IBM announced the availability of a new toolkit for developing multimodal (XHTML + voice) applications for mobile Linux-based devices. Developers can use the toolkit to create multimodal applications — programs that combine GUI, speech recognition, and text-to-speech functions within a single application — and deploy them on the Linux-based Sharp Zaurus 5600, IBM said.

The toolkit, called the “WebSphere Everyplace Multimodal Environment for Embedix,” is based on technologies derived from IBM's Embedded ViaVoice “advanced speech recognition” (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) engines, combined with Opera's embedded browser, IBM said.

IBM's multimodal app deployment architecture

IBM said its first developer environment based on the XHTML+Voice (X+V) specification, the Multimodal Toolkit for WebSphere Studio, which is used for creating multimodal user interfaces, is based on an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) built on the Eclipse framework. Components included with the toolkit include a multimodal editor in which developers can write both XHTML and VoiceXML in the same seamless application using X+V, reusable blocks of X+V code, and a simulator, based on Opera 7 for Windows, which is used for testing the applications. The toolkit also allows developers to rapidly convert voice only and Web only applications into multimodal applications, IBM said.

According to IBM, the X+V specification comprises XHTML and VoiceXML, the most commonly used languages for Web and speech development, and was jointly submitted to the W3C by IBM, Motorola, and Opera. Multimodal technology supports multiple forms of input and output including voice, keypad, and stylus in a single interaction. X+V represents a single standard for telephony, speech applications, graphical interfaces and multimodal interaction. It allows VoiceXML and XHTML developers worldwide to extend their Web applications via multimodal technology, IBM said.

Further information and links to download the IBM multimodal toolkits are here.

 
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