A Robust Architecture For Human Language Technology Systems

Early human language technology systems were designed in a monolithic fashion. As these systems became more complex, this design became untenable. In its place, the concept of distributed processing evolved wherein the monolithic structure was decomposed into a number of functional components that could interact through a common protocol. This distributed framework was readily accepted by the research community and has been the cornerstone for the advancement in cutting edge human language technology prototype systems.The Defense Advanced Research Program Agency (DARPA) Communicator program has been highly successful in implementing this approach. The program has fueled the design and development of impressive human language technology applications. Its distributed framework has offered numerous benefits to the research community, including reduced prototype development time, sharing of components across sites, and provision of a standard evaluation platform. It has also enabled development of client-server applications with complex inter-process communication between modules. However, this latter feature, though beneficial, introduces complexities which reduce overall system robustness to failure. In addition, the ability to handle multiple users and multiple applications from a common interface is not innately supported. This thesis describes the enhancements to the original Communicator architecture that address robustness issues and provide a multiple multi-user application environment by enabling automated server startup, error detection and correction. Extensive experimentation and analysis were performed to measure improvements in robustness due to the enhancements to the DARPA architecture. A 7.2% improvement in robustness was achieved on the address querying task, which is the most complex task in the human language technology system

Automatic translation of formal data specifications to voice data-input applications.

This thesis introduces a complete solution for automatic translation of formal data specifications to voice data-input applications. The objective of the research is to automatically generate applications for inputting data through speech from specifications of the structure of the data. The formal data specifications are XML DTDs. A new formalization called Grammar-DTD (G-DTD) is introduced as an extended DTD that contains grammars to describe valid values of the DTD elements and attributes. G-DTDs facilitate the automatic generation of Voice XML applications that correspond to the original DTD structure. The development of the automatic application-generator included identifying constraints on the G-DTD to ensure a feasible translation, using predicate calculus to build a knowledge base of inference rules that describes the mapping procedure, and writing an algorithm for the automatic translation based on the inference rules.Dept. of Computer Science. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2006 .H355. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-01, page: 0354. Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2006

Narrative Journalism in the Age of the Internet:New Ways to Create Authenticity in Online Literary Reportages

Online literary reportages represent an imperative counterweight to conventional journalism that is essential both for our emotional and intellectual survival. Using Paula Delgado-Kling’s online literary reportage »Child Soldiers: Homero« and Mark Bowden’s multimedia text »The Desert One Debacle« as examples, Nora Berning explores issues of multimediality and authenticity in online narrative journalism. Berning’s case studies open up discussions, both theoretical and practical, about the future of digital media literacy

Medial Transformations: Theorising the Intelligent Mediation Sphere

Media are playing significant roles in the context of the contemporary world. They are deeply interwoven with many aspects of life. The relationships between contemporary media and societies and cultures are complex. Therefore, theorising media situation is a challenging endeavour. The central goals of the current book are to review the ontological and epistemological shifts in medium theories, to theorise contemporary media and critically examine the ‘new’ media practices. In a nutshell, the discussions revolve around three areas of media ontology, media typology and media practices. Media ontology addresses the concepts and definitions of media at a meta-level. The concept of media can be defined either positive – media as a particular technology or cultural/communicational means – or negative – media as complex sets of medial relations or mediation processes. In the current book, media are defined as mediation processes, sets of non-linear mediated formations in transformations (a dynamic-organic state of ‘becoming’ cultural events, media situations, mediated environments and mediation sphere). Media cannot be reduced to certain modalities or technological characteristics, rather they ‘set the shape, pace, rhythms, and typography’ of cognitive, communicational, cultural, social, biopolitical life in temporal and spatial living environment. This definition can provide a holistic approach for categorisation of media. In chapter one, the frameworks of arguments are further discussed in detail. Chapter two, three and four encompass the critical analysis of pre-medium, medium and post-medium theories. The pre-medium theories lack a cohesive and explicit line of discourses in defining media. The medium theories explicitly addressed the issue of media and introduced a new line of scholarship informed by various disciplines during the emergence of the ‘mass media.’ The post-medium theories encompass a larger spectrum of scholarship addressing the issue of mediality in globalised and networked societies. Media typologies are usually based on media technologies or instruments of practices. In the current book, the broad media taxonomies are contextualised on the basis of mediation spheres, the holistic definition of medium discussed earlier. This categorisation provides the scope for analysing dynamics of media situations in a holistic way. The milestones of media transformations in history can be divided into six categories including, presentational, representational, mechanical, electronic, intelligent and biological mediation spheres. In chapter five the dynamics and characteristics of these mediation sphere are further discussed. Contemporary media practices, which are usually termed by the practitioners, can be broadly divided into two categories of media-design (e.g. software design, application design, information design, web design, game design, sound design, computer graphic design, vision-design, interface design, etc.) and media-art (e.g. app-art, application art/software art, game-art, sonic art, digital art, algorithm art, bio-art, neuro-art, interactive-art, video-art, etc.). The two fields of practices are conceptually indistinguishable and complementary to the larger contemporary media culture. The media arts practices are usually the innovative open fields, avant-garde practices or critical reflection on media culture. Media design practices are influenced by the mainstream productions, media literacy, media competence and communication traditions within a given media culture. The media usages and media literacies are expanding progressively depending on the context of media culture. In chapter six, a case study of app-art practices and critique of app culture are discussed in the framework of the intelligent mediation sphere

