Multi-session group scenarios for speech interface design

When developing adaptive speech-based multilingual interaction systems, we need representative data on the user's behaviour. In this paper we focus on a data collection method pertaining to adaptation in the user's interaction with the system. We describe a multi-session group scenario for Wizard of Oz studies with two novel features: firstly, instead of doing solo sessions with a static mailbox, our test users communicated with each other in a group of six, and secondly, the communication took place over several sessions in a period of five to eight days. The paper discusses our data collection studies using the method, concentrating on the usefulness of the method in terms of naturalness of the interaction and long-term developments

A mobile fitness companion

The paper introduces a Mobile Companion prototype, which helps users to plan and keep track of their exercise activities via an interface based mainly on speech input and output. The Mobile Companion runs on a PDA and is based on a stand-alone, speaker-independent solution, making it fairly unique among mobile spoken dialogue systems, where the common solution is to run the ASR on a separate server or to restrict the speech input to some specific set of users. The prototype uses a GPS receiver to collect position, distance and speed data while the user is exercising, and allows the data to be compared to previous exercises. It communicates over the mobile network with a stationary system, placed in the user’s home. This allows plans for exercise activities to be downloaded from the stationary to the mobile system, and exercise result data to be uploaded once an exercise has been completed

FRP strengthening of RC walls with openings

Strengthening reinforced concrete (RC) walls with openings using fibre reinforced polymers (FRP) has been proved experimentally to be a viable rehabilitation method. However, very few theoretical investigations are reported. In this paper two methods of analysis are presented. Since openings vary in size, the analysis of a strengthened wall can be divided into frame idealization method for large openings, and combined disk and frame analysis for smaller openings. The first method provides an easy to use tool in practical engineering, where the latter describes the principles of a ductile strengthening method, relying on dislocation of yield lines and creation of a new yield mechanism. The frame idealization method can be considered as a safe guideline for real strengthening projects based on commonly used principles. The principles in the latter are new and promising, and need experimental verification before use in strengthening projects.Strengthening reinforced concrete (RC) walls with openings using fibre reinforced polymers (FRP) has been experimentally proven to be a viable rehabilitation method. However, very few theoretical investigations are reported. In this paper two methods of analysis are presented. Since openings vary in size, the analysis of a strengthened wall can be divided into frame idealization method for large openings, and combined disk and frame analysis for smaller openings. The first method provides an easy to use tool in practical engineering, where the latter describes the principles of a ductile strengthening method, relying on dislocation of yield lines and creation of a new yield mechanism. The frame idealization method can be considered as a safe guideline for real strengthening projects based on commonly used principles. The principles in the latter are new and promising, but need experimental verification before use in strengthening projects.Godkänd; 2009; 20091214 (gabsas

Uspon zanaglasnica, dihotomija podizanje – kontrola i stilska varijacija

In the paper, we discuss the phenomenon of clitic climbing (CC) out of infinitive complements in contemporary Croatian. Based on the first theoretical work and some empirical findings on CC in Czech and Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian (BCS) and the observation that differences in CC linked to register have been reported for some languages, we elaborate on the claim that CC varies in respect of both register and the Raising-Control Dichotomy. The following research questions are addressed: Does clitic climbing out of the single infinitive in Croatian depend on the type of complement-taking predicate (CTP) with respect to the Raising-Control Distinction? Does CC appear with equal frequency in standard and colloquial Croatian if the type of CTP verb (Raising vs Control) as a variable remains constant? Our study is based on data for two types of complement-taking predicates: a) Raising (8 different verbs) and b) Subject Control (8 non-reflexive + 8 reflexive verbs). The data was extracted from the Forum subcorpus of hrWaC v2.2 and from the Croatian Language Repository and Croatian National Corpus. Our data suggest that not only the Raising-Control Dichotomy, but also diaphasic variation have an impact on CC from infinitive complements.Rad je posvećen usponu zanaglasnica iz infinitivnih dopuna u suvremenome hrvatskom jeziku. Autori u obzir uzimaju postojeća teorijska i empirijska istraživanja o usponu zanaglasnica u češkome i bosanskome/hrvatskome/srpskome te zapažanja da u nekim jezicima postoji veza između uspona zanaglasnica i razlike u registrima. U radu se donose odgovori na sljedeća dva istraživačka pitanja: „Postoji li razlika u usponu zanaglasnica iz infinitivne dopune u hrvatskome jeziku između rečenica s glavnim glagolima podizanja i kontrole? Je li uspon zanaglasnica jednako čest u hrvatskome standardnom jeziku i u njegovu razgovornom varijetetu ako se tip glavnoga glagola (podizanje – kontrola) kao čimbenik drži konstantnim?” Istraživanje se temelji na podatcima za dva tipa glavnih predikata: a) podizanje (8 različitih glagola) i b) subjektna kontrola (8 nerefleksivnih + 8 refleksivnih glagola). Analiza se temelji na podatcima iz potkorpusa Forum Hrvatskoga mrežnog korpusa (hrWaC v2.2), Hrvatske jezične riznice i Hrvatskoga nacionalnog korpusa. Na temelju analizirane građe zaključujemo kako na uspon zanaglasnica utječe i razlika među glavnim glagolima (podizanje – kontrola) i varijacija u registru (hrvatski standardni jezik ili razgovorni varijetet)

A Danish text-to-speech system using a text normalizer based on morph analysis

A Nordic cooperative project has been started to develop a text-to-speech device for the Nordic languages. The development is based on the system originally created in Stockholm. Language specific features have necessitated modifications of the original structure. For Danish, this primarily involves the inclusion of a morph based "text normalizing component". This paper presents the construction and function of the system and also discusses some preliminary use of the device

Clitic Climbing, Finiteness and the Raising-Control Distinction : A Corpus–based study

In the paper, we discuss the phenomenon of clitic climbing out of finite da2-complements in contemporary Serbian. Scholars’ opinions on the acceptability and occurrence of this construction, based on a handful of self-made examples, vary considerably. Expanding on the assumption that the correctness of the phenomenon has often been denied due to its rareness we employ large corpora to examine the problem. We focus on possible constraints arising from the syntactic properties of clause-embedding predicates.Peer reviewe