ibm the spoken web ibm india research lab ibm ibm india research lab rest of the pyramid: design...

IBM

The Spoken Web

IBM India Research Lab

IBMIBM India Research Lab

Rest of the Pyramid: Design Point

Population

Purchasing

Power

Adapted from The Fortune At The Bottom Of The Pyramid by C.K. Prahalad.

75-100M

IT Usage

Rest of the Pyramid

> $20,000

1.5-1.7B$1500-$20000

$1500

< $1500

4B

Design for this market, migrate

“Innovations in BOP markets can reverse the flow of concepts, ideas, and methods. Therefore, for an MNC that aims to stay ahead of the curve, experimenting in BOP markets is increasingly critical. It is no longer an option”, C.K. Prahalad, The Fortune At The Bottom Of The Pyramid

Innovative solutions that provide higher margins

High volume solutions that provide high return on capital

Target population

at this Design point:

~ $1500/year income group

Urban micro businessmen Shop keepers, taxiwalas/auto rickshaws, plumbers, milkman, working

class people, tiffin service

Small rural businessmen fisherman, farmers, brokers, money lenders, rental equipment suppliers

Consumers Lower middle class income group


Observations

Impact of WWW is limited Only a small percentage of human population

(barely 17% of world’s population has access to Internet [IWS])

Why ? Affordability

Of the other 83%, about 53% of the population lives below USD 2 per day [WPDS]

Accessbility A significant portion of the remaining 30% is semi-literate or illiterate

Relevance Information and services on WWW are not very relevant for this

section of the population


Observations

Current focus of many is on bringing PCs to the masses

An average person on the street does not need a PC, but needs access to information Fisherman needs weather info before

heading out to sea Farmer needs to look up commodity

prices Milkman needs to know if the

homeowner is in town

Computer literacy is not enough Know what to look for Know how to access it Know how to use it

Enable a billion users to access Information Technology by

Providing low cost highly available access to network based applications

Developing and deploying highly scalable solutions hosted on the network

Radically simplifying IT access mechanisms

Proposing an information ecosystem model to address information needs of population


Our Axioms

Given the mobile penetration, the phone should be the platform.

Given the literacy issues, speech is a compelling medium.


A VoiceSite is:

A voice driven application hosted in the network and created by subscribers themselves

Consists of a set of interconnected VoicePages (eg vxml files)

Accessed by calling up the associated phone number and interacting with its underlying application flow through a telephony interface

Analogous to websites in the World Wide Web

Introducing VoiceSites


We need an easy VoiceSite creation mechanism for our targets (plumbers, electricians, shop owners, …)

Analogous to an easy HTML page maker for the WWW.

VoiGen Is a voice driven generator of voice driven applications. Enables individual phone subscribers to create and offer

their own customized voice driven data services.

VoiGen: VoiceSite Creation Made Easy

Just by talking with VoiGen, a user can create his own personalised VoiceSite


VoiServ

Call VoiServ to create VoiceSite VoiSer

v:

Caller:

Please say your name

Sam

Please specify your profession

Plumber

Please record your welcome message

Hi my name is Sam, and I am a plumber. Please find information regarding my services on my VoiceSite.

Please enter your working hours

9 am to 7 pm

Please specify your service charges

I charge 5 dollars an hour

Would you like to offer appointment scheduling services?

Yes

Would you like to publish your information in yellow pages?

Yes

Do you accept jobs while you are away from your home location?

Yes

Please say your home location

South Delhi

Would you like to provide some references for your work?

Yes

Please say the name and phone number of your references

You can talk to Jack about my work. His number is 41292100

You have now created your voice site successfully. Users can now access your voice site through your phone number. Thank you for using this system.

CalendaringService

Database

VoiceSite

VoiceSite

Location Tracker

Presence Server

IMS

Yellow PageService

Yellow Pages Server

WWWYellowPagesWebsite

VoiGen


Voice Browser

Callers/End -Customers

Small Business Subscribers(offering business Voice sites

with data services)

Home Phone Subscribers(hosting personal Voice-

site)

Web Interface Voice

Interface

SubscriberVXML

Repository

VoiceSites (VXML)

VXML

ServicesRegistry

RDCRegistry

PersonalCall

BusinessCall

Speech Technology(ASR + TTS)

Service Descriptions

Voice Site Hosting Engine

Dialog Components (VXML)

Dialog Components

(VXML)

Voigen

VoiceSite Templates

Voice Browser

RDC Repository

VXML

Speech Technology(ASR + TTS)

