VoiceXML edges closer to standard status

The Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 2.0 specification has been granted Proposed Recommendation status by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and is therefore only one step away from becoming an official W3C standard, the VoiceXML Forum said in a statement Tuesday.

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VoiceXML is a specification used in conjunction with speech recognition and speech synthesis systems to support interactive voice response applications.

Using voice input to drive back-end applications is viewed by large companies as a cost-effective way to allow customers who prefer to use a telephone rather than the Internet to perform transactions. In the last week, Australasian telecommunications carriers Telecom New Zealand Ltd. and its Australian subsidiary AAPT Ltd. have announced plans for VoiceXML-based billing transactions.

The VoiceXML Forum also announced the availability of Version 1.2 of the X+V (XHTML+Voice Profile) specification. X+V brings together voice modules that support speech synthesis, speech dialogs, command and control and speech grammars. The newest version of X+V has been updated to complement the W3C's VoiceXML 2.0 specification, the VoiceXML Forum said in the statement.

The VoiceXML Forum is an industry organization formed to create and promote VoiceXML and currently has more than 380 member companies.