; File: subject-instructions.doc., Updated 10/11/91 ; ATIS subject instructions ; [ATT] ATIS Data Collection Instructions to Subjects ATIS is an air travel information system under development at AT&T that will eventually provide travel assistance using spoken input to a computer. Thank you for coming in to talk to ATIS. The speech and dialogue information we collect during this session will be used to improve the system. You will be carrying on a dialogue with a computer, asking the computer questions which it will answer as best it can. The computer may also ask you questions. Please speak to the computer as you might to a human, but be aware that it will not be able to answer all your questions, and may answer some questions incorrectly. If you have a series of questions, please ask them one at a time, and wait for a response after each one. If the system gets stuck processing your sentence, it will provide a response explaining its problem. The information provided to you is extracted from the Official Airline Guide, or the OAG. Though the system currently knows about only 11 cities (9 airports) in the U.S., and 9 airlines serving these cities, it does have the information you will need to solve the scenarios we have provided. For example, it knows about departure and arrival times, fares, meals, and aircraft types for each flight in the database. A summary of what the system currently knows can be found on a separate page of these instructions. You are asked to select and solve several of the twelve travel planning scenarios listed on the last two pages. Category A scenarios are considered solved when you have found the requested information. Category B scenarios are more open ended, and you can book flights if you wish to do so. You may end a scenario whenever you choose to, whether you have solved it or not. Whenever you start a new scenario, please speak the canned sentence, "Begin scenario x," where x is the number of the scenario you have chosen. When you are done with a scenario, please end by saying "End scenario," before you move on to the next one. This will enable us to identify which scenario you are exploring. Here are some hints and suggestions. The computer will answer every question with a verbal response. Please wait for this response before continuing. A series of shorter questions often works better than a single long question. The computer will provide detailed flight and fare information only when you have narrowed down your choices to three or fewer flights/fares. The computer can keep track of only one flight at a time. The computer cannot tell you when you will arrive at or depart from an intermediate stopping point. If you want that information, you must book separate flights from origin to stopping point and stopping point to destination. The computer tries to emulate humans in the following ways: It remembers various pieces of information, such as your destination and any fare or time restrictions you give it. It can infer dates relative to today or a previously mentioned date. Thanks and good luck! Knowledge Base of Current System ATIS knows about flights between a limited set of cities. For each flight, ATIS knows about the following: Airlines Originating city Destination city Classes of service Other relevant information fares meals ground transportation between airport and downtown aircraft number, location, and duration of stops Cities that ATIS knows about: Atlanta Baltimore Washington Boston Dallas Fort Worth Denver Oakland Pittsburgh Philadelphia San Francisco Airlines that ATIS knows about (not all airlines serve all cities): American Continental Delta Eastern Lufthansa Midway TWA United USair Travel Planning Scenarios NOTE: Since the scenarios have quite a bit of flexibility, you may want to write down the specifics of the problem that you have selected to solve on a sheet of paper. This may avoid getting you and the system confused! [Scenarios follow] ; ; [BBN] ATIS DATA COLLECTION Instructions to Subjects Thank you for participating in our data collection project. 1. Getting Acquainted What is ATIS? ATIS, or Airline Travel Information System, is a voice-operated system under development at BBN. The system is designed to give answers to spoken queries about flight information. The flight information that the system knows about is a subset of the information contained in the Official Airline Guide (OAG). (See Section 2 entitled "What kind of information is in the ATIS system".) What is the purpose of this data collection effort? Because the system we have is still under development, it will be able to answer many (we hope) but not all of your queries. The purpose of this data collection is to give us a larger sample of queries from actual users who are trying to use the system. We plan to use the collected data to help us improve the performance of the system. What am I supposed to do? Your task is to use the ATIS system to help you in solving several flight-related scenarios given to you by the data collector at the time of data collection. In the process of solving the scenario, don't make a special effort to restrict yourself to ask queries that are the most relevant to that scenario. In particular, when you are just starting a scenario you may want to explore the information that ATIS contains. How to use the system See Section 3 for a complete set of instructions on how to use the system. In addition, you will receive instructions on the use of the system from the data collector. The data collector will be monitoring the whole data collection session. Briefly, you request information from ATIS by using the microphone to talk to the system. The screen will show what the system thinks you said and what the answer to your query is. Remember: The purpose of this process is to collect speech data; the more queries you ask the better. Don't try to think of the shortest way you can get your information. Don't be afraid to explore. 