VXML

Web Server

Voice SiteCreator

RDC Repository

SOAP-HTTP/ SQL/ SIPServices

Repository


Small user study – Plumber VoiceSite

Methodology for survey Electricians/Plumbers/Carpenters make a call to VoiGen

and create their voice sites We ask the subjects about the usability of the VoiGen

system

12 subjects surveyed for technology validation 10 were able to create the voice site successfully (within

4 minutes) There were usability issues with respect to conversation flow,

speech recognition accuracy Everyone realised that this technology can have tremendous

impact Since this technology does not require the end-user to own

any costs in terms of devices, it has a low acceptance barrier

Carpenters/Electriciansmake a call to VoiGen to

generate their voice

sites

The voice sites are

automatically deployed in the system

People call

these voice

sites to schedule time

with the specialis

ts


VoiKiosk for the rural population

Kiosk-operator gathers local information from various sources:1. Makes phone calls to get train schedule2. Gets movie list for today3. Gets blackout timings from electricity office4. Gets weather information through internet5. Gets visitor list (doctors, etc.) by officials from panchayat

Kiosk-operator uploads information through a phone

Voigen

&

VoiKiosk

Voigen builds a voice interface for people to access

information through a phoneVillagers call the VoiceSite to get information

on electricity-blackout timings, train schedule, weather prediction, movie listing, doctor-visit, etc.

Service delivery to villagers through (mobile) phones by a voice interface


What is the Spoken Web?

The Spoken Web is a world wide web in the telecom network, where people can host and browse VoiceSites, traverse VoiLinks, even conduct business transactions, all just by talking over the existing telephone network.

The Spoken Web will interoperate with the existing WWW.

The Spoken Web will interoperate with Next Generation Networks too.


The Spoken Web

VoiceSite

VoiceSite

VoiceSite

VoiceSite

VoiceSite

VoiceSite

VoiceSite

VoiceSite

2226 6333

4129 2265

6875 4319

1256 484 437

VoiLink

SurfLink(phone call)

“Contextual Call Transfer”

SurfLink(phone call)

“Back Button”

• VoiceSites• VoiLinks• SurfLinks• Browsing• Search• Transactions

IBMIndia Research Lab

Spoken Web Elements Entities

VoiceSites are voice applications analogous to “websites” created through a voice interface over telephone (PSTN) or a web interface are accessible over the telephone and hyperlinked to other VoiceSites via

“VoiLinks”. URL/Address equivalent is a Phone number.

VoiLinks Hyperlinks that link one VoiceSite to another. May be static or dynamic.

SurfLinks The link existing while a user is connected and interacting with a VoiceSite.

Tools T-Web Browser

A browser that lets you browse the Telecom Web. T-Web Search Technology

Search on the T-Web. Enablers

VoiGen The system that lets you create your own VoiceSite simply by talking to it (or

through a Web Interface). HSTP (Hyperspeech Transfer Protocol)

Analogous to HTTP The technology that enables transactions, workflows and browsing on the

Telecom Web.


Spoken Web for Health CareOpportunity description

Current and Future Ecosystem

IBM's Proposed Business Design : value creation, strategic control, brand & coverage participation, risks

Why should we do this?

Proposed time lines

Telemedicine/ consultation and primary health services can be provided in the rural and semi urban areas

Insurance companies can use Spoken Web to provide insurance products in rural areas

Potential Partners can include – Healthcare Providers, Medical Device companies, Internet Service Providers, Telemedicine Software providers, Medical Insurance companies and Pharmacies. Also government.

Tele Consultation & promotive healthcare drives through Spoken Web Primary Health care provision, Tele Medication and Tele Prescription First Mover Advantage – initially pilot case studies in media then publish

standards Mobile model hasn’t been tried yet; will be novel Possibility of working at the backbone of NHDN

IBM can provide a National Asset Can help to generate revenue at the Bottom of the Pyramid For IBM to be known as the healthcare solution provider

Depending on the interest from partner, integration, scale & timelines would vary


Scenarios for Health Care

Using her cell phone, the patient calls her "Voice Site" on a 'regular' basis, and responds to the pre-established set of questions based on her diagnosis and baseline data already established - using her telephone (cell or landline).

Patient's Care Manager Coordinator is "automatically" or "regularly" notified of patients updates to their status/record

Care Manager Coordinator responds to patient over " Voice Site" (via phone to the Voice Site) to communicate her progress/basic adjustments, based on prompted questions, etc.

