CHATTANOOGA ENGINEERS CLUB http://www.utc.edu/~engrcs/cec/cec.htm Volume LI May 8, 2000 12:00 noon Number 17 TVA Map Store, 311 Broad Street THIS WEEK__________________________________________________________________ Special field trip has been arranged by Mike Ingram and Alan Voss to accommodate the remodelling project at The Cellar. CEC will visit the TVA - Geographic Information and Engineering (GI&E) (formerly Maps and Surveys) facilities. Please meet in the lobby in front of the TVA Map Store, 311 Broad Street at 12:00 noon. We will visit the TVA Map Store, http://www.tva.gov/mapstore/, which provides a public sales outlet for all the TVA Map products. These include aerial photography, from the 1920's to the present, topographic maps, navigation maps and charts, recreation maps, hiking maps, region and area maps, TVA property maps, and digital topographic maps. We will also tour the production facilities to see the latest in computer mapping techniques, and the production of Geographic Information System (GIS) databases. Please note that lunch will not be available during the tour. LAST WEEK___________________________________________________________________ Michael Bliss, founder of Speech Recognition Solutions, Inc. (SRS, Inc - 1997), presented on the history of speech recognition software and provided demonstration of the Dragon software. He is the co-Founder of Voice Elevator Access Technology, Inc. (VEXT). VEXT developed the World's first Voice-Buttons(tm) technology system to allow spoken commands to control call commands inside the elevator for persons who are blind and physically disabled. SRS provides development, installation, and training of dictation system solutions using speech recognition technology. He is a Dragon Certified Instructor from Dragon Systems, Inc (now L&H). Although the history of the technology dated back to the 1970's, the technology was not very usable due to the software being a discrete interpretation of human speech. It was not until 1987, that continuous speech was being recognized by the software. It was in the 1990's that the software becomes available commercially. Speech recognition software still face obstacles. It requires robust computing system, it needs to develop further on the use of natural language, and it needs to continue to progress toward full interpretation of continuous speech. Chattanooga State has been working with Mr. Bliss in medical transcription classes. There has been a lot of interest from the medical fields, but the use of speech recognition software can extend into other work areas, such as insurance and legal offices, construction fields, and law enforcement and customer service areas, just to name a few. COMING PROGRAMS________________________________________________________ May 15 - Gary Forrester, "Apison Substation, EPB's newest source station". May 22 - Bruce Pirtle, "EPB - SCADAS, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition System". May program chair is Jack Wagner. FUTURE BULLETINS_________________________________________________________ Due to issues in the format change. The monthly newsletter will not be ready in May. We are trying to solicit contents for a June issue. --- Chattanooga Technology Council Mailing List | A free service provided by To unsubscribe, e-mail: ctc-unsubscribe@cdc.net | CDC Internet, Inc. For additional commands, e-mail: ctc-help@cdc.net | http://www.cdc.net "