2. What Kind of Information is in the ATIS System? ATIS knows about flights between a limited number of cities (see list below). For each flight, ATIS knows about the following: Airline name (American, Continental, Delta, TWA, Eastern, Lufthansa, Midway, United, and USAir) Airline abbreviation (AA, CO, DL, TW, EA, LH, ML, UA and US). Flight number Originating city Destination city Departure and arrival times (also elapsed time of a flight) Dates (July 25, 7th of November, etc.) Days of service (Sunday, Monday, etc.) Classes of service (first class, business, etc.) Number of stops Fares (these vary depending on flight, day, class of service, and whether the fare is one way or round trip) Meals Ground transportation between airport and downtown, and its cost Type of aircraft (jet, turboprop, DC10, 72S, 727, etc.) Seating capacity of aircraft You may ask the system questions about any abbreviations you don't understand. Cities and Airports that ATIS knows about: CITY/AIRPORT AIRPORT CODE ALTERNATE AIRPORT NAME Atlanta ATL William B. Hartsfield Baltimore/Washington BWI Boston BOS Logan Dallas/Fort Worth DFW Denver DEN Stapleton Oakland OAK Philadelphia PHL Pittsburgh PIT San Francisco SFO There are 11 cities served by 9 airports. Baltimore and Washington are served by the same airport; likewise for Dallas and Fort Worth. The airports in Oakland and San Francisco serve both cities. 3. How to Use the ATIS System 3.1 Scenarios After an initial training period, the data collector will give you several scenarios to solve using the ATIS system. Below is the procedure to follow for each of the scenarios: Begin Scenario: To begin a new scenario, use the mouse to click (with the left-most mouse button) the Begin Scenario button in the top-left of the ATIS screen (see Figure 1). A menu of scenario numbers will pop up. Click the identification number of the scenario that you will be working on. (The Begin Scenario button will now say End Scenario; see below.) Note: Make sure you write down the specifics of the problem you have selected to solve. This may avoid getting you and the system confused! Use the notepad provided to you by the data collector to write down notes for yourself as you wish throughout the data collection session. Query Sequence: You solve the scenario by asking the ATIS system a sequence of queries. To ask a new query: Click New Query button in the top-left corner of the ATIS screen. The System Status display will show the word "Listening", when the system is ready to accept speech input. Speak your query into the microphone. After a short wait, the system will show on a new card what it thought you said (see Figure 1). After another (usually longer) wait, the system displays on the card an answer to your query. (Sometimes, this wait can be quite long; please be patient.) Repeat the above sequence for every new query until you feel you have finished working with that scenario. Solving a scenario means that you feel you have obtained from ATIS the flight information specified in the scenario. If after saying a query you decide that you wish to abort that query (e.g., you made a false start or you changed your mind about what you wanted to say), simply click on the Abort Query button. End Scenario: To end a scenario, click the End Scenario button on the ATIS screen. Now, you can begin another scenario by following the above procedure. 3.2 ATIS Screen Figure 1 shows the basic ATIS screen, which you will use to control the session and the system uses to communicate with you. The ATIS screen has two main displays: The top level menu and the cards display. Top Level Menu: This menu is shown in the top-left part of the ATIS screen. It contains a number of buttons and status windows. We have already described how several of the buttons and status windows are used. Cards Display: The cards display contains your queries and their answers. Each card corresponds to a single query. The top line of each card shows the card number and what the system thought you said. In the main body of the card, the system displays the answer to the query. As you say the different queries, the cards appear automatically and stack themselves in the lower right part of the screen. The stacking is done such that the old queries are visible but not their answers; only the most recent card is fully visible. After about ten cards have been created, the oldest one will be deleted automatically whenever a new one is created. To the left of each card is a scroll bar that allows you to scroll that card vertically in case the answer occupies more space than allotted. You will often find the need to look back at the answers to some of the previous queries. The answers to older queries can be seen by simply clicking on the push/pop button in the top-left corner of the card of interest. Clicking that button will bring forward (pop) that card and you will be able to see the whole card. Clicking the same button again will push that card back where it came from. You can pop a number of cards in that manner. To avoid having to push them all back by clicking the push/pop button, simply click on the Restack button in the top-level menu. Note: The system only remembers the ten most recent queries. Cards that disappear from the screen can never be retrieved. 