Trial casts shadow over Dragon birthday

Speech-recognition pioneers face fraud charges - but the technology is flourising

Software publisher Nuance celebrated the tenth anniversary of its Dragon Naturallyspeaking speech-recognition product today as two pioneers of the technology stood trial in Belgium for fraud.

Nuance bought technology assets of the company formed by Belgians Jo Lernout and Pol Hauspie after it went bankrupt in 2001. Their company, Lernout and Hauspie, had previously bought out their greatest rival Dragon.

Today Simon Howard, Nuance dictation solutions director, gave an impressive demonstration of a wireless version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking v9, which comes with a DECT hands-free Plantronics noise-cancelling headset.

The software, which also helps filter out the noise, provided a nearly perfect transcription as Howard dictated at speed against the noisy backdrop of London's Leicester Square.

Lernout and Hauspie might never have got into trouble if their software had been half as good. They got into the market too early, at a time when the software and especially processors were not up to the task. You could get their software to work, but it was slow, inaccurate and required a lot of training and care.

Now they face several charges of accounting and stock fraud, allegedly uncovered when thousands of small investors submitted compensation claims after the bankruptcy.

Nineteen other people also face charges in a trial that is expected to last months.