In much of the developing world, access to the internet via personal computers remains quite low, while mobile phone use is widespread. Unlike developed countries, in which individuals rely on the personal computers for access to information and self-service transactions, in the developing world, mobile phones are the primary means of communication and data access. Join us for a discussion of how speech technologies on mobile phones can be used to improve the lives of millions of people in developing countries.

Recent legislation in several states and municipalities around the country require drivers to use hands-free kits to use their mobile phones and have banned texting while driving. A newly developed application allows drivers to send and receive text messages using a speech-only interface, which makes the interaction similar to a hands-free phone call. Join us as we discuss the implications of voice texting and whether it sufficiently reduces the safety hazards associated with texting.

Automated agents and human agents have their advantages and disadvantages in the call center. Can these two agents be merged? For example, can a human agent monitor automated agents, stepping in when the automated agent fails? Can users switch back and forth between human and automated agents? Is the data entered into automated agents secure if the automated agent is monitored by a human agent? What will the future of combined human/automated agents be?

What are the benefits and disadvantages of migrating voice-only IVR applications to multimodal applications on mobile devices? How can voice-only applications take advantage of the small screen on many mobile devices? What changes to a voice-only application’s structure are necessary? Must the application be entirely redesigned and re-implemented?

Panelists from Google, Microsoft, and Symbian

Learn how you can leverage the popularity of smartphones in consumer and enterprise markets. What new customer interaction and employee productivity opportunities are enabled by these devices? What tools and training are available for developers who are looking to develop these new applications? What mix of speech, graphics, text and videos provide the best customer experience? Where are the guidelines for designing user interfaces for smartphones and how can you get started?

Speech technology is a quickly changing field. To make the best decisions for your business, you need to understand not just what’s happening today, but where speech technology will be tomorrow. Join us to get expert perspectives on what’s next for the speech technology industry and how to capitalize on growing trends.

Speaker identification and verification (SIV) technologies offer the promise of simpler and more secure methods of giving customers access to transactions and information, but it can be challenging to understand. Attend this informative session to learn how to evaluate SIV solutions and determine if they will be right for your organization, and learn what deploying an SIV solution will mean to your customers.

We’ve all heard of cloud computing, but how does speech in the cloud work, and what does it mean for your business? Attend this session to hear the views of these experts on the benefits of adopting cloud computing solutions with speech technology. Learn how speech in the cloud can help your organization improve the bottom line and simultaneously offer excellent customer service.

Panelists from Google, Microsoft, and Symbian

Learn how you can leverage the popularity of smartphones in consumer and enterprise markets. What new customer interaction and employee productivity opportunities are enabled by these devices? What tools and training are available for developers who are looking to develop these new applications? What mix of speech, graphics, text and videos provide the best customer experience? Where are the guidelines for designing user interfaces for smartphones and how can you get started?

In many cases, the best way to learn is by example. Come to this session to hear stories of speech deployments from two different industries and discuss the lessons learned. Learn how the design of troubleshooting applications and an auto-attendant for retail can help you with the design, evaluation, and deployment of your speech application and enable you to provide your customers with a superior experience.

Successful speech interactions often come down to getting the details right. Experts in this session delve into details that will help you design great interactions. Learn strategies for dealing with the common problem of voice searches that return a large number of results, and how to best present these results to users of speech applications. Next learn how analyzing the self-service offerings of your competitors can help your organization form a cohesive and unique customer experience strategy.

Every speech application has one: that prompt or menu that just doesn’t work the way you thought it would. This expert panel has the answers! Bring your most perplexing VUI issues and let the VUI design experts debate the right solution for you. This lively session will give you the answers you need and provide an inside view of how industry experts solve VUI problems.

Panelists from Google, Microsoft, and Symbian

Learn how you can leverage the popularity of smartphones in consumer and enterprise markets. What new customer interaction and employee productivity opportunities are enabled by these devices? What tools and training are available for developers who are looking to develop these new applications? What mix of speech, graphics, text and videos provide the best customer experience? Where are the guidelines for designing user interfaces for smartphones and how can you get started?

