Practical use of Virtual Assistants and Voice User Interfaces in Engineering Laboratories

Michael Callaghan; Victor Bogdan Putinelu; Jeremy Ball; Jorge Caballero Salillas; Thibault Vannier; Augusto Gómez Eguíluz

Practical use of Virtual Assistants and Voice User Interfaces in Engineering Laboratories

Michael Callaghan, Victor Bogdan Putinelu, Jeremy Ball, Jorge Caballero Salillas, Thibault Vannier, Augusto Gómez Eguíluz

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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Abstract

Automatic Question-Answering (QA) systems and speech recognition/synthesis functionality and accuracy has improved dramatically over the last decade allowing the use of voice interactions for increasingly complex tasks. Virtual assistants, based on speech-based services are growing in popularity and are now entering the mainstream. These services and devices come with a set of built-in capabilities and in some instances allow the creation and addition of new functionality and abilities facilitating their use in a range of diverse application areas. Practical electronic and electrical engineering laboratories for undergraduate students are evolving incrementally driven by affordable instrumentation and hardware kit with internet access but remain fundamentally unchanged. This paper explores the practical use of virtual assistants and voice user interfaces in electronic and electrical engineering laboratories to tutor and assess students while accessing and controlling test instrumentation and circuits. The re-purposing of existing teaching resources and material for use in this context is discussed and a case study and practical working example of a virtual assistant laboratory demonstrating the viability of this approach is shown.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Unknown Host Publication
Publisher	Springer
Number of pages	12
Publication status	Accepted/In press - 12 Dec 2016
Event	14th International Conference on Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation - 15-17 March 2017, Columbia University, New York, USA Duration: 12 Dec 2016 → …

Conference

Conference	14th International Conference on Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation
Period	12/12/16 → …

Bibliographical note

Reference text: 1. Abdelghani Bouziane, Djelloul Bouchiha, Noureddine Doumi, Mimoun Malki, Ques-tion Answering Systems: Survey and Trends, Procedia Computer Science, Volume 73, 2015, Pages 366-375, ISSN 1877-0509.

2. Khillare S A Ajitkumar M. Pundge and Namrata C Mahender. Question Answering Sys-tem, Approaches and Techniques: A Review. International Journal of Computer Appli-cations 141(3):34-39, May 2016

3. Microsoft. 2016. Conversational intelligence. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.microsoft.com/en/mobile/experiences/cortana/. [Accessed 30 November 2016].

4. Amazon. 2016. Started with the Alexa Skills Kit. [ONLINE] Available at: https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-skills-kit/getting-started-guide. [Accessed 30 November 2016].

5. Amazon. 2016. Amazon Web Services Internet of Things. [ONLINE] Available at: https://aws.amazon.com/iot-platform/how-it-works/. [Accessed 30 November 2016].

6. Feisel, L. D. and Rosa, A. J. (2005), The Role of the Laboratory in Undergraduate En-gineering Education. Journal of Engineering Education, 94: 121–130.

7. Black, A.W., & Taylor, P. (1997). Automatically clustering similar units for unit selec-tion in speech synthesis. Proceedings of Eurospeech 1997 (pp. 601–604). Athens, Greece.
8. Amazon. 2016. Amazon Echo Interaction Model. [ONLINE] Available at: https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-voice-service/reference/interaction-model. [Accessed 30 November 2016].

9. E. Lindsay, D. Liu, S. Murray, and D. Lowe, “Remote Laboratories in Engineering Edu-cation: Students’ Perceptions,” Proc. 18th Ann. Conf. Assoc. for Eng. Edu. (AaeE ’07), 2007

10. D. Lowe, S. Murray, E. Lindsay and D. Liu, "Evolving Remote Laboratory Architec-tures to Leverage Emerging Internet Technologies," in IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 289-294, Oct.-Dec. 2009. doi: 10.1109/TLT.2009.33

11. IO Suite. 2016. Keysight IO. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.keysight.com/en/pd-1985909/io-libraries-suite?cc=GB&lc=eng. [Accessed 30 November 2016].

12. Amazon. 2016. Amazon web services. [ONLINE] Available at: https://aws.amazon.com/. [Accessed 30 November 2016].

13. Removed for review purposes

14. Amazon Alexa/Echo demo. 2016. Practical lab for Series Parallel circuit. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDpx9jZ-WKs&spfreload=10. [Ac-cessed 30 November 2016]

Keywords

Automatic Question-Answering (QA) systems
speech recognition and synthesis
virtual assistants
voice user interface practical laboratories

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Callaghan 36635Accepted author manuscript, 12.9 KB

Cite this

Callaghan, M., Putinelu, V. B., Ball, J., Salillas, J. C., Vannier, T., & Gómez Eguíluz, A. (Accepted/In press). Practical use of Virtual Assistants and Voice User Interfaces in Engineering Laboratories. In Unknown Host Publication Springer. http://uir.ulster.ac.uk/36635/1/Practical%20use%20of%20Virtual%20Assistants%20and%20Voice%20User%20Interfaces%20in%20Engineering%20Laboratories.pdf

