ABSTRACT

Speech synthesis is receiving increasing attention as a potentially valuable medium for a variety of applications of information display. This paper addresses the use of speech as a means of displaying alarm information in “process control” type tasks. Typically the operator of a control desk will monitor the state of a process from a room that is sited remotely from the plant. Therefore, the operator’s main source of information about the plant status is via process page displays presented on Visual Display Unit (VDUs), which may contain up to 800 pages of information. Further, the process plant is controlled by a team of operators and a supervisor who are in contact, either face-to-face or via telephone, with plant engineers.