Using Voice to Unleash the Power of the Internet TASC Presentation

Dr. Emdad Khan, President and CEO of InternetSpeech, founded the company with the vision of developing innovative technology for accessing information on the Internet anytime and anywhere, using just an ordinary telephone and the human voice. Thanks to his technical knowledge and understanding of emerging markets Internet Speech’s first voice Internet product/service, netECHO was developed. It is the only available product that delivers complete voice Internet access.

Dr. Khan’s InternetSpeech products have been well received by many people with visual disabilities and elderly users from various organizations. The San Francisco’s Lighthouse for the Blind has incorporated the technology into their organization, the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind.

His presentation started with the statement that Internet Speech is available from any telephone. This way the Internet is accessible to numerous people who do not have computers as well as those with visual disabilities and those too far from their computers. The system helps people bridge the digital divide and comes with modes for surfing the Web, searching information, reading email and e-commerce.

A tape showed a typical user logging on and using Internet Speech to visit a website. In a matter of minutes the pleasant professional sounding female voice was describing the page he wanted to look at. Considerable AI is at work in deciding which words on the page should be read. Dr. Khan played a clip of a caller using the system to buy a box of cookies, which the system efficiently handled.    

According to Dr. Khan people with visual disabilities tended to call several times a day spending about 10 minutes per call. Calls from people without computers were of around the same length; however, there were fewer calls. In turn, the calls from highly mobile professionals were shorter and were made when they do not have access to a terminal with a keyboard more conveniently. As a matter of fact, Internet Speech was launched as a convenience for mobile professionals. Its use for persons with visual disabilities was something only later found out.

The company further plans to expand into providing internet boxes for people with visual disabilities and support for more languages.  

During Q&A the following points came up:

• E-commerce via Internet Speech requires customizing of the site to work really well. The company asks vendors to allow one to 21 days for doing things like getting the dialogs and menus right before going live.
• The Government has approved of the system mainly because it is a simple way to comply with disability access laws.
• The system is currently available in English, Chinese, Japanese and German, and plans are on to expand into Spanish and Arabic.
• Static text that is used over and over is done by recording a human reading the words. Dynamic text is done by text to speech software. The system only has one voice right now, but there are plans for more.

Source: Technology and Society Committee (TASC)