Voice-web applications are becoming more prevalent these days and XML is part of that game. From speech synthesis to automatic speech recognition programs, voice files are becoming big news in Internet design and they work with an XML format known as voiceXML. To understand how voiceXML works, you need to review some vital terms.
Voice Extensible Markup Language
This is the long, official name for voiceXML or VXML. VoiceXML is a WC3 standard that actually began in 1999 and is still being enhanced today. The first version (1.0) was released in 2000 and the current working product, as of 2011, is 2.1, although version 3.0 is on the horizon
Voice Browser
A voice browser is a web browser that has an interactive voice interface. This mean, instead of presenting information visually, the voice browser presents it aurally. Typically, voice browsers utilize pages written in voiceXML.
Speech Synthesis
Speech synthesis is simply creating artificial human speech. Computer systems use a speech synthesizer to mimic someone talking. Typically this is a text-to-speech system. In other words, you type something into an interface and the computer creates an audio file that reads the words aloud.
Speech Recognition
Speech recognition differs from speech synthesis, although the basic theory is the same, just in reverse. With speech recognition, you speak and the computer types the words.
What Does VoiceXML Do?
VoiceXML is the format that works with a voice browser. The file may generate either speech synthesis or recognition. To create a voiceXML file, you use any editor. This can be a basic text editor, such as Notepad, or an XML editor, like Oxygen. The file is written with XML syntax and static VXML elements. In some ways, voiceXML looks similar to HTML, except with an XML declaration statement. In order for the file to work correctly, you must have a voice browser, or interpreter, such as BeVocal Cafe or JVoiceXML.