Natural-language user interface: Difference between revisions

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{{short description|Type of computer human interface}}{{Outdated|date=February 2025}}

'''Natural-language user interface''' ('''LUI''' or '''NLUI''') is a type of [[User interface|computer human interface]] where linguistic phenomena such as verbs, phrases and clauses act as UI controls for creating, selecting and modifying data in software applications.

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==Overview==

A natural-language search engine would in theory find targeted [[question answering|answers to user questions]] (as opposed to keyword search). For example, when confronted with a question of the form 'which [[United States|U.S.]] state has the highest [[income tax]]?', conventional search engines ignore the question and instead search on the [[index term|keywords]] 'state', 'income' and 'tax'. Natural-language search, on the other hand, attempts to use natural-language processing to understand the nature of the question and then to search and return a subset of the web that contains the answer to the question. If it works, results would have a higher relevance than results from a keyword search engine, due to the question being included.{{Citation needed|date=October 2015}}

==History==

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*[[SHRDLU]], a natural-language interface that manipulates blocks in a virtual "blocks world"

*''Lunar'', a natural-language interface to a database containing chemical analyses of [[Apollo- 11]] moon[[Moon rocks]] by [http://parsecraft.com/ William A. Woods].

*''Chat-80'' transformed English questions into [[Prolog]] expressions, which were evaluated against the Prolog database. The code of Chat-80 was circulated widely, and formed the basis of several other experimental Nl interfaces. An online demo is available on the LPA website.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lpa.co.uk/pws_dem5.htm|title=Chat-80 demo|publisher=|accessdateaccess-date=29 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161111194841/http://www.lpa.co.uk/pws_dem5.htm|archive-date=11 November 2016|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref>{{dead link}}

*[[ELIZA]], written at MIT by Joseph Weizenbaum between 1964 and 1966, mimicked a psychotherapist and was operated by processing users' responses to scripts. Using almost no information about human thought or emotion, the DOCTOR script sometimes provided a startlingly human-like interaction. An online demo is available on the LPA website.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lpa.co.uk/pws_dem4.htm|title=ELIZA demo|publisher=|accessdateaccess-date=29 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161126102154/http://www.lpa.co.uk/pws_dem4.htm|archive-date=26 November 2016|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref>

* ''Janus'' is also one of the few systems to support temporal questions.

* ''Intellect'' from [[Trinzic]] (formed by the merger of AICorp and Aion).

* BBN’s ''Parlance'' built on experience from the development of the ''Rus'' and ''Irus'' systems.

* [[IBM]] ''Languageaccess''

* [[Q&A (software)|Q&A]] from [[NortonLifeLock|Symantec]].

* ''Datatalker'' from Natural Language Inc.

* ''Loqui'' from BIM Systems.

* ''English Wizard'' from [[Larry Harris (computer scientist)|Linguistic Technology Corporation]].

* ''iAskWeb'' from Anserity Inc. fully implemented in [[Prolog]] was providing interactive recommendations in NL to users in tax and investment domains in 1999-2001<ref>{{cite book | last = Galitsky

| first = Boris

| title = Natural Language Question Answering: technique of semantic headers

| publisher = Advance Knowledge International

| date = 2003

| ___location = Adelaide, Australia

| url = https://www.amazon.com/Natural-Language-Question-Answering-system/dp/0868039799

| isbn = 0868039799

}}</ref>

==Challenges==

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* ''Medical, disabilities'', many people have difficulty typing due to physical limitations such as repetitive strain injuries (RSI), muscular dystrophy, and many others. For example, people with difficulty hearing could use a system connected to their telephone to convert a caller's speech to text.

* ''Embedded applications'', some new cellular phones include C&C speech recognition that allow utterances such as "call home". This may be a major factor in the future of automatic speech recognition and [[Linux]].

* ''[[Software development]]'': An [[integrated development environment]] can embed natural-language interfaces to help developers.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kimmig|first=Markus|last2=Monperrus|first2=Martin|last3=Mezini|first3=Mira|title=Querying source code with natural language|url=https://oadoi.org/10.1109/ase.2011.6100076|journal=2011 26th IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering (ASE 2011)|doi=10.1109/ase.2011.6100076}}</ref>

Below are named and defined some of the applications that use natural-language recognition, and so have integrated utilities listed above.

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===Wolfram Alpha===

{{main|Wolfram Alpha}}

Wolfram Alpha is an online service that answers factual queries directly by computing the answer from structured data, rather than providing a list of documents or web pages that might contain the answer as a [[search engine]] would.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/mar/09/search-engine-google |title=British search engine 'could rival Google' |last=Johnson |first=Bobbie |date=2009-03-09 |work=[[The Guardian]] |accessdateaccess-date=2009-03-09}}</ref> It was announced in March 2009 by [[Stephen Wolfram]], and was released to the public on May 15, 2009.<ref name="launch date">{{cite web|url=httphttps://blog.wolframalpha.com/2009/05/08/so-much-for-a-quiet-launch/ |title=So Much for A Quiet Launch |publisher=Wolfram Alpha Blog |date=2009-05-08 |accessdateaccess-date=2009-10-20}}</ref>

===Siri===

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Siri is an [[intelligent personal assistant]] application integrated with operating system [[iOS]]. The application uses [[natural language processing]] to answer questions and make recommendations.

