VoiceXML: Professional Developer's Guide with CDROM [Illustrated] [Paperback]

Chetan Sharma (Author), Jeff Kunins (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471418935 | ISBN-13: 978-0471418931 | Publication Date: December 7, 2001

Learn how to build voice-enabled applications using VoiceXML
VoiceXML is designed for creating human-computer dialogs that feature synthesized speech, digitized audio, recognition of spoken and key input, recording of spoken input, telephony, and mixed-initiative conversations. Providing a detailed look at this markup language, VoiceXML (Version 2.0 is covered) takes the reader from the basics of voice solutions all the way through to building and running an application. It also reviews the critical success factors when designing and implementing a voice strategy and provides a glimpse into the future of voice technologies. The authors include discussions on how to generate dynamic VoiceXML content as well as the design of compelling and effective voice user interfaces.
CD-ROM includes code from the book as well as development toolkits and reference material from multiple vendors.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a great resource for developers and well worth the price..." (Computer Bulletin, September 2002)

From the Back Cover

A timely, hands-on guide to building voice applications with VoiceXML 2.0

VoiceXML unites the power of the Internet with the ubiquity of the telephone, making it possible for businesses to replace legacy, proprietary IVR platforms with a unified architecture for delivering automated self-service from any device. Without exception, every major voice and call center technology company has embraced VoiceXML, and tens of thousands of developers have already begun building and deploying VoiceXML applications. In this book, experts Chetan Sharma and Jeff Kunins explore this powerful technology and offer you a clear understanding of VoiceXML, its history, and its business uses.

Providing insights that will help your company improve customer service quality and reduce costs, this informative reference manual introduces you to VoiceXML and serves as a practical programming resource for professional VoiceXML developers. You'll learn how to create a VoiceXML development environment, and receive tutorials on topics such as VoiceXML 2.0 vendor-independent grammars and deployment options for successful voice applications. Two appendices contain the source code for field service case studies and various VoiceXML tips and tricks. Along the way, you'll discover:
* VoiceXML programming and security
* Comparison of network-based and premise-based deployment options
* The voice application life cycle
* Designing effective Voice User Interface (VUI)
* A case study of building an application
* Dynamic VoiceXML: Generating voice applications from server-side data
* Various elements to consider while implementing your voice strategy
* Challenges and innovations of the future

The CD-ROM contains code from the book, as well as toolkits and white papers from leading vendors such as Motorola, IBM, and Nuance.

Professional Developer's Guides
The Professional Developer's Guide series provides the first in-depth look at recent or emerging programming technologies. Experienced programmers and developers will find comprehensive coverage of new programming standards as well as code, sample programs, developer's tools, and applications that will make programming for a new technology much easier.

Wiley Computer Publishing
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Visit our Web site at www.wiley.com/compbooks/

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (December 7, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471418935
• ISBN-13: 978-0471418931
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,570,653 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"Chetan is Founder and President of the firm. He is a recognized industry expert in strategy and implementation of wireless data and pervasive computing solutions. He has a strong background in developing and launching technologies, products, and solutions for the wireless Industry, including extensive experience in managing and delivering all phases of the product development cycle. Executives from leading wireless companies around the world seek his accurate predictions, independent insights, and actionable recommendations. He has served as an advisor to senior executive management of several Fortune 100 companies in the wireless space. Some of his clients include NTT DoCoMo, Disney, KTF, Sony, Samsung, Virgin Mobile, Sprint Nextel, AT&T Wireless, Alcatel-Lucent, KDDI, Cincinnati Bell, Reuters, Qualcomm, Reliance Infocomm, SAP, Merrill Lynch, American Express, Infospace, BEA, and HP.


His experience with strategic alliances involved US carriers such as Verizon, Sprint, AT&T Wireless, Cingular, Cincinnati Bell, and others; some of the most prominent carriers in Europe and Asia; IBM, Intel, Telcordia, SBC, Unisys, and many other leading players in the wireless sector.

Chetan is the author of five books. He is interviewed frequently by leading international media publications such as Time Magazine, NY Times, WSJ Interactive, Information Week, Japan Media Review, InfoWorld, Wireless Data News, Mobile Communications International, GigaOM, etc. and has appeared on NPR, WBBN, and CNBC as wireless technology expert. He frequently addresses several telecommunications industry trade delegations to the US such as executive teams from Japan, Korea, and Finland. He served on the US advisory committee of Korea-Pacific US States Joint Conference on wireless and multimedia. Chetan has published several articles and industry reports on topics ranging from wireless multimedia to WLAN to UMTS. Chetan was also a contributing analyst of one of the most preeminent wireless print magazines - Wireless World and has published several cover stories and articles for the same.

