SpeechActs: a spoken-language framework

Author

Martin, Paul ; Crabbe, Frederick ; Adams, Stuart ; Baatz, Eric ; Yankelovich, Nicole

Author_Institution

Sun Microsyst. Labs., Chelmsford, MA, USA

Volume

29

Issue

7

fYear

1996

fDate

7/1/1996 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

33

Lastpage

40

Abstract

SpeechActs is a prototype testbed for developing spoken natural language applications. In developing SpeechActs, our primary goal was to enable software developers without special expertise in speech or natural language to create effective conversational speech applications-that is, applications with which users can speak naturally, as if they were conversing with a personal assistant. We also wanted SpeechActs applications to work with one another without requiring that each have specific knowledge of other applications running in the same suite. A discourse management component is necessary to embody the information that allows such a natural conversational flow. Because technology changes so rapidly, we also did not want to tie developers to specific speech recognizers or synthesizers. We wanted them to be able to use these speech technologies as plug-in components

Keywords

natural language interfaces; software engineering; speech recognition; SpeechActs; conversational speech applications; discourse management component; natural conversational flow; plug-in components; software developers; spoken natural language application development; spoken-language framework; Application software; Calendars; Natural languages; Postal services; Speech recognition; Speech synthesis; Switches; Synthesizers; Testing; Weather forecasting;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Computer

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9162

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/2.511966

Filename

511966