Voice-Operated System Lets Astronauts Keep Eyes and Hands Free
From: NASA Tech Briefs Insider - 09/06/2005

Clarissa is a fully voice-operated procedure browser that lets astronauts
navigate through specific tasks using only spoken commands. The software
reads the procedure steps to the astronauts through voice control, enabling
the astronauts to keep both their hands and eyes free. 

Beth Ann Hockey of the Intelligent Systems Division at NASA's Ames Research
Center in California, is the project lead for Clarissa. She explained that an
astronaut may say "Go to step five" and the software goes to that step and
reads it to them. "It gives them a way to read ahead or read back without
losing their place in the procedure; it keeps track of what step they are
on," she said. 

According to Hockey, applications are endless. "Any time you want to have
your hands and eyes free, it will be a win. For example, tasks in which you'd
be laying underneath a piece of equipment and you can't stop and scroll
through a computer screen or flip through papers." 

To read the complete interview visit:
http://www.techbriefs.com/NEWS/Sep05/who_0905.html

Links:
NASA Intelligent Systems Division - Spoken Dialogue Interfaces
http://tc.arc.nasa.gov/projects/clarissa/
http://tc.arc.nasa.gov/projects/clarissa/details.php
http://ic.arc.nasa.gov/story.php?id=204&sec=

Clarissa Explains it All 
http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/050413_clarissa_tech.html

Speech In Space
http://speech.blogs.com/sb/2005/06/index.html

HAL 9000, meet Clarissa
http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/446

Space-station astronauts test voice-operated computer system 
http://currents.ucsc.edu/05-06/07-11/clarissa.asp

NASA Tests Talking Space Computer
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/briefs/20050627/clarissa.html