Unisys Corp.'s 15 years of work on natural-language technology, which enables machines to interpret and respond to written or spoken words, could soon pay dividends to banks.
The Blue Bell, Pa., computer company has developed a mortgage system and has struck an alliance with Destiny Software Corp. that could result soon of additional banking products.
Natural-language technology lets a computer system "take text from just about any source and do analysis of the contextual meaning," said Richard Barchard, worldwide marketing manager in Unisys' natural language understanding group. The system then can "perform action based around the context."
In the mortgage program, a user would phone into a computer system and respond to questions as if talking to another person.
Using speech-recognition technology from Periphonics Corp. of Bohemia, N.Y., and drawing from a data base of possible responses, the system interprets the spoken words and replies.
The data base is deep enough let the system understand and respond to deviations from standard answers. If the system asks, "How many points do you want to pay-zero, one, two, or three points?" the user can reply, "What's a point?" and get an answer.
Another example: If the system asks "How much do you want to put down?" the user can reply "minimum down" and get a response that says, "You requested 5% down. Is this correct?"
Mr. Barchard said Unisys is lining up beta sites to test the system.
Through the partnership with Destiny Software, Unisys plans to develop applications for the Internet that would read and reply to messages typed into Web sites.
Reade Frank, manager of marketing at Conshohocken, Pa.-based Destiny, said it views natural-language technology as "primarily a way to enhance a bank's customer service."
By automating responses to frequently asked questions, the system can free customer service people to focus on more important or complex tasks.
Destiny Software specializes in customized banking applications based on object technology. The three year-old company's customers include BankAmerica Corp. and First USA Inc.
Mr. Frank said Destiny Software has not set a timetable for rolling out a natural-language application.