3.3 Clone Cards In addition to being able to look back at previous queries and their answers, it is often convenient to be able to make a copy of a card for later reference. This is particularly important if you suspect that the card of interest correponds to an old query that soon may disappear from the screen. To make a copy of a card, you clone it. To do that, click the clone button in the top-left part of the card and drag the card-skeleton that appears to the desired spot on the screen, then click the mouse again. Figure 2 shows a card that has been cloned. A clone card looks the same as a card in the Cards Display except that it has an additional top bar and different buttons. Unlike the cards in the Cards Display, the clone card can be resized using the Resize button in the top-right corner of the card. The clone card can be deleted from the screen by clicking the Delete Clone button in the top-left corner of the card. A clone of the same card can be made again from the Cards Display, but only if that card is still visible in the Cards Display. To make the clone card disappear temporarily, click on the Iconize Clone button in the left part of the query line of the clone card. The clone card will disappear but an icon corresponding to that card will appear in the top right part of the screen with the name of the card in it. The clone card can be made visible again by clicking in the icon for that card. You may clone as many cards as you like, within the limits of the size of the screen. 3.4 Messages from the system If the system is unable to understand or answer your request, you will receive a brief message on the screen. Read the message and click in the box under it that says "OK" when you are ready to continue. 4. Tips for Success Remember, this is an experimental system. It can be quite slow at times and it may not be able to answer all your queries. Please be patient. Here are some tips on how to make the session go smoothly. Be specific. The system tends to take what you say quite literally. Don't be long winded. Many short queries generally work better than few long ones. Don't pause. Short pauses are OK, but if you pause too long in the middle of a question, the system will think that you have finished speaking, and will stop listening to you. Think before you talk. Compose your query, press the New Query button on the screen, and begin talking soon after the system status changes from "ready" to "listening". Be natural. Don't try to speak "computerese", just ask the questions in ordinary English and using your natural voice. Refer to notes. You might want to keep this document turned to the page titled "What kind of information is in the ATIS System?" to see the kinds of things you can ask about. Ask it! If you're not sure whether to ask a particular question or not, go ahead and give it a try! Don't get overwhelmed when receiving large amounts of information from ATIS. When ATIS responds with an answer that contains too much information, you may want to ask additional queries that will constrain that information. ; ; [CMU] %%NOTE: Original includes graphics, uses 12pt Helvetica for text, and has %% additional formatting (e.g., for columns of information). Airline Travel Information Systems Fast Facts What The Air Travel Information System (ATIS) is a prototype of a voice-input information retrieval system has the same information that is contained in the Official Airline Guide (OAG). It simulates an airline reservation system, although at this time it cannot make reservations for you. How Using ATIS is easy. When the Computer is ready to receive input from you it will enable the "talk" button. [[[ GRAPHIC HERE ]]] When the button looks like this ATIS is ready, and waiting for you to request information. When you are ready to make a request, position the mouse arrow on the talk button, and hold down the left mouse button. The button will then appear as: [[[ GRAPHIC HERE ]]] When you are finished with your request let go of the mouse button. ATIS will begin processing your request, and the button will look like this: [[[ GRAPHIC HERE ]]] This is a signal to you that ATIS is gathering the information that you requested, and will soon provide your answer to the screen before you. The information will look similar to the information in the OAG itself. Please wait for the button to say "Push Down to Talk" before making another request. Beginning and Ending a Session As you end each scenario, please hold down the "talk button" and state: "Ending scenario number _____". Then once the computer has enabled your "talk button" you can say "Beginning scenario number _____". This will help us label our voice recordings. Systems limitations: The system has a great deal of information, but will take every request literally. If you ask to see all the flights from one city to another you will be given ALL the appropriate flights. We suggest that you be as specific as possible, whenever possible. At this time reservations and seating assignments cannot be made. Where For testing purposes, ATIS has been programmed with only a few major cities which are: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Oakland Calif., Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, San Francisco. Please limit your flight requests to these cities. Other Information to Request In addition to the suggested questions that will be provided on your travel scenario you are encouraged to request additional information about: Abbreviations, Airlines, Airports, Classes of Service, Aircraft specifics, Airfares, Flight Numbers, Ground Transportation, Inflight Meals. Tally Sheet: A tally sheet is provided for your convenience. Please use it to mark down the flights that make up your itinerary. There are no right or wrong answers, this is not a test. So relax and enjoy yourself!!! ; ; [MIT] ATIS Data Collection Instructions to Subjects ATIS is an air travel information system under development at MIT that will eventually provide automated travel assistance using speech as input. The data that we collect from you today will be used to develop this computer system. Your help is greatly appreciated. During this data collection session, you will try to solve several different problem scenarios. In each scenario, you will ask the computer questions, and it will try to answer you. The system that you will be using is in its infancy and will not be able to answer all of your questions. It