Glossary
 

This glossary contains definitions of technical terms referred to in this website as well as brief descriptions of SLS projects, systems and technologies.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ


Conversational interface: A human-computer interface enabling humans to communicate with computers in much the same way as people communicate with one another.

DINEX: A conversational system that provides information about Boston area restaurants and how to find them. Users can interact with DINEX through speech and by mouse-clicking on displayed lists and maps.

JUPITER: A conversational system that provides up-to-date weather information over the phone. Jupiter knows about 500+ cities worldwide and gets its data from four different Web-based sources.

PEGASUS: A conversational interface attached to the American Airlines EAASY SABRE reservation system which allows users to obtain flight information and make reservations via the telephone.

VOYAGER: A conversational system that can engage in verbal dialogues with users about a geographical region within Cambridge, Massachusetts.

WebGALAXY: Finding a specific home page entails either remembering a URL address, searching through the Web for a link to the page, or using a keyword search engine. Often this is a time-consuming process. WebGALAXY allows a user to request information or a specific online document without knowing its location or how it is stored.

WHEELS: A conversational system that performs searches through a database of electronic classified ads. Users may conduct searches by telephone or via typed requests, and obtain responses in the form of synthesized speech and displayed tables.