VoiceXML Forum Joins W3C Multimodal Effort

By Bernard Cole
iApplianceWeb
(10/26/02, 04:24:05 PM EDT)

Piscataway, NJ - The VoiceXML Forum has to join in the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Multimodal Activity, a newly-formed working group which will look into standards and software to access web applications and services by voice, keyboard, key pad, mobile phones and devices.

Members of the VoiceXML Forum, include AT&T, IBM, Lucent, Motorola, Nuance, and VoiceGenie.

Multimodal applications are set to grow in importance in the coming years, bringing benefits to businesses, developers and end-users. Today, web applications cannot be accessed by more than one channel at a time - e.g., using both voice and keypad on a wireless handheld device at the same time. With upcoming technology, devices from the desktop computer to the handheld PDA, from the automobile to the cellular phone, will be able to support multiple modes of access and communication, allowing them true anyplace, anywhere, anytime access.

With that, developers will need an open, standards-based way to write applications that allow for multiple types of input and output simultaneously, as well as enable devices of various platforms to operate with one another. For instance, a business traveller will be able to call an automated call center to ask for flight information using speech, and have that information appear as text on his handheld device.

"Multimodal applications are the next step in the growth of voice technology. A key component in making anyplace, anywhere access more convenient and real, it allows end-users to use the most suitable form of input and output no matter what situation they're in," said Bill Dykas Chairman of the VoiceXML Forum, "Standards that use existing languages that developers are already familiar with are key to this."

The range of applications using multimodal capabilities include mobile stock trading, Web-based auctions:, navigation aids in cars, and web browsers in automobiles.

Go to www.voicexml.org or www.w3.org/2002/mmi/ for more information.

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