The Verbmobil prototype system – a software engineering perspective

Abstract

Verbmobil represents a new generation of speech-to-speech translation systems in which spontaneously spoken language, speaker independence and adaptability as well as the combination of deep and shallow approaches to the analysis and transfer problems are the main features. The project brought together researchers from the fields of signal processing, computational linguistics and artificial intelligence. Verbmobil goes beyond the state-of-the-art in each of these areas, but its main achievement is the seamless integration of them. The first project phase (1993–1996) has been followed up by the second project phase (1997–2000), which aims at applying the results to further languages and at integrating innovative telecooperation techniques. Quite apart from the speech and language processing issues, the size and complexity of the project represent an extreme challenge on the areas of project management and software engineering:[bull ] 50 researchers from 29 organizations at different sites in different countries are involved in the software development process,[bull ] to reuse existing software, hardware, knowledge and experience, only a few technical restrictions could be given to the partners.In this article we describe the Verbmobil prototype system from a software-engineering perspective. We discuss:[bull ] the modularized functional architecture,[bull ] the flexible and extensible software architecture which reflects that functional architecture,[bull ] the evolutionary process of system integration,[bull ] the communication-based organizational structure of the project,[bull ] the evaluation of the system operational by the end of the first project phase.

Integrating ChatGPT, Bard, and Leading-Edge Generative Artificial Intelligence in Architectural Design and Engineering: Applications, Framework, and Challenges

“…Integrating ChatGPT into existing design and engineering software poses another challenge (Bub and Schwinn, 1996;Bub and Schwinn, 1999;Alpers et al, 2019;Tang et al, 2021;Abler et al, 2023;Karunasena et al, 2022). Professionals often use specialized tools like Computer-Aided Design (CAD) and Building Information Modeling (BIM).…”

Large-scale software integration for spoken language and multimodal dialog systems

“…The Multiplatform testbed, or testbed for short, originates from our practical work in various research projects. The testbed, which is built on top of open source software (Wu and Lin 2001), provides a fully-fledged integration platform for dialog systems and has been improved continually for many years now (Bub and Schwinn 1999;Klüter et al 2000;Herzog et al 2003).…”

“…State-of-the-art dialog systems combine practical results from various research areas and tend to be rather complex software systems which can not simply be realized as a monolithic desktop computer application. More elaborate software designs are required in order to assemble heterogeneous components into an integrated and fully operational system (Bub and Schwinn 1999).…”