Conversationalisation of Search Interaction Based on Verbalisation of Search Intents

• Project/Area Number: 19H04418
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 90020:Library and information science, humanistic and social informatics-related
• Research Institution: University of Tsukuba
• Principal Investigator: Joho Hideo 筑波大学, 図書館情報メディア系, 教授 (00571184)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 松林 麻実子 筑波大学, 図書館情報メディア系, 講師 (10359581) ; 于 海涛 筑波大学, 図書館情報メディア系, 准教授 (30751052)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Project Status: Completed (Fiscal Year 2022)
• Budget Amount: ¥16,250,000 (Direct Cost: ¥12,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥3,750,000); Fiscal Year 2022: ¥1,560,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥360,000); Fiscal Year 2021: ¥5,330,000 (Direct Cost: ¥4,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,230,000); Fiscal Year 2020: ¥7,150,000 (Direct Cost: ¥5,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,650,000); Fiscal Year 2019: ¥2,210,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥510,000)
• Keywords: 情報検索 / 会話検索

Outline of Research at the Start

スマートスピーカーやチャットボットの普及により、自然な会話を通して検索を行う「会話検索」への関心が高まっている。図書館のレファレンスサービスのようなやりとりの実現が1つの理想である。しかし最新の会話検索システムであっても、一問一答型の単純な質問応答やキーワードに照合したウィキペディアのページ概要を読み上げるなど、単純な検索タスクしか解決できていない。そこで本研究では、会話検索技術の高度化を目的として、検索インタラクションに存在する様々な思考内容を言語化することで、検索会話の特性や技術的課題を明らかにする。

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research "Conversationalisation of Search Interaction Based on Verbalisation of Search Intents" considers technical issues of conversational search systems from the viewpoint of enhancing conversationalization of search interaction, by (1) collecting search intents/tactics, (2) constructing a database of linguistic expressions of search intents/tactics, (3) analyzing estimation of linguistic expressions of search intents/tactics, and (4) developing and evaluating a prototype conversational search. Futhermore, we developed and evaluated a system prototype, and considered technical issues for a conversational search system. The major achievements of this research include: (1) discovery of diverse search intents/tactics, (2) construction of a database of linguistic expressions of search intents/tactics, (3) identification of search intents/tactics that are difficult to predict, (4) construction of a prototype system, and (5) proposal of future technological issues.

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究では、従来研究されてきたキーワード検索方式において「無言」で行われてきたユーザと検索システムとのやりとりを検索方略に焦点を当てることで言語化できたことに学術的意義がある。また、言語化された検索方略のうち、言語表現から推定の容易な検索方略と困難な方略を解明できた点、検索方略分類器を実装することで会話検索のプロトタイプシステムの開発と評価を実現できた点も学術的意義がある。一方、近年生成系対話型AIが情報アクセスの一手段として急速に普及していく中で、検索方略というユーザ視点から会話検索システムの技術課題を明らかにできた点に社会的意義がある。

Research Products

• [Journal Article] Selectively Expanding Queries and Documents for News Background Linking (2022)
  • Author(s): Zhang Lirong、Joho Hideo、Fujita Sumio、Yu Hai-Tao
  • Journal Title: Proceedings of the 31st ACM International Conference on Information & Knowledge Management (CIKM '22) Volume: - Pages: 4687-4691
  • DOI: 10.1145/3511808.3557695
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] Semantic Modelling of Document Focus-Time for Temporal Information Retrieval (2022)
  • Author(s): Zhang Lirong、Joho Hideo、Yu Hai-Tao
  • Journal Title: Companion Proceedings of the Web Conference 2022 (WWW '22) Volume: - Pages: 896-902
  • DOI: 10.1145/3487553.3524668
  • Peer Reviewed
• [Journal Article] TKB48 at TREC 2021 Conversational Assistance Track (2021)
  • Author(s): Yubo Fang, Hideo Joho, Sumio Fujita
  • Journal Title: NIST SP, The Thirtieth Text REtrieval Conference (TREC 2021) Proceedings Volume: 500-335 Pages: 1-6
  • Open Access
• [Journal Article] Report on the future conversations workshop at CHIIR 2021 (2021)
  • Author(s): Spina, D., Trippas, J.R., Thomas, T., Joho, H., (他16名)
  • Journal Title: ACM SIGIR Forum Volume: 55(1) Issue: 1 Pages: 1-22
  • DOI: 10.1145/3476415.3476421
  • Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
• [Journal Article] Search interaction based on verbalization of thinking in information retrieval. (2020)
  • Author(s): Joho, H.
  • Journal Title: Impact Volume: 2020(8) Issue: 8 Pages: 88-90
  • DOI: 10.21820/23987073.2020.8.88
  • Open Access
• [Journal Article] Dagstuhl seminar 19461 on conversational search: seminar goals and working group outcomes. (2020)
  • Author(s): Anand, A., Cavedon, L., Hagen, M., Joho, H., Sanderson, M., Stein, B.
  • Journal Title: SIGIR Forum Volume: 54(1) Issue: 1 Pages: 1-11
  • DOI: 10.1145/3451964.3451967
  • Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
• [Journal Article] Towards a model for spoken conversational search (2020)
  • Author(s): Trippas Johanne R.、Spina Damiano、Thomas Paul、Sanderson Mark、Joho Hideo、Cavedon Lawrence
  • Journal Title: Information Processing & Management Volume: 57 Issue: 2 Pages: 102162-102162
  • DOI: 10.1016/j.ipm.2019.102162
  • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research
• [Journal Article] Third International Workshop on Conversational Approaches to Information Retrieval (CAIR'20) (2020)
  • Author(s): Trippas Johanne R.、Thomas Paul、Spina Damiano、Joho Hideo
  • Journal Title: CHIIR '20: Proceedings of the 2020 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval Volume: March Pages: 492-494
  • DOI: 10.1145/3343413.3378022
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Journal Article] Conversational Search (Dagstuhl Seminar 19461) (2020)
  • Author(s): Anand, Avishek ; Cavedon, Lawrence ; Joho, Hideo ; Sanderson, Mark ; Stein, Benno
  • Journal Title: Dagstuhl Reports Volume: 9 Pages: 34-83
  • Int'l Joint Research
• [Book] CHIIR 2021: Proceedings of the 2021 Conference on Human Information Interaction and Retrieval. (2021)
  • Author(s): Falk Scholer, Paul Thomas, David Elsweiler, Hideo Joho, Noriko Kando, Catherine Smith
  • Total Pages: 371
  • Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
  • ISBN: 9781450380553