This session will provide an overview of the latest trends and research results from the academic and scientific community involved in speech and language research. Reports from the major international research conferences will highlight the state of the art, what is possible today, and provide useful insights and visions for the future of these technologies.

Panelists from Google, Microsoft, and Symbian

Learn how you can leverage the popularity of smartphones in consumer and enterprise markets. What new customer interaction and employee productivity opportunities are enabled by these devices? What tools and training are available for developers who are looking to develop these new applications? What mix of speech, graphics, text and videos provide the best customer experience? Where are the guidelines for designing user interfaces for smartphones and how can you get started?

Wizard-of-Oz (WOZ) usability testing is a well-known technique for evaluating speech applications early in the project life cycle, but many people do not really understand how a WOZ test really works. Attend this training session as we pull back the curtain and give you a behind-the-scenes view of a live WOZ usability test. This live demonstration will let you experience the benefits of this testing method for yourself and learn how it can benefit your organization.

Sooner or later, every speech application will generate user feedback — whether it’s from usability testing, customer surveys, or complaints from your mother. How can you use this feedback to improve? How do you deal with unexpected complaints? What steps should you take to manage the feedback process? Learn how to systematically build customer feedback into your speech project, or deal with the feedback you’re getting from the application you’ve already deployed.

Calling all VUIDs! Bring your best tips and tricks and help us assemble the 30 best new ideas in voice interaction design. You’ll leave this rapid-fire session armed with the latest techniques, and lots to think about. Come to learn or just to listen in on the debate, but be sure to join us!

One of the most neglected phases in the design of speech and multimodal applications is early user research. Organizations often reject user research because they do not see the benefits it can bring to self-service projects and believe it is costly and time-consuming. Join this panel of experts as they dispel these misconceptions and explain quick and effective user research methods, and show how it can be used to guide later design and deployment decisions.

Panelists from Google, Microsoft, and Symbian

Learn how you can leverage the popularity of smartphones in consumer and enterprise markets. What new customer interaction and employee productivity opportunities are enabled by these devices? What tools and training are available for developers who are looking to develop these new applications? What mix of speech, graphics, text and videos provide the best customer experience? Where are the guidelines for designing user interfaces for smartphones and how can you get started?

Create sophisticated speech-enabled applications for Android. This tutorial will walk you through the process with downloadable sample code for an actual application. Design the voice interface for natural conversation. Enable interaction with other applications. Support multiple languages. Learn how to get started and what to avoid. Taught by the man who gave Android its voice.

This session will provide hands-on training in the W3C Multimodal Architecture using interoperable components developed by Openstream, Loquendo, and other participants in the W3C Multimodal Interaction Working Group. The session will overview Openstream’s CueMe implementation of the W3C multimodal architecture and Loquendo’s MRCP speech server. Participants will be provided with a research version of the CueMe platform, documentation, and development tools that will be used in a hands-on multimodal development exercise. Both client-server and offline component distribution models will be discussed.

Extensible MultiModal Annotation (EMMA) provides a common language for communication among system components, enabling plug-and-play of technologies from different vendors and rapid prototyping and iterative development of multimodal interfaces. In this hands-on tutorial, participants will use a cloud-based multimodal server supporting EMMA (AT&T Speech Mashup) and the Deutsche Telekom EMMA implementation to learn how to build multimodal applications with EMMA that incorporate advanced features such as multimodal dialogue confirmation and fusion of multiple input modalities.

Does application portablility matter, even with the same browser platform vendor? In practice, significant compatibility challenges often unfold when migrating a speech application from one browser platform or automatic speech recognition (ASR) engine to another. What are the top issues affecting application portability? Learn how to avoid migration problems when you initially write application code. Learn how to migrate an existing application to a new platform. Apply strategies for mitigating browser platform and ASR differences.