Intelligent interface technology: from theory to reality?

The relationship between theory and practice is particularly important in Intelligent Interface Technology as the ultimate proof of concept here is that the interface actually works, and that it is acceptable to users. For this reason practical issues such as performance, reliability and usability would seem to be more important than theoretical issues such as choice of system design methodology or specification notations. This article reviews two important areas of Intelligent Interface Technology, user modelling and spoken dialogue systems, considering the potential contribution of Artificial Intelligence research to the ‘intelligent’ components of this technology and examining the extent to which theoretical research in Artificial Intelligence contributes to the commercial deployability of Intelligent Interface Technology. It is concluded that, while theoretical foundations are necessary to prevent ad hoc solutions that lack generalisability, practical constraints of performance and usability will constrain the applicability of theoretical research in real systems.