Continuous Understanding

当前的口语理解系统以分层的方式操作，其中在将假设传递到下一级别(例如，解析)之前，完全在一个级别(例如，语音识别)处理话语。这种分层组织在开发健壮的高度交互的口语系统方面产生了重大问题，因为来自对话上下文的期望和反馈没有被较低级别的语言处理使用。我们与SRI国际公司合作，正在开发一种新的持续理解架构，在该架构中，所有级别的处理同时进行，在整个系统中共享信息，从而能够随着话语的进展逐字逐句地理解。这种新的架构应该有三个主要优点：(1)它应该提高实时口语理解的准确性和效率；(2)它应该更好地支持自发语音的处理；(3)它应该能够实现更有效的口语界面，能够以自由形式、自然的方式与用户交互。SRI小组专注于语音识别和韵律分析。该项目将对该领域产生重大影响，并为语言理解系统引入一种新的范式，这可能导致稳健性和准确性方面的重大飞跃，并产生新一代高度互动的人机界面。在更广泛的范围内，随着计算机成为我们社会结构中越来越普遍的一部分，我们的生活变得越来越复杂。如果成功，该项目将有助于创造更友好、更易于使用的计算机界面。

Current spoken language understanding systems operate in a layered fashion, where utterances are processed entirely at one level (e.g., speech recognition) before hypotheses are passed to the next level (e.g., parsing). Such a layered organization creates significant problems in developing robust highly-interactive spoken language systems because expectations and feedback that arise from the context of the dialogue are not used by the lower levels of language processing. In collaboration with SRI international, we are developing a new architecture for continuous understanding, in which all levels of processing operate concurrently, sharing information throughout the system, enabling understanding on a word-by-word basis as the utterance progresses. This new architecture should have three main advantages: (1) it should improve the accuracy and efficiency of real-time spoken language understanding; (2) it should better support the processing of spontaneous speech; and (3) it should enable more effective spoken language interfaces that could interact with the user in a free-form, natural manner. The SRI group is focusing on speech recognition and analysis of prosody. This project will have a large impact on the field, and introduce a new paradigm for language understanding systems that could lead to significant leaps in robustness and accuracy, and produce a new generation of highly interactive human-computer interfaces. On a more general scale, as computers become an ever more pervasive part of the fabric of our society, our lives become increasingly more complex. If successful, this project would contribute towards creating much more human-friendly, easy to use, computer interfaces.