Spoken dialog systems allow people to get information, conduct business, and be entertained, simply by speaking to a computer. There are hundreds of these systems currently in use, handling millions of interactions every day. How do they work? What problems do they solve? The goal of this book is to answer these questions and others like them, including:

-How can I decide if a spoken dialog system is a good fit for the needs of my organization?
-Whata (TM)s the difference between a voice user interface and a conventional graphical interface? What are the psychological principles underlying voice user interfaces? What do I need to know about error handling in voice applications and accommodating both novice and experienced users?
-How can I make use of newer technologies like speaker authentication?
-What about development tools? How can I evaluate and select the right tools?
-What can I expect when deploying a spoken dialog system? How is deploying a spoken dialog system different from deploying a web application? What details do I have to be aware of for the deployment to succeed?
-What can we expect these systems to do in the future? What kinds of new capabilities are about to emerge from research laboratories?

For professional speech researchers, there is a rich technical literature covering many years of primary research in speech. However, this literature is not necessarily applicable to the needs of business people, application developers, and students who are interested in learning about the practical uses of speech technology. On the other hand, while existing introductory resources cover the basic mechanics of development of application developmentas well as aspects of the voice user interface, they dona (TM)t go far enough in dealing with the details that have to be taken into account to make spoken dialog systems successful in practice. Whata (TM)s missing is information in between the in-depth technical literature and the more introductory development resources. The goal of this book is to provide information for anyone who wants to take the next step beyond the basics of current speech applications but isna (TM)t yet ready to dive into the technical literature. It is hoped that this book will help project managers, application developers, and students gain a fuller and more complete understanding of spoken dialog technology and the practical aspects of developing and deploying spoken dialog applications.

The "smart mobile" has become an essential and inseparable part of our lives. This powerful tool enables us to perform multi-tasks in different modalities of voice, text, gesture, etc. The user plays an important role in the mode of operation, so multimodal interaction provides the user with new complex multiple modalities of interfacing with a system, such as speech, touch, type and more. The book will discuss the new world of mobile multimodality, focusing on innovative technologies and design which create a state-of-the-art user interface. It will examine the practical challenges entailed in meeting commercial deployment goals, and offer new approaches to the designing such interfaces. A multimodal interface for mobile devices requires the integration of several recognition technologies together with sophisticated user interface and distinct tools for input and output of data. The book will address the challenge of designing devices in a synergetic fashion which does not burden the user or to create a technological overload.

This book draws on the recent remarkable advances in speech and language processing: advances that have moved speech technology beyond basic applications such as medical dictation and telephone self-service to increasingly sophisticated and clinically significant applications aimed at complex speech and language disorders. The book provides an introduction to the basic elements of speech and natural language processing technology, and illustrates their clinical potential by reviewing speech technology software currently in use for disorders such as autism and aphasia. The discussion is informed by the authors' own experiences in developing and investigating speech technology applications for these populations. Topics include detailed examples of speech and language technologies in both remediative and assistive applications, overviews of a number of current applications, and a checklist of criteria for selecting the most appropriate applications for particular user needs. This book will be of benefit to four audiences: application developers who are looking to apply these technologies; clinicians who are looking for software that may be of value to their clients; students of speech-language pathology and application development; and finally, people with speech and language disorders and their friends and family members.

Spoken dialog systems allow people to get information, conduct business, and be entertained, simply by speaking to a computer. There are hundreds of these systems currently in use, handling millions of interactions every day. How do they work? What problems do they solve? The goal of this book is to answer these questions and others like them, including:

How can I decide if a spoken dialog system is a good fit for the needs of my organization?

Whata (TM)s the difference between a voice user interface and a conventional graphical interface? What are the psychological principles underlying voice user interfaces? What do I need to know about error handling in voice applications and accommodating both novice and experienced users?

How can I make use of newer technologies like speaker authentication?

What about development tools? How can I evaluate and select the right tools?

What can I expect when deploying a spoken dialog system? How is deploying a spoken dialog system different from deploying a web application? What details do I have to be aware of for the deployment to succeed?

What can we expect these systems to do in the future? What kinds of new capabilities are about to emerge from research laboratories?

For professional speech researchers, there is a rich technical literature covering many years of primary research in speech. However, this literature is not necessarily applicable to the needs of business people, application developers, and students who are interested in learning about the practical uses of speech technology. On the other hand, while existing introductory resources cover the basic mechanics of development ofapplication development as well as aspects of the voice user interface, they dona (TM)t go far enough in dealing with the details that have to be taken into account to make spoken dialog systems successful in practice. Whata (TM)s missing is information in between the in-depth technical literature and the more introductory development resources. The goal of this book is to provide information for anyone who wants to take the next step beyond the basics of current speech applications but isna (TM)t yet ready to dive into the technical literature. It is hoped that this book will help project managers, application developers, and students gain a fuller and more complete understanding of spoken dialog technology and the practical aspects of developing and deploying spoken dialog applications.