Xbox to Get Speech Recognition Capabilities Company: Fonix Corporation Product: Automatic Speech Recognition Microsoft has signed an agreement with Fonix, a leading provider of voice recognition technology, to incorporate the Fonix Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) engine into the Microsoft Xbox video game system. The Fonix U.S. English ASR for game developers will become part of the official Xbox Development Kit (XDK) in the second half of 2002. Later in the year, versions for U.K. English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish, will be incorporated into the XDK. Microsoft's General Manager of the Xbox Platform, J. Allard, is quoted as saying 'Fonix voice recognition will play a significant role in future Xbox game development, making the games more interactive and user friendly.' One of the unique aspects of the Fonix ASR is that it is speaker-independent, and does not require training in order to work effectively. The forthcoming Microsoft Xbox Communicator, which should be available this spring, is a microphone/headphone combo set that will plug directly into existing game controllers and can act as the input device for voice commands. Watch for more on this! -Gordy, GameVortex Communications AKA Gary Lucero Related Links: Microsoft Corporation Xbox Fonix Corporation