Unisys Corp has announced the Natural Language Speech Assistant 3.0, the latest version of its suite of development tools and runtime components designed to simplify the creation of speech recognition applications. The company said the new suite contains features that now enable developers to design and test a speech- enabled application without any programming. The Dialog Design Assistant is said to allow developers to rapidly prototype an application, validate its listen and feel and make changes before writing a single line of code or choosing a particular speech recognizer, or engine – features that should drastically cut development time. One of the main features of the DDA is the inclusion of a simulator which automates the process of testing the application-in-progress, a time-consuming process which is typically carried out by repeatedly reading a script live with prompts. Other new features of NL Speech Assistant 3.0 include compliance with the Microsoft Speech Application Programming Interface (SAPI), manipulation of infinitely repeated variables, automatic dictionary file output, complete management of audio prompts, and support for multiple languages, including French and German. NL Speech Assistant 3.0 will be available next month, with per-seat developers licenses starting at $3,725.
