Spoken dialogue system performance can vary widely for different users, as well for the same user during different dialogues. This paper presents the design and evaluation of an adaptive version of TOOT, a spoken dialogue system for retrieving online train schedules. Adaptive TOOT predicts whether a user is having speech recognition problems as a particular dialogue progresses, and automatically adapts its dialogue strategies based on its predictions. An empirical evaluation of the system demonstrates the utility of the approach. Introduction Most spoken dialogue systems do not try to improve performance by dynamically adapting the system's dialogue behaviors to an individual user during the course of a particular dialogue. But the performance of a spoken dialogue system can vary significantly for different users and even for the same user across dialogues. This paper presents the design and experimental evaluation of a spoken dialogue system that predicts and responds to pr...

We present an implemented concept-to-speech (CTS) systh tl/at offers original proposals for certain couplings-of dialogue computation with prosedie computation. Specifically, the semantic interpretation, task modeling and dialogue strategy n,odules in a working spoken dialogue system are used to generate prmodic features to better convey the meaning of system replies. The new GTS system embodies and extends theoretical work on intona- tional meaning in a more general, robust and rigorous way than earlier approaches, by reflecting compositional aspects of both dialogue and intonation intereprctation in an original computational framework for prosedie generation.

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Using natural language in addition to graphical user interfaces is often used as an argument for a better interaction. However, just adding spoken language might not lead to a better interaction. In this article we will look deeper into how the spoken language should be used in a co-operative multimodal interface. Based on empirical investigations, we have noticed that for multimodal information systems efficiency is especially important. Our results indicate that efficiency can be divided into functional and linguistic efficiency. Functional efficiency has a tight relation to solving the task fast. Linguistic efficiency concerns how to make the contributions meaningful and appropriate in the context. For linguistic efficiency user's perception of firstpersonness [1] is important, as well as giving users support for understanding the interface, and to adapt the responses to the user. In this article focus is on linguistic efficiency for a multimodal timetable information system. 1

Feedback in a multimodal system has so far not been well researched, but is an important issue. This paper looks at how users’ subjective experience of using multimodal interfaces changes when they are presented with feedback in both the graphical and verbal channel. In three conditions the amount and type of spoken feedback was varied and tested in a multimodal timetable information system using a Wizard-of-Oz method. The Wizard was used to simulate the recognition engine and the spoken output. The users ’ subjective experience of the system was tested using six different qualities: control, cooperation, habitability, ease of use, affection and anxiety. The evaluation of the qualities of interaction showed an “all or nothing” pattern, that user preferred no spoken feedback, or elaborated human-like spoken feedback, that take initiative. Limited redundant spoken feedback was less well perceived.

In this paper, we study how the performance and usability of web dialogue systems could be enhanced by using an appropriate representation of the different types of knowledge involved in communication: general dialogue mechanisms, specific domainrestricted linguistic and conceptual knowledge and information on how well the communication process is doing. We describe the experiments carried out to analyze how to improve this knowledge representation in the web dialogue system we developed.

The area of multimodal interaction is fast growing, and is showing promising results in making the interaction more efficient and robust. These results are mainly based on better recognizers, and studies of how users interact with particular multimodal systems. However, little research has been done on users ’ subjective experience of using multimodal interfaces, which is an important aspect for acceptance of multimodal interfaces. The work presented in this thesis focuses on how users experience multimodal interaction, and what qualities are important for the interaction. Traditional user interfaces and speech and multimodal interfaces are often described as having different interaction character (handlingskaraktär). Traditional user interfaces are often seen as tools, while speech and multimodal interfaces are often described as dialogue partners. Researchers have ascribed different qualities as important for the