Natural language processing (NLP) technology is becoming widely recognized as a key component of conversation- al systems. More speech and multimodal applications are using NLP. NLP resources are becoming increasingly avail- able through web services. Online NLP services can supply natural language capabilities to a range of mashups for both speech and text-based applications. This session introduc- es participants to the possibilities for using NLP in their own applications. Following a brief overview, most of the session focuses on interacting with online NLP APIs that perform tasks such as classification, part-of-speech tagging, parsing, and named entity recognition. Attendees can try their hand at supplying their own training data for a simple statistical NLP classifier. For details, seeconversational-technologies.com/SpeechTEKUniversity.html.

Designed for attendees new to the speech technology arena, this tutorial overviews the speech technologies, user interface design principles, and the markets for this fast-evolving industry. It highlights the key speech technologies, including automatic speech recognition (ASR), text-to-speech synthesis, voice biometrics, and dialogue management. Learn how these technologies are used to develop interactive voice response systems; voice-enabled personal assistants; voice-enabled mobile applications; assistive applications; and voice applications for use in the car, TV, and other devices/appliances. Learn about the process of developing speech applications, principles, best practices, and the integration of speech with GUI and other UI modalities. Understand the key players in the speech technology ecosystem.

In this hands-on workshop, the presenters discuss their experiences with channel hopping issues based on live customer data. Attendees experiment with various design strategies to make them more usable and seamless. In the first part of the session, attendees experience live omnichannel prototypes that illustrate omnichannel design strategies. Using these live experiences, we can parse through usability questions such as these that are hard to discern in a void: Are proactive IVR prompts that reference online behavior creepy? How should online behavior influence the IVR experience? The latter half of the session is a guided forum based on the experiences gleaned from the prototypes. Attendees can discuss and voice their reactions and views on how to best design omnichannel solutions from a user-centered point of view.