Mobile Internet infrastructure platform and applications provider Openstream Inc. has launched a multimodal mobile browser with speech-recognition capability called Cue-me.

Built on open standards, Openstream's Cue-me browser enables multimodal mobile application development for various handsets such as Windows Mobile, Symbian and BlackBerry platforms. Cue-me provides an alternative to the small-keypad mode of interaction.

"Cue-me provides a way to combine speech and gesture to make sure mobile users are able to convey intent quickly and easily," said Raj Tumuluri, president/CEO of Openstream, Somerset, NJ.

"It's now possible to gesture at something and give a speech command so that the browser can understand what the user want," he said. "The browser can make the user's command happen without the user having to use the keypad."

Speech- and gesture-recognition technology has the potential to revolutionize the mobile commerce space and bring it into the mass market, he said.

Openstream has been working with IBM on mobile commerce services. The company claims that making mobile payments via speech-recognition is not far off.

"With Cue-me, consumers will soon be able to search for gifts on their handset and purchase products without pushing any buttons," Mr. Tumuluri said. "The service also lets them issue voice commands to forward links and product info to contacts and upload content onto their blog or Web page."

Such technology could also facilitate easier mobile search.

"With Cue-me, you could say 'Show me hotels in Manhattan,' and you would come get multimedia files that match the criteria in a much better way than SMS alone," Mr. Tumuluri said. "Then you could run an ad from a sponsor in that space."

Speech-recognition technology provides tantalizing mobile advertising opportunities.

Based on consumers' information and what sites they've been accessing, advertisers can target consumers when placing ads.

For example, an advertiser could run interstitial videos combined with whatever the consumer is viewing, as well as pre-roll and post-roll advertisements.

Cue-me will enable the delivery of display and video ads with multiple media frameworks and various mobile devices and operating systems.

"Nobody else has offerings for each type of mobile phone, all the different form factors and technologies out there," Mr. Tumuluri said. "Businesses are looking for common deployment architecture so they can be reasonable assured that their investment in mobile applications will run on multiple devices."

Openstream's goal is to drive the speech and voice application business forward from its proprietary, vertical roots into the horizontal world of standards-based development.

Cue-me will eventually be available as a package with the handset's browser. It may also be offered by the carrier or phone manufacturer.

"We are working with all three, carriers, third-party developers that make mobile applications available on the mobile browser and handset manufacturers," Mr. Tumuluri said. "Consumers will also be able to download the application themselves."

Openstream is predicting big things for speech- and gesture-recognition technology.

"This is about the collection of data and the sharing of information quickly and easily while a person is on the move," Mr. Tumuluri said. "If you add speech recognition to the touch screen on handsets like the iPhone, think about what you'd be able to do.

"That's a going to have a very significant impact on the industry," he said.