Usability of Continuous Speech Recognition Programs

1. Usability of ContinuousSpeech Recognition Programs Hsin Eu Committee: Alan Hedge, Ph.D. Geri Gay, Ph.D. Design and Environmental Analysis Cornell University

2. Overview Continuous speech recognition programs were brought to market at the end of 1997, with claims that they were capable of recognizing users’ continuous speech and translating this into text processing software accurately.

3. Research Goal The research goal was to determine the critical factors that affect the usability of speech recognition programs in order to generate universal guidelines for the future design of continuous speech recognition software.

4. Literature Review 1. Speech Recognition Technology • Terminology • History of Speech Recognition • Components of Speech Recognition Factors Influence the Performance of Speech Recognition

5. Literature Review (Cont.) 2. Using Speech Recognition • Strengths and Limitations • Applications of Speech Recognition

6. Literature Review (Cont.) 3. CurrentSpeech Recognition Software • Setup, Training, and Dictation • Features of Current Speech Recognition Programs Product Performance

7. Literature Review (Cont.) 4. Human Computer Interaction in Speech Recognition • The Interaction between Users and Recognition Programs • Program and Human Errors • User Characteristics and Task Performance

8. Literature Review (Cont.) Human Computer Interaction in Speech Recognition(cont.) • Guidelines for the Interface Design (excerpted from McLeod, 1988) - Procedures for developing and implementing an application to meet the needs of the users, including vocabulary design, feedback and error recovery strategies and training techniques.

9. Literature Review (Cont.) • Guidelines for the Interface Design (excerpted from McLeod, 1988) -Procedures for identifying and controlling sources of inter- and intra- person variability. -Consideration of the implications of the technology on the organization of working groups. -Techniques for assessing the usability of a recognition system, including overall task performance, physical and mental workload and users subjective responses.

10. Research I: Web Survey

11. Research I: Web Survey (Cont.) I-1. Methods • Subjects: 351 respondents (including 143 CSRP-users)

12. Research I: Web Survey (Cont.) • Survey Instrument Section A: General Computer Use 13 questions/ 45 items, completed by all respondents (approx. 3-5 minutes) Section B: Usability of CSRP 31 questions / 201 items, completed by CSRP-users (approx. 15-20 minutes) • Procedure

13. Research I: Web Survey (Cont.) I-2. Results and Discussion on Findings • General Computer Use

14. Research I: Web Survey (Cont.) • General Computer Use (Cont.)

15. Research I: Web Survey (Cont.)

16. Research I: Web Survey (Cont.) • Usability of CSRP

17. Research I: Web Survey (Cont.) • Usability of CSRP

18. Research I: Web Survey (Cont.) • Usability of CSRP(Cont.)

19. Research I: Web Survey (Cont.) • Usability of CSRP(Cont.)

20. Research I: Web Survey (Cont.) • Usability of CSRP(Cont.)

21. Research I: Web Survey (Cont.) • Usability of CSRP(Cont.)

22. Research I: Web Survey (Cont.) • Usability of CSRP(Cont.)

23. Research I: Web Survey (Cont.) • Usability of CSRP(Cont.)

24. Research I: Web Survey (Cont.) • Usability of CSRP(Cont.)

25. Research I: Web Survey (Cont.) I-3. Discussion • Limitations - Survey distribution - Survey length - Survey format - Qualitative information • Future Research

26. Research II: Usability Testing II-1. Methods • Subjects: 10 Cornell students - 5 females and 5 males - 8 CSRP-novices and 2 CSRP-users - Age ranged 21-30 • Setting and Instruments - MVR computer lab - Dell Pentium II MMX PC/ Windows 98 - Dragon NaturallySpeaking Preferred 3.0

27. Research II:Usability Testing(Cont.) II-1. Methods (cont.) • Procedure - Setup and training

28. Research II:Usability Testing(Cont.) • Procedure (cont.) - Research design

29. Research II:Usability Testing(Cont.) - Research design (cont.)

30. Research II:Usability Testing(Cont.) II-1. Methods (cont.) • Procedure (cont.) - Dependent variables 1. Transcription time 2. Number of transcription errors 3. Editing time 4. Total completion time

31. Research II:Usability Testing(Cont.) II-2. Results and Discussion on Findings • Modality of Transcription • Gender

32. Research II:Usability Testing(Cont.) II-2. Results and Discussion on Findings (cont.) • Modality of Editing

33. Research II:Usability Testing(Cont.) II-2. Results and Discussion on Findings (cont.) • Modality of Editing (cont.)

34. Research II:Usability Testing(Cont.) II-2. Results and Discussion on Findings (cont.) • Experience on CSRP/DNS

35. Research II:Usability Testing(Cont.) II-2. Results and Discussion on Findings (cont.) • Experience on CSRP/DNS (cont.)

36. Research II:Usability Testing(Cont.) II-2. Results and Discussion on Findings (cont.) • Readability of Articles

37. Research II:Usability Testing(Cont.) II-3. Discussion • Compare Findings to Previous Research

38. Research II:Usability Testing(Cont.) II-3. Discussion (cont.) • Limitations - Sample size - CSRP-users - Testing time - Human performance v.s. program performance - Article readability • Future Research

39. Conclusion Critical Factors that affect CSRP usability - Program accuracy - Program reliability - Requirement of user-dependent training - Requirement of memorization - Ease of error correction - Ability to learn from mistakes - Accommodation for people with disabilities - Hardware compatibility - Environmental noise level

40. Conclusion (Cont.) Guidelines for Future Design A continuous speech recognition program should - have high program accuracy - have high program reliability - eliminate the requirement of user-dependent training - reduce the requirement of memorization - maximize the ease of error correction - have the ability to learn from mistakes - accommodate the needs of people with disabilities - provide a wide range of hardware compatibility - minimize the sensitivity to environmental noise