Conversational natural language interaction for place-related knowledge acquisition

We focus on the problems of using Natural Language inter- action to support pedestrians in their place-related knowledge acquisi- tion. Our case study for this discussion is a smartphone-based Natu- ral Language interface that allows users to acquire spatial and cultural knowledge of a city. The framework consists of a spoken dialogue-based information system and a smartphone client. The system is novel in com- bining geographic information system (GIS) modules such as a visibility engine with a question-answering (QA) system. Users can use the smart- phone client to engage in a variety of interleaved conversations such as navigating from A to B, using the QA functionality to learn more about points of interest (PoI) nearby, and searching for amenities and tourist attractions. This system explores a variety of research questions involving Natural Language interaction for acquisition of knowledge about space and place.