This Weeks Giveaway

[Carl Trusiak]

This week we are giving away four copies of the book "Early Adopter VoiceXML".
The Author, Xiaofei Tang (Jeff), is online to answer your questions!
Everyone Give Jeff a warm JavaRanch Welcome!
For details, check out JavaRanch Book Promotions

[L Goundalkar]

Hi,
I was the first person to welcome Jeff
http://www.javaranch.com/ubb/Forum31/HTML/001447.html
anyway
once again Warm Welcome to Jeff and thanks for sharing time and knowledge here.

------------------
L Goundalkar
[email protected]
Sun Certified Programmer for Java 2 Platform

[Manjunatha H.A]

Hi, how good is it to retrieve the request object parameters in an xml file and process the xml further.

[Ricardo Polero]

Nice Book !
I want to participate !!!

[David Grant]

Hi Jeff

[ruilin yang]

Hi Jeff,
Welcome to the forum.
Would you please comment on advantages and disadvantages of XML processor for small and large file applications respectively(e.g. XSL, Schema, DOT, etc.).
Thanks in advance.
Ruilin
[This message has been edited by ruilin yang (edited September 04, 2001).]

[Frank Daly]

Hi Jeff,
Thanks for visiting the javaranch. Hope you enjoy your stay.
frank

[Ike VanAtta]

Welcome Jeff!
Thank you for taking time to share your knowledge with us.

[Mapraputa Is]

Welcome Jeff! Nice to see you here

[vivek sivakumar]

hi loved ones ,
can u please tell me more about embedding this voic xml in bluetooth based mobile phones!!!(would be better if u also give me a link to this topic!!!)

[ruilin yang]

1) Could you recommend some good XML tools.
2) What kind of potential usage of XML for Palm computing ? AS a database, for displaying forms or user interfaces ?
Please comment.

[Xiaofei-Jeff Tang]

Thanks Carl and everyone. My first time here, so pardon me if I do something dumb. But I promise I won't be dumber that "Dumb and Dumber". Jeff

Originally posted by Carl Trusiak:
This week we are giving away four copies of the book "Early Adopter VoiceXML".
The Author, Xiaofei Tang (Jeff), is online to answer your questions!
Everyone Give Jeff a warm JavaRanch Welcome!
For details, check out JavaRanch Book Promotions

[Xiaofei-Jeff Tang]

Thanks L. I hope my other replies would be as easy as this one. Jeff

Originally posted by L Goundalkar:
Hi,
I was the first person to welcome Jeff
http://www.javaranch.com/ubb/Forum31/HTML/001447.html
anyway
once again Warm Welcome to Jeff and thanks for sharing time and knowledge here.

[Xiaofei-Jeff Tang]

i've never heard of bluetooth, but i don't think embedding voicexml in mobile phones makes good sense - the speech recognition and text-to-speech systems and some web server that a voicexml browser builds on will most likely run on a remote server, and any mobile phone can dial into the server to run various voicexml-based applications. jeff

Originally posted by vivek sivakumar:
hi loved ones ,
can u please tell me more about embedding this voic xml in bluetooth based mobile phones!!!(would be better if u also give me a link to this topic!!!)

[Xiaofei-Jeff Tang]

Ruilin,
Sorry I'm not knowledgeable enough to answer your question. If you have VoiceXML-specific questions, I might be more helpful.
Regards, Jeff

Originally posted by ruilin yang:
Hi Jeff,
Welcome to the forum.
Would you please comment on advantages and disadvantages of XML processor for small and large file applications respectively(e.g. XSL, Schema, DOT, etc.).
Thanks in advance.
Ruilin
[This message has been edited by ruilin yang (edited September 04, 2001).]

[Abhijit Kulkarni]

Welcome Jeff!
------------------
abhijit from pune.
Ability alone is not enough for success,it must be sparked by ambition and sustained with determination

[Swarup Sathe]

Hi Everyone,
I am also interested in embedding voice XML and like to participate in this forum.
Welcome Jeff and thanks for sharing the knowledge with us.
Regards,
Swarup

[ruilin yang]

Hi Jeff,
How easy to obtain a VoiceXML enabled browser for implementing a VoiceXML application ? Who are vendors and what is the price range ? I heard IBM has something ?
Thnks in advance
Ruilin

[ruilin yang]

