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To: mauser96 who wrote (27304)	7/5/2000 10:16:59 PM
From: gdichaz	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

Lucius: Re your comments, viz: "Hopefully the need for speech recognition training will eventually go away. But if it doesn't, it will still be worth it if the perceived value is high enough. People are willing to put up with training to drive a car or ride a bicycle or swim. The perceived value will increase as the size of devices fall, but I am in agreement that for most people speech recognition isn't ready for prime time and that it is way pre chasm. I'm willing to put a few bucks into this kind of thing because I find that it's the only way to force myself to keep up with technological developments in the field. Otherwise, out of sight out of mind. If I was more disciplined I would just watch and wait..." I agree with both your points, and have long practiced the second. Helps especially when trying to keep up with technologies (the sin qua non for prudent investing in technology companies IMO) with a weaker and weaker memory supply as in my case. Best. Cha2 ...

To: mauser96 who wrote (27304)	7/6/2000 11:14:49 AM
From: Dr. Id	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

Do parrots speak when they say words without understanding the meaning? I leave this one to other hair splitters <<gg>> As a hair splitter, take a look at this: cages.org Communication with Parrots Parrots, and other talking birds, have fascinated mankind since Aristotle. Once thought to be mere mimics, these affable, entertaining and often quite lovable creatures are now known to possess remarkable intellectual abilities. Since 1977, Dr. Irene Pepperberg's studies in Ethology (Animal Behavior) and Animal-Human communications have provided insight into the capabilities of these animals to talk and to understand. Dr. Pepperberg currently works with 3 Congo African Grey Parrots. Alex, the oldest, can count, identify objects, shapes, colors and materials, knows the concepts of same and different, and bosses around lab assistants in order to modify his environment! They have begun work with phonics and there is evidence to suggest that, someday, Alex may be able to read.

To: mauser96 who wrote (27304)	7/6/2000 11:28:24 AM
From: Thomas Mercer-Hursh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 54805

Monkees (or even birds) have a language of sorts, but they do not have speech. Gorillas can understand some words but they can't speak. Do parrots speak when they say words without understanding the meaning? We humans have a terrible tendency to underestimate the capabilities of animals. In the case of the apes, they may not be very good at verbal speech, but they do amazingly well with gestural speech, i.e., sign language, and other non-verbal language forms. This is not some trick or mere "parroting", but true, conversational language including abstraction, generalizations, emotion, creation of new words, well-defined syntax, etc., etc. This is not to suggest that there is no difference between humans and apes, but that the mere presence of language isn't one of them. In fact, there is good reason to believe that the larger part of human evolution was characterized by other than verbal speech. Hopefully the need for speech recognition training will eventually go away The operative word there is eventually. Increasing processor power and evolving software is likely to get better and better at simple applications like telephone response systems where the number of legitimate answers can be limited and there are fallback communication options, but I am afraid that I am not optimistic about any near term success in producing general purpose systems on the order of a cell phone sized device that could be used by any operator without training. As I have written in the past, I am afraid this goes with using the wrong core approach ... there is only so much one can do with a bigger hammer.