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Is Spoken Language All-or-Nothing? Implications for Future Speech-Based Human-Machine Interaction

  • Roger K. MooreEmail author
Chapter
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Part of the Lecture Notes in Electrical Engineering book series (LNEE, volume 427)

Abstract

Recent years have seen significant market penetration for voice-based personal assistants such as Apple’s Siri. However, despite this success, user take-up is frustratingly low. This article argues that there is a habitability gap caused by the inevitable mismatch between the capabilities and expectations of human users and the features and benefits provided by contemporary technology. Suggestions are made as to how such problems might be mitigated, but a more worrisome question emerges: “is spoken language all-or-nothing”? The answer, based on contemporary views on the special nature of (spoken) language, is that there may indeed be a fundamental limit to the interaction that can take place between mismatched interlocutors (such as humans and machines). However, it is concluded that interactions between native and non-native speakers, or between adults and children, or even between humans and dogs, might provide critical inspiration for the design of future speech-based human-machine interaction.

Keywords

Spoken language Habitability gap Human-machine interaction 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the European Commission [grant numbers EU-FP6-507422, EU-FP6-034434, EU-FP7-231868 and EU-FP7-611971], and the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council [grant number EP/I013512/1].

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© Springer Science+Business Media Singapore 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Speech and Hearing Research Group, Department of Computer ScienceUniversity of SheffieldSheffieldUK

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