Below, we summarize the main points of each and show how the various pieces informed the issues addressed in the other presentations. Users can dial up and request information about the exchange rates of various currencies. The system currently works in English and Cantonese Chinese with plans to expand it to Mandarin Chinese as well. Telephone access is possible through landline and mobile phones using various standards. Reuters is a sponsor of the project and supplies a dedicated satellite feed for it.
Users can choose between two different interactions aimed at novice and expert users.
The directed dialogue option offers stepwise guidance while the natural language interaction allows users to use entire sentences with all the information they want to convey to the system. We were fortunate to hear examples of the interactions between users and the system through audio demonstrations. The system seems to be at quite a developed stage. The presenter confirmed this by citing numbers that show the level of success achieved in the testing phase. The natural language system was achieving 87.6 percent reliability while the directed dialogue version reached a success rate of 93 percent.