Re: SpeechRecognitionEvent resultIndex / resultHistory

Milan,
Yes, I agree the wording needs to be clarified.  I also agree that "the
case of correcting a previous interim while deleting the tail of the result
list" is a reasonably common operation, and that case can be implemented
with the following definitions.

I propose the following wording for resultHistory:

    "The array of all of the recognition results that have so far been
returned as part of this session. It consists of zero or more final results
followed by zero or more interim results. On subsequent
SpeechRecognitionResultEvent
events, interim results may be replaced by a newer interim result or by a
final result. Final results cannot be replaced. All entries for indexes
less than resultIndex must be identical to the array that was present when
the last SpeechRecognitionResultEvent was raised.  All array entries for
indexes equal or greater than resultIndex replace any prior entries that
were present in the array (if any) when the last
SpeechRecognitionResultEvent was raised.  The length of the resultHistory
array may increase or decrease, but cannot be less than resultIndex.

I propose the following wording for resultIndex:

    "The resultIndex must be set to the lowest index in the resultHistory
array that has changed. When continuous was false, the resultIndex must
always be 0."

I propose to eliminate the resultdeleted event because it results
in inconsistent states, and because the above definition of resultHistory
/ resultIndex makes the resultdeleted event superfluous.

I propose to eliminate SpeechRecognitionResultEvent.result
because SpeechRecognitionResultEvent may (and often does) return multiple
results. The JavaScript author can easily process all new results with code
such as:

for (i = resultIndex;  i < resultHistory.length; ++i) {
  // process resultHistory[i];
}


/Glen Shires


On Tue, Aug 21, 2012 at 10:31 PM, Young, Milan <Milan.Young@nuance.com>wrote:

>  I agree with the spirit of the change, but I’m unsure about the wording.*
> ***
>
> ** **
>
> The result deleted event says “The resultIndex of this event will be the
> element that was deleted” and your text says “The resultIndex must be set
> to the lowest index in the resultHistory array that has changed.”  This
> combination would seem to preclude the case of correcting a previous
> interim while deleting the tail of the result list, which I would guess is
> a reasonably common operation.****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* Glen Shires [mailto:gshires@google.com]
> *Sent:* Tuesday, August 21, 2012 8:09 AM
> *To:* public-speech-api@w3.org
> *Subject:* SpeechRecognitionEvent resultIndex / resultHistory****
>
> ** **
>
> As speech is processed, typically a portion of (but not all of) the
> interim results become final.  As portions become final, the interim
> hypotheses typically also change.  For example, the following sequence
> might occur. (Each line below represents one point in time.)****
>
> ** **
>
> interim: "Tube"****
>
> ** **
>
> interim: "To be born"****
>
> ** **
>
> interim: "To be or not to be"****
>
> ** **
>
> final: "To be"  interim: " or not to be there"****
>
> ** **
>
> final: "To be"  final: " or not to be"  interim: " that is"****
>
> ** **
>
> final: "To be"  final: " or not to be"  interim: " that is"  interim " the
> question"****
>
> ** **
>
> final: "To be"  final: " or not to be"  final: " that is the"  interim: "
> question what"****
>
> ** **
>
> final: "To be"  final: " or not to be"  final: " that is the"  final: "
> question."  interim: " Weather today"****
>
> ** **
>
> final: "To be"  final: " or not to be"  final: " that is the"  final: "
> question."  interim: " Whether tis nobler"****
>
> ** **
>
> final: "To be"  final: " or not to be"  final: " that is the"  final: "
> question."  final: " Whether"  interim: " tis nobler"****
>
> ** **
>
> final: "To be"  final: " or not to be"  final: " that is the"  final: "
> question."  final: " Whether"  final: " tis nobler"****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> Our current spec doesn't support such simultaneous changes to both interim
> and final results. Instead, each SpeechRecognitionEvent returns only a
> single "final" or a single "interim" result.  I propose a simple change to
> enable SpeechRecognitionEvent to return multiple "final" and "interim"
> events. I believe this has the following advantages:****
>
> ** **
>
> - Provides more accurate results (it avoids inconsistent states in which
> the "final" has been returned but the "interim" has not yet been updated).
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> - Provides more efficient processing (it reduces the number of events that
> JavaScript needs to respond to and, more importantly, it avoids the UI
> rendering of those inconsistent states).****
>
> ** **
>
> - It simplifies the JavaScript coding (by not having to detect or
> compensate for inconsistent states).****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> Therefore, I propose a slight re-definition of resultIndex:****
>
> ** **
>
>     "The resultIndex must be set to the lowest index in
> the resultHistory array that has changed.  Entries at greater indexes in
> the resultHistory array (if any) may also have changed."****
>
> ** **
>
> followed by the rest of the existing definition of resultIndex:****
>
> ** **
>
>     "The resultIndex may refer to a previous occupied array index from a
> previous SpeechRecognitionResultEvent. When this is the case this new
> result overwrites the earlier result and is a more accurate result;
> however, when this is the case the previous value must not have been a
> final result. When continuous was false, the resultIndex must always be 0."
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> And a slight re-definition of resultHistory:****
>
> ** **
>
>     "The array of all of the recognition results that have been returned
> as part of this session. All entries for indexes less than resultIndex must
> be identical to the array that was present when the last
> SpeechRecognitionResultEvent was raised.****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> To illustrate, the fourth line in our example above would return
> the SpeechRecognitionResultEvent with****
>
>   resultIndex = 0****
>
>   resultHistory[0] = "To be", final = true,   resultHistory[1] = " or not
> to be there", final = false ****
>
> ** **
>
> and the the fifth line in our example above would return the
> SpeechRecognitionResultEvent with****
>
>   resultIndex = 1****
>
>   resultHistory[0] = "To be", final = true,   resultHistory[1] = " or not
> to be", final = true,   resultHistory[2] = " that is", final = false****
>
> ** **
>
> ** **
>
> /Glen Shires****
>
> ** **
>