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Journal of Software Engineering and Applications, 2013, 6, 91-96 doi:10.4236/jsea.2013.63b020 Published Online March 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/jsea) Copyright © 2013 SciRes. JSEA 91 An Intelligent Voice-Based eMarketplace for Visually Impaired People Research-in-Progress Fahad Algarni, Yen Cheung, Vincent Lee Clayton School of Information Technology, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. Email: Algarni.fahad@monash.edu, Yen.Ping.Cheung@monash.edu, Vincent.cs.lee@monash.edu Received 2013 ABSTRACT Today eMarketplaces play a significant role in contemporary life by providing a lot of income and business opportuni- ties to people and organizations throughout the world. Despite innovations in the field of IT, many of eMarketplaces lack the ability to prov ide appropriate services for people with special needs, especially the blind. Therefore, this pa- per is focused on incorporating an interface for blind people to participate in the business of eMarketplaces. A proposed model of a voice-based eMarketplace has been introduced using voice recognition technology. Specific blind users of the system are uniquely identified using voice recognition technology to enable them to access the eMarketplace in a secure manner. Further work of this project involves building such as module on an existing eMarketplace. Keywords: eMarketplaces; Voice Recognition; Visually Impaired People; eCommerce; Web Accessibility 1. Introduction Today many areas of life are evolving technologically where people are adopting digital media, which is be- coming more efficient and simple to use. Digital tech- nology is considered as one of the major developments in the world of technology due to the fact that it has the ability to be develop ed and spread progressively [1]. An- other major consideration for digital technology is its flexibility and capability in being utilized easily without interfering with the normal way of life. Areas that have so far exhibited a dramatic improvement on technology include but not limited to; engineering, agriculture, transport, gastronomy, communication, finance, trade, media, management and banking. Overall, technology has greatly increased the productivity of the people and comfort has equally increased. Ho wever, despite the ma- jor innovations in technology, provisions for the physi- cally challenged community such as the blind are limited. For instance, many Internet-based systems such as eMarketplaces remain inaccessible for blind people, raising issue of information asymmetry and social injus- tice. According to Leuthold, Baragas and Opwis [2] for blind internet users, an enhanced text user interface is more practical than the graphical user interface, and their results showed a large potential beyond the web content accessibility guidelines for advancing the Internet prac- tice of blind users. They further suggest that empirical studies should be performed to increase insights into navigation strategies and guidelines to build new naviga- tions for the blind. Thus, this paper is dedicated to pro- pose a constructive voice-based eMarketplace that can improve blind internet users experience while browsing the internet. 1.1. Incorporation of Features to Aid the Visually Impaired People in eMarketplaces An eMarketplace is a form of advertising and exchanging of goods and services via the internet. An eMarketplace has greatly provided a chance for buyers and sellers to exchange a wide variety of items without restrictions such as time and location. Hence, eMarketplaces have allowed people to perform different tasks at the same time [3]. A blind person is a person who can not partially or fully use his or her eyes [2]. Due to the problem of using their sense of sight, these people are taught other forms of communication like the Braille language that assists them in the communication. This form of communication can not be easily integrated into the internet. Hence, the need to develop other better ways to integrate them in this technology of eMarketplaces is crucial. This will enhance the internet access and allow the handi- capped/blind users to access eMarketplaces more easily An Intelligent Voice-Based eMarketplace for Visually Impaired People Copyright © 2013 SciRes. JSEA 92 and conveniently. From research, it is proven that the blind people have a acute sense of hearing. Accordingly, the introduction of voice technology will be most suitable in this case. Sev- eral approaches have been introduced for the integration of the voice technology as one of the facilities on the internet to help blind people access eMarketplaces more easily and conveniently. Those approaches seek to un- derstand blind people, their problems and abilities to ac- cess the internet [4]. 2. Literature Review 2.1. Forms of Communication Used by Blind People Various researchers have suggested more comfortable and easy ways to be used by the handicapped especially the blind to access the internet. There are some special- ized equipments that have been developed by scientists that are very sensitive to letter and word recognition, voice and speech recognition. The blind people can communicate in their daily operations with these major forms. Among the most sophisticated systems that have been developed to assist the blind in the area of internet surfing is the Braille surf. Braille is the language of communication used by blind people, which comprises of dots arranged in a specific order to communicate to the blind. It utilizes the sens e of touch of blind people as it is proven that besides hearing, they also have the most advanced sen se of touch. Despite Braille b eing one of the main forms of communication, in reality not many peo- ple use Braille as it is very difficult to learn [5]. Another system called ALVA Braille has been developed. It util- izes the screen as a display, and it is controlled by the normal operating system of the computers. The output of this system is on a Braille bar or through the use of a voice/speech synthesizer that produces an audible voice which can be received by the blind people [6]. Moreover, another development called Haptic [7] provides a special interface that allows blind users to feel the shapes on the screen. These techniques have been facilitating blind people into the internet browsing so become partially aware of its contents [8]. 