Technology-driven design of speech recognition systems

Abstract

End-users and application developers arc increasingly considering usc of large vocabulary automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology for tasks that involve entering large volumes of text into a computer. Interest is in part fueled by the overwhelmingly positive reviews the technology is receiving in the trade press and at major trade shows. While acknowledging the impressive advances in ASR technology in recent years, critics nevertheless point out that problems with ASR-enablcd applications currently preclude them from being broadly considered viable alternatives to keyboard input. In this paper, we argue that to become a generally viable alternative to keyboard input, ASR needs to undergo a transformation from a laboratory technology into a human computer interaction (HCI) technique. That is, we must discover how the technology should be used to support users engaged in productive work. We propose that to bring this about, designers must engage in building applications grounded in real work contexts now, even though the technology is still at an immature stage of development. We call this approach technology-driven design to emphasize our goal of advancing the technology in our design activities. Not as apparent in this label, but of great importance to our approach, is a commitment to the involvement of users in every aspect of system deSign.