Developments in technology have made it possible for speech output to be
used in place of the more usual visual interface in both domestic and
commercial devices. Speech can be used in situations where visual
attention is occupied, such as when driving a car, or where a task is
complex and traditional visual interfaces are not effective, such as
programming a video recorder. Speech can also be employed in specialist
adaptations for visually impaired people.
However, the use of speech has not been universally successful, possibly
because the speech interaction is poorly designed. Speech is
fundamentally different from text, and a lot of the problems may arise
due to simplified text-to-speech conversion. Design of Speech-based
Devices considers the problems associated with speech interaction, and
offers practical solutions.