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Beyond the GUI: It’s Time for a Conversational User Interface

Posted by Hugh on February 23, 2014 in Annotated, References, Trends in eLearning |

Kaplan, R. (2013). Beyond the GUI: It’s Time for a Conversational User Interface. WIRED.

 

In this article the author highlights how the Graphical User Interface (GUI) revolutionised personal computing. However it has become so complex trying to display too much information, this coupled with smaller screen sizes of mobile devices is causing serious problems. It is time for the Conversational User Interface (CUI) i.e. for users to converse with their devices to get the result they seek.

These devices will not just react to direct commands but will have artificial intelligence supplied by contextual awareness and perceptive listening.  With contextual awareness the device will not only know what words we are speaking but judge what other words are used in conjunction with each other. Perceptive listening will always be listening for our specific voice patterns and awaken when it hears them, probably with a command word.

The writers of Star trek – ‘The Next Generation’ use a CUI for interaction between the human crew and the computer. When Captain Picard requires a hot beverage he orders tea – earl grey – hot, however the CUI of the future will know that if a he said tea please the machine would know he likes earl grey hot.

The first generation of assistants are in common use but only react in a pre-programmed manner to prompts and do not think for themselves. Aquino (2012) and Bajarin (2014) articles go into some detail about different applications and how they will not only respond but think for themselves.

I believe that we are a long way off CUI as there are many language problems to overcome. Not only is English dependant on the country you live but also the part of that country, Donegal accents differ greatly from Dublin, Galway, Kerry or Cork accents. Current speech recognition device require a lot of training, where the user sits down for at least an hour to train the device to their specific voice. This would not be practical on a large commercial basis unless they store individuals’ speech patterns as part of a biometric database, but that is a whole new dimension.

 

Bibliography

Aquino, J. (2012). Virtual Assistants Enter the Enterprise. Information Today Inc, 16, 30-33.

Bajarin, B. (2014). Tech Finds Its Voice: The Future of Virtual Assistants. Time.com.

 

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