This book integrates a wide range of research topics related to and necessary for the development of proactive, smart, computers in the human interaction loop, including the development of audio-visual perceptual components for such environments; the design, implementation and analysis of novel proactive perceptive services supporting humans; the development of software architectures, ontologies and tools necessary for building such environments and services, as well as approaches for the evaluation of such technologies and services.

The book is based on a major European Integrated Project, CHLI (Computers in the Human Interaction Loop), and throws light on the paradigm shift in the area of HCI that rather than humans interactive directly with machines, computers should observe and understand human interaction, and support humans during their work and interaction in an implicit and proactive manner.

This book integrates a wide range of research topics related to and necessary for the development of proactive, smart, computers in the human interaction loop, including the development of audio-visual perceptual components for such environments; the design, implementation and analysis of novel proactive perceptive services supporting humans; the development of software architectures, ontologies and tools necessary for building such environments and services, as well as approaches for the evaluation of such technologies and services.

The book is based on a major European Integrated Project, CHLI (Computers in the Human Interaction Loop), and throws light on the paradigm shift in the area of HCI that rather than humans interactive directly with machines, computers should observe and understand human interaction, and support humans during their work and interaction in an implicit and proactive manner.

After more than two decades of research activity, speech recognition has begun to live up to its promise as a practical technology and interest in the field is growing dramatically. "Readings in Speech Recognition" provides a collection of seminal papers that have influenced or redirected the field and that illustrate the central insights that have emerged over the years.

The editors provide an introduction to the field, its concerns and research problems. Subsequent chapters are devoted to the main schools of thought and design philosophies that have motivated different approaches to speech recognition system design. Each chapter includes an introduction to the papers that highlights the major insights or needs that have motivated an approach to a problem and describes the commonalities and differences of that approach to others in the book.