Siri's marketing claims include that it adapts to a user's individual preferences over time and personalizes results, and performs tasks such as making dinner reservations while trying to catch a cab.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.apple.com/iphone/features/siri.html|title=iOS - Siri|website=Apple|accessdateaccess-date=29 January 2018}}</ref>

===Others===

* [[Ask.com]] – The original idea behind Ask Jeeves (Ask.com) was traditional keyword searching with an ability to get answers to questions posed in everyday, natural language. The current Ask.com still supports this, with added support for math, dictionary, and conversion questions.

* [[Braina]]<ref>{{cite web|url=httphttps://www.brainasoft.com/braina/|title=Braina - Artificial Intelligence Software for Windows|website=www.brainasoft.com|accessdateaccess-date=29 January 2018}}</ref> – Braina is a natural language interface for [[Windows OS]] that allows to type or speak English language sentences to perform a certain action or find information.

[[File:GNOME Do Classic.png|thumb|Screenshot of GNOME DO classic interface.]]

* [[GNOME Do]] – Allows for quick finding miscellaneous artifacts of GNOME environment (applications, Evolution and Pidgin contacts, Firefox bookmarks, Rhythmbox artists and albums, and so on) and execute the basic actions on them (launch, open, email, chat, play, etc.).<ref>Ubuntu 10.04 Add/Remove Applications description for GNOME Do</ref>

* [[hakia]] – hakia was an Internet search engine. The company invented an alternative new infrastructure to indexing that used SemanticRank algorithm, a solution mix from the disciplines of ontological semantics, fuzzy logic, computational linguistics, and mathematics. hakia closed in 2014.

* [[Lexxe]] – Lexxe was an Internet search engine that used natural-language processing for queries (semantic search). Searches could be made with keywords, phrases, and questions, such as "How old is Wikipedia?" Lexxe closed its search engine services in 2015.

* [[Pikimal]] – Pikimal used natural-language tied to user preference to make search recommendations by template. Pikimal closed in 2015.

* [[Powerset (company)|Powerset]] – On May 11, 2008, the company unveiled a tool for searching a fixed subset of [[Wikipedia]] using conversational phrases rather than keywords.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/12/powerset-debuts-with-search-of-wikipedia/ |title=Powerset Debuts With Search of Wikipedia |publisherwork=The New York Times |first=Miguel |last=Helft |date=May 12, 2008}}</ref> On July 1, 2008, it was purchased by [[Microsoft]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.powerset.com/blog/articles/2008/07/01/microsoft-to-acquire-powerset |archiveurlarchive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090225064356/http://www.powerset.com/blog/articles/2008/07/01/microsoft-to-acquire-powerset |archivedatearchive-date=February 25, 2009 |title=Microsoft to Acquire Powerset |publisher=Powerset Blog |first=Mark |last=Johnson |date=July 1, 2008}}</ref>

* [[Q-go]] – The Q-go technology provides relevant answers to users in response to queries on a company’s internet website or corporate intranet, formulated in natural sentences or keyword input alike. Q-go was acquired by [[RightNow Technologies]] in 2011.

* [[Yebol]] – Yebol iswas a vertical "decision" search engine that had developed a knowledge-based, semantic search platform. Yebol's artificial intelligence human intelligence-infused algorithms automatically clusterclustered and categorizecategorized search results, web sites, pages and content that it presentspresented in a visually indexed format that is more aligned with initial human intent. Yebol usesused association, ranking and clustering algorithms to analyze related keywords or web pages. Yebol integratesintegrated natural-language processing, metasynthetic-engineered open complex systems, and machine algorithms with human knowledge for each query to establish a web directory that actually 'learns', using correlation, clustering and classification algorithms to automatically generate the knowledge query, which iswas retained and regenerated forward.<ref>Humphries, Matthew. [http://www.geek.com/articles/news/yebolcom-steps-into-the-search-market-20090731/ "Yebol.com steps into the search market"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315165457/http://www.geek.com/articles/news/yebolcom-steps-into-the-search-market-20090731/ |date=2012-03-15 }} ''Geek.com''. 31 July 2009.</ref>

==See also==

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*[[Natural-language programming]]

*[[Voice user interface]]

*[[ChatterbotChatbot]], a computer program that simulates human conversations

*[[Noisy text]]

*[[Question answering]]

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{{Internet search}}

{{Natural Language Processing}}

{{Computable knowledge}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Natural language user interface}}

[[Category:User interfaces]]

[[Category:Artificial intelligence applications]]

[[Category:Natural language processing]]

[[Category:Computational linguistics]]