Composing letters with a simulated listening typewriter

ABSTRACT

Speech recognition is not yet advanced enough to provide people with a reliable listening typewriter with which they could compose documents. The aim of this experiment was to determine if an imperfect listening typewriter would be useful for highly experienced dictators. Participants dictated either in isolated words or in continuous speech, and used a simulated listening typewriter which recognized a limited vocabulary as well as one which recognized an unlimited one. Results suggest that reducing the rate at which people dictate, either through limitations in vocabulary size or through speaking in isolated words, led to reductions in people's performance. For these first-time users, no version of the listening typewriter was better than traditional dictating methods.

REFERENCES

• 1: Gould, J. D., Conti, J., and Hovanyecz, T. Composing letters with a simulated listening typewriter. Proceedings of the Human Factors Society R. C. Sugarman (Ed.) 505-508, 1981.
• 2: Gould, J. D. How Experts Dictate. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1978, 4(4), 648-661.
• 3: Gould, J. D., Conti, J., and Hovanyecz, T. Composing letters with a simulated listening typewriter. IBM Research Report RC-9119, 1981.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
      I.2.7 Natural Language Processing
          Subjects: Speech recognition and synthesis

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.4 INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS
      H.4.1 Office Automation

General Terms:
Theory