Date: Mon, 09 Mar 1998 23:06:38 -0500 From: "E.J.Barnes" Subject: March SIGCHI Meeting Voice Recognition for Consumer Software Presenters: Bennett L. Greenstein, Dan Gruen, Candace L. Sidner, Lotus Development Group Wednesday, March 25, 1998 Refreshments at 6:30 Meeting at 7:00 Lotus Development Corp, One Rogers St., Cambridge, MA Free Open to the public Wheelchair accessible FFI: Ron Perkins, Program Chair, rperkins@shore.net, 978-465-6083 (email preferred) Voice recognition technology is finally reaching the point where developers can consider speech as a viable interaction modality for consumer software. Programs like Dragon's Naturally Speaking, IBM's Via Voice, and Kurzweil's VoicePlus, among others, are affordable packages boasting ever-increasing recognition accuracy. In addition to text dictation, these tools provide control of applications though often on a relatively low level, sometimes limited to speaking combinations of menu commands. They do not yet support the more complex conversations or rich descriptions of user goals people engage in with human assistants. The current interest in speech technology raises a number of important questions for the UI designer: - How does speech add real value as an interaction modality? - Where can speech recognition be more than just a novelty for people who are currently happy using keyboards and mice? (You have to ask? -- ejb ;-)) - What can we learn fromhow people talk and work together to design speech-enabled systems that feel natural and are truly useful? - What do users expect to be able to say to business applications, and how does this differ depending on the specific application? - What user interface changes are necessary to enable speech? - How can speech recognition technology help users who are mobile, disabled, or on the telephone? - How do human assistants help their managers with everyday email and calendar management tasks? We'll shed light on these issues through discussion of current Lotus product efforts around speech, and by describing the Conversant Assistant Research Project we are conducting with the Human Language Technologies research group at IBM. ------------------ Meeting Directions The Lotus building is on the corner of First St. and Rogers St. in Cambridge, a few blocks from the Science Museum. (Note that there is another Lotus builging on Cambridge Parkway next to the Sonesta hotel. Don't go to that one.) The meeting will be held in Auditorium A, on the first floor. If you need detailed directions, contact the editor. PARKING Parking is available in the Lotus garage provided you arrive before 7:00 pm. Drive up to the garage entrance on First St. and tell the guard over the speaker that you are there for the SIGCHI meeting and they will let you park in the Lotus garage. MBTA DIRECTIONS Ride the Green Line to the Lech mere stop. Exit Lechmere Station, walk to the right about 100 feet and turn right to walk through the tunnel. When you exit the tunnel, continue walking straight across through the traffic light and down First Street. Go past the Galleria Shopping Mall on your left and past the traffic lights. The entrance to the Lotus building is on First St. You go under an archway between two sides [i.e. wings] of the building and enter the lobby to the left. [Note: The building entrance that actually leads to Auditorium A is almost all the way across the courtyard, past the day care, on your right. -- ejb] [EJ's Alternative MBTA Directions: [Take the Red Line to Kendall. Cross Main Street, if necessary, and then Broadway. Turn right and walk toward the river; there is an office building on your left that has a parking garage. Turn left when you get your first chance to cross the canal. You will be walking towards the Athenaeum. You want to stay on the left side of whichever street is closest to the river, which about a block after the canal means crossing a grassy traffic island. A couple of blocks up is Rogers St. on your left. Cross Rogers street and proceed under the archway as described above.]