MyrrorBot: A Digital Assistant Based on Holistic User Models for Personalized Access to Online Services

In this article, we present MyrrorBot, a personal digital assistant implementing a natural language interface that allows the users to: (i) access online services, such as music, video, news, andfood recommendations, in a personalized way, by exploiting a strategy for implicit user modeling called holistic user profiling; (ii) query their own user models, to inspect the features encoded in their profiles and to increase their awareness of the personalization process. Basically, the system allows the users to formulate natural language requests related to their information needs. Such needs are roughly classified in two groups: quantified self-related needs (e.g., Did I sleep enough? Am I extrovert?) and personalized access to online services (e.g., Play a song I like). The intent recognition strategy implemented in the platform automatically identifies the intent expressed by the user and forwards the request to specific services and modules that generate an appropriate answer that fulfills the query. In the experimental evaluation, we evaluated both qualitative (users’ acceptance of the system, usability) as well as quantitative (time required to complete basic tasks, effectiveness of the personalization strategy) aspects of the system, and the results showed that MyrrorBot can improve the way people access online services and applications. This leads to a more effective interaction and paves the way for further development of our system.