WebSphere Voice Server

Features and benefits

WebSphere Voice Server V6.1.1 is a software product that can be integrated with other software and hardware telephony products to speech-enable these products and their associated applications.

By using an application developed with WebSphere Voice Server, you can place a telephone call from either a landline or mobile phone.

• A separate telephony server answers this telephone call.
• The telephony server fetches a VoiceXML document from an application server, such as WebSphere Application Server.
• The telephony server then interprets this document and requests either synthesis or recognition to occur on WebSphere Voice Server.
• With WebSphere Voice Server V4.2 for AIX, WebSphere Voice Response acts as the telephony server and communicates with WebSphere Voice Server, which listens to the speaker and recognizes words.
• With WebSphere Voice Server V6.1.1 and 5.1.x for MRCP, the third-party IVRs and VoiceXML gateway communicate with WebSphere Voice Server, which listens to the speaker and recognizes words.
• These recognized words are then passed to the application, running on an application server such as WebSphere Application Server.
• WebSphere Voice Server then uses the text to synthesize speech, which the telephony server routes back to the handset where the caller can hear it.

The following are examples of how WebSphere Voice Server can be used:

• Voice-enabling server applications:
  • Using open voice standards, software server applications, built on open industry standards, can be enabled for voice access. This allows users to access voice-enabled Web applications by using a telephone either wired or wirelessly.
  • You can enable voice on existing DTMF and pre-recorded audio IVR applications with speech recognition and text-to-speech (TTS) capabilities.
• Voice-enabling Web applications - You can enable voice on Web applications with a combination of products that includes:
  • IBM speech recognition and TTS engines for accepting voice input and generating synthesized speech output.
  • WebSphere Voice Server application for testing your installation and configuration.
  • WebSphere Voice Toolkit for Eclipse or IBM Rational SDP
• Support software for integration with the following telephony platforms:
  • WebSphere Voice Response for AIX V4.2 (using the included WebSphere Voice Server V4.2 product).
  • WebSphere Voice Response V4.2 using the Version 6.1.1 and 5.1.3 products.
  • Third-party IVRs and VoiceXML gateways that are qualified and interoperate with the WebSphere Voice Server V6.1.1 and 5.1.x using MRCP.
• Speech-enabling IVR application - The speech-enabling IVR application includes:
  • IBM speech recognition and TTS engines for recognizing voice input and generating synthesized speech output.
  • An application for testing your installation and configuration.
  • Support for system management functions.
  • Support software for integration with WebSphere Voice Response for AIX V4.2 (WebSphere Voice Server V4.2 only).
  • Support software for integration with WebSphere Voice Response V4.2 (WebSphere Voice Server 6.1.1 and 5.1.3).

WebSphere Voice Server V6.1.1 product features

• Ability to utilize the J2EE architecture and Enterprise JavaBeans for core functionality. WVS runs as an Enterprise Application in WebSphere Application Server V6.1, extending WebSphere Application Server reliability, scalability, and availability to the WVS 6.1.1 server.
• Support for MRCP V1 Draft 4, Speech Recognition Grammar Specification (SRGS) 1.0, and Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) 1.0.
• Support for Semantic Interpretation for Speech Recognition (SISR) - W3C Working Draft 1, dated April 2003.
• Capability to barge-in, which allows a user to interrupt the dialog and respond to a prompt.
• Grammar-based speech recognition, including support for dynamic grammars.
• Support for speaker verification integrated into the product installer.Speaker verification was previously made available as WebSphere Voice Server Feature Pack for Speaker Verification
• $GARBAGE support for US English and German for the Viterbi decoder on Linux, US English on Windows
• Support for FreeForm Commands (FFC) SLMs
• SLM Offline Compiler for Viterbi SLMs (not for use with FFC) on Linux Grammar Offline Compiler
• New 5th generation US English male voice and German male and female TTS voices.
• US English male and female 22KHz TTS voices
• Auditing feature
• System administration leveraging WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V6.1, which includes the WebSphere Application Server System Administrator's Console for ease of configuration, administration, troubleshooting, and reviewing log and trace information. WVS V6.1.1 provides additional voice-specific administration panels to facilitate configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting.
• WebSphere Application Server Network Dispatcher Edge Components (included with WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment) in front of a multi-machine WVS install to allow IP spraying. This allows machines to be taken out of service for maintenance and automatic failover and provides for scaling of the MRCP server.
• WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment Manager, which allows a single WebSphere Application Server System Administrator's Console to manage a network of WVS V6.1.1 machines.
• Improved performance
  • Restructured engine for improved performance
  • Support for Viterbi recognition (all languages)
  • Online adaptation for improved recognition in noisy environments
• Updated platform support
  • Support for WebSphere Application Server version 6.1
  • Support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux versions 4.6 and 5.1
  • Support for Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 1 or 2
  • Support for Windows XP (for WebSphere Voice Toolkit)

