DAYTON, Ohio - NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) has signed a global agreement with ScanSoft, Inc. (Nasdaq: SSFT) to embed ScanSoft's RealSpeak Solo™ text-to-speech (TTS) engine within NCR's APTRA™ Edge and APTRA™ Advance NDC self-service software.
According to a news release, the agreement provides the tools for financial institutions to voice enable their ATMs to improve access for visually impaired banking customers.
By incorporating ScanSoft's RealSpeak Solo TTS engine within its software, NCR ATMs can seamlessly convert dynamic text into natural-sounding speech. By inserting personal headphones into an ATM audio jack and swiping a bank card, users can conduct individual financial transactions and have on-screen displays, such as account balance, account fund transfers and other personal information, read back to them in a synthesized voice.
ScanSoft's RealSpeak Solo TTS engine is available in multiple languages.
"Our partnership with ScanSoft enables us to provide the most natural-sounding TTS solution on the market today," said Andrew Orent, vice president of NCR's Financial Solutions Division, Americas region.
According to the release, APTRA is being used in more than 70 percent of all ATM multivendor projects worldwide. NCR's APTRA Edge and APTRA Advance NDC are both based on the Microsoft® Windows® platform.
Earlier this year, ScanSoft signed a similar deal with Triton. (See related story Triton selects supplier to make its 'talking' ATMs sound more natural)