An intelligent multimodal interface for in-car communication systems

In-car communication systems (ICCS) are becoming more frequently used by drivers. ICCS are used in order to minimise the driving distraction due to using a mobile phone while driving. Several usability studies of ICCS utilising speech user interfaces (SUIs) have identified usability issues that can affect the workload, performance, satisfaction and user experience of the driver. This is due to current speech technologies which can be a source of errors that may frustrate the driver and negatively affect the user experience. The aim of this research was to design a new multimodal interface that will manage the interaction between an ICCS and the driver. Unlike the current ICCS, it should make more voice input available, so as to support tasks (e.g. sending text messages; browsing the phone book, etc), which still require a cognitive workload from the driver. An adaptive multimodal interface was proposed in order to address current ICCS issues. The multimodal interface used both speech and manual input; however only the speech channel is used as output. This was done in order to minimise the visual distraction that graphical user interfaces or haptics devices can cause with current ICCS. The adaptive interface was designed to minimise the cognitive distraction of the driver. The adaptive interface ensures that whenever the distraction level of the driver is high, any information communication is postponed. After the design and the implementation of the first version of the prototype interface, called MIMI, a usability evaluation was conducted in order to identify any possible usability issues. Although voice dialling was found to be problematic, the results were encouraging in terms of performance, workload and user satisfaction. The suggestions received from the participants to improve the system usability were incorporated in the next implementation of MIMI. The adaptive module was then implemented to reduce driver distraction based on the driver‟s current context. The proposed architecture showed encouraging results in terms of usability and safety. The adaptive behaviour of MIMI significantly contributed to the reduction of cognitive distraction, because drivers received less information during difficult driving situations

Products and Services

Today’s global economy offers more opportunities, but is also more complex and competitive than ever before. This fact leads to a wide range of research activity in different fields of interest, especially in the so-called high-tech sectors. This book is a result of widespread research and development activity from many researchers worldwide, covering the aspects of development activities in general, as well as various aspects of the practical application of knowledge

Literate Change Agents Working in Oral Communities: Navigating Paradigm Shifts

This research documents the experience of 12 local leaders implementing an oral curriculum over 13 months in Karnataka, India. These leaders were Change Agents interested in influencing a community with new information. They created audio materials referred to as “content” in their group’s mother tongue: In a Kannada-Telegu mix for the Madiga group (a Scheduled Caste); in Vaagri Booli for the Hakkipikki group (a Scheduled Tribe); and in Kannada for the Kannadiga group. The first two languages are unwritten. The Kannada language is the official language of Karnataka state. The oral curriculum followed the Spoken Worldwide® model. Each team of local leaders designed their content by combining a topic, a local proverb, and an informative resource in story form. Next, the individual leaders facilitated discussion groups in their community centered on the content. Eighteen men were interviewed; this included six community discussion group members. The Connected Learning Framework was the conceptual lens for this research. It consists of four constructs—relationship, relevance, oral modes of communication, and mutual respect. Relationships played a primary role because the learners preferred to work with individuals they knew, or with individuals who were approved by the community’s leaders. Content that centered on what was relevant to community members was well-received by the listeners. The leaders used modes of communication that were familiar to community members by presenting content in the mother tongue and including local proverbs. By facilitating discussion after presenting the content, the leaders demonstrated mutual respect ensuring a multidirectional flow of information. This informed how the leaders created subsequent content. This research found that introducing new ideas, specifically Christian Scripture as a source of wisdom, was received positively by almost all audiences. In addition, the Team Leaders who had more experience using oral modes of communication, specifically telling Bible stories, and facilitating discussion were more consistent in implementing the Spoken process and principles and modeled the process during the content creation sessions with their Local Leaders or in presenting the content in their Leader’s gatherings. These leaders who had more experience with Connect Learning strategies were able to navigate further in the oral learning paradigm

Copy(write): Intellectual Property in the Writing Classroom

The editors of Copy(write): Intellectual Property in the Writing Classroom bring together stories, theories, and research that can further inform the ways in which we situate and address intellectual property issues in our writing classrooms. The essays in the collection identify and describe a wide range of pedagogical strategies, consider theories, present research, explore approaches, and offer both cautionary tales and local and contextual successes that can further inform the ways in which we situate and address intellectual property issues in our teaching.https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/textbooks/1003/thumbnail.jp