may even answer some questions incorrectly. Whenever it gets confused, please try asking your question in a different way. The information that the system uses was extracted from a small subset of the Official Airline Guide. Thus, while this information is all real, the system is quite limited in its knowledge. For example, it currently knows about only 11 U.S. cities, 9 airports, and 9 airlines serving these cities. The system does know some important information to help you solve the scenarios on pages 4, 5 and 6. For example, it knows about departure and arrival times of each flight, the type of aircraft used, and whether a meal is served. A summary of what the system currently knows can be found on page 3 of these instructions. During your conversation with the computer, it will try to interpret your questions in the context of what it has understood so far. For example, once you mention a place of departure or a destination, it will remember them in understanding later questions. The computer will answer you by both speaking and displaying a table on the screen in front of you. If you don't understand certain symbols and abbreviations that show up in the table, you can ask the computer what they mean. We would like to emphasize that there is no "right" way to ask a question. If what you try doesn't work, try rephrasing what you have said. TALKING TO THE SYSTEM On pages 4, 5, and 6 there are several scenarios having to do with travel planning, and we would like you to solve some of them. When you begin a scenario, please say "Begin scenario" and the number of the scenario you have chosen. e.g. "Begin scenario 1". When you are done with each scenario, please end by saying "End scenario" before you move on to the next one. o You can say "Scratch that" and the system will "forget" the last query that it understood (if it didn't understand something, you don't need to tell it to forget it). o You can say "Clear history" if you want it to forget all of your previous questions, in a given scenario, in order to start over. o A window at the bottom of your screen will tell you the status of the system at any given time. The system is ready for you to record an utterance when you see "Ready for input" in the status window. As soon as you begin recording an utterance, the status will change to "System working". You will not be able to record again until the computer has completely finished processing your utterance. o When you are ready to talk to the computer, you begin by holding down the left mouse button. Hold it down the entire time you are speaking. Release the button when you are done speaking. The mouse button controls what the computer "hears." Make sure that the computer is ready for input before you try to speak to it. o After you have spoken to the computer, an experimenter will type in what you have said and the computer will generate a response. You can speak with the experimenter at any time during this simulation and he/she can speak with you. Only the questions you have spoken with the mouse button held down will be processed by the system. Please take a few minutes and look over page 3, which contains useful information about what ATIS currently knows. You may want to keep this page in front of you for reference when solving the scenarios. You will now be asked to practice recording several utterances. Thank you very much for your help. ATIS Data Collection Information Sheet USEFUL COMMANDS: Speak these commands as needed: Begin scenario X (To begin a new scenario; "X" is the scenario number.) End scenario (To end a scenario) Scratch that (To wipe out the last sentence that the system understood.) Clear history (To wipe out the entire past conversation in a given scenario.) WHAT THE ATIS SYSTEM KNOWS ABOUT: ATIS knows about flights between a limited set of cities. For each flight, ATIS knows the following: Airlines Flight number Originating city Destination city Classes of service Other relevant information - fares - meals - ground transportation between airport and downtown - some specific information about the aircraft - number of stops Cities that ATIS knows about: Atlanta Baltimore/Washington Boston Dallas/Fort Worth Denver Oakland Pittsburgh Philadelphia San Francisco ATIS Data Collection Travel Planning Scenarios [NOTE]: Since the scenarios have quite a bit of flexibility, you may want to write down the specifics of the problem that you have selected to solve on a sheet of paper. This may avoid getting you and the system confused! [Scenario lists follow] ; ; [SRI] ;SRI has three versions of the instructions they have given to their subjects. ;The first version seemed to be difficult for the subjects to understand ;and the second version had to be modified when they (SRI) changed their ;system. All three versions are included below. ; [SRI-1] ;1) Instructions with no accompanying demonstration: ; (Used for subjects q0 through q3) ; ;Subject Instructions, No Demonstration ; Overview: We are developing a computer system that allows you to ask questions to obtain information concerning air travel planning. You are being asked to use this initial system. You will be asked to find the best solution to a travel-planning task, for example, to find the cheapest fare between two cities. You can do this by asking the system for information about various flights and fares, about ground transportation, about meals, plane types, arrival and departure times of flights, and so on. Please note that although the system contains the same information the "real-life" travel agents use, the system cannot ACTUALLY make reservations for you. Speaking to the System: To speak to the system, you must place the cursor over this bar, and click the mouse button [experiment demonstrates]. You will see that on the left of the screen is a description of what the system is doing at any one time. Before you speak, "Ready for