Page 10 - Intelligent Communication Systems

PREFACE

The information technology (IT) revolution is surely coming in this century, just
as did the agricultural and industrial revolutions that have already so enriched our
lives. As the IT revolution progresses, it is expected that almost all social struc-
tures and economic activities will be changed substantially.
In order for the IT revolution to penetrate our societies and enrich our lives,
everyone in the world must have easy access to the information infrastructure and
enjoy the use of any of the functions made available by that revolution. To accom-
plish this, the following basic functions have to be developed. Human-friendly
human-machine interfaces should be provided to enable everyone, young or old,
access to the information. Development tools have to be available for anyone to
develop the new IT services. A more human-friendly communication environment
is needed to allow people to communicate via the Internet as if they were gathered
at the same place.
To fulfill these functions, the application of artificial intelligence (AI), such
as natural language processing and knowledge engineering, to telecommunications
will play an important role. The application of AI to telecommunication techno-
logy results in what is called the intelligent communication system. Research on
the intelligent communication system includes the application of AI to telecom-
munications to produce human-friendly interfaces to telecommunication services,

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