Publisher Description

As spoken natural language dialog systems technology continues to make great strides, numerous issues regarding dialog processing still need to be resolved. This book presents an exciting new dialog processing architecture that allows for a number of behaviors required for effective human-machine interactions, including: problem-solving to help the user carry out a task, coherent subdialog movement during the problem-solving process, user model usage, expectationusage for contextual interpretation and error correction, and variable initiative behavior for interacting with users of differing expertise. The book also details how different dialog problems inprocessing can be handled simultaneously, and provides instructions and in-depth result from pertinent experiments. Researchers and professionals in natural language systems will find this important new book an invaluable addition to their libraries.

Table of Contents

1: Achieving Spoken Communication with Computers2: Foundational Work in Integrated Dialog Processing3: Dialog Processing Theory4: Computational Model5: Parsing6: System Implementation7: Experimental Results8: Performance of the Speech Recognizer and Parser9: Enhanced Dialog Processing: Verifying Doubtful Inputs10: Extending the State of the ArtAppendix A: The Goal and Action Description LanguageAppendix B: User's Guide for the Interruptible Prolog SIMulator (IPSIM)Appendix C: Obtaining the System Software Via the Anonymous FTP

Review

"The system described in the book is impressive as one of a small number of complete and working spoken natural language dialogue systems that have been developed . . . . Many of the techniques in the book are interesting and well thought out, and should prompt useful discussion and further work. I would therefore recommend it to those working in computational linguistics who are concerned with practical issues, as a book to be read seriously but critically."--The Computer Journal"It is nice to see these ideas put together and made to work for the teaching task."--User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction"The book is well organized, with useful figures and appendices, a good index and comprehensive references. ... The book offers a wonderful model for the presentation of a complex AI project." -- Computing Reviews"The system described in the book is impressive as one of a small number of complete and working spoken natural language dialogue systems that have been developed . . . . Many of the techniques in the book are interesting and well thought out, and should prompt useful discussion and further work. I would therefore recommend it to those working in computational linguistics who are concerned with practical issues, as a book to be read seriously but critically."--The Computer Journal"It is nice to see these ideas put together and made to work for the teaching task."--User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction"The book is well organized, with useful figures and appendices, a good index and comprehensive references. ... The book offers a wonderful model for the presentation of a complex AI project." -- Computing Reviews

Long Description

As spoken natural language dialog systems technology continues to make great strides, numerous issues regarding dialog processing still need to be resolved. This book presents an exciting new dialog processing architecture that allows for a number of behaviors required for effective human-machine interactions, including: problem-solving to help the user carry out a task, coherent subdialog movement during the problem-solving process, user model usage, expectation
usage for contextual interpretation and error correction, and variable initiative behavior for interacting with users of differing expertise. The book also details how different dialog problems in processing can be handled simultaneously, and provides instructions and in-depth result from pertinent
experiments. Researchers and professionals in natural language systems will find this important new book an invaluable addition to their libraries.

Review Text

"The system described in the book is impressive as one of a small number of complete and working spoken natural language dialogue systems that have been developed . . . . Many of the techniques in the book are interesting and well thought out, and should prompt useful discussion and further work. I would therefore recommend it to those working in computational linguistics who are concerned with practical issues, as a book to be read seriously but critically."
--The Computer Journal
"It is nice to see these ideas put together and made to work for the teaching task."--User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction
"The book is well organized, with useful figures and appendices, a good index and comprehensive references. ... The book offers a wonderful model for the presentation of a complex AI project." -- Computing Reviews
"The system described in the book is impressive as one of a small number of complete and working spoken natural language dialogue systems that have been developed . . . . Many of the techniques in the book are interesting and well thought out, and should prompt useful discussion and further work. I would therefore recommend it to those working in computational linguistics who are concerned with practical issues, as a book to be read seriously but critically."
--The Computer Journal
"It is nice to see these ideas put together and made to work for the teaching task."--User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction
"The book is well organized, with useful figures and appendices, a good index and comprehensive references. ... The book offers a wonderful model for the presentation of a complex AI project." -- Computing Reviews

Review Quote

"The system described in the book is impressive as one of a small number of complete and working spoken natural language dialogue systems that have been developed . . . . Many of the techniques in the book are interesting and well thought out, and should prompt useful discussion and further work. I would therefore recommend it to those working in computational linguistics who are concerned with practical issues, as a book to be read seriously but critically." --The Computer Journal "It is nice to see these ideas put together and made to work for the teaching task."--User Modeling and User-Adapted Interaction "The book is well organized, with useful figures and appendices, a good index and comprehensive references. ... The book offers a wonderful model for the presentation of a complex AI project." --Computing Reviews

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