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, E-mail 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