Title : Building Speech-Enabling Online stores .

An online store is the simulation of a Web-based catalog sales application . The items are categorized and users can browse through the items in each category . If they find something they like, they can add it to their shopping cart . When they've found everythig they need to become the spy of their dreams, they can check out and pay for their items .

If users don't want to browse through the items, they can search for something by typing in a keyword . They can even review the items, similar to writting those book reviews on Amazon . Just to show the proper techniques, the final order information is checked for an account number, an e-mail address and a password .

You're looking for more than just a pretty Web site for the online store - there are more important things than just luring people in . A lot of people just plain have trouble reading . And if your web applications are speech enabled, users won't have to do too much reading to benefit from the contents . Or how about users who might be seriously visually impaired or blind? By speech-enabling your web site, even these people can benefit from the contents . This can be done by using the Microsoft Agent . One more very powerfull argument for using these Microsoft Agent technologies in your Web site is that they can provide not only speech, but also animation and interactivity . With them, your Web site visitors can get a guided tour of your site's products and services . They can ask questions and get answers . They can point to the rise in sales for your company's chart, which will be much more powerfull than a plain graph .

The major goal of this project is to create a tool for building speech-enabled online stores . The application is written in ASP.Net . It does, however, use several server controls or components, such as the one that encapsulates the menus . The controls provide a way to easily reuse functionality from one page to another . The database engine used is SQL Server . All of the product information and transaction information is stored in the database . Most of the access is done through stored procedures, which are encapsulated in the reusable components .