Spoken Language Technology: Where Do We Go From Here?
Roger K. Moore
20#2F20 Speech Ltd
Malvern, UK
Recent years have seen dramatic developments in the capabilities and applications of spo-
ken  technology. From a few niche applications for a range of expensive solutions,
the #0Celd has developed to the point where keenly-priced products have swept the awards at
consumer electronics shows. Speech recognisers has reached the high-street store, and a signif-
icant proportion of the developed world's population has now been exposed to the possibility
of controlling one's computer, or creating a document, byvoice.
This apparent progress in spoken  technology has been fuelled byanumber of de-
velopments: the relentless increase in desktop computing power, the introduction of statistical
modelling techniques, the availability of vast quantities of recorded speech material, and the
institution of public system evaluations.
However, our understanding of the fundamental patterning in speech has progressed at a
much slower pace, not least in the area of its high-level linguistic properties. Spoken 
understanding continues to be an elusive goal, and the prosodic linkage between acoustic and
linguistic patterning is still something of a mystery.
This talk will illuminate these issues, and will conclude with an analysis of the options for
future spoken  R&D.