Chetan is one of the leading strategists on IP matters in the wireless industry. He has advised clients with some of the biggest patent portfolios in the world and worked with players across the wireless value chain. He has been retained as an expert witness and advisor for some of the most prominent legal matters in front of the International Trade Commission (ITC) such as Qualcomm vs. Broadcom and Ericsson vs. Samsung.

Chetan's blog ""Always On Real-Time Access (AORTA)"" is widely read and was voted amongst the top 20 mobile blogs worldwide.

Chetan is advisor to CEOs and CTOs of some of the leading wireless technology companies on product strategy and IP development. He is a senior member of IEEE, IEEE Communications Society, and IEEE Computers Society.

Chetan has MSEE from Kansas State University and BE from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee. He loves travel, history, and is an avid sports fan. He was captain of the university (IIT Roorkee) badminton team and has won university championships in India and the US.

"

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good coverage, up-to-date, very userful, March 1, 2002

By 

Frederick Parkinson (Sunnyvale, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: VoiceXML: Professional Developer's Guide with CDROM (Paperback)

This is the best VoiceXML book I've seen. Most VoiceXML books try to do too much: talk about voice hardware, telephony, the history of voice, tts, as well as be a VoiceXML reference. The weakness of these books is that one or more of these sections reveals that the authors do not really command the knowledge needed to make these sections useful. This book also attempts to do these things, but for the most part is able to carry it off.

If you're looking for a reference, this is the book to get. The reference section is current VoiceXML 2.0 (October 2001), which is an advantage in and of itself. But the real strength of the reference section is its depth. Each element, (e.g., <assign>, <grammar>, <filled>) has an entry for syntax (how to invoke the element), a description (what the element is used for), a thorough discussion of its attributes (that is, a description of the attribute), a usage statement (the elements parents and children), and an example (a snipet of complete code that uses the element). The examples and discussion of attributes really set this book apart from its peers.

There is a brief discussion of the architecture of a VoiceXML app, and a couple of paragraphs discussing the differences between VoiceXML 1.0 and 2.0.

The book also gives, contrary to my expectations, a history of the voice industry, a history of VoiceXML, and a discussion of players in the industry. What makes this book's treatment of these topics unusual is that the authors (particularly Kunins, I suspect) actually know these fields. I don't normally want these sections in a reference book (it just adds bulk around the section I really want) but I found them quite compelling here. I learned quite a bit from reading them.

The book also contains sections on Dynamic VoiceXML, Security, Voice App Life Cycle, VUI Design, the Future of VoiceXML, and a case study. I haven't read these sections yet, so I can't comment on them. I do know, however, that the sections I have read are sufficiently superior to make this THE VoiceXML book on their own.

If I were to criticize the book, I would fault the authors' lavish praise of TellMe (this is minor and not unexpected) and the examples in the reference section. The examples are quite good for someone learning VoiceXML, and the authors are commended for including them. The fault (albeit a minor one) is that they are fairly vanilla. So, while I would have preferred more examples, I concede that such examples would make the book much larger and the inclusion of "advanced" examples to the exclusion of "canonical" examples would have made them less useful to developers learning VoiceXML.

Overall, if you are going to own one VoiceXML reference, THIS should be that one.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Use this book only as a reference not to learn VoiceXML, February 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: VoiceXML: Professional Developer's Guide with CDROM (Paperback)

I was mislead by the accompanying great reviews for this book. Having bought and read the book I find that it serves more as a reference than to illustrate how VoiceXML can be used through example applications. But I should admit though that this book does a good job of serving as a reference. I also bought "VoiceXML: 10 Projects to Voice-Enable your system" that helped me to come up to speed to do a VoiceXML project.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Timely reference, January 16, 2002

By 

Dave (Austin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: VoiceXML: Professional Developer's Guide with CDROM (Paperback)

Agree with other reviewers. A thorough and detailed reference on VoiceXML and voice application development. I wish authors had put VoiceXML 2.0 reference on some website (though examples are available on the CD). Also liked the tips throughout the book on VUI. It is the most important aspect of voice application development and the authors kept emphasizing that through the entire book with examples. Excellent.