Andreas Klüter NLP System Software Engineering Chennai, 17./18. Feb 04

Verbmobil from a Software Engineering point of view

System Design and Software Integration

Andreas Klüter

sonicson GmbH, Kaiserslautern, Germany

Andreas Klüter NLP System Software Engineering Chennai, 17./18. Feb 04

Many partners delivered software ...

Andreas Klüter NLP System Software Engineering Chennai, 17./18. Feb 04

Software Technology Challenges

The goal• Build an integrated system

The situation• Researchers do research• Using different programming languages• Researchers don’t want to be bothered with technical

details

The solution• Introducing: the System Group• Introducing: the Testbed

Andreas Klüter NLP System Software Engineering Chennai, 17./18. Feb 04

The Graphical User Interface

Andreas Klüter NLP System Software Engineering Chennai, 17./18. Feb 04

Visualization and Debug Tools …

.... and much more

Andreas Klüter NLP System Software Engineering Chennai, 17./18. Feb 04

Service Modules: Convenient development, integration, testing, ...

VisualizationManager

Automatic TestModule

SynchronizationModule

User Command Mapper

Arbitration of Concurrent Modules

GUITestbedManager

NLP System Software Engineering Chennai, 17./18. Feb 04

The Testbed: Integration Framework for NLP-Systems

Black-board X

Black-board Y

Black-board Z

TestbedManager

GUI

ModuleA

ModuleB

ModuleC

Andreas Klüter NLP System Software Engineering Chennai, 17./18. Feb 04

PCA - Pool Communication Architecture

M1 M2 M3

M5 M6M4

BB 2BB 1 BB 3

M1 M2

M3

M4 M5

M6

Verbmobil I Verbmobil IIMulti-Agent Architecture Multi-Blackboard Architecture

Modules know all communication partners Direct communication between modulesReconfiguration difficult Software: ICE and ICE Master Basic Platform: PVM

Modules know their I/O data pools No direct communication between modules 198 blackboards vs. 2380 direct comm. paths Reconfiguration easy Several instances of one module/functionality Software: PCA and Module Manager Basic Platform: PVM

Blackboards (= „Pools“)

Andreas Klüter NLP System Software Engineering Chennai, 17./18. Feb 04

Audio Data

Word HypothesesGraph with

Prosodic Labels

VITsUnderspecified

DiscourseRepresentations

CommandRecognizer

SpontaneousSpeech Recognizer

Channel/SpeakerAdaptation

ProsodicAnalysis

StatisticalParser

Dialog ActRecognition

Chunk Parser

HPSGParser

SemanticConstruction

Robust DialogSemantics

SemanticTransfer

Generation

Sample Pool Structure

Andreas Klüter NLP System Software Engineering Chennai, 17./18. Feb 04

Distributed Execution Supports Distributed Development

server 2

server 1controlling terminal

User 2

User 1

PoolCommunication

Architecture

Andreas Klüter NLP System Software Engineering Chennai, 17./18. Feb 04

Thank you for your interest!

Andreas Klüter

sonicson GmbH, Kaiserslautern, Germany

The Testbed has already been reused:

• Philips• Catholic University of Nijmegen• SmartKom• Comic

Andreas Klüter NLP System Software Engineering Chennai, 17./18. Feb 04

Audio Processing („fast“) and Phonetic Fuzzy Match(„fil Kollins“) combined

Audio Processing („fast“) and Phonetic Fuzzy Match(„fil Kollins“) combined

Andreas Klüter NLP System Software Engineering Chennai, 17./18. Feb 04

Genre Classification („pop“), Audio Processing („slow“)and Access to Meta Data („80s“)

Genre Classification („pop“), Audio Processing („slow“)and Access to Meta Data („80s“)

Andreas Klüter NLP System Software Engineering Chennai, 17./18. Feb 04

Automatic Classification („lovesongs“)Automatic Classification („lovesongs“)

Andreas Klüter NLP System Software Engineering Chennai, 17./18. Feb 04

Music Simliarity and Recommendations …Music Simliarity and Recommendations …

Andreas Klüter NLP System Software Engineering Chennai, 17./18. Feb 04

… Plus Constraints („not madonna“)… Plus Constraints („not madonna“)

Andreas Klüter NLP System Software Engineering Chennai, 17./18. Feb 04

… Even More Constraints („only english songs“)… Even More Constraints („only english songs“)

… We Leed the Users to What He‘s Looking For !… We Leed the Users to What He‘s Looking For !

Andreas Klüter NLP System Software Engineering Chennai, 17./18. Feb 04

Installation Example: Phonetic Fuzzy Match at musicline.de