Speech Recognition & Synthesis in Science Fiction
Last month everyone and their brother blogged about Michael Schmitz's article on Human Computer Interaction in Science Fiction Movies. However, this blog wasn't up and running then, and I feel I should include it for completeness.
Regarding speech interfaces, especially in Star Trek, Schmitz writes, "In almost all movies the speech interface is conversational and intuitive, the difficulties especially of speech recognition and evaluation are never considered." No kidding! This is a big reason why I'm motivated to work on this project -- Why the hell hasn't it been invented already? It looked so easy on the big screen when I was a kid!
I've been going back and rewatching some of the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes (a guilty geeky pleasure), and although the interaction there was definitely conversational, it was very rigid and formal, like most Star Trek speech. Terms like "standby," "hold execution," and "resume program" were the norm. These terms are standard sci-fi/Star Trek jargon and do not feel out of place on screen. However, I'm pondering the affect of this formal, terse jargon in a real-life speech interface. Would it make for a more natural discussion with a computer? It certainly makes the computer's job easier.
For example, I might say to my friend, "Hey, dude, what's goin' on?" But to the computer, I would say, "Status?" Terse, efficient... yet cold and rigid. However, I suggest keeping this seperation of common speech versus command speech is useful. It's my opinion that a speech interface should not be someone's "friend" or "companion," but a guide, a tool, an assistant. Using a secondary, more formal, mode of speech might reinforce this implicit seperation of "friend" versus "computer."