O'Reilly Network: Standards Update: The Voice Browser

"A voice browser is a software application that works with various markup languages to interpret voice input and generate voice output."

"There are several reasons to create a voice browser. First, many more people have access to telephones and wireless phones than to desktop browsers, so a voice browser would enable these people to access Web data. Second, we expect to witness a dramatic rise in the number of devices that will connect to the Net from places other than the desktop."

"The voice browser effort aims to build a way to access web content (marked up in XML style) with voice commands -- which will come in handy in places where hands-free access is needed, such as wireless phones and automobiles."

"A W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) working group on the voice browser has formed and is working within the consortium's user interface area."

Complete story.