Talking to Linked Data: Comparing voice interfaces for
general-purpose data Rianne Nieland Supervisor: Victor de Boer
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Context & Problem Statement Web = big information space o
Contains useful information for people in developing countries Like
governmental and medical information, and information about plants
and trees on Wikipedia People in developing countries: o No
internet access o Often low literate o Do have mobile phones
Solution: Voice-based access to Web data using GSM network
Research: Develop voice interfaces for general-purpose
datasets
Wikipedia vs DBpedia Natural language text And structured
information, like infobox, images and links to other pages Extracts
structured information of Wikipedia DBpedia ontology: classes and
properties Data interlinked with other data sources Very
lightweight way to share, re-use and integrate datasets
Research Questions How can information from Wikipedia
efficiently be made available using voice interfaces for GSM? 1.
What are the requirements of a good voice interface for Wikipedia
and DBpedia concepts? 2. What are good methods for converting
Wikipedia and DBpedia concepts to voice interfaces? 3. How do users
perform on the Wikipedia and DBpedia voice interface in terms of
speed, error rate and usability?
Approach Experiment Developing conversion algorithms (Process)
Developing voice user interface (Output) Requirements elicitation
Literature study
Requirements elicitation Input requirements o Dual-Tone
Multi-Frequency input o Local phone line Process requirements o
Overview of page o Eliminate repetitions o Feedback o Error
recovery Output requirements o Systems voice: female + text to
speech o Nonverbal sounds
Voice user interface Basic call flow structure: 1. Welcome
message + page menu 2. Section menu 3. Subsection menu 4. Reads
chosen (sub)section to user Voice interfaces have same basic call
flow structure But different input sources
Process of voice interfaces Input: Wikipedia /DBpedia ? Output:
Call flow
Process of voice interfaces Input: Wikipedia /DBpedia Proces:
Conversion Output: Call flow
Conversion steps DOMXPATH queries Section menu: o Elements with
class mw- headline, except h3 and h4 Subsection menu: o h3 elements
Read (sub)section o p en li elements SPARQL queries Section menu: o
Abstract o Nutritional values o Biological classification o
Associated food, persons and organizations Subsection menu &
Read (sub)section o SPARQL queries
Experiment 16 participants Domain crops Each participant tests
both voice interfaces by answering questions with the voice
interfaces 2 question sets of each 3 questions Divided participants
into 4 groups: o First Wikipedia (W) with question set 1 and then
DBpedia (D) with question set 2 (W1D2) o W2D1 o D1W2 o D2W1
Experiment 1. Verbal explanation 2. General questionnaire
(gender, age, purposes of mobile phone usage and usage of voice
interfaces) 3. Test first voice interface by answering questions 4.
Fill in IBMs usability satisfaction questionnaire 5. Test second
voice interface by answering questions 6. Fill in IBMs usability
satisfaction questionnaire
Results: Speed Wikipedia voice interface average time 2:53
minutes DBpedia voice interface average time 2:22 minutes No
significant difference Both voice interfaces equally fast Also no
learning curve found
Results: Error rate In general both voice interface have
significantly the same error rate For question 2 of question set 1
Wikipedia has a significantly lower error rate
Results: Usability Usability is divided into 4 scores: o
Overall satisfaction o System usefulness o Information quality o
Interface quality In general no significant difference between
Wikipedia and DBpedia voice interface for all scores When voice
interfaces are tested first: o Wikipedia scores higher on overall
satisfaction and information quality
Discussion WiFi connection sometimes did not work DBpedia was
offline a number of times o DBpedia backup voice interface
Participants are used to access textual version of Web DBpedia
contains very little information DBpedia voice interface is domain
specific
Conclusion To make information from Wikipedia efficiently
available using voice interfaces for GSM: o Requirements should be
met o Conversion methods used in this research should be
considered, because they work efficiently o Both normal Web data,
Wikipedia, or Linked Data, Dbpedia, can be used
Future work Can be used in developing countries o Should use
local languages o Local phone number o Should be tested there
outside a lab o Investigate what information these people need
Broaden scope to whole Wikipedia and DBpedia