Enhancing usability of UML CASE-tools with speech recognition

In the Unified Modeling Language (UML) models are constructed graphically, by drawing diagrams. However, it is not always easy to manipulate diagrams using the CASE-tools of today. For example, some of the functionality and information are hidden behind complex menu or dialog hierarchies, diminishing the usability of the tools. Promoting usability of an existing tool should be done transparently, without disturbing the normal way of using it. Speech recognition can be used as an extra user interface that also allows simultaneous use of other interfaces. UML is a good target for speech recognition since its vocabulary is limited and already specified in the UML metamodel. In this paper, we show how speech recognition can be used to enhance the usage of existing UML CASE-tools. We present the prototype of a speech control system over UML CASE-tools as well as the results of the early usability studies and experiments on the system.