ProcessTalk A natural language interface for industrial applications

Many commercial software packages are available for industrial applications. However, small and medium size enterprises, SME, normally lack the in-house qualified personnel to benefit from such packages. As natural languages are the best means of communication, a natural language interface can therefore be a good means to grant the SME an easy access to the sophisticated computerized software packages, thus alleviating the problem of the lack of qualified personnel and reducing the cost of employeesʹ learning curve. At present, no such interfaces exist. This paper presents the design of a human-machine interface, ProcessTalk, that would accept natural language commands in a text form, then would invoke and execute the appropriate functional/procedural commands required by the desired commercial software package the same way as qualified analysts and engineers would operate. It also exposes its benefits and some of its industrial applications.