IBM, a global consulting and computer giant, nicknamed as “Big Blue” has plans to test a voice-based web to make information accessible to users who can not read or write, or who do not have access to the Internet.

The project is named as “Spoken Web” project and is currently being piloted by IBM’s India Research Laboratory (IRL). The project aims to take advantage of the fast penetration of mobile phones in emerging countries like India.

With this, the company aims to bring all the functionality of Internet on PC to mobile world. To conduct transaction using voice enabled sites, company use technologies such as VoiceXML (Voice eXtensible Markup Language) and HSTP (hyper speech transfer protocol), Spoken Web mirrors the World Wide Web in a telecom network to create and browse “VoiceSites” having unique URLs, traverse “VoiceLinks.”

Users can access the voice-based web using a toll-free number, through numerous ways including a voice recognition system or a tone phone. VoiceSites can be also created over the phone, using a set of templates on the server side.

The company is already busy in doing pilots of the Spoken Web with some undisclosed mobile service providers in India, including one with associations working with visually impaired users.

Renu Singh/ITVoir Network