Interactive Voice System Research Articles

Research and Implementation of Embedded Voice Interaction System Based on ARM in Intelligent Space

This paper presents the design and implementation of voice interaction system based on ARM in service robots intelligent space. ARM Cortex-M3 core based STM32F103 is used for main controller. And real-time embedded operating system μC/OS-II is used to schedule different tasks and manage peripheral devices. LD3320 and XFS4041CN are used for speech recognition and speech synthesis, respectively. Establish a dialogue set by defining the set of two-dimensional array, and then intelligent space updates the dialogue set dynamically via ZigBee wireless network for multiple scenes. If the recognition result is got by speech recognition module, dialogue management module will send corresponding texts to speech synthesis module, enabling text-to-speech output. At the same time, intelligent space decision support system will send corresponding commands to equipments by ZigBee. From lots of experiments and practical applications, we can conclude that voice interaction systems designed in the paper can gracefully satisfy the current request of voice interaction in service robots intelligent space, having great application value.

Intelligent Web-based education system for adaptive learning

This paper depicts a set of integrated tools to build an intelligent Web-based education system. Our purpose is to create a Web learning environment that can be tailored to the Learners’ needs. The Web learning environment is composed of Authoring Tool, Evaluation System, Interactive Voice System and a Virtual Laboratory for programming in Java. All tools use Web Services and have the characteristics of powerful adaptability for the management, authoring, delivery and monitoring of learning content. Part of the decision-making inside the intelligent Web-based education system was made with a multi-agent system.

Voice interaction system model based on semantic search

In this paper the speech recognition based on semantic search was discussed,and the difference between text search and semantic search was introduced.The distributed speech recognition model was constructed.The ontology of speech recognition based on semantic search was established.This research shows that speech recognition based on semantic search is of great theoretical value and practical application.

Method and system for operating interactive voice response systems tandem

First and second voice interactive response systems operate in tandem. The first voice response system receives a call from a caller and interacts with the caller to provide information to the caller and/or obtain information from the caller. To make additional media services (e.g., automatic speech recognition or text-to-speech conversion) available for the interaction with the caller, the first voice response system extends the call to a second voice response system that is able to provide the additional media services.

Daily Events and Mood State Among Individuals Living With HIV: Examination of the Within-Persons Approach to Data Collection Using Daily Diary Methodology

Studies examining the link between stressful events and coping with HIV have relied on a between-persons approach focusing on how individuals differ on some characteristics. Although the between-subjects approach has yielded important information, our goal was to use a within-persons approach, making repeated measurements of the same persons over many days, to examine the impact of changing circumstances on the mood states of those with HIV. A second goal was to determine if asking participants to report their daily experiences via a computerized interactive voice system is a viable way to collect such information. This study collected a variety of trait measures for seven HIV patients and subsequently used a computerized telephone system to collect information regarding daily events and mood states over 21 consecutive days. Several daily measures, including self-esteem, optimism, and positive social interactions were significantly related to daily mood states. Trait measures, with the exception of symptom distress, were ineffective in predicting variations in daily mood states. It was concluded that a computerized telephone system is a viable means of collecting information from HIV patients on a daily basis and within-persons methodology may provide useful information about daily events affecting mood states beyond that generated by a between-persons approach.

Voice based web services – An assistive technology for visually impaired persons

This article reviews a voice interactive system design utilizing VoiceXML technology. Voice based web services can be used as an alternative to other existing forms of assistive technology for use by visually impaired or blind persons, as well as other people having a disability. For example, they can access news from a variety of local, regional or national newspapers and the only equipment necessary is a touch-tone telephone with no requisite knowledge of personal computers or specialized software required. VoiceXML standard is a tag based scripting language based on Extended Mark up Language (XML) and is used to design voice interactive information access systems supported by natural language and text to speech processing tools for interpretation and transcribing information. The voice based services are designed and hosted in a web server using server side technologies that generate VoiceXML scripts for the information to be delivered, while the VoiceXML interpreter platforms renders this information at a certain cost from anywhere by dialing a toll free telephone number.

A Bilingual Computerized Voice-Interactive System for Screening Depression Symptoms

ABSTRACT The Voice-Interactive Depression Assessment Sys-tem-III (VIDAS-III) is a bilingual computerized speech recognition application for screening depression. In this study, 128 English- and 128 Spanish-speakers completed a demographic interview, an acculturation scale, the BDI-II, the CIDI-Short Form, and VIDAS-III. The results suggested that VIDAS-III subscales (CES-D and DSM-IV criteria) demonstrated high inter-item reliability (.81 to .92), strong concurrent validity (.58 to .67), sensitivity (.72 to 1.0), and specificity (.40 to .72). Both language groups positively rated VIDAS-III. Male and female participants most often selected a digitized female voice to present VIDAS-III. The findings suggest that speech computerized interviewing can accurately detect depressive symptoms in English and Spanish.

