Hitachi and Lernout & Hauspie Join Forces to Offer Integrated Speech Solution
November 22, 1996 — Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products (NASDAQ: LHSPF), a leader in speech technology, today announced that its text-to-speech (TTS) and automatic speech recognition (ASR) technologies are being ported to the Hitachi (NYSE: HIT) SH-3 RISC processor.
The Lernout & Hauspie technology will be ported into the 32-bit SH-3 processor, which is the world's top-selling RISC microprocessor. L&H's TTS converts written text to natural sounding speech and will be used in applications that allow travelers to call their PCs and have their electronic mail read to them over any telephone. L&H's automatic speech recognition will be integrated into processors used in many consumer electronics devices, many of which have limited keyboards. ASR can be used to locate appointments and contacts, enter alphanumeric characters and allow consumers to verbally command and control their applications.
The SH-3 is one of the SuperH(a) RISC engine processors that are currently being shipped at a rate of more than 1 million units per month and are integrated into more than 1,000 diverse applications, including personal hand-held devices, digital cameras, mobile telephones and personal communicators. In fact, five of the seven Handheld PCs (HPC) for the new Windows CE operating system use the SH-3 processor.
"Hitachi chose L&H because it produces high quality speech in many different languages at a very low cost," said Matthew Trowbridge, General Manager of the European Marketing Group at Hitachi Europe Ltd. "L&H's proven track record and international presence ensures that our clients worldwide will receive the support required to integrate L&H technology into their products." "We are pleased that Hitachi has selected L&H text-to-speech and speech recognition technology," said Gaston Bastiaens, President of Lernout & Hauspie. "Use of our automatic speech recognition in the SH-3 will give consumers a verbal interface to many personal hand-held devices – which will open the world of technology for consumers and companies now constrained by different interfaces."
L&H speech technology is available in a wide variety of languages including American English, UK English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Korean and Spanish. Arabic, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Portuguese are currently under development.
About Hitachi Hitachi Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is the world's leading global electronics company, with fiscal consolidated sales (ending March 31, 1996) of $76.6 billion(b). The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment.
About Lernout & Hauspie Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products is an international leader in the development of speech technology for commercial products in four markets: Telecommunications, Computer and Multimedia, Automotive Electronics, and Consumer Electronics. Lernout & Hauspie licenses core automatic speech recognition, text-to-speech and digital speech compression technologies. The company's worldwide headquarters is in Ieper, Belgium and its Asian sales offices are located in Taipei, Taiwan and Hong Kong; U.S. headquarters is at 20 Mall road, Burlington, MA 01803, Phone (617) 238-0960. Please visit the L&H Web page at http://www.lhs.com or call at no cost (800) PRO-INFO.
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this news release are forward looking statements. Such forward looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors such as the availability and market acceptance of new products and product reliability, which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Lernout & Hauspie to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward looking statements. For further information, refer to the risk factors detailed from time to time in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
(a) SuperH is a trademark of Hitachi, Ltd.
(b) At an exchange rate of 106 yen to the dollar Windows is a registered trademark of the Microsoft Corporation
CONTACT:
Ellen Spooren, L&H
Tel: +1 617 221-8344
Scott Garlick, L&H
Tel: +32-2-456-0511
or
Kirsten Molz, H&K
Tel: +1 312 255-1200
or
Annemieke Blondeel,
Tel: +32-2-456-0520
Sue Dooley/Ann Trunko, FRB
Tel: +1 415 986-1591