CASIO Partners With ART to Include Voice Recognition Into CASSIOPEIA Handheld PC; ART Voice Recognition for Windows CE 2.0 Will be Bundled With New CASSIOPEIA A-20 H/PC

Business Wire, Nov 17, 1997

CHATSWORTH, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 17, 1997--Advanced Recognition Technologies Inc. (ART), a developer of technologically superior speech and handwriting recognition engines, today announced a strategic partnership with CASIO Computer Co.

The partnership outlines the bundling of three ART speech recognition software utilities for the new CASSIOPEIA A-20 running the recently released Windows CE 2.0 platform. smARTmemo, smARTcontact, and smARTcommand can be used with the built-in microphone available on the new CASSIOPEIA. The ART software will be bundled with all new CASSIOPEIA A-20 H/PCs.

"With the emergence of speech as a popular interface for the handheld PC, the ART products are essential ingredients for our CASSIOPEIA handheld PC offering," said Daryl Scott, director of the CASIO Mobile Systems Group. "We chose ART in order to offer CASSIOPEIA users the highest quality voice recognition software in their handheld PC."

"U.S. software companies often find it difficult to partner with Japanese-based companies due to differences in operating systems and the language, but ART has enjoyed a great partnership with CASIO, with first bundling on their A-50 and A-51 model of H/PCs sold in Japan," said Richard McCaskill, executive vice president and general manager. "Since a benefit of ART's voice recognition is that it is entirely trained by the individual, our products overcome these international barriers."

The CASSIOPEIA voice applications will be comprised of three ART voice products: smARTmemo, smARTcontact and smARTcommand.

"The engine's patented built-in noise immunity ensures high recognition accuracy regardless of the types of background noise present. In addition, the programs use less than 100Kbytes of memory on the H/PC," stated McCaskill. "This engine makes CASSIOPEIA voice applications ideal speech recognition for the diverse mobile environments of an H/PC."

Users can add new words to the vocabulary to build their own personal voice library. The software was designed to work with the new CASSIOPEIA A-20 H/PC equipped with a microphone. smARTmemo provides a voice memo function to the H/PC and allows users to record a voice or other sound as a file using the H/PC's microphone. Once the voice or sound is recorded, the file can be played back by simply saying "Replay" or be deleted by saying "Delete."

The program comes with a handy memo manager that provides easy sorting, look-up, playback, or deleting of stored memo. smARTcommand allows users to perform a wide range of every day tasks, such as launching and controlling applications or files with simple, programmable voice commands. Prompts and helpful browsers simplify training. smARTcommand is based on a highly flexible speech recognition engine that adapts to each individual user's voice, regardless of language or accent. Users can say commands in a normal speaking voice, as smARTcommand compensates for variations in tone and background noise using advanced signal processing and pattern recognition technologies.

All the user needs to do is say the command, such as "Word," and in this case, Pocket Word will be launched or "Price list," and Pocket Excel will be launched and open the price list file. smARTcommand can be trained to voice activate any application program or file that a Windows shortcut can create under Windows CE.

smARTcontact enables a speech recognition capability for the Contact Manager supplied with the Windows CE operating system software. smARTcontact will look up the contact name after the user speaks it into the H/PC's microphone. Once found, the user can say "Dial" and the program will dial the contact's phone number, using DTMF tones through the built-in H/PC speaker, or by saying "E-mail" and the program will launch the Internet Explorer e-mail program and automatically insert the contact's e-mail address in the address field.

smARTcontact uses the same, accurate speech recognition engine as smARTmemo and smARTcommand. The CASSIOPEIA A-20, with Microsoft Windows CE 2.0, has a built-in 640 x 240 back-light display, which is larger than previous models, featuring four shades of gray. The pen-touch-sensitive screen is easy to use and the A-20 is equipped with a faster Hitachi SH-3 (80MHz) CPU.

The unit includes 8MB of ROM, 8MB of RAM, a Compact Flash memory expansion slot and PC card slot. CASSIOPEIA A-20 comes with a built-in infrared port for easy wireless communication to your desktop computer or printer. The new A-20 has a built-in microphone and speaker and comes with an external AC adapter as standard equipment. Other ART voice and handwriting recognition products are available now through the smARTshop page on the ART web site, located at HYPERLINK http://www.artcomp.com .

CASIO Computer Co. Ltd., is one of the leading consumer electronics companies in the world. Established in 1957, CASIO has been active in the development of electronic calculators, musical instruments, digital cameras, LCD TVs, pagers and other communications devices.