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RSS feedsBritish military scientists will work to develop speech recognition applications for mobile phone and Internet users under a joint venture launched this month.
The government's Defence Evaluation & Research Agency (DERA) will work with UK audio technology company NXT - through a joint venture called 2020Speech - to develop speech applications for functions such as voice-activated Web browsing and network security. They claim the speech recognition market will be worth $8 billion by 2004.
Analysts, however, have warned that while speech recognition has some benefits for hands-free Internet browsing on PDAs and mobile phones, it offers no advantage over existing network security methods.
Neil Barrett, a security consultant at Information Risk Management, said network security systems based on voice recognition devices are harder to administer than password-based technology.
"Security would be much more difficult," he said.
The venture is the first between a British government agency and a commercial organisation, and is an attempt by the government to transfer defense technology into the commercial sector.
"The time is right to move to a more commercially focused business," said DERA chief executive Sir John Chisholm.
2020Speech will compete against rival speech recognition vendors, including Lernout & Hauspie, which is backed by Intel and Microsoft who have invested $30 million and $60 million respectively.
DERA, which claims to have developed the technology used in all commercial off-the-shelf speech recognition packages, said it is planning an initial public offering for 2020Speech within five years.
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