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title = "Practical use of Virtual Assistants and Voice User Interfaces in Engineering Laboratories",

abstract = "Automatic Question-Answering (QA) systems and speech recognition/synthesis functionality and accuracy has improved dramatically over the last decade allowing the use of voice interactions for increasingly complex tasks. Virtual assistants, based on speech-based services are growing in popularity and are now entering the mainstream. These services and devices come with a set of built-in capabilities and in some instances allow the creation and addition of new functionality and abilities facilitating their use in a range of diverse application areas. Practical electronic and electrical engineering laboratories for undergraduate students are evolving incrementally driven by affordable instrumentation and hardware kit with internet access but remain fundamentally unchanged. This paper explores the practical use of virtual assistants and voice user interfaces in electronic and electrical engineering laboratories to tutor and assess students while accessing and controlling test instrumentation and circuits. The re-purposing of existing teaching resources and material for use in this context is discussed and a case study and practical working example of a virtual assistant laboratory demonstrating the viability of this approach is shown.",

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note = "Reference text: 1. Abdelghani Bouziane, Djelloul Bouchiha, Noureddine Doumi, Mimoun Malki, Ques-tion Answering Systems: Survey and Trends, Procedia Computer Science, Volume 73, 2015, Pages 366-375, ISSN 1877-0509. 2. Khillare S A Ajitkumar M. Pundge and Namrata C Mahender. Question Answering Sys-tem, Approaches and Techniques: A Review. International Journal of Computer Appli-cations 141(3):34-39, May 2016 3. Microsoft. 2016. Conversational intelligence. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.microsoft.com/en/mobile/experiences/cortana/. [Accessed 30 November 2016]. 4. Amazon. 2016. Started with the Alexa Skills Kit. [ONLINE] Available at: https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-skills-kit/getting-started-guide. [Accessed 30 November 2016]. 5. Amazon. 2016. Amazon Web Services Internet of Things. [ONLINE] Available at: https://aws.amazon.com/iot-platform/how-it-works/. [Accessed 30 November 2016]. 6. Feisel, L. D. and Rosa, A. J. (2005), The Role of the Laboratory in Undergraduate En-gineering Education. Journal of Engineering Education, 94: 121–130. 7. Black, A.W., & Taylor, P. (1997). Automatically clustering similar units for unit selec-tion in speech synthesis. Proceedings of Eurospeech 1997 (pp. 601–604). Athens, Greece. 8. Amazon. 2016. Amazon Echo Interaction Model. [ONLINE] Available at: https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-voice-service/reference/interaction-model. [Accessed 30 November 2016]. 9. E. Lindsay, D. Liu, S. Murray, and D. Lowe, “Remote Laboratories in Engineering Edu-cation: Students{\textquoteright} Perceptions,” Proc. 18th Ann. Conf. Assoc. for Eng. Edu. (AaeE {\textquoteright}07), 2007 10. D. Lowe, S. Murray, E. Lindsay and D. Liu, {"}Evolving Remote Laboratory Architec-tures to Leverage Emerging Internet Technologies,{"} in IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 289-294, Oct.-Dec. 2009. doi: 10.1109/TLT.2009.33 11. IO Suite. 2016. Keysight IO. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.keysight.com/en/pd-1985909/io-libraries-suite?cc=GB&lc=eng. [Accessed 30 November 2016]. 12. Amazon. 2016. Amazon web services. [ONLINE] Available at: https://aws.amazon.com/. [Accessed 30 November 2016]. 13. Removed for review purposes 14. Amazon Alexa/Echo demo. 2016. Practical lab for Series Parallel circuit. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDpx9jZ-WKs&spfreload=10. [Ac-cessed 30 November 2016]; 14th International Conference on Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation ; Conference date: 12-12-2016",

year = "2016",

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language = "English",

booktitle = "Unknown Host Publication",

publisher = "Springer",

address = "Switzerland",

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Callaghan, M, Putinelu, VB, Ball, J, Salillas, JC, Vannier, T & Gómez Eguíluz, A 2016, Practical use of Virtual Assistants and Voice User Interfaces in Engineering Laboratories. in Unknown Host Publication. Springer, 14th International Conference on Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation, 12/12/16. <http://uir.ulster.ac.uk/36635/1/Practical%20use%20of%20Virtual%20Assistants%20and%20Voice%20User%20Interfaces%20in%20Engineering%20Laboratories.pdf>

Practical use of Virtual Assistants and Voice User Interfaces in Engineering Laboratories. / Callaghan, Michael; Putinelu, Victor Bogdan; Ball, Jeremy; Salillas, Jorge Caballero; Vannier, Thibault; Gómez Eguíluz, Augusto.

