A Natural-Language Speech Interface Constructed Entirely as a Set of Executable Specifications

SpeechNet is a collection of speech-accessible hyperlinked objects called sihlos. Sihlos are deployed over the Internet and are accessed by remote speech browsers. When a speech browser accesses a sihlo, it begins by downloading a grammar file which is used to configure the browser in order to achieve high recognition accuracy. Sihlos are hyperlinked in a manner that is similar to the linking of html pages. SpeechNet provides non-visual access to knowledge which is analogous to visual access provided by the web. One of the sihlos can answer thousands of spoken pseudo-natural- language questions about the solar system. This sihlo has been constructed entirely as a set of executable specifications of the language that it can process.