ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the present level of understanding of intelligent sensory devices. It describes an intelligent question-answer dialogue by which it is possible for a person to 'discuss' friendships, family relationships, etc. with a computer. The chapter outlines the possibilities for basing man-computer dialogues on speech. It discusses artificial intelligence and dialogues between a person and a computer, speech recognition, by which a person may speak to a machine, and speech synthesis, by which a person can hear messages 'spoken' by a machine. The chapter also describes a more serious application where a manager wishes to interrogate a computer-based information system, in which there are stored facts about such features as: stock levels in stores, machines out of use, and key operators who are ill or on leave. It concludes with a discussion of machine-vision systems for industrial inspection and robot control.
