Limiting Factors of Automated Telephone Dialogues

If computers are to engage humans in spoken-language dialogues over the telephone, then what kinds of tasks should these systems perform? What limitations do human conversants bring to the interaction? What are the problems associated with the computer’s side of the conversation? How does the use of the telephone modality limit what can reasonably be accomplished? Finally, how are we to understand the factors that distinguish those tasks that are appropriate for implementation as automated telephone dialogues (ATDs) from those for which current technology is not yet ready, or those which will never be appropriate for ATD treatment? In this chapter, we explore the limitations imposed by the user, the system, and the telephony modality and present several perspectives for understanding interactive tasks. From these we derive a feature space of factors critical to the success of any ATD. We conclude by applying the analysis to a broader range of tasks, employing the identified features.