2.2. Limitations of the Previous Forms of Communications Despite the fact that various innovations have been de- veloped to assist the blind in using the internet and its technology, there are still have some inefficiencies as they do not ultimately assist the blind people in this problem. Most of them have poor and unusable forms of display of graphical f eatures in the internet. As graphical features are very crucial and inevitable in eMarketplaces, they have been enhanced for normal people. However, this has not been done in systems used by the blind to make them feel recognized as part of the human race. Consequently, the entire issue of business and markets will include not just normal people but the blind and other physically challenged people as well [8]. 3. Research Methodology 3.1. Research Methodology Our aim is to define a basic but an efficient method of achieving usability especially for blind people. Borodin, Bigham and Ramakrishan [4] have mentioned that there is a need for a web browser that assists disabled people to overcome challenges and limitations of accessibility. Due to the fact th at blin d pe ople who are not yet appropriately considered in the field of internet browsing including eMarketplaces, the main purpose of this paper is to pro- pose an eMarketplace that assist the blind to utilize eMarketplaces. For achieving usability of eMarketplaces we require to have a set of efficient techniques through which can enable handicapped people especially the blind to utilize eMarketplaces easily. Our proposed ap- proach is based on defining voice-based functionalities over the eMarketplaces’ interface that can be mapped and connected directly to the entire related databases which involve all required products details. These func- tionalities are then specified to an eMarketplace specific vocal commands and data sharing can then be achieved through these techniques. Defining these voice-based functionalities to the eMarketplaces’ interface is possible through an intelligent voice-based assistant The voice- based assistant is a function of an eMarketplace in which enables database text reader, which provide a voice re- sponds, allowing data to be retrieved across eMarket- place’ applications. The information then can be achieved in a well-defined vocal manner enabling handi- capped and blind peop le to interact with the entire online market activities. The voice-based eMarketplace module promises to expose the information content of the eMar- ketplaces resources which apart from text also includes images’ condition description. The proposed structural design is defined and explained with all required suppor- tive figures and how the voice-based eMarketplace mod- ule and its techniques are used in making this structural design is discussed in the following subsections. 3.2. Defining the Methodology In our architecture, we assume the availability of a stan- dard eMarketplace database, which consists of all prod- ucts’ prices and details. For the entire database in the architecture, voice-based assistance declarations are de- fined to the eMarketplace system. These declarations An Intelligent Voice-Based eMarketplace for Visually Impaired People Copyright © 2013 SciRes. JSEA 93 consist of all variables that will be used in data mining and they expose the eMarketplace contents in its data- base to the eMarketplace interface. Internal matching is defined between the eMarketplace database and its re- lated interface. The aim is to achieve usability of eMar- ketplace by ensuring that handicapped people especially blinds utilize eMarketplaces with confidence by referring to the voice-based assistant. Voice-based assistant takes the vocal entry from the handicap ped user to perform the matching procedure on the desired eMarketplace. The vocal entries that the handicapped user speaks after hearing the vocal instructions which provided by the voice-based online assistant referring to the internal matching of eMarketplaces components and the result is given back. In case of that the vocal entry was matched or found, the voice-based assistant will further proceed the order for the handicapped/blind user. Otherwise, if the vocal entry is not matched or found, the voice-based online assistant will divert customer automatically to a customer care representative (CCR) using voice over IP call through the eMarketplace system. In such a case, the handicapped/blind customer will have the full opportu- nity to speak and explain his/her desired product with the CCR. The architecture is shown in Figure 1. It show s the overall plan of eMarketplace voice-based system includ- ing the relevant database, the voice-based online assistant which located on the interface, the CCR and how the blind users interact with it. Figure 1. Architecture of the Voice-based eMarketplace. 3.3. Role of the Proposed Voice-Based eMarketplace Interface The voice-based eMarketplace is an efficient technique of demonstrating information of traditional eMarket- places. It represents information in a voice manner that can easily be understood by handicapped people espe- cially blinds. It provides an opportunity for them to fully participate and complete their online shopping without current difficulties. In addition to the benefits of the eMarketplaces technology for both buyer and seller such as, connectivity and flexibility [3], handicapped people will have the ability to contribute positively to the field. Considering this segment of society is not only a hu- manitarian act, but is a quantum leap in the history of eMarketplaces. Thus, implementing such a technique is crucial to keep pace with the continuing evolu tion eMar- ketplaces. 