Enabling a voice modality in mobile games through VoiceXML

The use of speech recognition in gaming applications is not entirely new. The growth of voice as a part of gaming has exploded largely due to the popularity of online player matchmaking services such as Xbox Live. Yet, the majority of its use is only limited to communications between players to coordinate game play activities through the use of a headset and a microphone. To further explore the possibilities of using speech recognition to affect game play directly, Motorola has partnered with GamePipe Labs at the University of Southern California. This collaboration aims at leveraging the capabilities of VoiceXML (VXML), and use interactive voice dialogues to directly affect game play on mobile phones. This short paper describes the efforts taken under this initiative, and the results of this collaboration.