Trends and Predictions in Speech Research Patti Price PPRICE Speech and Language Technology

Who Am I? Background in both linguistics and engineering Speech synthesis, perception, and recognition (MIT, BBN, SRI) Director, Speech Technology and Research Lab, SRI Managed spin off of Nuance Communications Also started BravoBrava! and Soliloquy Learning Now a consultant, specializing in speech in educational applications

Will continuing research in basic speech technology create breakthroughs, or will improvements come largely through incremental improvements?- Patti Price i n c r e m e n t a l BREAKTHROUGH Things evolve quickly with plenty of resources and competition Outside forces & chance determine a mutations pay off There are important asymmetries - Small entities can double more easily than can large ones - Things take more time to evolve than to disappear - Starting from scratch becomes progressively more daunting Things that serve one purpose can be reused for another But we have brains! - We have some control over resources - We can collaborate, and borrow from others (IT helps!) - We can build legs rather than evolving them - …Incremental, until -The asteroid hits

Will continuing research in basic speech technology create breakthroughs, or will improvements come largely through incremental improvements?- Patti Price i n c r e m e n t a l BREAKTHROUGH Things evolve quickly with plenty of resources and competition Outside forces & chance determine a mutations pay off There are important asymmetries - Small entities can double more easily than can large ones - Things take more time to evolve than to disappear - Starting from scratch becomes progressively more daunting Things that serve one purpose can be reused for another But we have brains! - We have some control over resources - We can build legs rather than evolving them