research-article

Early Results from Automating Voice-based Question-Answering Services Among Low-income Populations in India

Authors:

Rajeshwari Tripathi,

Sangeeta Saini,

Aaditeshwar SethAuthors Info & Claims

COMPASS '21: Proceedings of the 4th ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies

Pages 79 - 87

https://doi.org/10.1145/3460112.3471946

Published: 23 September 2021 Publication History

Abstract

Question-answering systems where users can ask questions based on emergent needs which are then answered by experts or peers, have emerged as an important information seeking modality on digital platforms. Automating this process has been an active area of research since many years, to identify relevant answers from pre-existing question-answer databases. We report on the feasibility of running automated question-answering systems in the context of rural and less-literate users in India, accessed through IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems. We use commercial speech recognition APIs to convert audio questions asked by users into their equivalent transcripts in real time, in Hindi, and use deep-learning based architectures to retrieve corresponding candidate answers which are instantly played to the users. We report several insights from an earlier phase of running question-answering programmes through a manual operation, to how it was transitioned to an automated setup, and document the user experiences during this journey.

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Cited By

Chakraborty DChatterjee STripathi RGupta ASeth A(2024)Experiences from Running a Participatory Media Platform for Women and Led by Women in Rural North IndiaProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36536858:CSCW1(1-23)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3653685
Richardson DIslam MCumbo BShrestha PVarghese DBartindale TOlivier P(2024)A Design Vocabulary for Scaffolding Group Interaction Archetypes through Synchronous TelephonyProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36372898:CSCW1(1-22)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3637289

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cover image ACM Conferences

COMPASS '21: Proceedings of the 4th ACM SIGCAS Conference on Computing and Sustainable Societies

June 2021

462 pages

ISBN:9781450384537

DOI:10.1145/3460112

Copyright © 2021 ACM.

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Published: 23 September 2021

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Cited By

Chakraborty DChatterjee STripathi RGupta ASeth A(2024)Experiences from Running a Participatory Media Platform for Women and Led by Women in Rural North IndiaProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36536858:CSCW1(1-23)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3653685
Richardson DIslam MCumbo BShrestha PVarghese DBartindale TOlivier P(2024)A Design Vocabulary for Scaffolding Group Interaction Archetypes through Synchronous TelephonyProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36372898:CSCW1(1-22)Online publication date: 26-Apr-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3637289

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