MatchZoo: A Learning, Practicing, and Developing System for Neural Text Matching

Text matching is the core problem in many natural language processing (NLP) tasks, such as information retrieval, question answering, and conversation. Recently, deep leaning technology has been widely adopted for text matching, making neural text matching a new and active research domain. With a large number of neural matching models emerging rapidly, it becomes more and more difficult for researchers, especially those newcomers, to learn and understand these new models. Moreover, it is usually difficult to try these models due to the tedious data pre-processing, complicated parameter configuration, and massive optimization tricks, not to mention the unavailability of public codes sometimes. Finally, for researchers who want to develop new models, it is also not an easy task to implement a neural text matching model from scratch, and to compare with a bunch of existing models. In this paper, therefore, we present a novel system, namely MatchZoo, to facilitate the learning, practicing and designing of neural text matching models. The system consists of a powerful matching library and a user-friendly and interactive studio, which can help researchers: 1) to learn state-of-the-art neural text matching models systematically, 2) to train, test and apply these models with simple configurable steps; and 3) to develop their own models with rich APIs and assistance

Digital interaction: where are we going?

In the framework of the AVI 2018 Conference, the interuniversity center ECONA has organized a thematic workshop on "Digital Interaction: where are we going?". Six contributions from the ECONA members investigate different perspectives around this thematic

User-centred design of flexible hypermedia for a mobile guide: Reflections on the hyperaudio experience

A user-centred design approach involves end-users from the very beginning. Considering users at the early stages compels designers to think in terms of utility and usability and helps develop the system on what is actually needed. This paper discusses the case of HyperAudio, a context-sensitive adaptive and mobile guide to museums developed in the late 90s. User requirements were collected via a survey to understand visitors’ profiles and visit styles in Natural Science museums. The knowledge acquired supported the specification of system requirements, helping defining user model, data structure and adaptive behaviour of the system. User requirements guided the design decisions on what could be implemented by using simple adaptable triggers and what instead needed more sophisticated adaptive techniques, a fundamental choice when all the computation must be done on a PDA. Graphical and interactive environments for developing and testing complex adaptive systems are discussed as a further step towards an iterative design that considers the user interaction a central point. The paper discusses how such an environment allows designers and developers to experiment with different system’s behaviours and to widely test it under realistic conditions by simulation of the actual context evolving over time. The understanding gained in HyperAudio is then considered in the perspective of the developments that followed that first experience: our findings seem still valid despite the passed time

Considerations in Designing Human-Computer Interfaces for Elderly People

As computing devices continue to become more heavily integrated into our lives, proper design of human-computer interfaces becomes a more important topic of discussion. Efficient and useful human-computer interfaces need to take into account the abilities of the humans who will be using such interfaces, and adapt to difficulties that different users may face – such as the difficulties that elderly users must deal with. Interfaces that allow for user-specific customization, while taking into account the multiple difficulties that older users might face, can assist the elderly in properly using these newer computing devices, and in doing so possibly achieving a better quality of life through the advanced technological support that these devices offer. In this paper, we explore common problems the elderly face when using computing devices and solutions developed for these problems. Difficulties ultimately fall into several categories: cognition, auditory, haptic, visual, and motor-based troubles. We also present an idea for a new adaptive operating system with advanced customizations that would simplify computing for older users