02 October 2002

Is it stupid to be clever?: when grammars create voice interface problems [paid subscription reqd] Dr. Walter Rolandi on grammars creating as many interface problems as they solve. Why shouldn’t users be allowed to express themselves in highly variable ways? So what if you can’t anticipate every possible user utterance, won’t you still be right 90+ percent of the time? Ironically, a big problem results from getting it “right 90+ percent of the time”. When an application appropriately responds to many ways of saying, in effect, the same thing, it is reinforcing the user for saying the same thing differently. This has the effect of encouraging the user to experiment with novel ways of saying things, which, invariably, will eventually lead to out-of-grammar errors. The situation becomes more problematic because when the application does get it right, it is fostering an unrealistic expectation on the part of the user. In effect, it is telling the user, “Feel free to say anything you like. I will understand you.” At this point, the application no longer has a speech recognition problem. It has an artificial intelligence problem. JM reminds us that he makes no mention of open grammars, which might help with some of the examples provided, but there's no doubting the conclusion: "Instead of being clever with grammars and setting unrealistic user expectations, it may be much smarter to create designs that implicitly remind the user of the reliable capabilities of existing technologies." [via Speechtek mag] 11:16:32 PM     comments

3% of UK will work in call centres by 2007 Centres with 10-30 Agent positions are the fastest growing segment, and 3% means 470,000 APs. HLT Central's comment is Not-if-speech-technology-can-help, but speechrec will help many CCs automate low-value calls - allowing APs to focus on high-value, rather than necessarily removing bodies from seats. 1:35:42 AM     comments

Vodafone whacks 90 and Vizzavi brand As expected, the Vizz name is to be quietly replaced by "Vodafone Live!". 1:30:13 AM     comments

Doom game needs all your Nokia 7650 memory Users will have to remove all the other games they have installed, and make sure their e-mail folder doesn't get too large: good way to guarantee the game fails. However planned release of Nokias with memory cards may fix. 1:24:59 AM     comments