MAS.632 Conversational Computer Systems - MIT OpenCourseWare

270 VOICE COMMUNICATION WITH COMPUTERS
puter resource. The delay in proliferation of voice applications is exacerbated by
the lack of integration between new voice-capable software and existing applications.
If each speech application uses its own distinct user interface, it is harder
still on the user to access multiple applications. The absence of a single "killer"
desktop voice application does not mean speech will not be useful but it does suggest
that it is essential to consider how speech applications will work with each
other, how voice will enhance existing workstation applications, and what unique
new capabilities voice will enable.
To succeed voice must offer supplemental value to the existing productivity
tools on workstations rather than replace those tools. Users have not been willing
to give up functionality or applications that they are already using for the sake of
adding voice; voice capability must instead augment these applications as well as
introduce additional new ways in which to use the computer. Augmenting instead
of replacing functionality can be accomplished by maintaining compatibility with
current text-based databases and applications wherever possible. For example,
the multimedia mail system developed as part of Carnegie Mellon University's
Andrew project [Morris et al. 1986] added the ability to include nontextual enclosures
such as animations within Email messages. Users of a non-Andrew system
could view the text portion of the message simply as conventional email without
the animation, enabling Andrew users to continue to exchange messages with the
non-Andrew Email users. But Andrew multimedia messaging never caught on in
the larger non-Andrew world because it was so tightly embedded with the rest of
the Andrew environment and hence not very portable. Recently, the MIME message
format [Rose 1993] has been proposed for use in the Internet community to
allow a broader exchange of multimedia messages in a heterogeneous operating
environment. MIME is based on the desire to make multimedia capabilities available
across the Internet without any modification of mail transport protocols or
software and includes software to add minimal multimedia support to many mail
reader programs across many operating systems. Rather than the all-or-nothing
approach of Andrew (and similar multimedia mail systems), MIME attempts to
add new media ability while minimizing disruption to traditional text-based
mail. Desktop voice applications must do the same.
But even if voice can be added to the desktop with minimal disruption, what
new capabilities will it provide? Chapter 4 already discussed the expressive richness
ofvoice and its useful role as a document type in and ofitself. With an appropriate
graphical representation, voice can be mixed with media such as text and
image as well and even moved between applications. Ordinary office conversations
and meetings can be recorded for future use allowing this important record
of decision-making activity to be archived and shared. Perhaps most powerful,
speech user interfaces will allow computers to be accessed in new, nontraditional
work environments.
Integrating telephone access with a unified voice application environment can
result in a synergistic increase in the utility and need of voice as data. Speech
synthesis can translate text into voice, enabling access to many text databases
over voice telephone connections. This functionality will prove most valuable for
retrieving timely personal information while traveling or working away from the