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Lucent Technologies Unveils New Articulator(TM) Text-To-Speech Software Development Kit
Platform Enables Third-Party Application Developers, OEMs and Service Providers to Deliver Text-to-speech Capabilities With Quality Comparable To the Human Voice
MURRAY HILL, N.J., April 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU - news) today released a new text-to-speech (TTS) software development kit (SDK) that allows third party application developers, OEMs and service providers to provide cost-effective, human-like speech-enabled services to their customers. Developed by Bells Labs, the new TTS software development kit, Articulator(TM), maintains all of the advantages of Lucent's existing TTS in terms of intelligibility and scalability, while making the synthesized voice sound more natural. It achieves the new level of naturalness without a significant increase in engine size or decrease in channel capacity.

Articulator TTS software is ideal for voice portals, services that access the Internet using the voice, that need to convert unrestricted text input to natural-sounding speech output for email reading, information access and other typical voice service applications.

More than 25 customers are currently in trial with the new speech software solution. Beta customers in trial include Nuance Communications, Philips Speech Processing, Motorola and Sound Advantage. Lucent is also deploying the Articulator software as an enabling technology in the Lucent MiLife(TM) Media Platform and the e-Services product portfolio.

``We view the Articulator TTS engine as the highest quality engine on the market today,'' said Kim Terry, senior vice president of Philips Speech Processing. ``The Lucent TTS system is our recommended choice for Philips Speech Processing customers needing a robust text-to-speech solution.''

According to Chester Anderson, senior vice president of Business Development of Sound Advantage, ``Articulator is the most natural and intelligible TTS engine on the market today. As a major e-mail reading provider, high-quality TTS is critical to our business success.''

``Lucent's Articulator SDK represents a significant step forward in the TTS offerings from Lucent Speech Solutions,'' said Rich Di Pietro, president of Speech Solutions, Lucent Technologies. ``Our TTS solution is extremely flexible because it is supported both as a software engine and on our scaleable speech server, making it an excellent solution for service providers.

The Articulator TTS is a stand-alone multi-channel software package based on a distributed architecture that runs on Windows* or UNIX operating systems and may support one to several hundred simultaneous TTS sessions. It includes a custom dictionary that enables users to create specialized pronunciations for any words they choose. It also comes with a language ID module that automatically recognizes the language of the text input. Included in the SDK is an email preprocessor that converts email messages into a form well-suited to be read aloud.

The SDK supports the Microsoft Speech API (SAPI) standard for the Windows operating system as well as the Lucent Speech API (similar to JSAPI) for both Unix and Windows operating systems. It includes full documentation and sample code for application developers.

U.K. English is currently available for the Articulator SDK and Lucent plans to add Articulator engine voices for all other supported languages, such as U.S. English, French, Spanish, German and Italian by the end of calendar 2001.

Lucent plans to demonstrate Articulator TTS at the AVIOS trade show (Booth #118) in San Jose, Calif. from April 2-4, 2001.

Supported by Bell Labs, Lucent Speech Solutions delivers state of the art speech recognition and industry leading TTS technology along with the only fully integrated speech platform.

Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., USA, designs and delivers the systems, software and services for next-generation communications networks for service providers and enterprises. Backed by the research and development of Bell Labs, Lucent focuses on high-growth areas such as broadband and mobile Internet infrastructure; communications software; Web-based enterprise solutions that link private and public networks; and professional network design and consulting services. For more information on Lucent Technologies, visit its Web site at http://www.lucent.com.

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