iSpeech® Develops Audio Reader for Elsevier's SciVerse Applications

AMSTERDAM, July 25, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- Text-to-speech application enables researchers to listen to scientific articles on SciVerse ScienceDirect

 Elsevier, a world leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, today announced the availability of an audio reader application from iSpeech, provider of cloud-based speech technology and mobile apps, on SciVerse Applications beta. The iSpeech Audio Reader is the latest in a growing list of applications enhancing the use of SciVerse ScienceDirect content to improve researchers' workflows.  

The iSpeech Audio Reader text-to-speech application instantly converts any full-text article within SciVerse ScienceDirect, the world's largest source of peer-reviewed scientific content containing more than 10 million articles, into a natural sounding voice file. It enables researchers to easily convert articles into MP3 audio files and listen to them on any MP3-friendly device.  

"Through our continued collaboration with Elsevier, we've expanded our text-to-speech solutions into the realm of scientific research, which is an ideal extension of our strategy to provide convenient, easy-to-use approaches to learning and interacting with information," said Heath Ahrens, Chief Executive Officer at iSpeech.

"The iSpeech Audio Reader is an ideal application for researchers that are auditory learners or that are visually impaired," said Rafael Sidi, Vice President, Applications and Developer Network at Elsevier."It's an excellent example of our vision to work directly with the communities we serve to provide customized search and discovery applications that solve specific challenges users face within their research workflows."

The iSpeech Audio Reader application stems from a collaborative relationship between iSpeech and Elsevier developed following a 24-hour hackathon hosted by the New Jersey Institute of Technology and Elsevier. Jesse Campbell, a graduate student at NJIT and software developer at iSpeech, and fellow NJIT graduate student Metin Yorulmaz won first place for the SV Social application which allows users to mark a favorite article, share articles on social networks and convert text to speech.

SciVerse Applications and the Developer Network provide opportunities for researchers and librarians to collaborate with developers in creating and promoting new applications that improve research workflows. The Developer Network features a growing community of application developers that gain potential recognition, prestige and revenue through their contributions to SciVerse Applications.

About iSpeech

iSpeech (http://www.iSpeech.org ) is a leading provider of cloud-based speech technology and mobile apps, including the award winning app, DriveSafe.ly® (http://www.DriveSafe.ly ). Founded in 2007, the company began as a vision to help college students learn by enabling them to listen to text-based study materials. Today, developers, organizations and consumers worldwide choose iSpeech for its high quality, scalable and easy to use text-to-speech (TTS), automated speech recognition (ASR) and voice to text solutions. The iSpeech Cloud has been used over a billion times. iSpeech is a privately held company headquartered in Newark, NJ with offices in San Francisco and New York.

About the Elsevier SciVerse Suite

The SciVerse (http://www.sciverse.com ) suite of search and discovery offerings provides the global research community access to a constantly expanding universe of content and solutions which can now be accessed in one platform. The suite currently includes SciVerse ScienceDirect (http://www.sciencedirect.com ), the world's largest source of peer-reviewed content containing more than 10 million articles, and SciVerse Scopus (http://www.scopus.com ), an abstract and citation database containing 41 million records, 70% with abstracts and nearly 18,000 titles from 5,000 publishers worldwide. The platform also includes SciVerse Hub beta (http://www.hub.sciverse.com ), which enables researchers to perform a single search across all of the SciVerse content as well as targeted web content with results ranked by relevancy and without duplication. SciVerse Applications (http://www.applications.sciverse.com ) and Developer Network (http://www.developers.sciverse.com ) allow the scientific community to build, find and use applications that enhance the SciVerse research experience.

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include SciVerse ScienceDirect, SciVerse Scopus, Reaxys, MD Consult and Nursing Consult, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai's Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading publisher and information provider, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

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