CHICAGO, July 28 /PRNewswire/ -- NAVTEQ, the leading global provider of digital map, traffic and location data for in-vehicle, portable, wireless and enterprise solutions, announced today the availability of voice phonemes for its NAVTEQ(R) map for Mexico and NAVTEQ map for Puerto Rico. This content greatly enhances navigation system functionality for these countries by enabling navigation systems using NAVTEQ data to provide audible guidance using specific street names and administrative areas, as well as the ability to provide speech recognition.

For example, many navigation systems provide generic, audible directions such as "turn right" or "stay to the left." With the integration of voice phonemes into the NAVTEQ map, navigation systems can offer the correct pronunciation of specific spoken directions such as turn left onto Luis Moya Avenue. Additionally, end-users using a navigation system enabled with NAVTEQ Voice are now able to select their destination by speaking the name of that target into the navigation system, rather than entering it manually.

"Using local geographic analysts with a knowledge of the streets, administrative and destination names is key to providing a quality end-user experience," stated Cindy Paulauskas, vice president, Americas map and content products, NAVTEQ. "Our field teams work with a variety of resources from local tourism boards to government offices, to confirm correct local pronunciations and interpretations of abbreviations."

NAVTEQ employs a unique method of transcribing the voice data that includes manually checking all transcriptions. The end result is highly accurate data that can interpret abbreviations, alternate pronunciations and other variants.

For example in Spanish the letter "S" can represent SAN, the letter "D" DOCTOR, or the string NTRA can represent NUESTRA. Contextual variants are even taken into account. For example J.M. can represent both Jose Maria and Jose Manuel. Local geographic analysts are extremely important for interpreting local pronunciations. In European (Castillian) Spanish the word 'plaza' is pronounced like 'plath-a', while in Latin American Spanish, it is pronounced like 'plas-a.' Additionally, the product sets a preference for names that can be pronounced in several ways. The NAVTEQ Map for Mexico contains phonemes for over 180,000 street names and over 25,000 administrative areas. The NAVTEQ Map for Puerto Rico contains approximately 14,500 street names and over 2,600 administrative areas.

About NAVTEQ

NAVTEQ is the leading global provider of digital map, traffic and location data that enables navigation and location-based platforms around the world. NAVTEQ supplies comprehensive digital map information to power automotive navigation systems, portable and wireless devices, Internet-based mapping applications and government and business solutions. The Chicago-based company was founded in 1985 and has approximately 4,000 employees located in 190 offices and in 39 countries.

NAVTEQ and NAVTEQ Voice are trademarks in the U.S. and other countries. All rights reserved.

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SOURCE NAVTEQ

Web site: http://www.navteq.com/