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<Paper uid="P00-1003">
  <Title>Spoken Language Technology: Where Do We Go From Here?</Title>
  <Section position="1" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="abstr">
    <SectionTitle>
20#2F20 Speech Ltd
Malvern, UK
</SectionTitle>
    <Paragraph position="0"> Recent years have seen dramatic developments in the capabilities and applications of spoken language technology. From a few niche applications for a range of expensive solutions, the #0Celd has developed to the point where keenly-priced products have swept the awards at consumer electronics shows. Speech recognisers has reached the high-street store, and a significant proportion of the developed world's population has now been exposed to the possibility of controlling one's computer, or creating a document, byvoice.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> This apparent progress in spoken language technology has been fuelled byanumber of developments: the relentless increase in desktop computing power, the introduction of statistical modelling techniques, the availability of vast quantities of recorded speech material, and the institution of public system evaluations.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="2"> However, our understanding of the fundamental patterning in speech has progressed at a much slower pace, not least in the area of its high-level linguistic properties. Spoken language understanding continues to be an elusive goal, and the prosodic linkage between acoustic and linguistic patterning is still something of a mystery.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="3"> This talk will illuminate these issues, and will conclude with an analysis of the options for future spoken language R&amp;D.</Paragraph>
  </Section>
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