An Application of Reinforcement Learning to Dialogue Strategy Selection in a Spoken Dialogue System for Email

This paper describes a novel method by which a spoken dialogue system can learn to choose an optimal dialogue strategy from its experience interacting with human users. The method is based on a combination of reinforcement learning and performance modeling of spoken dialogue systems. The reinforcement learning component applies Q-learning (Watkins, 1989), while the performance modeling component applies the PARADISE evaluation framework (Walker et al., 1997) to learn the performance function (reward) used in reinforcement learning. We illustrate the method with a spoken dialogue system named ELVIS (EmaiL Voice Interactive System), that supports access to email over the phone. We conduct a set of experiments for training an optimal dialogue strategy on a corpus of 219 dialogues in which human users interact with ELVIS over the phone. We then test that strategy on a corpus of 18 dialogues. We show that ELVIS can learn to optimize its strategy selection for agent initiative, for reading messages, and for summarizing email folders.

Automatic scoring of pronunciation quality

We present a paradigm for the automatic assessment of pronunciation quality by machine. In this scoring paradigm, both native and nonnative speech data is collected and a database of human-expert ratings is created to enable the development of a variety of machine scores. We first discuss issues related to the design of speech databases and the reliability of human ratings. We then address pronunciation evaluation as a prediction problem, trying to predict the grade a human expert would assign to a particular skill. Using the speech and the expert-ratings databases, we build statistical models and introduce different machine scores that can be used as predictor variables. We validate these machine scores on the Voice Interactive Language Training System (VILTS) corpus, evaluating the pronunciation of American speakers speaking French and we show that certain machine scores, like the log-posterior and the normalized duration, achieve a correlation with the targeted human grades that is comparable to the human-to-human correlation when a sufficient amount of speech data is available.

Speech recognition and synthesis technology development at NTT for telecommunications services

This paper describes recent developments at NTT in the areas of speech recognition, speech synthesis, and interactive voice systems as they relate to telecommunications applications. Speaker-independent largevocabulary speech recognition based on context-dependent phone models and LR parser, and high-quality text-to-speech (TTS) conversion using the waveform concatenation method, both realized as software, have enabled interactive voice systems for fast and easy prototyping of telephone-based applications. Practical applications are discussed with examples.

Finding a Subset of Stimulus-Response Pairs with Minimum Total Confusion: A Binary Integer Programming Approach

Confusion matrices are a convenient and widely accepted means of tabulating results from experiments in which subjects choose responses to various stimuli. This paper is relevant to studies in which the recognition and confusability characteristics of a large set of possible stimuli are tested in order to select the smaller subset of stimuli that will eventually be presented to the user (e.g., selecting sculpted pushbuttons or command words for voice-interactive systems). Rather than applying cluster analyses, this paper demonstrates how to formulate optimization models from the information contained in a confusion matrix. Four binary integer programming models are proposed that when solved, yield the subset of stimuli exhibiting minimum total confusion. The models are solvable using widely available software on a microcomputer. A sizable example from the literature is solved and discussed, and directions for algorithmic research are recommended.

A high confidence voice interactive hybrid neural system for learning: [formula omitted], Department of Special Education and Habilitative Service, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA 70148 U.S.A. [formula omitted] Technology International Incorporated, P.O. Box 1749, LaPlace, LA 70069-1749, U.S.A.

A high confidence voice interactive hybrid neural system for learning: [formula omitted], Department of Special Education and Habilitative Service, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA 70148 U.S.A. [formula omitted] Technology International Incorporated, P.O. Box 1749, LaPlace, LA 70069-1749, U.S.A.

Natural language with discrete speech as a mode for human-to-machine

A voice interactive natural language system, which allows users to solve problems with spoken English commands, has been constructed. The system utilizes a commercially available discrete speech recognizer which requires that each word be followed by approximately a 300 millisecond pause. In a test of the system, subjects were able to learn its use after about two hours of training. The system correctly processed about 77 percent of the over 6000 input sentences spoken in problem-solving sessions. Subjects spoke at the rate of about three sentences per minute and were able to effectively use the system to complete the given tasks. Subjects found the system relatively easy to learn and use, and gave a generally positive report of their experience.

A system for the assessment of human performance in concurrent verbal and manual control tasks

A multipurpose laboratory system incorporating a voice interactive terminal and graphic display system is described. The facility is designed to investigate some aspects of human performance on concurrent verbal and tracking tasks. The results of a pilot study showing decrements in dual-task performance are reported.