Opera Software has leveraged its ViaVoice collaboration with IBM to create the Electronic Program Guide (EPG) software development kit. Programs incorporating the techology will let users control their DVD players, DVRs, and digital TV set-top boxes by talking to them. The EPG's IBM voice libraries are available for Linux and Windows operating systems.

The EPG brings simplicity to home media control, according to Opera. “The voice-enabled EPG helps make navigating complex data structures easy by using simple voice commands,” the company said. “For example, with the increasingly daunting number of television channels available, sorting through information and channel navigation can be done without effort by talking to your set top box.”

EPG, Opera explained, is a “multimodal (or multiple forms of input and output such as speech, keyboard or handwriting) project aimed at increasing awareness in the consumer electronics sector of the benefits of voice-enabled Web technologies.” It is written in XHTML+Voice or X+V multimodal programming language. A demonstration of a X+V multimodal speech application can be found here.

Opera and IBM co-announced a Multimodal Browser and Toolkit early in 2003, at which time Opera began offering an enhancement to Opera for Windows to demonstrate the techology.

The company says it expects to roll out a new voice-enabled edition of its Opera browser for PCs within a few weeks.

 
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