The Trace Center at the University of Wisconsin was awarded
an NSF grant through the Small Grants for Exploratory Research
(SGER) program. The one year grant is to explore the feasibility
of using tridbit technology to allow natural language control
of household appliances and simple conversational interaction.
Custom Technology, as a subawardee, will adapt its Babble
program to provide a natural language interface to the user
interface socket technology developed by the Trace Center.
The goal of the grant is to construct a test environment
that will demonstrate that natural language interfaces are
feasible within a household environment, allowing people to
control devices by saying in their own words what to do.
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Natural language interfaces have tremendous potential for
the growing population in our society that is having difficulty
dealing with the increasing complexity of devices in home
and work environments. It will have special significance to
individuals with cognitive or other disabilities preventing
them from using all but the simplest products today.
In the future, natural language interfaces will provide access
to information and services with the simplicity and flexibility
required for virtually anyone to participate, eliminating
both intellectual and physical barriers. It will impact the
way commercial products interface with consumers, as well
as create whole new product types. If this project is successful,
it will pave the way for future uses of natural language technology.
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