Today at the AVIOS Speech Expo, Microsoft Corp. announced the beta release of the Microsoft� .NET Speech Software Development Kit (SDK), the industry�s first Web developer tool and the industry�s first product deployment based on the Speech Application Language Tags (SALT) specification. The SDK seamlessly integrates into the Visual Studio� .NET development environment and will make it faster and easier for Web developers to incorporate speech functionality into Web applications and create new business opportunities by leveraging their existing Web development knowledge and skills. "The Microsoft .NET Speech SDK is a major breakthrough for the industry," said Brian Strachman, senior analyst for Voice Applications at Cahners In-Stat Group. "Expensive, proprietary speech systems have kept speech application development to a niche market. Now, millions of Web developers will be able to draw upon their programming skills to add speech functionality to Web applications, opening up opportunities for enterprises to develop new offerings and extend their Web investments to a larger customer base."

The .NET Speech SDK is a set of SALT-based speech application development tools and speech controls that integrate with Visual Studio .NET. It is the first speech toolkit to integrate with a Web server programming environment, Microsoft ASP.NET. The SALT specification, currently under development by a diverse group of industry leaders including Microsoft, defines a lightweight set of extensions to familiar Web markup languages, in particular HTML and XHTML, that will enable multimodal and telephony access to information, applications and Web services from PCs, telephones, cellular phones, Tablet PCs and wireless personal digital assistants (PDAs). The specification is slated to be released to an international standards body by midyear 2002.