3.4. Methodology Architecture Specifications To demonstrate the architecture, we will consider an example of an eMarketplaces that sells school products. Essentially this school eMarketplace will one or more than one product categories or types stored on its related database. The database normally stores the information of its products availability and descriptions. Suppose a blind person wants to check the availability of a leather bag. Then, he/she may wish to know the price and buy the desired product. The vo ice entry ‘leather bag’ will be received via the voice-based online assistant that built in the school eMarketplace interface. Then, the voice-based online assistant will transfer the vocal entry for matching its availability. In case if the desired product is found , the voice-based online assistant will read ou t the results back to the handicapped/blind customer and will follow the purchasing procedure vocally. Otherwise, if the vocal entry is not found, the voice-based online assistant will directly divert the call to a customer care representative who will be able to further assist handicapped/blind cus- tomer to complete their online shopping transaction. Further explanations of our proposed voice-based eMar- ketplace and its relevant actions that can be performed by the blind person is illu strated in the event table “ see Ta- ble 1” and the related use case, activity diagrams. 3.5. Event Table Analysis As handicapped/blind person could perform the normal purchasing eMarketplaces’ activities that includes searching, choosing and buying. “Table 1” represents sequence of functions for the voice-based eMarketplace system on an event-by-event basis in a summary form. It involves the use cases of each event that will then assist in depicting the Use Case diagram that will comprise the practical requirements of the system. An Intelligent Voice-Based eMarketplace for Visually Impaired People Copyright © 2013 SciRes. JSEA 94 3.6. Use Case Diagram Clarifications The use case model “See Figure 2” describes the identi- fied events showed in Table 1, and links them to all ac- tors (Blind Customer, Voice-Based Online Assistant and eMarketplace system); therefore, it represents the par- ticipation between all elements. In order to clarify the functionality of the system we also produce a relevant activity diagram. Activity diagram represents in depth the specific internal activities of the system. It can be used to support any level of use cases that presented in the use case diagram. In our proposed system we use it to simplify the scenario of the interac- tion between the blind user and the voice-based eMar- ketplace interface including how the system will divert blind customer call using VoIP technique “see Figure 3”. Table 1. Sequence of events for voice-based eMarketplace. Event Trigger Source Use Case Response Destination 1. Customer Checks Item Availability Item Enquiry Customer Check Item Availability Item Availability Details/ Or Transfer customer’s call (VoIP) Customer CCR 1.1. CCR Checks Item Availability Item Enquiry CCR Check Item Availability Item Availability Details CCR 2. Customer or CCR Places an Order New Order Customer or CCR Create New Order Order Confirmation/ Order and Customer Details Customer or CCR/ eMarketplace System 3. Payment validates transaction Transaction validation eMarketplace System Payment validationPayment approval Shipment order Customer/ Shipment Figure 2. Use case diagram. An Intelligent Voice-Based eMarketplace for Visually Impaired People Copyright © 2013 SciRes. JSEA 95 Figure 3. Use case diagram. As a quick glimpse at “Figure 3”, it demonstrates the scenario of checking item availability use case which is included with the create new order use case. For example, when a handicapped/blind eMarketplaces user places a vocal order to purchase an item, the order then will be received by the voice-based eMarketplace system for processing. After data matching there will be tow cases: the first case is that when the item is found then the voice-based eMarketplace system will persist the order with the handicapped/blind user in a vocal manner. The second case is that when the item is not found, the sys- tem here will not reject the order, instead it will directly convert the handicapped/blind users to a customer care representative to further facilitate the completion of the purchasing pro cess. 4. Conclusion and Future Work 4.1. Future Wrok Further studies can be conducted to implement the pro- posed voice-based eMarketplace. For instance, the pro- posed system can be developed as a Blind Interface Module, which can be used as an add-on facility to an existing eMarketplace. This module can be activated when needed. 4.2. Conclusion In conclusion, the assimilation of technology into the field of eMarketplaces has an important role particularly in addressing the needs of everybody including those who are physically challenged. Thus, further develop- ments and enhancement of Internet applications should include investigations of ‘comfortable’ forms of eMar- ketplaces that are suitable for the handicapped, especially the blind. As mentioned earlier, there has been com- mendable attempts to generate more comfortable ways for the blind to be part of the changing technology espe- cially eMarketplaces. This has included the use of text readers, voice recognition devices and speech synthesiz- ers. Although there are challenges in their applications, they can be of great assistance to the blind and ev en with some modest improvements they can lead to major breakthroughs in introducing the blind to eMarketplaces technology. This will in turn expand business of eMar- ketplaces. In this paper, we have proposed a voice-based module for eMarketplaces for handicapped/blind people. The system can deal with blind people using voice input and output commands. The event table of the scenario for the purchasing process has been described to illustrate the proposed system. Overall, the system can be crucial for both the blinds and people with typing or browsing difficulties. REFERENCES [1] W. Veen, "How technologies change our schools, compa- nies and governments," in Proceedings of the Interna- tional Workshop on Enterprises 38; Organizational Mod- elling and Simulation (EOMAS '09). ACM, New York, NY, USA., 2009.pp. 1-5. [2] S. Leuthold, J. A. Bargas-Avila, and K. Opwis, "Beyond An Intelligent Voice-Based eMarketplace for Visually Impaired People Copyright © 2013 SciRes. JSEA 96 web content accessibility guidelines: Design of enhanced text user interfaces for blind internet users," International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, vol. 66, pp. 257-270, 2008. [3] T. 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