A proposal for the development of adaptive spoken interfaces to access the Web

Spoken dialog systems have been proposed as a solution to facilitate a more natural human–machine interaction. In this paper, we propose a framework to model the user׳s intention during the dialog and adapt the dialog model dynamically to the user needs and preferences, thus developing more efficient, adapted, and usable spoken dialog systems. Our framework employs statistical models based on neural networks that take into account the history of the dialog up to the current dialog state in order to predict the user׳s intention and the next system response. We describe our proposal and detail its application in the Let׳s Go spoken dialog system.Work partially supported by Projects MINECO TEC2012-37832- C02-01, CICYT TEC2011-28626-C02-02, CAM CONTEXTS (S2009/ TIC-1485

Bringing context-aware access to the web through spoken interaction

The web has become the largest repository of multimedia information and its convergence with telecommunications is now bringing the benefits of web technology to hand-held devices. To optimize data access using these devices and provide services which meet the user needs through intelligent information retrieval, the system must sense and interpret the user environment and the communication context. In addition, natural spoken conversation with handheld devices makes possible the use of these applications in environments in which the use of GUI interfaces is not effective, provides a more natural human-computer interaction, and facilitates access to the web for people with visual or motor disabilities, allowing their integration and the elimination of barriers to Internet access. In this paper, we present an architecture for the design of context-aware systems that use speech to access web services. Our contribution focuses specifically on the use of context information to improve the effectiveness of providing web services by using a spoken dialog system for the user-system interaction. We also describe an application of our proposal to develop a context-aware railway information system, and provide a detailed evaluation of the influence of the context information in the quality of the services that are supplied.Research funded by projects CICYT TIN2011-28620-C02-01, CICYT TEC 2011-28626-C02-02, CAM CONTEXTS (S2009/TIC-1485), and DPS2008-07029-C02-02.Publicad

Providing personalized Internet services by means of context-aware spoken dialogue systems

The widespread use of new mobile technology implementing wireless communications enables a new type of advanced applications to access information services on the Internet. In order to provide services which meet the user needs through intelligent information retrieval, the system must sense and interpret the user environment and the communication context. Though context-awareness is vital to provide services adapted to the user preferences, it cannot be useful if such services are difficult to access. The development of spoken dialogue systems for these applications facilitates interaction in natural language with the environment which is also benefited from contextual information. In this paper, we propose a framework to develop context-aware dialogue systems that dynamically incorporate user specific requirements and preferences as well as characteristics about the interaction environment, in order to improve and personalize web information and services. We have identified the major components for context-aware dialogue systems and placed them within a general-purpose architecture. The framework also describes a representation mode based on a dialogue register in order to share information between the elements of the architecture, and incorporates statistical methodologies for dialogue management in order to reduce the effort required for both the implementation of a new system and the adaptation to a new task. We have evaluated our proposal developing a travel-planning system, and provide a detailed discussion of its positive influence in the quality of the interaction and the information and services provided.Research funded by projects CICYT TIN2011- 28620-C02-01, CICYT TEC2011-28626-C02-02, CAM CONTEXTS (S2009/TIC-1485), and DPS2008- 07029-C02-02.Publicad

Towards the Use of Dialog Systems to Facilitate Inclusive Education

Continuous advances in the development of information technologies have currently led to the possibility of accessing learning contents from anywhere, at anytime, and almost instantaneously. However, accessibility is not always the main objective in the design of educative applications, specifically to facilitate their adoption by disabled people. Different technologies have recently emerged to foster the accessibility of computers and new mobile devices, favoring a more natural communication between the student and the developed educative systems. This chapter describes innovative uses of multimodal dialog systems in education, with special emphasis in the advantages that they provide for creating inclusive applications and learning activities