Quality of service and communicative competence in NLG evaluation

Abstract The paper discusses quality of service evaluation which emphasises the user's experience in the evaluation of system functionality and efficiency. For NLG systems, an important quality feature is communicatively adequate language generation, which affects the users' perception of the system and consequently, evaluation results. The paper drafts an evaluation task that aims at measuring quality of service, taking the system's communicative competence into account

Haptic Transit: Tactile feedback to notify public transport users

To attract people to use public transport, efficient transit information systems providing accurate, real-time, easy-tounderstand information must be provided to users. In this paper we introduce HapticTransit, a tactile feedback based alert/notification model of a system, which provides spatial information to the public transport user. The model uses real-time bus location with other spatial information to provide feedback about the user as their journey is in progress. The system allows users make better use of „in-bus‟ time. It allows the user be involved with other activities and not be anxious about the arrival at their destination bus stop. Our survey shows a majority of users have missed a bus stop/station whilst undertaking a transit journey in an unfamiliar location. The information provided by our system can be of great advantage to certain user groups. The vibration alarm is used to provide tactile feedback. Visual feedback, in the form of colour coded buttons and textual description, is also provided. This model forms the basis for further research for developing information systems for public transport users with special needs – deaf, visually impaired and those with poor spatial abilities

ECA gesture strategies for robust SLDSs

This paper explores the use of embodied conversational agents (ECAs) to improve interaction with spoken language dialogue systems (SLDSs). For this purpose we have identified typical interaction problems with SLDSs and associated with each of them a particular ECA gesture or behaviour. User tests were carried out dividing the test users into two groups, each facing a different interaction metaphor (one with an ECA in the interface, and the other implemented only with voice). Our results suggest user frustration is lower when an ECA is present in the interface, and the dialogue flows more smoothly, partly due to the fact that users are better able to tell when they are expected to speak and whether the system has heard and understood. The users’ overall perceptions regarding the system were also affected, and interaction seems to be more enjoyable with an ECA than without it

Vuorovaikutteisuus aktiivisuusrannekkeissa ja älykelloissa

Aktiivisuusrannekkeiden ja älykellojen suosio on kasvanut viime vuosien aikana. Markkinoille on tuotu aiempaa tehokkaampia laitteita, jotka yhdistävät useita eri vuorovaikutustapoja keskenään. Vuorovaikutustavat aktiivisuusrannekkeiden ja älykellojen sekä käyttäjän välillä hyödyntävät useita eri modaliteetteja. Tämän tutkielman tarkoituksena on selvittää, minkälaisia laitteita markkinoilla on ja minkälaisia vuorovaikutustapoja ne hyödyntävät. Lisäksi selvitän, minkälaiset vuorovaikutustavat ovat käyttäjien mielestä miellyttävimpiä ja miten niitä on hyödynnetty markkinoilla olevissa laitteissa. Tutkielmassa esitellään myös sellaisia laitteita, joista on tehty prototyyppejä. Lisäksi selvitän, miten näissä prototyypeissä toteutettuja vuorovaikutustapoja voitaisiin hyödyntää tai on jo hyödynnetty markkinoilla olevissa laitteissa

Hey Siri!: A Study of Everyday Information Seeking Among Frequent Users of Intelligent Personal Assistants.

This study used diaries and interviews to examine everyday information seeking behaviors among a group of frequent users of intelligent personal assistants. All participants completed diaries and met for a brief interview following the completion of their diaries. Diary responses captured real life examples of intelligent personal assistant usage, while interviews focused on general perceptions of intelligent personal assistants. Participants frequently used their intelligent personal assistants to find factual information but often expressed reluctance to ask assistants questions that would be difficult for the assistants to answer well. Many assistant uses were for repetitive and frequent types of information needs. Participants expressed mixed opinions about the appropriateness of intelligent personal assistant use in social situations. Some, though not all, of the findings of this study confirm the findings of other research in the growing body of research on intelligent personal assistants.Master of Science in Information Scienc

Multimodaalne vestluse juhtimine: ajakirjaniku silma- ja kulmuliigutused saadetes "Kahekõne" ja "Välisilm"

