On automatic speech-understanding systems

Abstract

systems that afford a faster communication and lessen the dependence upon intermediaries, and that often provide help to those who are not familiar with how the system operates and don't know how to express their requirements formally. But in spite of advances in man-machine interaction, the mechanisms provided for communication remain remote from the ideal. When a potential user first approaches a computer he finds that the first thing he must do, before he can even think of getting any work done, is to learn how to communicate with the machine. At the very least, this involves learning a new "language" the language of the "interface" to the machine. This is not necessarily a programming language, but certainly one that allows him to tell the machine what to do. In the past, such interface languages have been conceived and implemented by system designers and programmers with a view to optimizing system capabilities rather than accommodating human needs. The use of such languages often requires thought patterns and processes which are foreign to the way people usually think and talk to each other and involves a certain amount of effort to learn.