MIKI: A Speech Enabled Intelligent Kiosk

Lee McCauley, Sidney K. D'Mello

Abstract: We introduce MIKI, a three-dimensional, directory assistance-type digital persona displayed on a prominently-positioned 50 inch plasma unit housed at the FedEx Institute of Technology at the University of Memphis. MIKI, which stands for Memphis Intelligent Kiosk Initiative, guides students, faculty and visitors through the Institute’s maze of classrooms, labs, lecture halls and offices through graphically-rich, multidimensional, interactive, touch and voice sensitive digital content. MIKI differs from other intelligent kiosk systems by its advanced natural language understanding capabilities that provide it with the ability to answer informal verbal queries without the need for rigorous phraseology. This paper describes, in general, the design, implementation, and observations of visitor reactions to the Intelligent Kiosk.