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IT & T scene

Software scene

The Canadian software market was valued at US$3.5 billion in 1998. In 1999 this market is projected to be worth US$4.1 billion and is expected to grow at an annual rate of approximately 12-14 percent between 1999 to 2001. Software sales will be driven by continued growth in the use of the Internet, Intranets and deployment and development of associated applications.

Benefiting from the lowest software manufacturing costs in the G-7, Canadian software development firms are world leaders in numerous sector niches including: Data & Document Management, Network Management, Customer Relationship Management, Digital Media, Middleware and toolkits, Specialized software such as flight simulation, risk management, distance learning, GIS software,

Examples of Software Developed

Speech Recognition Software

Speech recognition technology enables a computer to respond to the human voice in place of a keyboard or mouse. Three major players are, IBM, Dragon Systems, and Lernout and Hauspie (L&H).

Speech recognition is a rapidly growing area of the Canadian software market.

The move toward standardization in speech technology will result in the development of a wide range of SRS applications and will further SRS market growth in Canada.

The VoiceTIMES alliance members include Dictaphone, Digital, IBM, Intel, Norcom Electronics, Olympus and Philips. VoiceTIMES' goal is to coordinate the technical requirements needed for companies to build and deploy solutions using voice technologies and handheld mobile devices.

Key applications include:

• E-commerce: Motorola, Inc., Visa International, BroadVision, Inc., Nuance Communications and others have formed the V-Commerce Alliance , a consortium which will enable telephone users to access electronic commerce applications using speech recognition technology.
• On-line transaction security: to address the security concerns of the high-volume call-processing marketplace by offering voice-verification for automated telephony applications.
• Eveyday appliances like light switches, refrigerators, PDAs, (personal digital assistants) and voice dialing and navigating a telephone system's menus.
• disabled who can not use their hands to operate a computer, the visually impaired who can be assisted by text-to-speech (TTS) technology whereby a computer-simulated voice reads text from the computer screen.
• In E-commerce, to complete self-service electronic commerce transactions by speaking over a telephone or other connected device to an automated speech recognition system
• to create a new generation of low-cost, anytime/anywhere self-service applications that customers can use just by picking up the phone.
• in travel services for e-ticketing.
• In courier services to avoid repetitive queries by quoting the tracking number and hearing a status report generated from the courier company's database.
• in medical and legal services for efficient use of speech to text translation.
• in is law enforcement, where SRS is used to olisteno for incriminating words.

Key Contacts

• Industry Canada
• SIPSS, Science Information and Professional Services Sector Department of Public Works and Government Services Canada

Associations

• Canadian Advanced Technology Association (CATA)
• Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS)
• The Canadian Standards Association (CSA)
• Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC)
• Interactive Multimedia Art & Technologies Association

Useful Links

• http://www.asrnews.com/hotlinks.htm