Created to inform, enlighten and embrace speech technologies in business, SpeechTek allows engineers, directors, IT professionals and other forward thinkers a common ground to connect and share. Delegates can expect to learn and explore a diverse range of subjects, from speech biometrics and multichannel applications to voice user interaction design and speech application development tools and languages to name but a few. SpeechTek aims to get organisations to understand the value of speech technologies in new channels.

The end goal, as defined by the brand, is to ‘enable enterprises to identify, evaluate, adopt, integrate, and optimize new speech technology solutions as part of a multimodal customer experience strategy.’ At this year’s conference, delegates can look forward to key speakers such as Dave Burke, Engineering Director of Google and Brian Budd, lead engineer at Barclays Bank. For more information on SpeechTek, visit www.speechtek.com/europe and to see how speech technology can help your business speak to us at Molo.

 Making the change

 Forging creative technical solutions to a wide variety of world issues, E4C is a growing dynamic team. Its mission is ‘to improve quality of life in communities around the world by facilitating the development of affordable, locally appropriate and sustainable solutions to the most pressing humanitarian challenges.’ Providing a common forum for facilitating connection, collaboration, knowledge exchange and content aggregation, E4C operates with complete transparency. This hugely important initiative is just one of many similar projects launched over the last few years that harness design thinking and professional thinking to aid society. Molo’s Charl Barnard is now a member – contact him for more information on subscribing and visit the website here.

One cool customer

One of the trickiest decisions facing a start-up business is who to select as a technology partner. For ice-vending company Akoona, this was a particularly crucial choice, as it would have an ongoing impact on the continued success of their business.

Akoona’s requirement was complex: they needed an ice vending machine controller with real-time capabilities for online transactions and status updates.

 The networks would connect to a central database over the cellular data network, to allow centralised reporting and transaction execution for machines all over the world.

Choosing the right partner for this project would mean the difference between business success and failure. Reliable, ongoing support was a must and the wrong decisions might drive pricing far too high.

Fortunately, an existing relationship with Molo Innovation was the beginning of a solution to Akoona’s challenge.

Putting the competition on ice

After surveying the market for ready-made, generic controllers, Molo realised that Akoona could save at least 50% if Molo developed one themselves. By speaking to various hardware developers, Molo formed an impression of what best-of-breed microcontrollers and cellular network interface modules incorporated. Selecting the most cost-effective, reliable components, Molo then subcontracted the hardware design to an experienced designer, while Molo’s own team wrote a low-level software scheduler, which aimed to meet cost and performance objectives.

Focusing on reliability and robustness, Molo adopted a unique approach to the challenge. A key factor was the importance of always-on-line operation. Because the machines would be widely distributed throughout the world, site visits by technicians would be potentially very expensive, and potentially long service disruptions had to be avoided. All of these considerations had to be taken into account within tight unit cost constraints.

Red hot results

Development costs were significantly reduced because no proprietary tools were used. This, combined with the robust functioning of the rollout on three continents, left Akoona highly satisfied .

Molo’s solution was easily maintainable, allowing several improvements and added functionality to be added to the operations system. Molo continues to be involved in the ongoing development and maintenance of Akoona’s vending infrastructure, which shows how well the system works.

Michael Jennison, President of Akoona USA says: “Molo is always fair and balanced in business negotiations – they understand our business objectives and often propose creative solutions to them. I would recommend them to anyone.”

For more information about the work Molo does with Akoona or to find out how we can help the logistics of your business, please contact Charl Barnard.

Merriam Webster, of dictionary fame, has recently launched a smartphone app that allows users to search for definitions using their keyboards – and also using voice commands.

“If you don’t know how to spell a word you can’t look it up, but you’re looking it up to find out how to spell it. It’s Catch 22. Voice search addresses that need.” Says Merriam and Webster representative. The app hit the million download mark in the first month.

