What is a Spoken Dialogue System?

Spoken Dialogue Systems allow people to interact with computers using one of the most natural modalities of all: speech. Researchers have developed Spoken Dialogue Systems for a wide range of applications. Some examples include booking cinema tickets, booking flights, scheduling appointments, monitoring blood pressure, controlling appliances in the home, and reading email over the telephone.

The University of Edinburgh is creating Spoken Dialogue Systems that can be used by as many people as possible – of different ages, with different accents, of differing expertise in computing, and of varying technology about technology.

In their work in the MATCH project, researchers at Edinburgh use simple dialogue systems for scheduling appointments and booking flights to determine how these systems can best be adapted to the needs of all user groups.