This paper describes the MIT ATIS system, with particular emphasis on the discourse and dialogue models and the consequences for data collection. The ATIS system provides air travel information and can simulate the booking of a flight, using a mixed-initiative dialogue framework. An intermediate semantic frame representation serves as the focal point for all back-end operations, and the discourse model includes the resolution of explicit anaphoric references and indirect and direct references to information mentioned earlier in the conversation. We have collected over 4500 utterances from subjects using the system to solve simulated booking scenarios. We have studied these dialogues, and have used them productively to guide the development of better discourse and dialogue models. We have also tabulated some interesting differences between our data and those collected at Texas Instruments using a very different paradigm.
Cite as: Zue, V.W., Glass, J., Goodine, D., Hirschman, L., Leung, H.C., Phillips, M., Polifroni, J., Seneff, S. (1991) The MIT ATIS system; preliminary development, spontaneous speech data collection, and performance evaluation. Proc. 2nd European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology (Eurospeech 1991), 537-540, doi: 10.21437/Eurospeech.1991-134
@inproceedings{zue91_eurospeech,
author={Victor W. Zue and James Glass and David Goodine and Lynette Hirschman and Hong C. Leung and Michael Phillips and Joseph Polifroni and Stephanie Seneff},
title={{The MIT ATIS system; preliminary development, spontaneous speech data collection, and performance evaluation}},
year=1991,
booktitle={Proc. 2nd European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology (Eurospeech 1991)},
pages={537--540},
doi={10.21437/Eurospeech.1991-134}
}