October 7, 1998

Soliloquy Launches Intelligent Speech Front Ends for Databases & Websites

Soliloquy Provides Conversational Interaction for Database Queries

Soliloquy announced today the worldwide launch of its new technology and services which allow users to not only search web databases by simply talking, but to engage in real, intelligent conversation. Soliloquy's leading edge technology, VIVID™ (Very Intelligent Voice Interface to Databases™), takes voice recognition a quantum leap forward with intelligent 2-way dialogue for database queries such as web searches.

A typical exchange on a book e-commerce web site might be as follows:

Shopper: "I want to buy a book that I just read a review of but I can't remember its exact name or the name of the author."
Website: "Is it a recently published book?"
Shopper: "Yes. The name of the book has the word bird in it, and the author is Japanese."
Website: "Could it be The Wind Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami"
Shopper: "That's it! I'll take it…."

VIVID-enabled web sites provide an iterative exchange of two-way questions and answers as in standard human discourse. The user can ask any question at any time (e.g. how were our sales of cheeseburgers in Adelaide this month compared to last month? what are the dip switch settings on an HP printer? does Armani sell black velvet hip-huggers? what song has the lyrics “one more day up in the canyon, one more night in Hollywood”?) and if the system doesn't understand or have adequate information, it can ask for clarification or more details. Therefore, if you don’t exactly what you need when you begin, the system can help determine your needs. You don’t even have to be a good speller because VIVID uses phonetic look-up.

The voice interface - clean, simple and intuitive - provides the same capabilities to novice users and power users, so beginners can get started and use advanced features right away. A large and ugly database with dozens or even hundreds of fields is no more difficult to access than a simple database.

Web site operators can offer better customer service and enjoy greater customer satisfaction since their users will be up and running more quickly, will probably spend more time online and will be more likely to find what they are looking for. VIVID saves training and technical support costs since the system can be used instantly with little or no learning curve, and is cheaper than employing live operators to answer questions. For e-commerce, VIVID provides an experience much more similar to a normal shopping experience where you solicit advice from sales clerks and information desks

Soliloquy is seeking customers with e-commerce web sites as well as corporate sites with large product catalogues and other substantial and complex databases. Catherine Winchester, CEO of Soliloquy, said “We are looking for leading edge clients who want to have the very latest and greatest technology on their sites”.

VIVID can run on a thin client with most of the bulk and horsepower on the server side. Pricing depends on the web site and the underlying database.