Speech" will be highlighted. While you are talking, "Listening" will be highlighted. After you have finished speaking, the system will detect that you are done, and the highlighting will move to "Recognizing Speech". Note that if you pause for too long, (i.e. for over one second) while you are speaking, the system may think you are done, and move to the "Recognizing Speech" stage. Please speak naturally and clearly. The system will interpret what you say, search for the information, and sent its reply to your screen. After the system has finished recognizing your utterance, you will see what the system thought you said. This will be printed in large, bold letters. Underneath that will be a description of what the system thought you were asking, for example, "all flights from Boston to San Francisco". Finally, in the small, lower window, you will see the information that the system has determined should answer your request. This information will be in the form of tables of information. Using the Scroll Bar: If you make a request and get back more information than fits on one screen, you may have to use the scroll bar to see the information that does not fit on the first screen. To use the scroll bar, move the cursor to the dark bar at the side of the window on the screen [experimenter points this out], and hold down the mouse button as you move the cursor up or down. Information that was previously off the screen will now appear. If the System Does Not Understand Your Request: The system may not always understand your request, or be able to answer it. This could happen for three reasons. The first is because it could not correctly identify the words you used. In that case, you will see that the words it prints out first, in large letters, do not correspond to what you said. When this happens, however, it is still possible that the system will return the correct information to you. That is, despite the fact that some of the individual words you said were not correctly recognized by the system, it is still possible that the paraphrase produced by the system will be correct. In this case, you will get the information you want. However, if enough of your words are not recognized correctly, the system may not be able to answer your request. In this case you may try REPEATING YOUR REQUEST. the second reason the system may not be able to answer your request is if it correctly recognized the words you said, but does not know how to interpret them. For instance, there may be two or more ways to interpret something you said. Since the system cannot choose between alternative interpretations, it will give you an error message. You should then REPHRASE YOUR REQUEST. The third reason the system may not be able to answer your request is if it correctly recognizes the words you said, and knows how to interpret them, but there is no answer for your request. For instance, if you ask to see the flights that cost less than five dollars, you will get a message in the lower window that will tell you that there are no flights in the database that satisfy that condition. You should then MAKE A DIFFERENT REQUEST. Context-Dependency of Requests Unless you tell it to do otherwise, the system will "remember" what you specified in preceding requests. For example, if you ask to see flights from Boston to Dallas, you will get a listing of those flights. If you then ask to see flights leaving after five, what you will get will be a listing of flights from Boston to Dallas that leave after five, not of all flights in the database that leave after five. If you do NOT want the system to take previous information into account when you make a request (for instance, if you DID want to see all the flights in the database that leave after five, NOT just the ones from Boston to Dallas) then you will have to let the system know this. To eliminate any preceding context for a request, use the mouse to move the cursor to the "Start Over" box [experimenter points to this], and click once. A line will be drawn below the previous query, showing you that the system will not take into account any specifications you made in earlier queries. Remember, UNLESS you tell the system to start over in this way, all specifications you make in previous queries will be carried forward to the next one. You may at times wish to resume using a previous context, after having started over. To go back to a previous context, move the cursor back to the sentence in your series of requests that corresponds to the previously-established context you desire, and simply use the mouse button to click once on that utterance. You will notice that the system responds by opening up a new line below the one that you clicked on. You will also notice that utterances after that one are faded out. The fading out is to show you what the system is carrying over from earlier requests. The specifications you make in any utterance that is NOT faded out will be taken into account in your new utterance. Completing the Experimental Session: When you think you have found the best flight(s) for the task, please write the flight number(s) down on the piece of paper provided. Inform the experimenter that you are finished with your task. You will then receive a gift certificate for your participation [SRI-2] ;2) Instructions with accompanying demonstration: ; (Used for subjects q4 through qa) ; ;SRI Subject Instructions (to accompany demonstration) ; In this experiment, your task will be to speak to the system to elicit travel information in order to solve a scenario like this one. [Show training Scenario] In order to explain how to use the system, I'm going to give you a short demonstration using this training scenario. To speak to the system, you first use the mouse to position the cursor on the "click here to talk" button, and then press the left mouse button. When you do so, you will see that the highlighting