Microsoft today talked up speech recognition technology in Windows Vista and promised to boost the unified communications functionality of the forthcoming release of Office Communications Server 2007.

Using the new integrated APIs in Office Communications Server 2007, Redmond demonstrated how a unified communications system can bridge communication methods such as Internet Protocol telephony, voice response, audio conferencing and videoconferencing.

The demonstrations included the use of an intelligent agent to help a caller locate and communicate with a person based on previously defined preferred methods, such as email or instant messaging. The Speech Server improvements will, according to the software giant, be achieved by integrating its Speech Server 2007 offering into the forthcoming Communications Server software.

"Today, the Speech Server platform is trusted by a number of major Microsoft customers to successfully answer millions of customer calls," said Anoop Gupta, corporate vice president of the Unified Communications Group at Microsoft.

He added that integrating this technology into Office Communications Server further demonstrates Microsoft's aims of providing a unified communications platform.

Microsoft also demonstrated Windows Speech Recognition, which will be available in Windows Vista in eight languages, marking the first time a Microsoft Windows operating system will include speech recognition technologies.

The speech technologies in Windows Vista, which will be available in eight languages, enable users to interact with their computer by voice, and dictate documents and email messages in mainstream applications, fill forms on the web, and command applications and the operating system.