Natural communication with machines-progress and challenge

Summary form only given, as follows. In less than one life-time, the technologies of electronic communication and computing have emerged, advanced and coalesced. Initially, the fields developed separately, constituting recognized independent disciplines. Great scientific effort went into each, with results that have fueled manifold multiplication of the gross domestic product of developed countries. Now, on the threshold of the 21st Century, the merging capabilities of communication and computing surpass most of the unfettered dreams of the mid 1900s, but the benefits are not easy for humans to reap. More and more, a central focus is on natural communication with machines-using modalities that are comfortable for humans-sight, sound and touch. An ideal is communication replicating that between humans, but for the foreseeable future, this complete ideal may remain on the horizon. Nevertheless, machine comprehension of human-generated information in the visible, auditory and tactile domains is advancing apace, as is the ability of the machine to generate responses in the same domains. Just as the mouse and icon-based software liberated computer users from the many tyrannies of the keyboard, natural voice communication, gesture recognition and automatic scene processing will lead to enhanced freedom and greater utility in communication and computing. This report draws a brief perspective on this outlook.