Human factors aspects of the design of a speech understanding and dialogue system

Many useful sources of information are kept on remote databases. However, in order to access these, it is necessary to have a computer or teletext link or else a telephone enquiry service with staff to interrogate the database on the caller´s behalf. There are problems with relying on computer or teletext access in the community, particularly for people with motor or perceptual difficulties, and the provision of a staffed telephone enquiry service is wasteful if most enquiries are likely to be simple. The development of a speech-based computer information system capable of dialogue over the telephone would offer people direct access to database information. The SUNDlAL (speech understanding and dialogue) project is one of Europe´s largest collaborative projects in speech technology. The research is developing systems capable of intelligent, co-operative dialogue about specific topics such as flight arrivals and train timetable information. These systems will support a speaker-independent vocabulary of 1000 words in English, French, German and Italian, operating over the telephone network