PhoneBrowser

PhoneBrowser is a new product being developed by Lucent Technologies that allows users to speak their Web related requests into their phones and hear the results of their queries via pre-recorded audio selections, or on the fly text-to-speech synthesis of resulting Web pages. The system consists of multiple components, from the browser engine that recognizes the user's voice commands and retrieves the requested Web pages or information; to the "HyperVoice processor" that analyzes the pages retrieved and generates verbal descriptions. The system will be targeted especially to content providers and wireless carriers and is currently in trial use with DriveThere.com.

The PhoneBrowser system, according to Bell Labs, is able to work with existing HTML Web pages without modification. It provides a concise summary of the page for the requesting user; with the ability to emphasize key points like bolded text "with special voices." Users may interrupt the voice responses at any time with commands of their own, redirecting to another page, for example, before the current page is finished. The system supports multiple languages and variants, including German, French, Castilian Spanish, and Latin Spanish. An additional Dictionary Editor should allow users to customize the way they speak to the Web.

The system is expected to be offered both as a hosted service, or a complete in-house system with the necessary hardware and software needed to drive the components.