Patient calls her Voice Site again to provide updates to her records

Care Management Coordinator notices a minor but concerning anomaly in patient update and contacts physician for consultation.


Scenarios for Health Care

Patients can make a vlog (“voice blog”) entry, about how some medicine or a certain activity helped improve their condition.

Whenever Sanjay feels like it, he logs into the voicesite to hear people’s experiences. He is particularly fond of Garima’s vlogs and follows her vlogs regularly. Whenever Garima’s vlogsite is updated, Sanjay gets an alert. The vlogs are separated by category and are placed in a last-in, first-out order within a category.

Care taker exchanges More relevant when nurses/doctors are exchanging tips with

each other.

Links to a pharmacy voicesite.


Spoken Web enables multiple business opportunities

New source of revenue opportunity for telecom operators

Creation and hosting voicesites Payments and financial transactions

SMBs and microbusinesses can leverage the T-Web

Examples Microbusiness Voicesite VoiceSite Personalisation Rural Voikiosk

“Anyone with a mobile handset can become a T-Web enabled microbusiness voicesite owner and accessor, and

also conduct transactions on the T-Web”


Spoken Web enables multiple business opportunities

VOISERVVoice Site Creation/Configuration

Nisha’s VoiceSite

Nisha(Subscriber)

Boss

Friend

Sis

Dad

Sales-agent

Sorry, don’t recognize u’r no. Pls. specify the purpose

Press 1 if sales callPress 2 for personal call

Press 3 to talk2me with PINPress 4 for Others

Hi Sheen, I shall be in office after meeting with Grandlay’s. - Press 1 for the rest of the day’s schedule- Press 2 for last meeting minutes wiki.- Press 3 to reach me urgently

Hey dude, You haven’t spoken to me in weeks. We went for gr8 trip to Himalayas.- Press 1 for my Audio Blog- Press 2 to join the outing this weekend.- Press 3 for my free time today

Hearty Congrats on your new born. Can’t come

right now.Pls. record my niece’s

voice after the prompt.

Hi Dad ! Welcome back from the Conference. I paid

back all my education loan. Press 1 to chat with me on

instant messaging


HSTP – HyperSpeech Transfer Protocol

Hyperspeech a voice fragment in a voice application that is a hyperlink to

another voice fragment in another voice application

Hyperspeech Transfer Protocol (HSTP) a protocol to seamlessly connect telephony voice applications supports browsing operations such as back and forward supports transactional operations such as online payments (may

span across organizations)

TelephonyStack

TelephonyStack

Web Services

Stack

HSTP

Voice Application

User

Web Services

Stack

HSTP

Internet

Telecom Network

Voice Call over Telecom NetworkVoice Call over Telecom Network

Voice Application

SS7 SS7HTTP HTTP


HSTP: Enabling TransactionsTele-online Bill-payment

Service Provider

(Airtel, LIC,Electricity Board)

1. Calls to pay a bill

Bank AccountOr Retailer’s Wallet

Or Credit Card Payment IVR

2. Amount to be charged ,Account to be credited

3. Call transferred. User enters credit card information here(Railway reservation application doesn’tneed to know the users credit card info. This prevents unnecessary sharing of sensitive information)

4. Transaction results

5. Call transferred back

Other scenarios include1. Tele-railway reservation system2. Tele-shopping

A Voice Workflow is a workflow defined across multiple IVRs in which task control transfer is triggered as well as user input is gathered through a voice driven interface (for example, a phone call)


Awaz Otlo Pilot Statistics

Pilot Launch: Dec 24, 2008 Report Summary (as of March 31, 2010)

Total number of calls received = 43106

Services Accessed Question & Answers 19259 Announcements 6265 Radio Programs 6433

Input modes DTMF 11204 Voice 664


Andhra Pilot Statistics

Pilot Launch: May 23, 2008 Report Summary (ended on Jan 28, 2009)

Total number of calls received = 114782 Number of unique callers = 6509

Total time spent = 2135 hours Average call time spent = 0 hours, 1 min, and 14

seconds. Maximum call duration = 0 hours, 49 min, and 40

seconds. Minimum call duration = 0 hours, 0 min, and 0 seconds.

Number of calls to Ashwini Center = 8399 Number of calls to Health Center = 14216 Number of calls to V-Agri = 13881 Number of calls to Professional Services = 37112

IBM

Thank you!

ibm the spoken web ibm india research lab ibm ibm india research lab rest of the pyramid: design...

Documents

personalised voicesite

voicesite voiserv

business voice sites

information technology

vxml files

design point population

worlds population

available access