Biographical Information
Deborah Dahl
Principal - Conversational Technologies
610-888-4532
Dr. Deborah Dahl is a consultant in speech and natural language technologies with 25 years of experience. She is an expert on standards, chairing the W3C's Multimodal Interaction Group, and serving as a member of the Voice Browser Group. She is the editor of the book Practical Spoken Dialog Systems.
Articles by Deborah Dahl
New Trends in Speech Technology: A Report from the Cutting Edge
05 Aug 2024
Here's the research on which dramatic new capabilities are based.
Standards for Evaluating Generative AI
17 Apr 2024
Assessing the output of genAI systems is easier said than done.
A Perfect Storm of Speech Technologies
19 Dec 2023
Now's the time to consider what new applications might be possible.
With Conversational AI, the Standards Work Heats Up
21 Jul 2023
The W3C has published recent standards that will impact AI-powered speech applications.
How to Make ChatGPT Usable for Enterprises
25 Apr 2023
Not surprisingly, a standardized format would make the process a lot easier.
When Not to Standardize
18 Jan 2023
Not every aspect of voice systems can or needs to be interoperable.
Voice Privacy and Security Need Greater Attention
19 Jul 2022
Privacy standards too often overlook voice data.
Natural Language Interfaces That Everyone Can Use
07 Apr 2022
Users can differ widely in their ability to express themselves and understand.
The Ongoing Effort for Interoperable IVAs
18 Nov 2021
Intelligent virtual assistants now have billions of users. When will they be platform-independent?
Assessing IVAs: How Do You Determine Which One Is Right for You?
10 Jun 2021
There's still a lack of official standards, but some promising metrics have emerged
A Tangled Web of Intelligent Assistants
07 Dec 2020
Getting them all to cooperate would tap their incredible potential
Does Your Intelligent Assistant Really Understand You?
06 Oct 2020
Intelligent virtual assistants still need improvements, analysts conclude after five leading systems are put to the test.
Encountering a Technical Problem? You Too Can Be a Standards Author
01 May 2020
Your brilliant new idea might just end up becoming a popular solution
The Internet of Things Needs a Lingua Franca
25 Nov 2019
With the proliferation of smart speakers, voice interaction with home devices is becoming increasingly common, and on the horizon are voice interactions with an ever greater number of smart environments—cities, offices, classrooms, factories, and healthcare settings. Developers will need to be on the same page
Video: 6 Ways to Improve VAs via Better Language Understanding
28 Jun 2019
Conversational Technologies Principal Deborah Dahl lays out a plan for making more virtual assistants more effective in this clip from her keynote at SpeechTEK 2019.
Video: The Current State of Conversational Systems
21 Jun 2019
Conversational Technologies Principal Deborah Dahl discusses the state of the art for the three pillars of conversational systems in this clip from her keynote at SpeechTEK 2019.
Video: More Targeted Knowledge Can Improve Today's VAs
14 Jun 2019
Conversational Technologies Principal Deborah Dahl explains how more targeted enterprise knowledge could make VAs more effective in organizations in this clip from her keynote at SpeechTEK 2019.
NLU Results Shouldn’t Be Proprietary
20 May 2019
A common format for natural language tools would make everyone's life easier
Integrating TTS in Web Browsers Is Harder Than It Sounds
21 Jan 2019
Text-to-speech for webpages has to tackle modern English's dizzying complexity
The Right Standard Makes Developers’ Jobs a Lot Easier
18 Jun 2018
You'll never know whether a standard's a good fit if you don't try it out
Deep Learning, Big Data, and Clear Standards
10 Nov 2017
For natural language tools to take on greater complexity, they'll need consistent, agreed-upon data annotations
4 Speech Technology Standards That Need to Happen ASAP
24 Apr 2017
With new technologies appearing all the time, standards must keep pace
Let’s Get Siri, Cortana, and Alexa to Work Together
10 Nov 2016
A new W3C community group is exploring ways to make virtual assistant platforms interoperable
EMMA 2.0 Lets Applications Decide What to Tell You—and How
14 Jun 2016
Information can be graphical or spoken, depending on context
The AVIOS Student Contest Salutes Tomorrow's Speech Talent
15 Feb 2016
In its 10th year, the competition yields apps for everyday use
Voice Should Be User-Friendly—to All Users
09 Nov 2015
Experts work to make speech solutions accessible to the cognitively impaired
Talking to Everything: User Interfaces for the Internet of Things
08 May 2015
Communication between objects is only the beginning
Media Standards for the Web: WebRTC and WebAudio
10 Nov 2014
WebRTC and WebAudio add speed and simplicity.
Remembering Scott McGlashan
30 Apr 2014
May 4, 1963-February 12, 2014
EMMA Success Leads to New Challenges
15 Nov 2013
GPS, data analysis top innovations list.
Talking to the World
01 May 2013
Speech applications don't exist in a vacuum.
Discovering Multimodal Components
10 Sep 2012
Wider use of apps offers broad potential
New Directions in Natural Language Understanding
10 Jul 2012
Watson and Siri are only the beginning.
Enter EMMA 1.1
01 May 2012
Getting more out of multimodal inputs
Speaking to Web Pages
01 Jan 2012
New speech integration ideas show promise for 2012.
