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Sequence Package Analysis: a new natural language understanding method for improving human response in critical systems

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Abstract

This paper will demonstrate how Sequence Package Analysis, as a new natural language understanding method that is built on a set of parsing structures that consist of context-free grammatical units and related prosodic features for identifying affective/emotional data found in natural speech and blogs, may better accommodate the goals of crisis management and rapid decision making in critical systems. Following an in depth discussion of the genesis and development of this method for the design of voice-user interfaces and audio mining programs, debuted in an earlier issue of IJST, this paper will attempt to show how Sequence Package Analysis can improve human response in monitoring recorded conversations of terror suspects and the recordings of help-line desks. In both instances, effective human intervention may help avert a crisis and resulting liability. The paper’s limited focus on these two respective domains does not, however, limit the applicability of Sequence Package Analysis to other critical systems, inasmuch as the parsing structures explained below are generic enough to be applied to other critical systems, such as ambulance control, aircraft or nuclear power stations, or 911 calls for help. Given that critical systems require effective human response from decision makers, natural language data must be accorded the same kind of scientific scrutiny given to graphic design and other features of human-computer interaction.

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  1. Linguistic Technology Systems, 800 Palisade Avenue Suite 1809, Fort Lee, NJ, 07024, USA

    Amy Neustein

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  1. Amy Neustein
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Correspondence to Amy Neustein.

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Neustein, A. Sequence Package Analysis: a new natural language understanding method for improving human response in critical systems. Int J Speech Technol 9, 109–120 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10772-008-9010-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10772-008-9010-8

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