A Spell Checking Web Service API for Smart City Communication Platforms

The Internet of Things becomes Internet of Everything when in the process of communication machine-to-machine also intelligent forms of communication between human and machine are involved. Cities can be viewed as a microcosm of this interconnected system where ICT and emerging technologies can be enabling factors to transform cities in Smart Cities. Cities can take great advantage by using information intelligence to achieve important public-policy goals and, in particular, by enabling network communication channels between citizens and public administrators in order to provide information and online services in real time through platform systems rather than by means of humans, using Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing techniques. This work was the first step of a wider project aimed at providing a Spell Checking Web Service API for Smart City communication platforms able to automatically select, among the large availability of open source spell checking tools, the most suitable tool based on the semantic structure of the specific textual data. The system should manage an enhanced Italian Vocabulary Database, specifically implemented to support all the tools of the system. The goal of the present work was to test, through an experimental research, the feasibility of the entire project by implementing a Spell Checking Prototype System designed to manage two selected spell checking tools. Results showed that the Spell Checking Prototype System significantly improves performances by allowing the user to select the most suitable tool for the specific semantic structure of the text. The system also enables to manage the list of exceptions, which continuously enhance the Italian Vocabulary Database. The experimentation proved scientific evidence of the validity of the project aimed at implementing a Spell Checking Web Service API in order to improve the quality of natural language data to be stored or processed in Smart City NCeSDP systems, through the use of existing spell checking tools.