Töö koosneb 2 failist: põhiosast ja 1 lisastAjakirjanikuna on töö üheks peamiseks informatsiooni kogumise vahendiks intervjueerimine. Hea intervjueerija juures on oluline osata küsida õigeid küsimusi õigel ajal. Samas on oluline semiootiliste ressursside (näiteks sõnade, hääle väljendusvõimaluste, kehaliigutuste ja -asendite) oskuslik kasutamine vestluse juhtimisel. Semiootiliste ressursside teadlik kasutamine aitab ajakirjanikul vestlust paremini suunata. Multimodaalse diskursuse analüüsi abil uurisin, kuidas kogenud ajakirjanikud - Indrek Treufeldt ja Tarmo Maiberg - semiootilisi ressursse kasutavad. Minu tähelepanu keskmes olid silmade ja kulmude liigutused. Uurimistöö jaoks transkribeerisin ning analüüsisin kokku neli intervjuud - kaks mõlemalt ajakirjanikult. Analüüsitavate intervjuude seas oli mõlemal ajakirjanikul üks ekspert- ja üks konfliktintervjuu. Silmade ja kulmude tegevuses leidsin sarnaseid kasutusviise kõigi nelja intervjuu puhul (näiteks alla vaatamine küsimuse formuleerimise ajal; silmade ja kulmudega rõhutamine) kui ka saatejuhile omaseid suhtlustegevusi ja intervjuu tüübile iseloomulikke tunnuseid. Nii elavnes silmade ja kulmude tegevus mõlema saatejuhil konfliktintervjuude puhul. Samas toetasid silmade ja kulmude liigutused saatekülalist rohkem ekspertintervjuu puhul. Kulmud ja silmad võimaldasid ajakirjanikel väljendada emotsioone (imestust, segadust), peegeldada, tekitada vastuolusid, pingestada ning näidata välja aktiivset kuulamist.http://www.ester.ee/record=b4486579*es

Producing Acoustic-Prosodic Entrainment in a Robotic Learning Companion to Build Learner Rapport

abstract: With advances in automatic speech recognition, spoken dialogue systems are assuming increasingly social roles. There is a growing need for these systems to be socially responsive, capable of building rapport with users. In human-human interactions, rapport is critical to patient-doctor communication, conflict resolution, educational interactions, and social engagement. Rapport between people promotes successful collaboration, motivation, and task success. Dialogue systems which can build rapport with their user may produce similar effects, personalizing interactions to create better outcomes. This dissertation focuses on how dialogue systems can build rapport utilizing acoustic-prosodic entrainment. Acoustic-prosodic entrainment occurs when individuals adapt their acoustic-prosodic features of speech, such as tone of voice or loudness, to one another over the course of a conversation. Correlated with liking and task success, a dialogue system which entrains may enhance rapport. Entrainment, however, is very challenging to model. People entrain on different features in many ways and how to design entrainment to build rapport is unclear. The first goal of this dissertation is to explore how acoustic-prosodic entrainment can be modeled to build rapport. Towards this goal, this work presents a series of studies comparing, evaluating, and iterating on the design of entrainment, motivated and informed by human-human dialogue. These models of entrainment are implemented in the dialogue system of a robotic learning companion. Learning companions are educational agents that engage students socially to increase motivation and facilitate learning. As a learning companion’s ability to be socially responsive increases, so do vital learning outcomes. A second goal of this dissertation is to explore the effects of entrainment on concrete outcomes such as learning in interactions with robotic learning companions. This dissertation results in contributions both technical and theoretical. Technical contributions include a robust and modular dialogue system capable of producing prosodic entrainment and other socially-responsive behavior. One of the first systems of its kind, the results demonstrate that an entraining, social learning companion can positively build rapport and increase learning. This dissertation provides support for exploring phenomena like entrainment to enhance factors such as rapport and learning and provides a platform with which to explore these phenomena in future work.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Computer Science 201

Integrating Haptic Feedback into Mobile Location Based Services

Haptics is a feedback technology that takes advantage of the human sense of touch by applying forces, vibrations, and/or motions to a haptic-enabled device such as a mobile phone. Historically, human-computer interaction has been visual - text and images on the screen. Haptic feedback can be an important additional method especially in Mobile Location Based Services such as knowledge discovery, pedestrian navigation and notification systems. A knowledge discovery system called the Haptic GeoWand is a low interaction system that allows users to query geo-tagged data around them by using a point-and-scan technique with their mobile device. Haptic Pedestrian is a navigation system for walkers. Four prototypes have been developed classified according to the user’s guidance requirements, the user type (based on spatial skills), and overall system complexity. Haptic Transit is a notification system that provides spatial information to the users of public transport. In all these systems, haptic feedback is used to convey information about location, orientation, density and distance by use of the vibration alarm with varying frequencies and patterns to help understand the physical environment. Trials elicited positive responses from the users who see benefit in being provided with a “heads up” approach to mobile navigation. Results from a memory recall test show that the users of haptic feedback for navigation had better memory recall of the region traversed than the users of landmark images. Haptics integrated into a multi-modal navigation system provides more usable, less distracting but more effective interaction than conventional systems. Enhancements to the current work could include integration of contextual information, detailed large-scale user trials and the exploration of using haptics within confined indoor spaces