Unknown Host Publication. Springer, 2016.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

TY - GEN

T1 - Practical use of Virtual Assistants and Voice User Interfaces in Engineering Laboratories

AU - Callaghan, Michael

AU - Putinelu, Victor Bogdan

AU - Ball, Jeremy

AU - Salillas, Jorge Caballero

AU - Vannier, Thibault

AU - Gómez Eguíluz, Augusto

N1 - Reference text: 1. Abdelghani Bouziane, Djelloul Bouchiha, Noureddine Doumi, Mimoun Malki, Ques-tion Answering Systems: Survey and Trends, Procedia Computer Science, Volume 73, 2015, Pages 366-375, ISSN 1877-0509. 2. Khillare S A Ajitkumar M. Pundge and Namrata C Mahender. Question Answering Sys-tem, Approaches and Techniques: A Review. International Journal of Computer Appli-cations 141(3):34-39, May 2016 3. Microsoft. 2016. Conversational intelligence. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.microsoft.com/en/mobile/experiences/cortana/. [Accessed 30 November 2016]. 4. Amazon. 2016. Started with the Alexa Skills Kit. [ONLINE] Available at: https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-skills-kit/getting-started-guide. [Accessed 30 November 2016]. 5. Amazon. 2016. Amazon Web Services Internet of Things. [ONLINE] Available at: https://aws.amazon.com/iot-platform/how-it-works/. [Accessed 30 November 2016]. 6. Feisel, L. D. and Rosa, A. J. (2005), The Role of the Laboratory in Undergraduate En-gineering Education. Journal of Engineering Education, 94: 121–130. 7. Black, A.W., & Taylor, P. (1997). Automatically clustering similar units for unit selec-tion in speech synthesis. Proceedings of Eurospeech 1997 (pp. 601–604). Athens, Greece. 8. Amazon. 2016. Amazon Echo Interaction Model. [ONLINE] Available at: https://developer.amazon.com/public/solutions/alexa/alexa-voice-service/reference/interaction-model. [Accessed 30 November 2016]. 9. E. Lindsay, D. Liu, S. Murray, and D. Lowe, “Remote Laboratories in Engineering Edu-cation: Students’ Perceptions,” Proc. 18th Ann. Conf. Assoc. for Eng. Edu. (AaeE ’07), 2007 10. D. Lowe, S. Murray, E. Lindsay and D. Liu, "Evolving Remote Laboratory Architec-tures to Leverage Emerging Internet Technologies," in IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 289-294, Oct.-Dec. 2009. doi: 10.1109/TLT.2009.33 11. IO Suite. 2016. Keysight IO. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.keysight.com/en/pd-1985909/io-libraries-suite?cc=GB&lc=eng. [Accessed 30 November 2016]. 12. Amazon. 2016. Amazon web services. [ONLINE] Available at: https://aws.amazon.com/. [Accessed 30 November 2016]. 13. Removed for review purposes 14. Amazon Alexa/Echo demo. 2016. Practical lab for Series Parallel circuit. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDpx9jZ-WKs&spfreload=10. [Ac-cessed 30 November 2016]

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N2 - Automatic Question-Answering (QA) systems and speech recognition/synthesis functionality and accuracy has improved dramatically over the last decade allowing the use of voice interactions for increasingly complex tasks. Virtual assistants, based on speech-based services are growing in popularity and are now entering the mainstream. These services and devices come with a set of built-in capabilities and in some instances allow the creation and addition of new functionality and abilities facilitating their use in a range of diverse application areas. Practical electronic and electrical engineering laboratories for undergraduate students are evolving incrementally driven by affordable instrumentation and hardware kit with internet access but remain fundamentally unchanged. This paper explores the practical use of virtual assistants and voice user interfaces in electronic and electrical engineering laboratories to tutor and assess students while accessing and controlling test instrumentation and circuits. The re-purposing of existing teaching resources and material for use in this context is discussed and a case study and practical working example of a virtual assistant laboratory demonstrating the viability of this approach is shown.

AB - Automatic Question-Answering (QA) systems and speech recognition/synthesis functionality and accuracy has improved dramatically over the last decade allowing the use of voice interactions for increasingly complex tasks. Virtual assistants, based on speech-based services are growing in popularity and are now entering the mainstream. These services and devices come with a set of built-in capabilities and in some instances allow the creation and addition of new functionality and abilities facilitating their use in a range of diverse application areas. Practical electronic and electrical engineering laboratories for undergraduate students are evolving incrementally driven by affordable instrumentation and hardware kit with internet access but remain fundamentally unchanged. This paper explores the practical use of virtual assistants and voice user interfaces in electronic and electrical engineering laboratories to tutor and assess students while accessing and controlling test instrumentation and circuits. The re-purposing of existing teaching resources and material for use in this context is discussed and a case study and practical working example of a virtual assistant laboratory demonstrating the viability of this approach is shown.

KW - Automatic Question-Answering (QA) systems

KW - speech recognition and synthesis

KW - virtual assistants

KW - voice user interface practical laboratories

M3 - Conference contribution

BT - Unknown Host Publication

PB - Springer

T2 - 14th International Conference on Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation

Y2 - 12 December 2016

ER -

Practical use of Virtual Assistants and Voice User Interfaces in Engineering Laboratories

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Bibliographical note

Keywords

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