Talking and writing—how natural in human–machine interaction?

✍ Scribed by JAN NOYES

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 253 KB
• Volume: 55
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1071-5819
• DOI: 10.1006/ijhc.2001.0485

✦ Synopsis

Talking and writing are activities that most humans learn at a relatively early age and carry out fairly e!ortlessly for the rest of their lives. It is therefore of little surprise that these activities have been considered within the context of human}machine interaction, i.e. the development of a means by which we can elicit machine actions to complete tasks through talking and writing. Given the ease and readiness with which we talk and write to each other, and the rapidly increasing use of computer technology in the developed world, it could be argued that the development of speech and pen technologies comprises a logical and worthwhile progression in HCI (human}computer interaction). It could also be argued, as many individuals have, that the naturalness of these activities in human-to-human communication makes them an obvious choice for machine interactions. The question being considered here is the extent to which speech and pen input provide a natural means of communicating with machines. No one would dispute their naturalness in human-to-human communication, but does this extend to human}machine interaction? Moreover, does the fact that we are so skilled at these activities actually work against us when we come to try these emerging technologies? And "nally, how can future research lead towards achieving greater naturalness?

2001 Academic Press