Jeff,
Again, for developing a VoiceXML application, if I use JSP, Servlet, and relational database, is this one of the right way to do ?
I basically think VoiceXML is parallel to html document for submitting a request. My thinking is correct or not?
Please comment
Thanks in advance,
Ruilin

[Xiaofei-Jeff Tang]

Hi Ruilin,
Very easy. You can download VoiceXML browsers from companies such as IBM (their Voice Server SDK), Motorola, Nuance, etc. Or you can simply use those freely-available web-based VoiceXML platforms from companies such as BeVocal, Tellme, VoiceGenie, Voxeo, HeyAnita etc to develop and host your VoiceXML apps.
As for deployment and pricing, there're basically two options:
1. ASP model - you pay hosting companies such as BeVocal for every minute;
2. In-house model - you pay for telephony hardware, speech recognition engine licensing, text-to-speech engine licensing. Price range can be $1000-$2000 per port.
The Early Adopter VoiceXML book covers all these questions and a lot more in great details. So hopefully you can win a giveaway!
Regards, Jeff

Originally posted by ruilin yang:
Hi Jeff,
How easy to obtain a VoiceXML enabled browser for implementing a VoiceXML application ? Who are vendors and what is the price range ? I heard IBM has something ?
Thnks in advance
Ruilin

[Xiaofei-Jeff Tang]

Absolutely. You can use any of the standard web app dev languages such as JSP, servlet, ASP, etc. You only need to have your web app generate the document in VoiceXML format - whether using DB or not - so a VoiceXML browser can understand it. This is exactly like generating HTML for IE/Netscape.
The EA VoiceXML book has one chapter that uses PHP to add a VoiceXML interface to a DB-powered traditional web site. It has another chapter that uses ASP to generate VoiceXML documents as a way to voice-enable Microsoft Outlook application. You can build practical VoiceXML applications using the techniques covered there and JSP, Servlet, Perl, etc..
Regards, Jeff

Originally posted by ruilin yang:
Jeff,
Again, for developing a VoiceXML application, if I use JSP, Servlet, and relational database, is this one of the right way to do ?
I basically think VoiceXML is parallel to html document for submitting a request. My thinking is correct or not?
Please comment
Thanks in advance,
Ruilin

[ruilin yang]

Thanks Jeff.
I am look forward to winning a copy of your book.
So far I have never been that lucky.

[ravi bask]

Welcome Jeff,

It's nice to see u here ,Jeff and VoiceXml. VoiceXML, acuatlly what it is, is it something related with speech ?
i have heard of this one before,but not sure what it is ,how it is useful to us

iam happy that iam learning a new tech.

[ravi bask]

Jeff,
i would like to know whether this voiceXML is standardised or it is still under development,

[Xiaofei-Jeff Tang]

Yes Ravi, VoiceXML is related to speech - at least you'll listen to what a VoiceXML application has to say to you (play prompts). Most likely you'll also be able to tell the application what to do in your own voice. That's an application of speech recognition. But people can also speed up the development of tradiational telephony applications (no speech recognition involved) using VoiceXML.
For a short tutorial on VoiceXML, see www.voicexml.org. For a complete coverage of the language AND real-world examples of using the language, check out the book Early Adopter of VoiceXML, which I believe is the only book available now with practical applications of VoiceXML.
Regards, Jeff

Originally posted by ravi bask:
Welcome Jeff,

It's nice to see u here ,Jeff and VoiceXml. VoiceXML, acuatlly what it is, is it something related with speech ?
i have heard of this one before,but not sure what it is ,how it is useful to us

iam happy that iam learning a new tech.

[Xiaofei-Jeff Tang]

VoiceXML is still under the standarization process by W3C. But since the submission of VoiceXML 1.0 to W3C in March 2000, so many companies have started to support this exciting language. The current support for VoiceXML 1.0 has been very mature and the new 2.0 version will come out shortly. While the standardization process can go on for some time, companies such as BeVocal, VoiceGenie, Nuance, SpeechWorks, Tellme, Voxeo, IBM, to name a few, have already been able to provide solid VoiceXML platforms to support real-world applications development and deployment. So I think VoiceXML is the de-facto standard for developing voice applications.
Regards, Jeff

Originally posted by ravi bask:
Jeff,
i would like to know whether this voiceXML is standardised or it is still under development,

[ravi bask]

Can i send songs with the help of voiceXML, i mean is it useful for that,,
and thanks for that site, it's a great one..

san

[Hema Menon]

Welcoming Xiaofei Tang to this great forum!
VoiceXML is one area that has not been covered in depth by any authors, the same way as XML. The last I heard there is only about one or two books that is available on the topic.
At work, I am involved in developing VoiceXML applications.
For once, I wish I could win your book!

