AMO_UNITS: online services accessibility viA MObile for UNITS students and employees using novel vocal interfaces

Project objectives

The main object of the project is the development of technologies and methodologies for the realization of vocal interfaces. Recent advances in ICT indeed make new extremely sophisticated and powerful digital solutions feasible; several NLP (Natural Language Processing) and NLU (Natural Language Understanding) platforms indeed have appeared in the last few months. This makes feasible the transition from the classical GUIs (Graphic User Interfaces) to new "Conversational User Interfaces" (CUIs), with their potential advantages such as the possibility to be used in new conditions (e.g. while driving). CUIs also are very promising for some disabled people such us the blind, and this is indeed the focus of this project.
We aim at exploiting the knowledge of the Image Processing Laboratory (IPL) of the University of Trieste (UniTS), in terms of both technological and user experience (UX) know-how, and the expertise in vocal interefaces and digital apps for the disabled people of the company, Kapamo. The first case study which will be considered and developed is the access to web-based applications of UniTS for students and employees.

Project plan and workpackages (WPs)

WP1: Analysis
WP1.1: Analysis of needs
WP1.2: Analysis of present CUI technologies and methodologies
WP1.3: Analysis of UniTS webservices (ESSE3, UGOV, WEBMAIL)
WP2: Design
WP3: Prototype development
WP4: Testing and dissemination

Time schedule of the project

Project duration is 18 months; the RA activity is planned to start on month 4
1 (months 1-3) Build-up of a Living-lab to collect the requirements of the users - mainly, blind people.
2 (month 4; RA month 1) Study of the state-of-the-art of NLP and NLU, in terms of both technology and design methodology.
3 (month 5; RA month 2) Study of the UniTS s/w applications to be vocalized: workflows, APIs...
4 (months 6-7; RA months 3-4) Design and testing of a vocal-only workflow. Redesign of GUI processes as CUI processes.
Development of a prototype to test dialogs (possibly only textual ones, in this phase) and UX.
5 (month 8; RA month 5) Definition of the optimal technology and development methodology, according to the needs and the results of the previous tests. Study of the selected platform(s).
6 (months 9-12; RA months 6-9) Development of a prototype of vocal interface on one or more UniTS web services. More in detail, development of a s/w application which manages advanced functionalities of ESSE3, UGOV, WEBMAIL using only (vocal or written) dialogs.
7 (months 13-15; RA months 10-12) Testing with users, feedback acquisition and processing. The prototype is tested. by both common students and blind ones. Feedback is exploited to modify and optimize both technological aspects and usability experience.
8 (months 16) Design refinement and product finalisation; preparation of the final documentation.
9 (months 17-18) Results dissemination.

Expected results

1. Definition of a list of technologies and methodologies useful for the development of CUIs
2. Development of an advances prototype which will help blind people to access some of the webservices
of UniTS using audio-only interfaces:
- page with the list of exams (ESSE3)
- fee page (ESSE3)
- exam booking page (ESSE3)
- teacher's synopsis webpage, logbook and markbook (UGOV and ESSE3)
- mail page for reading, writing and managing emails (WEBMAIL)

Further information available c/o:

Company reference person:
Roberto Gilli, dialobot@gmail.com, 0039 334 3794731
Kapamo web page: http://www.kapamo.org

University reference person:
Sergio Carrato, carrato@units.it, +39 040 5587147, http://www.units.it/carrato
IPL web page: http://www.units.it/ipl