The Brimstone corporate directory enquiries application

The use of voice controlled interfaces to access information and services is becoming increasingly widespread as the underpinning technologies begin to mature. Voice based interfaces seem set to become as ubiquitous as the keyboard and mouse. As part of this revolution, telephone based speech recognition systems for number information and call steering applications will become commonplace. A leading example of this new class of interactive voice response (IVR) products is the BT Brimstone corporate telephone directory system. This paper discusses the framework for the design of Brimstone. Aspects of architecture, speech technology and dialogue design are presented and preliminary results of a live user trial are presented.