WebSphere Voice Server V5.1.x product features

• Ability to utilize the J2EE architecture and Enterprise JavaBeans for core functionality. WVS runs as an Enterprise Application in WebSphere Application Server V5.1, extending WebSphere Application Server reliability, scalability, and availability to the WVS 5.1.x server.
• Support for MRCP V1 Draft 4, Speech Recognition Grammar Specification (SRGS) 1.0, and Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) 1.0.
• Support for Semantic Interpretation for Speech Recognition (SISR) - W3C Working Draft 1, dated April 2003.
• Capability to barge-in, which allows a user to interrupt the dialog and respond to a prompt.
• Grammar-based speech recognition, including support for dynamic grammars.
• WebSphere Voice Server Feature Pack with SV for WebSphere Voice Server V5.1.3 provides a grammar-, language- and text-independent mechanism for speaker verification. Enroll and verify saying anything, in any language!
• System administration leveraging WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment V5.1, which includes the WebSphere Application Server System Administrator's Console for ease of configuration, administration, troubleshooting, and reviewing log and trace information. WVS V5.1.x provides additional voice-specific administration panels to facilitate configuration, monitoring, and troubleshooting.
• WebSphere Application Server Network Dispatcher Edge Components (included with WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment) in front of a multi-machine WVS install to allow IP spraying. This allows machines to be taken out of service for maintenance and automatic failover and provides for scaling of the MRCP server.
• WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment Manager, which allows a single WebSphere Application Server System Administrator's Console to manage a network of WVS V5.1.x machines.

Language support

The following information identifies language ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition) and TTS/CTTS (Concatenative TTS) support for each connection:

Language	WebSphere Voice Server V4.2 - WebSphere Voice Response/ AIX	WebSphere Voice Server V5.1.x (MRCP) - Linux	WebSphere Voice Server V5.1.x (MRCP) - Windows	WebSphere Voice Server V5.1.x (MRCP) - AIX
U.S. English	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
U.K. English	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Australian English:*	-	Yes	Yes	Yes
*Note: Speech Recognition only, use U.K. English CTTS.	-	-	-	-
Brazilian Portuguese	Yes	-	-	-
Canadian French	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
French	Yes	-	-	-
German	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Italian	Yes	-	-	-
Latin American Spanish	-	Yes	Yes	Yes
Spanish	Yes	-	-	-
Japanese	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Korean	Yes	-	-	-
Cantonese Chinese	Yes	-	-	-
Simplified Chinese	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Complimentary copies of the following products are included:

• WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment
  This is a restricted license for use by the WVS product only.
• WebSphere Voice Toolkit that includes the following features that allow application developers to easily add voice technology to middleware applications:
  
  • An integrated development environment (IDE), a Communication Flow Builder editor, a VoiceXML editor, a CCXML editor, a Lexicon editor, and editors for creating grammars written in SRGS (XML or ABNF)
  • VoiceXML 2.0 and VoiceXML 2.1 support
  • Conversion tools for VoiceXML, audio, and grammar files.
  • A Pronunciation Builder, Audio Prompt Manager, Audio recorder, Grammar Weighting, Transcription tool and Batch Grammar Test tool.
  • Voice Trace Analyzer for use with WebSphere Voice Server log files.
  • Plug-ins and tools for developing grammars and pronunciations for use with WebSphere Voice Server.
• WebSphere Application Server which can be used for internal evaluation and for the development, demonstration, and testing of applications. It provides open standards, the core element in many e-business solution offerings, by offering a rich set of application deployment services and transaction management.
• WebSphere Edge Components and WebSphere Supplements (for IBM HTTP Server)

Accessibility

WebSphere Voice Server for Multiplatforms is a voice application enabler, which appeals to the major user groups impacted by speech technology-system administrators, application developers, and application end users. WebSphere Voice Server V6.1.1 provides the following accessibility features for each user group:

• System administrators:
  
  • Provides accessible administration and monitoring interfaces for speech technology resources.
  • Offers text through standard system function calls or through an application programming interface (API), which supports interaction with assistive technology.
  • Provides accessible documentation.
• Telephone callers (end users):
  
  • Offers the capability of providing people with visual, manual, and/or mobility impairments access to business data and services using auditory user interfaces.
  • Helps businesses comply with Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Application developers:
  
  • Provides an accessible development environment for speech applications.

 

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