A spoken document retrieval application in the oral history domain

The application of automatic speech recognition in the broadcast news domain is well studied. Recognition performance is generally high and accordingly, spoken document retrieval can successfully be applied in this domain, as demonstrated by a number of commercial systems. In other domains, a similar recognition performance is hard to obtain, or even far out of reach, for example due to lack of suitable training material. This is a serious impediment for the successful application of spoken document retrieval techniques for other data then news. This paper outlines our first steps towards a retrieval system that can automatically be adapted to new domains. We discuss our experience with a recently implemented spoken document retrieval application attached to a web-portal that aims at the disclosure of a multimedia data collection in the oral history domain. The paper illustrates that simply deploying an off-theshelf\ud broadcast news system in this task domain will produce error rates that are too high to be useful for retrieval tasks. By applying adaptation techniques on the acoustic level and language model level, system performance can be improved considerably, but additional research on unsupervised adaptation and search interfaces is required to create an adequate search environment based on speech transcripts

Sensory semantic user interfaces (SenSUI)

Rapid evolution of the World Wide Web with its underlying sources of data, knowledge, services and applications continually attempts to support a variety of users, with different backgrounds, requirements and capabilities. In such an environment, it is highly unlikely that a single user interface will prevail and be able to fulfill the requirements of each user adequately. Adaptive user interfaces are able to adapt information and application functionalities to the user context. In contrast, pervasive computing and sensor networks open new opportunities for context aware platforms, one that is able to improve user interface adaptation reacting to environmental and user sensors. Semantic web technologies and ontologies are able to capture sensor data and provide contextual information about the user, their actions, required applications and environment. This paper investigates the viability of an approach where semantic web technologies are used to maximize the efficacy of interface adaptation through the use of available ontology

Components Interoperability through Mediating Connector Patterns

A key objective for ubiquitous environments is to enable system interoperability between system's components that are highly heterogeneous. In particular, the challenge is to embed in the system architecture the necessary support to cope with behavioral diversity in order to allow components to coordinate and communicate. The continuously evolving environment further asks for an automated and on-the-fly approach. In this paper we present the design building blocks for the dynamic and on-the-fly interoperability between heterogeneous components. Specifically, we describe an Architectural Pattern called Mediating Connector, that is the key enabler for communication. In addition, we present a set of Basic Mediator Patterns, that describe the basic mismatches which can occur when components try to interact, and their corresponding solutions.Comment: In Proceedings WCSI 2010, arXiv:1010.233

A Mimetic Strategy to Engage Voluntary Physical Activity In Interactive Entertainment

We describe the design and implementation of a vision based interactive entertainment system that makes use of both involuntary and voluntary control paradigms. Unintentional input to the system from a potential viewer is used to drive attention-getting output and encourage the transition to voluntary interactive behaviour. The iMime system consists of a character animation engine based on the interaction metaphor of a mime performer that simulates non-verbal communication strategies, without spoken dialogue, to capture and hold the attention of a viewer. The system was developed in the context of a project studying care of dementia sufferers. Care for a dementia sufferer can place unreasonable demands on the time and attentional resources of their caregivers or family members. Our study contributes to the eventual development of a system aimed at providing relief to dementia caregivers, while at the same time serving as a source of pleasant interactive entertainment for viewers. The work reported here is also aimed at a more general study of the design of interactive entertainment systems involving a mixture of voluntary and involuntary control.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, ECAG08 worksho

Evaluation of spoken document retrieval for historic speech collections

The re-use of spoken word audio collections maintained by audiovisual archives is severely hindered by their generally limited access. The CHoral project, which is part of the CATCH program funded by the Dutch Research Council, aims to provide users of speech archives with online, instead of on-location, access to relevant fragments, instead of full documents. To meet this goal, a spoken document retrieval framework is being developed. In this paper the evaluation efforts undertaken so far to assess and improve various aspects of the framework are presented. These efforts include (i) evaluation of the automatically generated textual representations of the spoken word documents that enable word-based search, (ii) the development of measures to estimate the quality of the textual representations for use in information retrieval, and (iii) studies to establish the potential user groups of the to-be-developed technology, and the first versions of the user interface supporting online access to spoken word collections

WEB service interfaces for inter-organisational business processes an infrastructure for automated reconciliation

For the majority of front-end e-business systems, the assumption of a coherent and homogeneous set of interfaces is highly unrealistic. Problems start in the back-end, with systems characterised by a heterogeneous mix of applications and business processes. Integration can be complex and expensive, as systems evolve more in accordance with business needs than with technical architectures. E-business systems are faced with the challenge to give a coherent image of a diversified reality. Web services make business interfaces more efficient, but effectiveness is a business requirement of at least comparable importance. We propose a technique for automatic reconciliation of the Web service interfaces involved in inter-organisational business processes. The working assumption is that the Web service front-end of each company is represented by a set of WSDL and WSCL interfaces. The result of our reconciliation method is a common interface that all the parties can effectively enforce. Indications are also given on ways to adapt individual interfaces to the common one. The technique was embodied in a prototype that we also present

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

Composition and Self-Adaptation of Service-Based Systems with Feature Models

The adoption of mechanisms for reusing software in pervasive systems has not yet become standard practice. This is because the use of pre-existing software requires the selection, composition and adaptation of prefabricated software parts, as well as the management of some complex problems such as guaranteeing high levels of efficiency and safety in critical domains. In addition to the wide variety of services, pervasive systems are composed of many networked heterogeneous devices with embedded software. In this work, we promote the safe reuse of services in service-based systems using two complementary technologies, Service-Oriented Architecture and Software Product Lines. In order to do this, we extend both the service discovery and composition processes defined in the DAMASCo framework, which currently does not deal with the service variability that constitutes pervasive systems. We use feature models to represent the variability and to self-adapt the services during the composition in a safe way taking context changes into consideration. We illustrate our proposal with a case study related to the driving domain of an Intelligent Transportation System, handling the context information of the environment.Work partially supported by the projects TIN2008-05932, TIN2008-01942, TIN2012-35669, TIN2012-34840 and CSD2007-0004 funded by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER; P09-TIC-05231 and P11-TIC-7659 funded by Andalusian Government; and FP7-317731 funded by EU. Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec