LET'S GO: Improved Speech Interfaces For The General Public

本项目调查老年人和非英语母语者的口语系统。现有的系统是为普通用户构建的，因此对这些非传统人群的表现很差。目前，老年人很少有机会接触计算机化的信息，但他们有电话，如果信息是以他们容易理解的方式提供的，他们就可以很容易地接触计算机。 非母语人士很难被同样的对话系统理解，这需要适应他们的讲话，并帮助他们找到正确的方式来表达自己。 为了提高口语输出的可理解性，Let's Go将调查词汇，韵律和频谱内容的差异，以使老年人和非母语听众更好地理解信息。 为了改善口语输入，该项目将探索为目标人群调整输入语音信号的词汇和声学信息的统计模型。 Let's Go将通过创建一个口语演示程序来评估其调查结果的相关性，该演示程序允许老年人和非本地用户通过电话访问港务局过境巴士信息。

This project investigates spoken language systems for the elderly and non-native speakers of English. Existing systems have been constructed for the average user and thus perform poorly for these nontraditional populations. The elderly have little access at present to computerized information, yet they have telephones that would enable them to access computers easily if the information were presented in a way that they could readily understand. Non-native speakers have difficulty being understood by the same dialogue systems, which need to be adapted to their speech and aid them in finding the correct way to express themselves. In order to improve the understandability of spoken output, Let's Go will investigate differences in lexical, prosodic and spectral content to enable elderly and non-native listeners to better understand the message. In order to improve spoken input, the project will explore adaptation of the statistical models of the lexical and acoustic information of the incoming speech signal for the target populations. Let's Go will assess the pertinence of its findings by creating a spoken language demonstrator that allows elderly and non-native users to access Port Authority Transit Bus information over the telephone.