Due This Summer : Voices ‘Dial’ 2 New Cellular Car Phones

“Name, please?” the telephone politely asks.

Two versions of voice-dialed mobile phones, which are to be introduced this summer, were unveiled Monday by their competing developers at separate previews in Los Angeles and Dallas.

American Telephone & Telegraph’s 1280 cellular telephone system is designed to recognize the speech patterns of the caller who earlier “taught” it up to 20 phone numbers. Speaking a code name--for example, John Doe --will cause the phone to scan its roster of speech patterns, select the appropriate one and dial the phone number.

“Obviously, dialing by voice is the easiest way to place a call while driving,” said John Davis, executive director of AT&T;’s Consumer Products Laboratories. “It’s about as simple as honking the car horn. It’s accurate, friendly and safe.”

On the other hand, the phone will respond only to the voice or voices that programmed the numbers. “We think of this as a personalized phone,” AT&T; spokesman Mike Pollock said.

In contrast, the phones to be built by British-based FCA Telecom, in its first U.S. venture, will include a voice-recognition device that will respond to virtually any voice that pronounces one of its programmed identifying names--for example, home , cleaners , airline , office .

FCA has licensed U.S. manufacturing and marketing rights for this cellular phone application from Dallas-based Voice Control Systems.

It intends to hold a second demonstration of the book-size attachment, which will retail for about $300 (in addition to the cost of the cellular phone itself), this week in New York.

Distributors include Cellular One in San Francisco, Bell South Mobility in Atlanta and Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems in New Jersey.

AT&T;’s 1280 voice-dialed phone will carry a suggested retail price of $1,745. It includes a button-sized microphone that can be placed on a car’s sun visor to allow the driver to hang up the receiver and continue a conversation while keeping both hands on the steering wheel.

An extension jack allows conventional phones to be plugged into the back-seat area of the car.

Both systems also accept conventional dialing.

AT&T; recognizes additional applications of voice-dialing technology, such as meeting the special needs of certain handicapped people, but it intends to concentrate on the cellular market initially, Pollock said.

Peter Foster, president of Voice Control Systems, said separate licensing agreements are under consideration for applying “speaker-independent” technology to speaker phones and greatly increasing the capacity for storing numbers.