A VOICE FROM THE EDGE OF HIGH-TECH.

• Author: FONTANA, JOHN
• Position: Datria Systems - Brief Article

IN the love affair destined to blossom between the mobile phone and the computer, an Englewood company is angling to position itself as a high-tech cupid.

Datria Systems, a 30-employee, privately held company formed in 1997, is trying to turn the human voice into the computer interface of the millenium.

Datria believes that corporate employees sent into the field to collect data (e.g. utility company workers, road repair crews) should no longer have to gingerly juggle expensive computers while doing their jobs.

Datria's product uses a conventional mobile phone that allows mobile workers to use the spoken word to input and extract data from a corporate database housed safely in computers at headquarters.

"It is so powerful to integrate the computer using speech," said Michael Perry, director of product management for Datria. "It's the most natural interface."

Datria's VoCarta software, acquired three years ago from Lockheed Martin, allows voice to replace the keyboard and mouse as the interface to applications. Datria also offers a set of software "tools" to create voice-enabled applications that connect through VoCarta to a database.

"Datria has the potential to radically drop the cost-per-user of these data-collection systems," says J.D. Wilson, industry analyst for Englewood consulting firm SharperInsight. A rugged laptop used in the field can cost $10,000, while a typical mobile...