A Natural Language Interface for Mobile Devices

Abstract

Creating a robust, automated capability to respond to natural language requests has been a longstanding goal in the development of intelligent systems. This article describes the StartMobile system, originally developed in 2005-2007, which has served as an important precursor to Apple's Siri system and other commercial natural language interfaces to mobile devices and computational resources. The article begins with a discussion of goals in creating natural language interfaces, continues with a description of the general-purpose START information access system, describes the StartMobile system and its capabilities, and concludes with a discussion of current commercial systems and future directions.