Blog: Speech Recognition Systems Must Get Smarter, Professor Says

Speech Recognition Systems Must Get Smarter, Professor Says
IDG News Service (08/05/10) Jackson, Joab

Most modern computerized speech-recognition systems can understand what a human says up to 98 percent of the time, yet people still get frustrated using automated phone help-desk systems, says University of Rochester professor James Allen. He says the key to making speech-recognition systems less frustrating to use is giving them a deeper understanding of language and making them more interactive. Allen has been researching ways to make these systems more life-like in the way they interact with humans. The goal is to be able to "talk to a machine the same way we can talk to a person," he says. A program designed by Allen and his team, called Plow, can learn how to carry out common tasks on a computer. "This is a system that allows you to essentially use dialog to train your system how to do things for you," he says. Another program designed by Allen and his research team, called Cardiac, mimics the questions a nurse asks a patient with heart disease. The system determines what information was provided and what is still needed. However, Allen says better two-communications between users and computers is still needed.

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