SCIENCE-UAE: Workshop on Arab ‘intelligent systems’

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Att.Editors: The following item is by the United Arab Emirates news agency (WAM)

ABU DHABI, Feb 17 2003 (IPS) - The Arab Science and Technology Foundation (ASTF) will unveil its first – intelligent systems" products, including a voice-enabled system, a smart inspector robot for long pipes and a smart menu navigation system. The products will be introduced at a promotional workshop to be held on February 19 and 20 at the University City in Sharjah, one of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to a report in the ‘Gulf News’.

The workshop will be conducted by Dr Fakhreddine Karray, chairman of the committee on speech technology at the ASTF, and Dr Fathy Ghorbel, member of the ASTF Board of Directors and Professor of Robotics at Rice University in the US In addition to a number of specialists, invitees from business sectors and representatives of the telecommunications industry will also attend.

These achievements herald the first products of Arab scientists working with the foundation after they had received generous financial support from the ASTF.

The new voice-enabled technology is largely a speech enabling development platform that allows for the rapid creation and deployment of speech enabled applications in a wide variety of languages, including Arabic dialects. The applications can be operated with natural, conversational speech, regardless of accent or intonation.

The new technology capitalizes on the increased opportunities available for speech technology, created by the combination of powerful portable computing devices, the introduction of high speed mobile data networks and a government legislation mandating the use of hands free phones while driving.

Developed by Arab scientists and engineers with contributions from top scientists worldwide, the new platform is revolutionary due to the functionality it provides to application developers as well as the end-users of speech-enabled technology. The platform enables developers to create speech-enabled programs that process conversational speech in a fraction of the time required to create typical speech enabled applications.

From the end-user’s point of view, the new platform improves the quality of the user’s experience with the applications by allowing the use of natural spoken language rather than rigid keyword commands.

The target market for the new technology – the users of mobile communication and in-vehicle automotive equipment – will have over two billion users worldwide by the end of 2005, with 200 to 250 million located throughout the Middle East and North African region.

Within the next five years, the ASTF projects annual revenues of $300 million, with $90-$140 million coming from sales of the new technology and applications in North Africa and the Middle East.

The second technology development by ASTF scientists is an autonomous small robotic inspector for the insides of very long and small diameter pipes, such as coiled tubing, underground and undersea pipelines, heat exchangers and power plants’ tubing. The smart inspector detects corrosion and other in-pipe defects, and will help companies save millions of dollars in maintenance costs for oil and gas pipelines.

The third technology development by ASTF scientists is a smart system for navigating complex menus used in communicating with automobile devices, as well as a number of other menu-based devices.