[Editor's note: Half a link is better than none. To review the discussion of my bet with Roger, hold down on the key and click on VC 15 John 17.]

"AT&T Unveils Phone Gear That Responds to Speech"

(The Wall Street Journal, 1/15/91, PP:B6)

AT&T unveiled a communications system that recognizes and responds to a limited number of voice commands by telephone callers. AT&T's product is a hardware and software upgrade kit developed by AT&T Bell Laboratories for AT&T's Conversant Voice Recognition System. AT&T said the new unit uses a series of powerful, high-speed computers on a chip, called digital signal processors, and special software to recognize with a 99% degree of accuracy a small, standard vocabulary in English. It also can be custom-designed to understand words in other languages.

AT&T, which is to begin shipping the system in limited quantities next month, said it will charge $2,000 to $3,000 a channel, or $8,000 to $10,000 for an upgrade that can handle four voice calls simultaneously. A standard Conversant system costs about $10,000.