sales and service facilities located in 25 countries.

Through the power of SpeechWorks(R) technologies, the human voice is all a caller needs to access instant information and conduct transactions from any landline or wireless phone. Around the world, customer service innovators such as America Online, E*Trade and Yahoo! are realizing returns on SpeechWorks applications that consistently serve and delight customers 24 hours a day. With over 100 partners, SpeechWorks delivers natural language speech recognition, speaker verification and text-to-speech (TTS) solutions to leading corporations, telecommunications providers and government organizations worldwide. For a description of SpeechWorks' products, services and unique customer programs such as the SpeechWorks Here(TM) Guarantee, call 617-428-4444 or visit www.speechworks.com .

SpeechWorks, ETI-Eloquence and SpeechWorks Here are trademarks or registered trademarks of SpeechWorks International, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks may be the property of their respective companies.

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SOURCE Visteon Corporation

CO: Visteon Corporation; SpeechWorks International, Inc.

ST: Michigan, Massachusetts

IN: AUT TLS CSE

SU: LIC

07/30/2001 06:00 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com