User feedback requirements with automatic speech recognition

Abstract

The optimal type and amount of secondary feedback for data entry with automatic speech recognition were investigated. Six feedback conditions, varying the information channel for feedback (visual or auditory), the delay prior to feedback, and the amount of feedback history, were compared to a no-feedback control. In addition, the presence of a dialogue requiring users to confirm a word choice when the speech recognizer could not distinguish between two words was studied. The word confirmation dialogue increased recognition accuracy by about 5% with no significant increase in the time to enter data. Type of feedback affected both accuracy and time to enter data. When no feedback was available, data entry time was minimal but there were many errors. Any type of feedback/error correction vastly unproved accuracy, but auditory feedback provided after a string of data was spoken increased the time to enter data by a factor of three. Depending on task conditions, visual or auditory feedback following each word spoken is recommended.

Keywords:

• Automatic speech recognition
• User feedback
• Human-computer interface
• Dialogue design.