Server: Netscape-Commerce/1.12 Date: Tuesday, 26-Nov-96 00:07:05 GMT Last-modified: Thursday, 15-Jun-95 00:39:50 GMT Content-length: 3972 Content-type: text/html
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Victor Zue, Senior Research Scientist, Associate Director, LCS | Stephanie Seneff, Principal Research Scientist |
Computers are fast becoming a ubiquitous part of our lives, and our appetite for information is ever increasing. As a result, many researchers have sought to develop a convenient human-computer interface, so that ordinary people can effortlessly access, process and manipulate vast amounts of information for education, decision-making, purchasing, or entertainment.
Researchers of the Spoken Language Systems (SLS) group believe that a speech interface, in a user's own language, is ideal because it is the most natural, flexible, efficient, and economical form of human communication. However, many tasks that lend themselves to spoken input -- making travel arrangements, for example, or selecting a movie -- are in fact exercises in interactive problem-solving. The solution is often built up incrementally, with both user and computer playing active roles in the "conversation." Therefore, several language-based input- and ouput technologies must be developed and integrated to reach this goal. Regarding the former, speech-recognition must be combined with natural language processing so the computer can understand spoken commands (often in the context of previous parts of the dialogue). On the output side, some of the information provided by the computer -- and any of the computer's requests for clarification -- must be converted to natural sentences, perhaps delivered verbally.
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James R. Glass, Research Scientist |
David Goddeau, Research Scientist |
Our research activities fall into three categories. In the first, basic research is aimed at quantifying and modeling various aspects of the speech communication chain, ranging from the development of computational models of how humans hear to the modeling of linguistic regularities in spontaneous speech. The second area of research will use these results to develop algorithms for speech recognition and language understanding. The third research category will integrate the component technologies into prototype spoken language systems with varying capabilities.
Several spoken language systems in real application domains are being developed in the SLS group. The VOYAGER system can help future drivers explore and navigate in an unknown urban setting, whereas the PEGASUS system enables a traveller to make airline reservations. The GALAXY system is intended to provide easy access for on-line information on the information highway, and the Language Tutor is directed towards interactively learning foreign languages.