This research project, involving child and adult learners of French as a foreign language, marks a new step forward in making digital texts accessible. To achieve this goal, Xplicit combines automatic language processing (to detect and clarify implicit information at different levels within the text) with design and interactive methods on digital tablets (to visualise and interact with the explanations detected).
Winner of the 2018 call for research projects
2 laboratories involved :
- LS2N (University of Nantes)
- READi Design Lab (École de Design)
XpliciT has received support from RFI OIC (Pays de la Loire Region) for a start-up project for twelve months. Co-funders: University of Nantes, LS2N, École de Design Nantes Atlantique.
About the project
The objective of XpliciT (making texts explicit to users) is to facilitate readers’ understanding of digital texts by developing a way to automatically identify and clarify difficulties stemming from implicit information. The texts considered are mainly children’s literature and thus the targeted users are children.
Examples of implicit information in the texts include pronouns and their implicit referents or alternating characters in dialogues. Once the information in need of clarification has been identified, readers will be offered explanations through user-friendly interfaces. One of the challenges therefore is to find ways of facilitating interaction and displaying information, to support overall comprehension of the text, without disrupting the reading experience.
Prospects
The aim of this project is to develop a more ambitious research project in the form of a co-supervised thesis. The long term goal is to apply for Horizon 2020 funding0.
Contacts
- Solen Quiniou, Senior lecturer in computer science (automatic language processing) at University of Nantes – solen.quiniou@univ-nantes.fr
- Béatrice Daille, Professor of computer science (automatic language processing) at University of Nantes – beatrice.daille@univ-nantes.fr
- Grégoire Cliquet, Director of the READi Design Lab at École de Design Nantes Atlantique – g.cliquet@lecolededesign.com