Thomas D. Lynch

Publications

2012

Implementation and Evaluation of Commodity Hardware and Software in an Open World Spoken Dialog Framework (pending)
Hareendra Manuru, Ashok Sasidharan, Rajagopal Vasudevan, Thomas D. Lynch, Seth Darbyshire, Rajiv Ramnath, Jayashree Ramanathan,
Conference on Computers, Software, and Applications (COMPSAC), 2012 - IEEE
Abstract: Spoken dialog systems have become commonplace in the customer service role of businesses from insurance companies to AT&T directory services. The next horizon is spoken dialog systems in public settings such as malls, museums, hospitals and football stadiums as well as an interface to personal recreational robots in a home setting. These Open-World dialog systems will operate as information kiosks, electronic concierges in hotels, or as ushers in football stadiums. However, these systems bring new challenges ranging from dialogs with multiple people with different goals, dynamic scenes with people moving in and out of the scene, and a variety of interfering background noise. Finally, the users of spoken dialog systems will benefit from a more natural and efficient interface [1]

Open-world systems require significant additions to the current dialog systems frameworks to accommodate multiple people in a non-isolated noisy environment. Microsoft described in detail the requirements and proposed a reference framework of such a system in their Open World Dialog series of papers [1] [2] [3]. This framework allows the user to interact with the computer using voice without a headset. It engages multiple users in a dynamic environment robustly handling the entrance and exit of multiple people and the nuances of public conversation such as turn taking.

Given these challenges, and the requirements specified by the reference framework, we attempt to implement such a system using low cost readily available hardware and software. The hardware includes an SDK for tracking multiple people in a scene and speech recognition using the microphone array with an off the shelf speech server. If successful, this would revolutionize spoken dialog as a human computer interface in the open world making such a system easy to develop and implement.
The results include identification of the components of the reference framework provided by the SDK, identification of the missing components and identification of additional components necessary for successfully implementation an Open World Spoken Dialog System.

2011

Student Perspectives on Learning Through Developing Software for the Real World
Christopher Dean, Thomas D. Lynch, Rajiv Ramnath
Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2011 - IEEE
Abstract: From a student's perspective, the standard computer science curriculum can effectively develop fundamental software design principles and techniques, but may struggle to fully prepare students for professional practice. Real-world projects require many skills ... PDF

Teaching object-oriented software design within the context of software frameworks
Zoya Ali, Joe Bolinger, Michael Herold, Thomas Lynch, Jayashree Ramanathan, Rajiv Ramnath
Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2011 - IEEE
Abstract: Object-oriented software design and programming is an essential part of a computer science curriculum. We have observed that novice software developers, such as fresh college graduates who have been taught object-oriented design, are able to apply ... PDF

Teaching students software engineering practices for micro-teams
Shweta Deshpande, Joe Bolinger, Thomas D Lynch, Michael herold, Rajiv Ramnath, Jayashree Ramanathan
Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2011 - IEEE
Abstract: Standard methodologies, which have been developed for large software development teams, and Agile practices, developed for small teams, make up the software engineering practices taught in the Computer Science classroom. However, we have ...

Course work