Giving a Voice to the Developing World
01 Sep 2011
Standards, mobile phones help bring the Web to resource-constrained areas
Making Modalities Play Nicely Together
01 May 2011
The Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces specification opens door to collaborative multimodal apps
W3C Launches HTML Speech Incubator Group
05 Jan 2011
Ultimate goal is to develop tools to better integrate speech with the Web.
Hands-On: An Interactive Display
05 Jan 2011
Lab sessions gave companies the opportunity to showcase their latest products.
Standards Need a New Pair of Eyes
01 Sep 2010
Now is the time to revisit and update some of the early voice standards.
Accessibility in Voice and Multimodal Applications
03 May 2010
Multimodal interfaces can make or break the user experience.
Updating the Standard for Spoken Dialogues
10 Jan 2010
VoiceXML 3.0 should be out by the end of this year.
Standards in the Voice User Interface
01 Oct 2009
Why we need them, and where we can get them.
Standards Make the World Smaller
14 Jul 2009
As standards advance, things just work together better.
Controlling Speech and Multimodal Applications
01 May 2009
SCXML lets users travel through many states without leaving the phone
CCXML: A Standard for Managing Calls
06 Feb 2009
Markup language makes it easier to develop telephony applications.
Submitted for Your Approval
06 Feb 2009
SpeechTEK attendees conduct hands-on evaluations.
Opening the World of Multimodality
01 Oct 2008
Standards can help bring more applications to bear.
A Framework for Multimodal Apps
15 Jul 2008
W3C drafts the standard in multimodal architectures.
How Do You Say That?
01 May 2008
New W3C standard promises to improve pronunciation.
Introducing EMMA
01 Mar 2008
The new standard for representing what the user said
Eleven Tips to Improve IVR Effectiveness
12 Sep 2006
There's been a lot of negative press recently about poorly designed touchtone and speech-enabled interactive voice response (IVR) systems. I'm sorry to say that most of the problems that I've heard, read about, or personally experienced are real. To make matters worse, the situation is inexcusable because the underlying technology that powers these applications is very flexible and can do significantly more than what it is being used for today. Poor implementations are giving these systems a bad reputation, as has long been the case.
Natural Language Processing: The Next Steps
12 Sep 2006
Speech interfaces in which users respond in their own words to open-ended prompts like "How may I help you?" are becoming more and more widely deployed. They are most frequently used in routing applications where the application's task is to identify the topic of the users' requests and transfer them to another part of the system where their requests can be addressed.
Revisiting the ROI of Speech
01 Jan 2006
A good voice user interface (VUI) is central to any successful speech application. Although VUI's are made up of many components, if the persona is very memorable, users' perceptions of it can dominate their opinions about the entire system, overwhelming all other aspects of the system in the users' minds. As such, a good or bad persona can have major consequences for the success of a system.
Point/Counter Point on Personas
01 Jan 2006
A good voice user interface (VUI) is central to any successful speech application. Although VUI's are made up of many components, if the persona is very memorable, users' perceptions of it can dominate their opinions about the entire system, overwhelming all other aspects of the system in the users' minds. As such, a good or bad persona can have major consequences for the success of a system.
The Battle for Speech Recognition Market Dominance
07 Nov 2005
The contact center speech recognition market is maturing, but it is far from slowing down. On the contrary, its experiencing an upswing in sales that it hasnt seen for at least three or four years. This market is consolidating, making room for a variety of new entrants and is finally growing in port size. According to Steve Cramoysan of Gartner DataQuest, preliminary analysis of the 2004 speech recognition market reveals an overall growth in port
Capitalize on Customer Conversations with Speech Analytics
30 Aug 2005
For years, speech analytics have been used worldwide by security organizations to help government agencies identify potential risks and threats. In the past two years, contact centers have begun to use speech analytics applications to capture and structure customer communications. The applications analyze the structured data to identify customer trends and insights for the purpose of improving service quality, customer satisfaction, and generating new revenue.
Technical Standards Facilitate Innovation
08 Jul 2004
Rarely does a technical standard directly benefit end users. However, in the world of speech technologies they do. Standards facilitate innovation and reduction in the total cost of ownership of speech applications, but have been slow to market. Standards allow programmers to create platform-independent (and ideally vendor-independent) speech applications.
The Role of Speech in Multimodal Applications
05 May 2003
The visually-oriented graphical user interface (GUI) is a powerful, familiar, and highly functional approach to interacting with computers. But, as speech technology becomes increasingly available, its natural to think about how speech could be used in GUI interfaces as well as voice-only interfaces.
The Role of Speech in Multimodal Applications
01 May 2003
The visually-oriented graphical user interface (GUI) is a powerful, familiar, and highly functional approach to interacting with computers. But, as speech technology becomes increasingly available, it's natural to think about how speech could be used in GUI interfaces as well as voice-only interfaces.
Speech on the go
01 Jan 1999
Many of speech recognitions most important contributions to productivity have to do with mobility. For example, speech allows telephone users to simply say the name of the person they are calling and be connected, a big advantage for cellular phone users in the car.
STRATEGIC ALLIANCE: Will Microsoft's Stake in Lernout & Hauspie Drive Growth in Speech?
31 Jan 1998
Microsoft and Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products have announced a broad strategic alliance designed to accelerate development of the next generation of voice-enabled computing on the Microsoft Windows platform. <@SM>