ScanSoft, Inc.announced that LG Electronics has selected ScanSoft's VoCon Mobile XGT embedded speech interface to voice-enable the LG MX-500, its latest mobile phone offering. ScanSoft's solution features the industry's most advanced speaker-independent name-dialing technology for wireless phones and mobile devices, enabling the MX-500 to be operated by any user out-of-the-box with no voice training of the device required. The phone will be available this summer.

VoCon Mobile XGT features the industry's most advanced name-dialing technology for wireless phones and mobile devices. The VoCon Mobile XGT is fully speaker-independent, meaning it can be operated by any user with no voice training of the device. It also adds a new voice feedback capability that gives users audio confirmation of spoken names, numbers, and other commands. This is done by "reading" from the phone's name contact list using advanced text-to-speech technology.

The advanced features of the VoCon Mobile XGT will enable users of the LG MX-500 phone to dial by speaking a person's name or phone number. VoCon Mobile XGT maintains ScanSoft's popular out of-the-box, multi-user experience by providing fast and accurate responses to different commands such as "John Smith" or "Dial +1202111002." When more than one name is available, ScanSoft's "Best Match" function presents a short-list of options either as text or voice for extra convenience. By enabling total phone operation by voice, VoCon Mobile XGT is ideal for in-car use.

"The advent of speaker independent solutions of the quality of ScanSoft's embedded technology means that voice is now becoming a standard interface - something that users will increasingly demand as a feature of their mobile phones and devices," said Pablo Hung, product manager for Brazil, LG. "LG is committed to incorporating the best technical innovations into its products and the MX-500 is the latest product in our growing line of mobile phones enhanced with ScanSoft's VoCon Mobile XGT solution."

"The increasing complexity of mobile devices with richer feature sets is causing manufactures to look for more effective and efficient ways for users to interface with mobile technology," said Alan Schwartz, vice president of embedded speech, SpeechWorks, a division of ScanSoft. "The sophistication of speech recognition technology today is resulting in an increasingly large number of voice-enabled mobile phones being delivered to market. ScanSoft's VoCon Mobile XGT solution has been deployed in more than 30 million of these handsets worldwide from about 30 handset and chipset manufacturers."

Today, ScanSoft embedded handheld solutions are deployed in dozens of product lines from industry leaders such as Motorola, LGE, Xelibri by Siemens, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, NEC, BenQ, Pogo, Logitech, AlphaCell, Capitel, Compal, Inventec, Casio, RAKS, Siemens Automotive, PaceBlade, Hitachi, and others. ScanSoft has strategic and technological partnerships with industry leaders including: Texas Instruments, Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, Motorola Semiconductors, Intel, Infineon, Agere, ADI, TTPCom, DSPG, Microsoft, Symbian and UIQ.