TELECOMMUNICATIONS: AUTOMATIC VOICE RECOGNITION TELEPHONE SWITCHBOARD LAUNCHED.

"Hallo and welcome to Cogis Industries. Just state which person or department you wish to contact and we shall put you through straightaway", is the first thing you hear from this virtual switchboard, which Cogis Industries, authorised to distribute the new system in France, has been testing since last Summer. The caller may then supply the name of the person or service alone or include it in a sentence. The switchboard mathematical sound partitioning system (word recognition) makes it possible for the call to be routed straightaway. If the voice is not intelligible enough the switchboard will pose one or two questions: "Is it X you want to speak to? Please answer yes or no". The caller may ask for "help" at any time so as to be put through to a real switchboard operator. Cogis Industries claims a success rate of 97% during trials...