Báo cáo khoa học: A NLG-based Application for Walking Directions

This work describes an online application that uses Natural Language Generation (NLG) methods to generate walking directions in combination with dynamic 2D visualisation. We make use of third party resources, which provide for a given query (geographic) routes and landmarks along the way. We present a statistical model that can be used for generating natural language directions. This model is trained on a corpus of walking directions annotated with POS, grammatical information, frame-semantics and markup for temporal structure. ...
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Báo cáo khoa học: "A NLG-based Application for Walking Directions" A NLG-based Application for Walking Directions Michael Roth and Anette Frank Department of Computational Linguistics Heidelberg University 69120 Heidelberg, Germany {mroth,frank}@cl.uni-heidelberg.de collected in a way-finding study. In contrast to Abstract previously developed NLG systems in this area (e.g. Dale et. al, 2002), one of our key features is This work describes an online application the integration of a number of online resources to that uses Natural Language Generation compute routes and to find salient landmarks. (NLG) methods to generate walking di- The information acquired from these resources rections in combination with dynamic 2D can then be used to generate natural directions visualisation. We make use of third party that are both easier to memorise and easier to resources, which provide for a given follow than directions given by a classic route query (geographic) routes and landmarks planner or navigation system. along the way. We present a statistical The remainder of this paper is structured as model that can be used for generating follows: In Section 2 we introduce our system natural language directions. This model and describe the resources and their integration is trained on a corpus of walking direc- in the architecture. Section 3 describes our cor- tions annotated with POS, grammatical pus-based generation approach, with Section 4 information, frame-semantics and mark- outlining our integration of text generation and up for temporal structure. visualisation. Finally, Section 5 gives a short conclusion and discusses future work.1 Introduction 2 Combining ResourcesThe purpose of route directions is to inform aperson, who is typically not familiar with his cur- The route planner used in our system is providedrent environment, of how to get to a designated by the Google Maps API1. Given a route com-goal. Generating such directions poses difficul- puted in Google Maps, our system queries aties on various conceptual levels such as the number of online resources to determine land-planning of the route, the selection of landmarks marks that are adjacent to this route. At the timealong the way (i.e. easily recognizable buildings of writing, these resources are: OpenStreetMaps2or structures) and generating the actual instruc- for public transportation, the Wikipedia WikiPro-tions of how to navigate along the route using the ject Geographical coordinates3 for salient build-selected landmarks as reference points. ings, statues and other objects, Google AJAX As pointed out by Tom & Denis (2003), the Search API4 for “yellow pages landmarks” suchuse of landmarks in route directions allows for as hotels and restaurants, and Wikimapia 5 formore effective way-finding than directions rely- squares and other prominent places.ing solely on street names and distance measures. All of the above mentioned resources can beAn experiment performed in Tom & Denis’ work queried for landmarks either by a single GPSalso showed that people tend to use landmarksrather than street names when producing route 1 http://code.google.com/apis/maps/directions themselves. 2 http://www.openstreetmap.org The application presented here is an early re- 3 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProjectsearch prototype that takes a data-driven genera- Geographical_coordinates 4tion approach, making use of annotated corpora http://code.google.com/apis/ajaxsearch 5 http://www.wikimapia.org 37 ...