THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, March 13, 1995 TAG: 9503110052
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: THE GATEWAY
EXPLORING THE COMPUTER WORLD
SOURCE: BY JAMES SCHULTZ, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 79 lines
CHRISTINE PAO IS fighting a cold, but her amplified voice sounds lucid enough to an average ear. Not so to the computer she's trying to talk with..
Pao prefaces a request for airline travel schedules to Boston with the words ``I would like to see . . . '' Seeming confused, the computer hesitates momentarily, then prints out the words ``San Antonio'' and ``Seattle.'' Several seconds later, though, the computer has all Pao's words right.
So it says so. Out loud. And goes ahead and reserves Pao's ticket.
This exchange played out recently in front of a couple hundred NASA Langley Research Center researchers in Hampton who had come to see the latest in a new field known as human language technology.
Joining Pao for the demo was Massachusetts Institute of Technology colleague Victor Zue, associate director of MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science and head of its Spoken Language Group.
``Speech is economical. You can transmit it cheaply over phone lines,'' Zue said. ``Speech is faster. I can speak at least five times faster than I can type and 10 to 20 times faster than I could ever write.''
In a real-time Internet demonstration using plain English commands rather than input from Pao's keyboard, the pair showed off two MIT programs called PEGASUS and GALAXY.
PEGASUS called an airline computer and made a reservation. GALAXY, prompted by Pao's questions, scored the Internet for accommodations, restaurants and a weather report for Boston.
Although natural language won't send keyboards to spare parts shelves in hobby shops any time soon, Zue believes spoken command systems are inevitable as the Internet balloons in size and scope. To attract large numbers of (presumably paying) customers, the Net will have to be as easy to use as a refrigerator and a telephone.
``We have this fire hose of information that will land on everybody's doorstep,'' he said. ``And yet we have no provision to help people drink.''
The MIT programs make use of subroutines and built-in databases that transform a spoken word or phrase into a symbol that, in turn, is translated into a meaning.
PEGASUS, which has a base vocabulary of 2,500 words, and the 5,000-word GALAXY are two of MIT's latest steps toward truly interactive computing.
Still, said Zue, 49, the sentient, talking computers popularized in the movies won't happen ``within my lifetime.
``Science fiction is where people get their first introductions to computers that can listen and talk,'' he said. ``The space frontier is very high-tech. Unfortunately, moviemakers are years, if not decades ahead of real technology.''
Natural language systems evolve slowly, Zue explained, because of speech's apparent, but misleading, simplicity. Inflection, context, metaphor and psychological states are extremely difficult to reproduce or mimic in software.
As Zue pointed out, conversation usually consists of an escalating series of transactions that build. Both speakers must understand the other for the transaction to be successfully completed.
Zue thinks rudimentary plain-language systems will sprout over the next 10 years in shopping malls and on television. Uses will include travel and consumer information, home shopping and banking, and foreign language training.
The ultimate goal of natural language computing is to provide universal access to information anywhere, anytime.
``It is possible to build things in the near term to greatly improve your productivity and to make your life easier,'' Zue said. ``Human language provides you with flexibility. Wouldn't it be nice to get information just by asking questions?'' MEMO: If you have any ideas or comments for The Gateway, contact Tom Boyer at
boyer(AT)infinet or call 446-2362.
In Hampton Roads, computer users can explore the Internet through the
Pilot Online. The best of the Gateway columns are available on the
Computer Page of the Pilot Online. See page A2 for details.
by CNB