SRI International Announces EduSpeak 2.0 - A Speech Recognition Engine Designed for Computer-Based Education Tools

Speech Recognition Engine Enables Deployment of Speech-Enabled Interactive Software Products in the Educational Market

MENLO PARK, Calif., December 9, 2002 - SRI International, a leading independent research institute based in Silicon Valley, today announced the release of EduSpeak® 2.0, a speech recognition toolkit designed for use in educational software by developers of applications for language learning, reading development, assessment, and corporate training.

EduSpeak 2.0 is available for licensing as a software development toolkit for product-based organizations. The toolkit is also available for evaluation.

EduSpeak 2.0 offers these features and benefits:

• State-of-the-art accuracy and performance
• Acoustic models for both adults and children, and for native and non-native English speakers
• Patented human-calibrated pronunciation scoring at the paragraph, sentence, or word level
• Capabilities enabling developers to easily add new words to dictionaries
• Support for English, Spanish, French, and German languages
• Supports Macromedia Director, Java, and C/C++ developer environments, and any application or script that supports ActiveX, including browser-based JavaScript, Visual Basic applications, and Visual C++ applications

"EduSpeak 2.0 is designed for developers of education software who want to make their programs more interactive with speech recognition and want the integration to happen in days - not weeks," said Ray Perrault, acting director of SRI's Speech Technology and Research (STAR) Laboratory. "Decades of SRI research in speech recognition and investment in software engineering have led to an easy-to-use, accurate tool that developers and end-users will both appreciate."

The EduSpeak speech recognition engine is based on years of development by SRI's Speech Technology and Research (STAR) Laboratory. The STAR Lab carries out leading-edge research in speech recognition techniques, including work in the modeling of non-lexical aspects of speech. The staff, which includes engineers, computer scientists, and linguists, is active in both technology creation and technology transfer. Nuance Communications Inc. (http://www.nuance.com), a speech software solutions company spun off from SRI in 1994, is exploiting technologies originally developed in the STAR Lab.

More information about EduSpeak is available at http://www.eduspeak.com.

About SRI International
Silicon Valley-based SRI International (http://www.sri.com) is one of the world's leading independent research and technology development organizations. Founded as Stanford Research Institute in 1946, SRI has been meeting the strategic needs of clients for more than 55 years. The nonprofit research institute performs contract research and development for government agencies, commercial businesses and private foundations. SRI is well known for its innovations in information technology, telecommunications, engineering, pharmaceuticals, chemistry, physics, and the public policy areas of education, health, and economic development. In addition to conducting contract R&D, SRI licenses its technologies, forms strategic partnerships and creates spin-off companies.

SRI International and EduSpeak are registered trademarks of SRI International. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.