On the edge: News briefs

NetByTel Inc., Boca Raton, Fla., has introduced a telephone, voice-driven, self-service solution that can be used for e-gov applications for citizens without readily available Internet access. According to the company, the software can be used to offer a range of services, from license and registration renewal to location finders. Interactions are voice driven and don't require button punching. To spearhead government sales, NetByTel has appointed Paul Karch as director of government affairs.The National Weather Service has chosen text-to-speech software from Boston-based SpeechWorks International Inc. to read its weather reports, warnings and watches over 600 radio stations nationwide. The agency was looking for a synthetic voice that was more understandable than the one being used, according to Jack Kelly, director of the weather service. Bethesda, Md.-based Syntek Systems Corp. Inc. has commercially released the genomics research software it developed for Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Called GeneCite, this Java-based application searches the National Institutes of Health's PubMed database for citations of gene pairs, returning the number of citations and hyperlinks to the NIH database. IqinVision Inc., Santa Ana Heights, Calif., has introduced a wireless video camera. Using the 802.11b "WiFi" networking standard, this camera is marketed for use where cabling is not feasible or is cost prohibitive. The computer-based platform allows network functionality, offering services such as network time protocol, file transfer protocol, dynamic host configuration protocol and encryption. The image itself, JPEG or streaming JPEG formats with a resolution rate of up to 1,288 by 968 pixels per display, can be viewed through a browser. This system, called the IQeye3-W, has a list price of $2,695.