Peabody, MASS. January 18, 2005 - ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT), a global leader of speech and imaging solutions, today announced that its SpeechPAK TALKS™ solution has been nominated for the 2005 GSM Association Awards for "Best Use of Mobile for Special Needs and Accessibility." This year's awards attracted a record number of entries - nearly 450 entries from 53 countries around the world.

"As the GSM industry heads toward the next billion customer landmark, it is innovation and ingenuity of the calibre of this year's GSM Awards nominees that will be key to driving and accelerating growth globally," said Robert G. Conway, CEO and Member of the Board, GSM Association. "This year we have seen an exceptional quantity and quality, and the competition has been fiercer than ever."

World Health Organisation estimates suggest that between 40 and 45 million people worldwide are blind. These individuals do not have access to the range of GSM services that others take for granted such as SMS, email and phone directories. ScanSoft® SpeechPAK TALKS™ is an application designed specifically to make handsets accessible to blind and visually impaired users, and works with the phone's existing interface to read aloud the device's text display such as menus, contacts and short messages in a natural-sounding, synthesized voice.

SpeechPAK TALKS has already gained intense interest from the blind community worldwide, and has been endorsed by organisations such as the Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) in the UK and the American Foundation for the Blind. The application has also been adopted by several major networks including Vodafone, Cingular, Orange and Telecom Italia.

"ScanSoft is addressing a crucial need with SpeechPAK TALKS, as most mobile phones are not designed to be entirely inclusive to the blind and low-vision community," said Steve Tyler, Strategic Manager Digital Technology, RNIB. "We are extremely impressed with the quality, performance and features provided with the SpeechPAK TALKS application, and see this as an important application for every blind and low-vision mobile phone user."

Celebrating their tenth year, the 2005 GSM Association Awards offer organisations across the world the opportunity to showcase the life changing, life enhancing and life saving wireless products, services and initiatives that have come to characterise GSM.

The Awards are open to all industry players - mobile operators, device manufacturers, application developers, billing system providers, CRM solution providers, infrastructure providers, content aggregators, originators and providers - who offer content, products or services that run on GSM, GPRS, EDGE and 3GSM (W-CDMA) networks used by 1.2 billion people worldwide. Winners will be announced at the 2005 GSM Association Awards Gala Dinner at the 3GSM World Congress (ScanSoft's booth in hall2 D40), in Cannes, France on Tuesday 15th February 2005.

"Until now, members of the blind and low-vision community have not had access to many popular features available on handsets such as text messaging, email and phone directories, which impacts their productivity and quality of life," said Alan Schwartz, vice president of SpeechWorks, a division of ScanSoft. "SpeechPAK TALKS provides a host of features designed to make mobile phones more accessible."

With ScanSoft® SpeechPAK TALKS™, users can:

Hear caller ID information and check logs of incoming and outgoing calls

Write and listen to emails, text messages and notes

Manage contact information and dial phone numbers from the directory

Use the appointment calendar

Edit and add contacts, settings and profiles according to their personal preferences

Use the calculator, alarm clock and other important tools

Hear practical information about the battery level, network and signal strength

About ScanSoft's SpeechWorks Division

ScanSoft delivers field-proven speech solutions. Its unmatched portfolio and expertise help thousands of companies around the world to improve the way we communicate. Through a global partner network, the company delivers solutions that use the human voice to interact with information systems and devices. Today, thousands of companies and millions of users around the world depend on SpeechWorks® solutions from ScanSoft to deliver vital business information and simplify every day life.

About ScanSoft, Inc.

ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT) is the global leader of speech and imaging solutions that are used to automate a wide range of manual processes - saving time, increasing worker productivity and improving customer service. For more information regarding ScanSoft® products and technologies, please visit www.scansoft.com

ScanSoft, the ScanSoft logo, SpeechWorks, and SpeechPAK TALKS are trademarks or registered trademarks of ScanSoft, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

The statements in this press release that relate to future plans, events or performance are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including risks associated with market trends, competitive factors, and other risks identified in ScanSoft's SEC filings. Actual results, events and performance may differ materially. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on these forward-looking statements that speak only as of the date hereof.

Order Dragon Naturally Speaking

Schedule your FREE Medical Transcription Software Demo today.

View the History of Voice Recognition and Speech Recognition Software

About Us / Contact Us /Return Policy / Site Map