Computers Learn to Listen, and Some Talk Back

Hi, thanks for coming, the medical assistant says, greeting a mother with her 5-year-old son. Are you here for your child or yourself?
The boy, the mother replies. He has diarrhea.
Oh no, sorry to hear that, she says, looking down at the boy.
The assistant asks the mother about other symptoms, including fever (slight) and abdominal pain (He hasnt been complaining).
She turns again to the boy. Has your tummy been hurting? Yes, he replies.
After a few more questions, the assistant declares herself not that concerned at this point. She schedules an appointment with a doctor in a couple of days. The mother leads her son from the room, holding his hand. But he keeps looking back at the assistant, fascinated, as if reluctant to leave.
Maybe that is because the assistant is the disembodied likeness of a womans face on a computer screen a no-frills avatar. Her words of sympathy are jerky, flat and mechanical. But she has the right stuff the ability to understand speech, recognize pediatric conditions and reason according to simple rules to make an initial diagnosis of a childhood ailment and its seriousness. And to win the trust of a little boy.
Our young children and grandchildren will think it is completely natural to talk to machines that look at them and understand them, said Eric Horvitz, a computer scientist at Microsofts research laboratory who led the medical avatar project, one of several intended to show how people and computers may communicate before long.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/science/25voice.html?src=me&ref=general

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