VoiceXML Review - Letter from the Editor

Volume 3, Issue 4 - July/August 2003

July 2003

Dear Readers,

The amount of activity in the industry that is centered on the VoiceXML 2.0 and related specifications is enormous. In terms of platforms alone, Ken Rehor’s World of VoiceXML website, lists over 40 VoiceXML platforms. In this issue we bring you up close to a couple of VoiceXML implementations.

In his article entitled “The VoiceGenie VoiceXML Platform Solution” Rob Marchand gives us a first hand look at the VoiceGenie VoiceXML platform. The VoiceGenie platform’s broad support of various off-the-shelf ASR and TTS technologies makes it a very attractive choice particularly in terms of flexibility and language coverage. Rob also appears again in this issue in his regular columnist role. This month’s First Words column brings together all the “theory” on VoiceXML events that have been presented in the previous two columns, by way of concrete code examples.

In “The Motorola VoxGateway: Lessons Learned”, Jim Ferrans shares some of the legend and lore behind the Motorola VoiceXML implementation. The Motorola VoiceXML browser has been integrated into a number of commercially available VoiceXML platform offerings, and in this article Jim shares some of the lessons learned along the way. Of particular interest is a detailed look at how the browser’s unique architecture and the use of Java as the implementation language have made it very easy to integrate and port across operating systems, and at the same time provide blazing fast performance. If you are implementing a VoiceXML browser, or about to implement one, this article is definitely a must read!

Have you ever wrestled with how to add fast forward and reverse functionality during audio playback in your VoiceXML application? After all, this is a standard feature in most voicemail systems. And by the way, the solution better not rely on any platform-specific features and/or warts! In the Q&A department this month, Matt Oshry’s Speak and Listen column presents a rather clever server-side solution to this problem, utilizing the ubiquitous sox utility. They don’t teach you this stuff in school!

Sincerely,

Jonathan Engelsma
Editor-in-Chief
VoiceXML Review

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