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Speech-based technology is a useful alternative to traditional input techniques such as the keyboard and mouse. For people with disabilities that hinder use of traditional input devices, a hands-free speechbased interaction solution is highly desirable. Various speech-based navigation techniques have been discussed in the literature and employed in commercial software applications. Among them, grid-based navigation has shown both potential and limitations. Grid-based solutions allow users to position the cursor using recursive grids to 'drill down' until the cursor is in the desired location. We report the results of an empirical study that assessed the efficacy of two enhancements to the grid-based navigation technique: magnification and fine-tuning. Both mechanisms were designed to facilitate the process of selecting small targets. The results suggest that both the magnification and the fine-tuning capabilities significantly improved the participants' performance when selecting small targets and that fine-tuning also has benefits when selecting larger targets. Participants preferred the solution that provided both enhancements.

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This paper reports results from two six-month field studies investigating the use of speech-based interactions in real world environments. The first study focused on the use of speech-based dictation/word processing tasks that allow users to generate text such as reports or emails. The second study took a broader view and examined two types of interactions: speech-based dictation for word processing and speech-based command and control supporting interactions with the graphical user interface. The results suggest that user requirements for speech-based interactions have evolved as the technology matured to include better support for formatting text documents as well as more effective support for other applications. While significant research has focused on the use of speech recognition to generate text, our participants spent substantially more time using speech recognition for other, often unexpected tasks such as instant messaging and web browsing. The use of speech recognition to support informal communication is particularly interesting as accuracy may be less critical in this context. Further research is needed to address these emerging requirements for speech technologies.