We present a first step towards a model of speech generation for incremental dialogue systems. The model allows a dialogue system to incrementally interpret spoken input, while simultaneously planning, realising and selfmonitoring the system response. The model has been implemented in a general dialogue system framework. Using this framework, we have implemented a specific application and tested it in a Wizard-of-Oz setting, comparing it with a non-incremental version of the same system. The results show that the incremental version, while producing longer utterances, has a shorter response time and is perceived as more efficient by the users.
For instance, REF showed that an incremental generator using filled pauses and self-corrections achieved (in a wizard of Oz experiment) shorter response times and was perceived as more efficient than a non-incremental generator.
Towards Incremental Speech Generation in Dialogue Systems
Proceedings of the SIGDIAL 2010 Conference
Computer Science