Dear
Readers,
In
the January issue you may recall reading Gerald
Karam's article describing the efforts of the VoiceXML
Forum and the W3C Voice Browser Working Group in evolving
the VoiceXML language. While we fully expect the evolved
dialog language from the W3C will be called VoiceXML
2.0, do note that it's not official until we have the
first public document from the W3C using this name.
This month we are pleased to bring you detailed technical
updates on a couple of the Working Draft specifications
that have been released by the W3C.
The
VoiceXML 1.0 specification does not mandate any particular
speech grammar format. Most existing VoiceXML platforms
tend to support the grammar format(s) supported by the
underlying speech recognition engine. This can limit
the portability of VoiceXML applications. To address
this issue, the Voice Browser Working Group has developed
the Speech Recognition Grammar Specification. Andrew
Hunt, one of the editors of the specification, contributes
an informative article entitled Introduction
to the W3C Grammar Format in this month's issue.
Andrew's article develops the motivation behind the
specification and then walks us through a series of
examples demonstrating the various elements defined
by the XML form of the language. This new grammar specification
language is critical in that browsers implementing VoiceXML
2.0 will be required to support it.
Another
Working Draft specification released by the Voice Browser
Working Group is the Speech Synthesis Markup Language
Specification (SSML). This specification defines a new
XML-based markup language that provides a standard way
to describe input to text-to-speech synthesizers. This
month, Mark Walker and Andrew Hunt, editors of the SSML
specification, have contributed an article entitled
The
Speech Synthesis Markup Language for the W3C VoiceXML
Standard. The authors describe the key elements
of the language, as it exists today, and also introduce
a number of areas that are under investigation for future
versions of the language.
This
month, our First
Words columnist Rob Marchand rolls up his sleeves
and starts his own VoiceXML-enabled pizza franchise!
Rob begins the first of a series of columns that will
put into practice the basic VoiceXML concepts he's been
covering in his previous columns.
In
our Speak &
Listen column, Jeff Kunins is back with answers
to the questions that you all have submitted. We received
a variety of questions this month ranging from the details
of the <record> tag, all the way to the very broad
"how do I build my own VoiceXML platform, and how
much will it cost?" question! Don't forget to send
us that tough VoiceXML-related question you've been
struggling with: speak.and.listen@voicexmlreview.org.
Finally,
if you missed the VoiceXML Forum's first User Group
Meeting earlier this month, don't despair. Visit the
Forum's website (www.voicexml.org)
you'll soon be able to download the viewgraphs from
the various presentations.
Sincerely,
Jonathan
Engelsma
Editor-in-Chief, VoiceXML Review
Jonathan.Engelsma@voicexmlreview.org
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