Man-Machine Voice Enabled Interfaces

摘要

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. Spoken language interfaces to computers is a topic that has fascinated engineers and speech scientists alike for over five decades. For many, the ability to converse freely with a machine represents the ultimate challenge to our understanding of the production and perception processes involved in human speech communication. In addition to being a fascinating topic, spoken language interfaces are fast becoming a necessity. In the near future, interactive networks will provide easy access to a wealth of information and services that will fundamentally affect how people work, play and conduct their daily affairs. Advances in human language technology are needed for the average citizen to communicate with networks using natural communication skills and everyday devices, such as telephones. Without fundamental advances in user-centered interfaces, a large portion of society will be prevented from participating in the age of information, resulting in further stratification of society and tragic loss in human potential. While the principles of feedback to the user are the same for different applications of speech technology, the particular design decisions depend on the task, user, and context of use. In this chapter we present two implementations of such technology: 1) securized flexible vocabulary voice messaging system, 2) voice-enabled interface for interactive tour guide robots.