VietNamNet Bridge - The researchers on this exciting project are the 3 members of Mobile Speech Group: Bui Quang Trung, team leader from the Institute of Informatics, and two students, Nguyen Duc Thien and Nguyen Trung Thanh.
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| Nguyen Trung Thanh and Nguyen Duc Thien (left) |
At the conference to introduce the ICT award – Light Up Our Faith – on December 3, 2006 jointly sponsored by the National IT Steering Board Office, Coordination Office for the Handicapped and Vietnam IT Association, attendants were strongly impressed by a product named Software to read the cell phone message: Voice Message.
From a unique idea
The project was initiated in July 2005, triggered by the idea of two senior students of the IT faculty – Military Technology Academy.
First, it was only a science research project to convert scripts into voices on the cell phone by altering the frequency.
However, under the whole-hearted guidance of Ms Luong Chi Mai – Vice Director of IT institute and Mr. Duong Tu Cuong – lecturer at the Military Technology Academy, the research received more and more time and money, and became an important part of the greater project at the IT institute of which Ms Luong Chi Mai is the head: To apply Vietnamese recognition and synthesis techniques to cell phones.
In June 2006, with the aid of their countryman in Ninh Binh province, Trung, Thanh and Thien decided to upgrade this project to software to read the cell phone message, Voice Message, and compete for the ICT award, Light Up Our Faith, which is organised to find, honour individuals or teams with creative ideas and products in IT fields benefiting the disabled. Thus, Mobile Speech Group came into being.
Recently, the group has launched the product publicly.
The new phone applying this software will display the voice messages instead of script messages as normal. In other words, it will read the sender’s number and relate its content to the user.
Mobile Speech Group together with the IT Institute are now working on other functions on cell phones with the Voice Message software such as reading phone numbers, names of incoming callers, outgoing directories, voice alarms.
The first cell phones for the blind will be sold in early 2007.
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In June 2006, the software Mobile Speech with similar functions to Voice Message was released in the Philippines. However, it is only available in English, and its price is quite costly, at 250USD.
The representative of Mobile Speech Group, Nguyen Trung Thanh, said: Voice Message is improved to support Vietnamese system, and integrated with many more advanced functions.
The main purpose of the research is to help the blind actively integrate into the community integration and have access to advanced technology, so the price will be reasonable. |
Linh Nga | 
