- Alexander Hauptmann, Alexander I. Rudnicky. 1990. A Comparison of Speech and Typed Input. Abstract: Meaningful evaluation of spoken language interfaces must be based on detailed comparisons with an alternate, well-understood input modality, such as the keyboard. This paper presents an empirical study in which users were asked to enter digit strings into the computer by voice and by keyboard. Two different ways of verifying and correcting the spoken input were also examined using either voice or keyboard. Timing analyses were performed to determine which aspects of the interface were critical to speedy completion of the task. The results show that speech is preferable for strings that require more than a few keystrokes. The results emphasize the need for fast and accurate speech recognition, but also demonstrate how error correction and input validation are crucial components of a speech interface.
