On the Feasibility of Voice Input to
an On-line Computer Processing System
An on-line digital computer processing system is considered in which an 
ordinary telephone is the complete terminal device, input to the computer 
being provided as a sequence of spoken words, and output to the user being 
audio responses from the machine.  The feasibility of implementing such a 
system with a FORTRAN-like algebraic compiler as the object processor is 
considered.  Details of a specific word recognition program are given.  This 
technique depends on three simplifying restrictions, namely, a "small"
vocabulary set, "known" speakers, and a "moment of silence"
between each input word.  Experimental results are presented giving
error rates for different experimental conditions as well as the machine 
resources required to accommodate several users at a time. The results show 
that at this time it is both economically and logically feasible to handle at 
least 40 users at a time with an IBM 360/65 computer.
CACM June, 1970
Elder, H. A.
