Automatic Speech Recognition Applications: A Study of Methods for Defining Command Vocabularies

Abstract

Phoneme-based automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology enables designers to easily create custom command words or phrases that users can employ to request service operations. In this paper, I report results from two experiments concerning important dimensions of these ASR command vocabularies, including command naturalness/appropriateness and command recallability. Ease of recall is a critical dimension for assessing ASR commands used in multi-step applications since service subscribers may be engaged in several different cognitive activities that divide attention. Yet techniques for measuring command recallability can be difficult to implement owing to the time required for data collection and analysis. Results of these studies indicate the the dimension of command “naturalness” and memorability are closely related: under appropriate conditions, the simple procedures associated with measuring command naturalness or appropriateness can predict retrievability of command expressions.