• University of Art and Design Helsinki (project coordinator)
• University of Helsinki
• University of Tampere
• Helsinki University of Technology

It is funded by the National Technology Agency (TEKES), the leading IT-companies (ICL Invia Oyj, Sonera Oyj, Tecnomen Oyj, Lingsoft Oy, and Gurusoft Oy) as well as the Finnish Association of the Deaf (Kuurojen Liitto ry) and the Arla Institute (Arlainstituutti), vocational training and development centre for visually impaired and deafblind people.

The project aims at developing models for human-computer interaction and at building pilot systems which allow users to interact with the computer in a natural and robust way. The goal of the research is to enable natural language interaction in a wider range of situations than has been possible so far, and in situations where its use has not been functional or robust enough. The project deals with both speech and text communication, interfacing with the user by telephone, web- and wap-applications. Various application types such as intelligent question-answer systems, automatic call-centers, and other services that would benefit from flexible natural interaction will be investigated within the project.