VOICE MEETING, 4 March 1985
CSL Voice Project
Overview
Motivation
Research Objectives
Research Areas
Etherphone System Overview
Plans
Other PARC Voice Research
Relationship to OSD Voice Prototype Work
Architectural Approach
Design Systems Architecture
" Interfaces, Protocols, Algorithms
" Layered, hierarchical
Built Interesting Prototypes
" Valuable in their own right
" Debug the architecture
" Demonstrate value of architecture
Iterate
Promulgate as Standard
" Xerox products will not cover entire spectrum
" Xerox will not be the only provider of products
"
Create larger market for selected products
Xerox Architectures
(Standards)
XNS
" Network Systems Architecture
" Contrast with BSC, HDLC
Interscript
" Document Interchange Architecture
" Contrast with 820 word-processing format
Interpress
" Electronic Printing Architecture
" Contrast with ?
Star User Interface
" User interface architecture/methodology
" Contrast with Unix shell?
Xerox Architectures
(Standards)
XNS
" Network Systems Architecture
" Contrast with BSC, HDLC
Interscript
" Document Interchange Architecture
" Contrast with 820 word-processing format
Interpress
" Electronic Printing Architecture
" Contrast with ?
Star User Interface
" User interface architecture/methodology
" Contrast with Unix shell?
InterVoice!
" Architecture for telephony, recorded voice, synthesized voice
" Contrast with voice-band signalling, ISDN, CCITT#7?
"
Emphasis on programmability
Research Objectives
("products" and "customers")
Prototype Applications
" (Cedar applications of initial "InterVoice" impl.)
" Test-site (CSL) users
" OSD organizations
" Planners
Flexible Telephone, Recording Facilities
" (First-round "InterVoice" implementation)
" Cedar applications
" Voice research using other PARC programming envs.
"InterVoice" Design and Specification
" (Interfaces, Formats, Protocols, Algorithms)
" OSD
" Planners
" Office Systems Industry
Medium shot:
Voice File Server in OSD Follow-on
" OSD
Long shot:
Possible stand-alone PBX Product
" OSD?
" Planners
Research Areas
Taming the Telephone
" Better placement and receipt of calls
" Better handling of special features
" Better human-assisted call handling
" Recorded voice messages
" Synthesized text-to-voice messages
" Voice-annotated documents
" Integration with other interactive applications
Applications of Recorded Voice
secondary interest: Novel transmission methods
but not:
Speech Recognition
Present Capabilities and Status
40+ Users (March 1985)
Call-placement by name from workstation
" Shared PARC-wide telephone directory
" Personal directories and other databases
Call-placement by name from telephone
" "Spelled-out" on touchpad
Call-logging (incoming and outgoing)
Voice messages
" Voice message added to standard text message
" Delivered, managed by Grapevine and its client programs
1985 Plans
Specification of "round 1" InterVoice
Design of InterVoice-based prototypes
InterVoice implementation in Cedar
Prototype implementations as time permits
Relationship to OSD Prototype Work
Stem from common roots
Same problem areas
Some common hardware and algorithms
Important Extensions
" Emphasis on fully-developed layered arch. (InterVoice)
" Workstation-independent hardware, telephone capabilities
" Enhanced telephone control
" Capacity/performance improvements
" Many features available without workstation
" Possible stand-alone PBX product
ISL/AISBU Work
Dial-up mail-reading service
Pronouncing business documents
Linguistic approach to improved pronunciation
SCL Work
Interpersonal communications
Remote branch in Portland
Desire to retain working-group ambience