Apps that translate voice into text, tweet, email or Facebook updates are becoming more and more popular. Keyboards can be difficult to use – voice makes operating your phone easier and more personal. A virtual personal assistant on the US version of the Amazon app will even call you a cab if you tell it you’re drunk.

A long way from the days when computers analysed your voice phonetically, speech technology has improved in leaps and bounds. Now it can match voice patterns and matching words against existing words and recordings. This ability will allow all accents to be understood and will allow users to personalise the software to their own speech.

The balance now is for providers to create an app for a smart phone that will refer to cloud computing for the bulk of the work.

For more information on speech and voice technology, give Molo a call.

The results showed that the sounds made by young children with autism were different to typically developing children with 87% accuracy.

Since the analysis isn’t based on words, the technology could be used to screen speakers of any language for autism. The LENA system is said to have the potential to assist pediatricians in referring children to specialists for autism diagnosis earlier, and for more effective treatments. Another great example of how speech technology continues to create simple but efficient solutions to everyday problems. To see how voice technology could work for you, contact us.

Image sourced from Aljazeera

Google is now involved in breaking Egypt’s internet silence. Using existing, old fashioned infrastructure and simple but smart speech technology, Google has given the people back their voice.

 Protestors who have not been able to go online to use social media sites to air their views can simply phone a number and dictate their comments to the Speak to Tweet service.

 These audio files are then converted using voice technology into text on the Twitter network. Just by dialling a number and leaving a voice message, tweets are created and published with the hashtag #egypt.

 This important initiative shows just how quickly communication can be adapted to deliver an efficient and successful service by applying simple technology.

Even in a very rocky economy, the report shows that the speech technology sector has performed consistently well. By 2015, GIA predicts that the market will reach US$20.9 billion. Recognising the ability of speech technologies to enhance operational efficiency and save businesses money, businesses both large and small are increasingly utilising it.

In the past, voice technology was mostly only accessible to corporates – but now it’s become a mass market solution. It is likely to gain increased ubiquity in our daily lives, offering convenient improvements in how we communicate.

Through applications that transform voice mail to text messages, dictate notes to computers, use voice cues to search addresses in mail and on phones, and even control of appliances with voice commands, speech technology is an exciting and fast-growing field.

Interested to see how this exciting technology could save you time, money and effort? Get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to show you.

A major advance in speech and voice technology, this clever little application promises to revolutionise the way we communicate when travelling. By doing so, it will inevitably also transform the way people do business internationally.

Using Google Voice and Good Translate technologies, Conversation Mode works for over fifty languages – a far greater number than other existing translation programmes.

The more it is used, the more accurate the translation becomes. Google predicts that eventually any language will be easily translated. In fact, one of the members of the Molo team is currently working with Google on the development of languages such as isiZulu, Sepedi and Afrikaans for the application.

Imagine how seamless communication will be when we don’t need to worry about misinterpretation, ambiguity or anything being ‘lost in translation.’ If the application is as successful as it promises to be, it may even have an impact on conflict as it helps us better understand each others’ unique perspectives.

We are working with them to provide remote support for the Asterisk-based PABX we custom configured for them, and their 100-seat call centre.

As a prominent telecoms operator, up time and availability are critical for our client.

Molo’s expertise in Asterisk’s open source platform means we can provide reassuring day to day support, to ensure everything runs smoothly.

Find out more about Asterisk or contact us to discover how you can use this open source software in your business.

With comprehensive tracking of end-to-end caller activity, our client can now see how many calls are self-serviced by their IVR system; what paths callers take; how many calls get through to the call centre; and much more very useful information

The data is presented in an easy-to-interpret ‘dashboard’, showing patterns and statistics at a glance – and in real time.

Our client can see what enquiries are about, information about complaints, common paths, user-friendliness of their systems and much more. This data also highlights areas which could be further automated, and save resources, time and money.

Essentially this kind of monitoring is ‘analytics for call centres’ and helps companies streamline and improve the service they offer their customers.

Could your business benefit from a call centre dashboard? Give us a call to discuss your needs.