Finding another opportunity to tap a vertical market among PC users, Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products NV has launched a voice interface for web browsing, internet chat, instant messaging and email. Now You’re Talking On the Web is expected to sell for $49.99 and follows the company’s Personal Finance package, which was optimized to work two widely-used personal finance programs – Intuit Quicken and Microsoft Money.
In both cases, L&H is tapping a sector of PC users who use their own jargon. The web application is tailored to the wealth of abbreviations used by chat room visitors – though this is ironic since they were developed to minimize use of a keyboard that becomes totally redundant with voice technology. IBM, the market leader in voice technology, also has a version of its ViaVoice optimized for web users.
