Android based voice assistant for blind people
| Pages | 9-11 |
| Published date | 06 August 2018 |
| Date | 06 August 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-11-2017-0083 |
| Author | Marcos Barata,Afan Galih Salman,Ikhtiar Faahakhododo,Bayu Kanigoro |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Library & information services |
Android based voice assistant for blind people
Marcos Barata, Afan Galih Salman, Ikhtiar Faahakhododo and Bayu Kanigoro
1. Introduction
Along with the development of
technology, nowadays, has been found
in various kinds of smartphones ranging
from having a qwerty keyboard to touch
screen with different operating systems,
such as iOS and Android (Lee, 2012).
Each of these operating systems
continues to be developed from time to
time.
The development of smartphone
technology as of now, cannot be felt by
blind people. It is because of the
difficulty in operating a smartphone that
is mostly developed with a touchscreen.
It affects blind people, who only use the
sense of touch, hearing and taste in
everyday life. Therefore, to help blind
people in operating touchscreen
smartphones, it is necessary to create a
voice assistant application (Intelligent
Software Assistant).
This application can help the blind and
visually impaired people in accessing
resources in the library. Craven (2003)
conducts behavioral research on the
difficulties faced by blind and visually
impaired people in obtaining library
resources. This application can also
reduce the resource-sharing gaps (Epp,
2006) for the blind and visually impaired
people when accessing library resources.
Intelligent Software Assistant
(Naone, 2017) is a software agent,
which is also an intelligent agent, that
runs a task with some specific directives
from the user. This software evolved
from the concept of a virtual personal
assistant, a cognitive assistant who can
learn and organize. Intelligent software
assistant combines traditional artificial
intelligence approaches to try to create a
personal assistant program that can
evolve through its interaction with the
user. This software u ses smart
techniques and behavioral learning to
show users thata computer can be quick.
The purpose of Intelligent Software
Assistant program’s development is to
create a fantastic experience, which can
help people to be more efficient in their
daily lives.
2. Methodology
The method used to determine the
needs of users is a direct interview that
media conducted with five blind
respondents. The interview method was
chosen because the blind cannot fill the
questionnaire. Analysis of user needs is
done with the aim to find out what is
needed by the blind for using Android
today, what are the constraints that are
often faced and so forth.
The interview shows the users need
applications that can assist in operating
android smartphones that are currently on
average implemented with touchscreen
technology. Users require an application
that can execute commands from a user
by using sounds, such as commands, to
send messages, read incoming words,
read the messaging status, make inbound
calls, read out battery status and lock the
device. This also requires an application
that can confirm before executing the
command provided by the user. This
needs an application that can read out
menus or icons being touched by the user.
This requires speech-to-text and text-to-
speech applications in Indonesian
language and their clear pronunciation.
The design method is one of the
techniques contained in the Agile
Model, and it is called the Scrum
method (Sutherland and Schwaber,
2011). Scrum method was chosen,
because this process is considered more
effective, efficient and suitable to be
applied to the project comprising few
team members. Activities on the Scrum
method are Backlog, Sprint and Scrum
Meeting.
In the product backlog stage, product
designing begins; a product is designed
in a way that can simplify the process of
making the application. The designs
undertaken are the designs of Unified
Modeling Language (UML) (Bruegge
and Dutoit, 2004), which is designed
based on users’ needs. The UML design
includes the Use Case Diagram design
that describes the features in the
application, an Activity Diagram that
illustrates how the application works
and a Class Diagram that depicts the
structure of the application system. The
User Interface (UI) is also designed
based on users’ needs. In the UI design,
there is a how the image of the desired
application display, so that application
developers more focused. The priority
list is updated against the priority list of
work to be performed in the sprint stage
based on the input generated in the
demo stage.
In the sprint stage, application
creation begins. There are several things
done at this stage, such as programming
done by developers and the Scrum
Meeting, which is conducted for 15 min
every day to discuss the developments
and obstacles encountered during
working on the project. If at the time of
testing, the application found a bug that
interferes with the performance of the
application or makes the application
unable to run in accordance with the
desired, then the bug must be fixed.
In the demo stage, the developer
provides the completed application to
be tested by the user, followed by
interviewing the user to find out
whether it has met the needs or is there
still a shortage of applications that need
to be repaired again by the developer. If
the user feels it has fulfilled his
requirements, then it will proceed to the
next stage. If not, then it should go back
to product backlog stage.
3. Result and discussion
To open the application, the user
must shake the device, and if the device
detects a shake, then the system says,
“Please enter the command after the
following note”, as shown in Figure 1.
LIBRARY HITECH NEWS Number 6 2018, pp. 9-11, V
CEmerald Publishing Limited, 0741-9058, DOI 10.1108/LHTN-11-2017-0083 9
To continue reading
Request your trial