Hema

[Xiaofei-Jeff Tang]

You can use the <audio> tag to send any pre-recorded audio file. Playing on-demand songs could be an interesting application of VoiceXML. But different VoiceXML browsers/platforms may support different formats of audio files, so you may have to do some format conversion - if you need to do it on the fly, some web server-side programming would be required.
Regards, Jeff

Originally posted by ravi bask:
Can i send songs with the help of voiceXML, i mean is it useful for that,,
and thanks for that site, it's a great one..

san

[bob morkos]

Hi Jeff and thanks for sharing your knowledge and we really appreciate you being here. Thanks.

[ruilin yang]

Hi Jeff,
Have the frame work for Internationalized application been established yet for VoiceXML, such as Ashian laguages ? How much more effort to implement Ashian language applications compared with English one ?
Thanks in advance.
Ruilin


[This message has been edited by ruilin yang (edited September 06, 2001).]

[ruilin yang]

Jeff,
Again, XML has DTD to validate the document. Are there similar techniques to validate a VoiceXML file before submit ?
If the file is not well formated, then what will happen with application ? What kind of measures exist to prevent serious error consequences ?
Thanks,
Ruilin

[Hema Menon]

Ruilin,
VoiceXML requires a DTD. VoiceXML is yet another flavour of XML with special tags. These elements, attributes etc needs to be validated against VoiceXML DTD. The DTD is available at http://www.voicexml.org/voicexml1-0.dtd or from the w3c site.
HTH,
Hema

[Xiaofei-Jeff Tang]

Ruilin,
I wrote a long answer at work but lost my network connection before submitting it. So I'll post it here tomorrow.
Regards, Jeff

Originally posted by ruilin yang:
Hi Jeff,
Have the frame work for Internationalized application been established yet for VoiceXML, such as Ashian laguages ? How much more effort to implement Ashian language applications compared with English one ?
Thanks in advance.
Ruilin

[This message has been edited by ruilin yang (edited September 06, 2001).]

[Xiaofei-Jeff Tang]

Ruilin,
A VoiceXML parser would just use the VoiceXML DTD to validate a VoiceXML document when loading it. If a VoiceXML doc is not well-formed, then a parser would normally report the error. Web-based and stand-alone VoiceXML IDEs already exist to help you develop and debug your application.
Regards, Jeff

Originally posted by ruilin yang:
Jeff,
Again, XML has DTD to validate the document. Are there similar techniques to validate a VoiceXML file before submit ?
If the file is not well formated, then what will happen with application ? What kind of measures exist to prevent serious error consequences ?
Thanks,
Ruilin

[Xiaofei-Jeff Tang]

Ruilin,
As far as I know, none of the currently available VoiceXML platform providers offer the support of non-English languages. But the good news is that major speech recognition engines (Nuance, SpeechWorks, Philips, and IBM ViaVoice) and text-to-speech engines (L&H RealSpeak, Nuance Vocalizer/Fonix, SpeechWorks Speechify/Eloquence, and IBM ViaVoice), upon which all the major VoiceXML platforms build, all support many international languages. So it's not difficult to have a VoiceXML browser support non-English languages - if you already have a VoiceXML browser, otherwise you're at the mercy of the VoiceXML browser providers. If you don't want to develop your own VoiceXML browser, and can't wait for others to support it, you can use Nuance or SpeechWorks software directly to develop international voice applications. For example, in both Nuance and SpeechWorks, you can use Chinese Pin-Yin to write grammars for speech recognition and use a TTS engine that supports Chinese. There's not much difference as in developing English version of voice applications. I wrote a chapter in the book on how to use Nuance SpeechObjects to enhance VoiceXML applications, and you can also use Nuance SpeechObjects to develop stand-alone international voice applications directly.
Regards, Jeff

Originally posted by ruilin yang:
Hi Jeff,
Have the frame work for Internationalized application been established yet for VoiceXML, such as Ashian laguages ? How much more effort to implement Ashian language applications compared with English one ?
Thanks in advance.
Ruilin

[This message has been edited by ruilin yang (edited September 06, 2001).]