A Natural Language Interface for Computer-Aided Design

✍ Scribed by Tariq Samad (auth.)

• Publisher: Springer US
• Year: 1986
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 195
• Series: The Kluwer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science 14
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The advent of computer aided design and the proliferation of computer aided design tools have been instrumental in furthering the state-of-the­ art in integrated circuitry. Continuing this progress, however, demands an emphasis on creating user-friendly environments that facilitate the interaction between the designer and the CAD tool. The realization of this fact has prompted investigations into the appropriateness for CAD of a number of user-interface technologies. One type of interface that has hitherto not been considered is the natural language interface. It is our contention that natural language interfaces could solve many of the problems posed by the increasing number and sophistication of CAD tools. This thesis represents the first step in a research effort directed towards the eventual development of a natural language interface for the domain of computer aided design. The breadth and complexity of the CAD domain renders the task of developing a natural language interface for the complete domain beyond the scope of a single doctoral thesis. Hence, we have initally focussed on a sub-domain of CAD. Specifically, we have developed a natural language interface, named Cleopatra, for circuit-simulation post-processing. In other words, with Cleopatra a circuit-designer can extract and manipulate, in English, values from the output of a circuit-simulator (currently SPICE) without manually having to go through the output files produced by the simulator.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xii
Introduction....Pages 1-11
Previous Approaches....Pages 13-22
A New Approach....Pages 23-38
The Parsing Process....Pages 39-63
Filling the Blanks....Pages 65-91
Some Detailed Examples....Pages 93-116
Semantic Interpretation....Pages 117-126
Issues for Further Research....Pages 127-138
Conclusion, and Afterthoughts....Pages 139-145
Back Matter....Pages 147-188

✦ Subjects

Artificial Intelligence (incl. Robotics); Computer-Aided Engineering (CAD, CAE) and Design