This session offers a candid debate on the state of speech patents, both as assets and tools for the commercial market- place, and changes in the process for obtaining patents—especially in view of the America Invents Act. How have these provisions affected filings for speech patents, re-examination proceedings, and litigation activity? What pitfalls exist for the unwary? The discussion also includes a dissection of a recently issued speech patent so attendees can see how patents are actually made.

Alphanumeric speech recognition is one of the more challenging problems we face: There are many possible ways to implement it. When recognition goes well, callers are more satisfied; when recognition is not good, callers can get frustrated. This session covers how to design for improved alphanumeric recognition. It also includes various tips and tricks—constraining grammars versus using an n-best list, using web services to validate input, leveraging prefiller to improve initial phoneme recognition, and how to compare recognition methods.

Sentiment analysis can provide insights to businesses, academics, nonprofits, political parties, and of course government intelligence agencies about the emotions and sentiments of speakers and text writers. What is the role of speech technology in sentiment analysis? Can we get more than just “speech to text”? What will be the role of the new W3C EmotionML language?

This session discusses current and emerging standards in speech and related areas. Questions for discussion include the following: What standards are relevant to different types of speech applications, for example, traditional IVRs, desktop browsers, and mobile apps? What standards are relevant to developers and what standards are relevant for platform implementers? What platforms implement the various standards? How can we learn more about the different standards? How can we participate in standards development?

Voice XML 2.0 and 2.1 have resulted in many implementations of IVR systems by several different vendors and led to the creation of a community of knowledgeable IVR developers. Led by the W3C Voice Browser Working Group Chairperson, this session covers the current status of VoiceXML 3 and its future.

Join us for a discussion of the demographics of users of speech technology. We often plan, design, and deploy speech applications without knowing much about who will really be using the systems. In this session, you’re invited to share what you know and hear about some in-depth research on the characteristics of users of speech technology. Learn how to capitalize on these characteristics to improve the design of speech applications.

Speech is not always the best solution to meet every business need; in some cases, a DTMF may be the ideal solution to meet the needs of particular clients. However, the “press or say” paradigm is often falsely billed as a “best of both worlds.” This session includes talking points to present to clients, including debunking the myth that “press or say” is attractive from a dollar perspective, given its inherent hidden costs.

Conversation is an excellent paradigm upon which we can model human-computer interactions. Attendees can identify features of real person-to-person conversations and discuss how they can be exploited in speech-only, multimodal, and pure-mobile applications. Using examples from existing systems, attendees analyze these features to learn how to apply them to make a user experience truly conversational.

You’ve spent countless hours building your IVR system, making sure everything flows. Now it’s time to hire a voiceover talent to bring it to life. Ensuring the voiceover talent understands your system’s flow and its end user is vital to the success of the final recording. In this session, we discuss best practices in hiring, communicating, and working with voiceover talent to create the most effective end-user experience.

The Voice User Interface Designers Toolkit is an open-source project that includes custom Visio stencils, Visual Basic macros, and Python code that supports designing and maintaining a voice user interface. The tools do not generate code but instead help to partially automate the iterative design process. Learn about the strengths and weaknesses of the Toolkit from designers who use it. Learn about the latest enhancements and usage guidelines and offer suggestions for future enhancements.

Google’s project glass, Vuzix glass, and Telephony One are some of the wearable head gear that will bring a new level of user-computer engagement using speech technologies. How will these devices change the use of personal assistants, social media, location relevant data, first person augmented reality, video recording, gaming and simulated sports. What new applications will these devices enable? What new concerns do these devices raise about privacy and security?

Customers hate bad IVR. In fact, a large majority call with the intent of speaking with an agent. Why? Because prior experience says the IVR will be difficult and frustrating. And when an agent is engaged, expenses rise dramatically. Personalization can help alleviate the symptoms, but most technologies cannot leverage an integral component: caller behavior data. Learn how you can leverage caller behavior data in the IVR to adapt the customer experience … with real time analytics.