at the upper left-hand side of the screen moves from "Ready for Speech" to "Listening", and you can begin talking. So if I were working on this scenario, I could say something like this: "Show me flights from San Francisco to Dallas on September sixth" As you can see, the system indicates what it is doing by highlighting the processes listed at the left of the screen. This black bar at the top shows you how much of the recognizing task it has completed. The system determines when you are finished speaking by listening for a pause of more than a second. This means, of course, that if you pause for too long in the middle of your utterance, it will assume you are finished and move on to the recognizing part. If this should happen, you have to wait for it to come back before it can accept more speech. When it comes back, it will show you three things: a transcription of your utterance, in bold blue letters, a paraphrase of how it interpreted the utterance in smaller green letters, and the answer, in the form of a table, here in the answer window below. It's quite possible that it will make mistakes. If the wording of the transcription isn't right, you should check the paraphrase to see what the interpretation was, since it may sometimes get the words wrong but the interpretation right. The tables that come up in the answer window are often longer than the window. To see the rest of the table, use the middle button on the mouse to move this scroll bar. Just hold the button down and drag the dark gray part in the direction you want to scroll. When you speak to it, the system assumes that everything you've said before still holds. So for example, I could now say: "Which flights leave before nine in the morning." Now it will assume I'm still talking about flights from San Francisco to Dallas. Unless you indicate otherwise, it will always make these assumptions about the previous context. If you want to change the context, there are two ways to do it. You can click on the "start over" button [show] which eliminates all previous context. As you can see, the lines that are no longer relevant are faded out on the screen. The other way is to click on a previous context. [show] When you do that, you will go back to the context of that line. Do you have any questions? [At this point the microphone is given to the subject, who is asked to speak to the system. If all goes well, the subject is then given the real scenario and left alone in the room.] [SRI-3] ; ;3) Instructions with accompanying demonstration (modified for new interface): ; (Used for Subjects qb through qg) ; ;SRI Subject Instructions (to accompany demonstration) ; In this experiment, your task will be to speak to the system to elicit travel information in order to solve a scenario like this one. [Show training Scenario] In order to explain how to use the system, I'm going to give you a short demonstration using this training scenario. To speak to the system, you first use the mouse to position the cursor on the "click here to talk" button, and then press the left mouse button. When you do so, you will see that the highlighting at the upper left-hand side of the screen moves from "Ready for Speech" to "Listening", and you can begin talking. So if I were working on this scenario, I could say something like this: "Show me flights from San Francisco to Dallas on September sixth" As you can see, the system indicates what it is doing by highlighting the processes listed at the left of the screen. This black bar at the top shows you how much of the recognizing task it has completed. The system determines when you are finished speaking by listening for a pause of more than a second. This means, of course, that if you pause for too long in the middle of your utterance, it will assume you are finished and move on to the recognizing part. If this should happen, you have to wait for it to come back before it can accept more speech. When it comes back, it will show you a paraphrase of how the system interpreted your utterance, here at the top, and just below it it will give the answer in the form of a table. Down below will be a transcription of your utterance. If the paraphrase seems to be wrong, you can check the transcription to see if it misrecognized your words. It's quite possible that it will make mistakes. The tables that come up in the answer window are sometimes longer than the window. To see the rest of the table, use the middle button on the mouse to move this scroll bar. Just hold the button down and drag the dark gray part in the direction you want to scroll. When you speak to it, the system assumes that everything you've said before still holds. So for example, I could now say: "Which flights leave before nine in the morning." Now it will assume I'm still talking about flights from San Francisco to Dallas. Unless you indicate otherwise, it will always make these assumptions about the previous context. If you want to change the context, you should use the buttons here at the bottom. "Start Over" gives you a new context and wipes out everything you've done before. Once you press "Start Over", you can't go back to the sentences you've said before. The "Previous" button allows you to see the last sentence you said, and "Next" shows you the next sentence after the one currently on the screen. If you go up to a previous sentence, however, and then talk to the system, it erases all the next sentences after that point, so you can't get back down to them. Also, if you press "Next" when there is no next sentence, you will get an error message. Just click on "continue". Do you have any questions? Why don't you try speaking to it, to make sure you're comfortable with it? Ask it something about the fares. [At this point the microphone is given to the subject, who speaks to the system. If all goes well, the subject is then given the real scenario and left alone in the room.] ;