Natural Language and Speech (parts of Chapters 8 & 9)

Natural Language in Computing Use of human languages –Translation –Commands to computer –Queries –Text Database Searching –Text generation –Games

Commands to Computer From computer-oriented to domain oriented May not be more efficient than selection Speech recognition may help

Natural Language Queries Limited form of commands to computer Actions able to be requested are database queries (searches) Experienced users shorthand Things aren’t as grim as Shneiderman makes it seem

Text Database Searching DB contains text as main content Common goal is retrieval of relevant records using natural language question Meaning vs matching Statistical Pre-processing Information retrieval contests Information Push, filtering

Natural Language Text Generation Output in text, frequently from data Generation of poems and stories Conversational systems

Games Command based games

Speech Recognition, Digitization and Generation Speech recognition progress is slow Challenges – background noise, speaker variation Drawbacks – human memory use Benefits – accommodation of disabilities, environment/task requirements Growth – now many products

Discrete Word Recognition Sentences spoken is slow deliberate manner – with words being discrete entities, rather than run together (continuous) Not tolerable for most people Discrete word recognition is easy Continuous speech recognition is harder

Speech Store and Forward Store and forward spoken messages Could be used for groupware – computer supported cooperative work

Speech Generation Very feasible – done all the time Can be annoying / noisy Valuable for handicapped Completely computer generated vs human sounds pieced together vs stored words

When to Use Speech Message is simple Message is short Message will not be referred to later Message deals with events in time Message requires an immediate response Visual channels of communication are overloaded Environment is unsuitable for transmission of visual info User must be free to move around

Audio Tones and Music

End Speech and Natural Language