Far Eastern Markets Heat up for Leading Speech Recognition Software Company
February 4, 1997 — Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products (NASDAQ: LHSPF) today announced that it has successfully concluded separate deals to license its acclaimed speech recognition technology for use in a wide range of consumer electronic products from leading far eastern manufacturers. The nature of the deals means that Lernout and Hauspie technology will rapidly be encountered in millions of everyday items around the world.
The first three such companies to license L&H technology are: Hitachi, Acer Sertek and LG Semicon.
Lernout & Hauspie technology will be ported into Hitachi's 32-bit SH-3, the world's top-selling RISC microprocessor. L&H's text-to-speech (TTS) technology converts written text to natural sounding speech and will be used in PDA products, as well as applications that allow travellers to call their PCs and have their electronic mail read to them over any telephone. L&H's automatic speech recognition (ASR) 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 verbal command and control of their applications.
The SH-3 is one of the SuperH RISC engine processors that are currently being shipped at a rate of more than 1 million units per month and which are integrated into more than 1000 diverse applications, including personal hand-held devices, digital cameras, mobile telephones and personal communicators. In fact, five of the seven Handheld PCs already announced for the new Windows- CE operating system use the SH-3 processor.
Acer Sertek, a subsidiary of Acer Inc., have launched the DCS E633, a voice-enabled telephony card and application that utilises L&H speech recognition. It is the first application from Acer Sertek to incorporate L&H speech recognition, and will be bundled for distribution with Acer PCs and peripherals which, given Acer's market share, are expected to ship in volume.
DCS E633 combines a full-duplex telephony card, a 16 bit sound card, and a desktop telephony application, which provides users with a voice-controlled, PC-based, telephone and answering machine. Users can dial phone numbers by speaking the numbers, or connect automatically to contact listings in their address books by simply speaking a name. In addition, users can screen calls and navigate voice mail using voice commands.
"The most important reason for selecting Lernout & Hauspie's technology is its speaker independent and multiple language support. They are not only supporting the English language, but at this moment they are capable of supporting at least eight additional languages, and others in the very near future," said Gary Twu, Associate Vice President of Acer Sertek. "As Acer Sertek is a global company we definitely need support for various international languages."
LG Semicon will integrate L&H's automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology into a variety of computer, telecom, automotive and consumer electronics applications. Future product plans include a multimedia PC that doesn't require a keyboard, a car navigator system and a robot for use in language education.
The first application to be developed is the Hands Free Phone, which understands basic verbal commands. The Hands Free Phone uses L&H ASR to recognise words for dialling, selecting options and answering custom questions automatically. In addition, it allows users to check messages verbally, without using the buttons on the phone, even from remote locations.
"LG Semicon selected Lernout & Hauspie speech technology, because their products have the highest quality and offer the greatest flexibility, bar none", said Sun H. Choi, Executive Director and Head of System Device Research & Development, Laboratory at LG Semicon. "Furthermore, L&H supports multiple international languages, which is critical to our global business."
Notice to Readers: Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products is an international leader in the development of speech technology for commercial products in four primary markets: telecommunications, computers and multimedia, automotive electronics and consumer electronics. The company licenses core automatic speech recognition, text-to-speech, and digital speech compression technologies. Lernout & Hauspie's world-wide headquarters is in Ieper, Belgium, and its Asian sales offices are located in Taipei, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The United States headquarters is located in Burlington, Massachusetts. The company's common stock is traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol LHSPF.
Other company or product names have been used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective companies.
For more information on the company and it products, visit L&H on the Internet at its Website: http://www.lhs.com
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**. The company manufacturers and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power industrial equipment.
* SuperH is a trademark of Hitachi, Ltd.
** At an exchange rate of 106 yen to the dollar.
Acer Sertek is Taiwan's largest supplier of multimedia equipment, develops multimedia systems, optical drives, sound cards, MPEG cards and other multimedia products. Acer Sertek is a subsidiary of Acer Inc., one of the world's leading PC manufacturers. In addition to multimedia equipment and applications, the company is a leading Taiwanese technology products distributor. It represents international hardware, software and peripheral companies.
LG Semicon, with headquarters in Seoul. Korea, is a global supplier of semiconductor products. LG Semicon is a subsidiary of the LG Group which has a world wide reputation in electronics, electricity, semiconductor, chemicals, etc. The company has the top class technology and capacity in producing memory products and multimedia processors. Under the spirit of globalisation, it continues to expand its business and investment to all over the world. The major products of LG Semicon are memories such as DRAM, SRAM, ROM and Flash memories, as well as logic, linear and drive IC's. With subsidiaries at San Jose in USA, Tokyo in Japan, Hong Kong and Dusseldorf in Germany, the company has eleven sales offices and three R&D Centres world-wide. For more information, visit LG Semicon on the Internet at its Website: http://www/lgs.co.kr.
CONTACT:
Ellen Spooren, Lernout & Hauspie Speech
Products Europe
Tel: +32 (0)2 456 0520
Fax: +32 (0)2 460 3834
e-mail: [email protected]
Jeff Lea/Peter Gallon, N.V. Hartmann & Lotz – UK
Tel: +44 (0)1264 323141
Fax: +44 (0)1264 323251
e-mail: [email protected]