Vol.6 (2016) No. 6 ISSN: 2088-5334 Smart City Technologies: Design and Evaluation of an Intelligent Driving Assistant for Smart Parking Andreea I. Niculescu # , Bimlesh Wadhwa * , Evan Quek ** # Institute for Infocomm Research, Human Language Technology, 1 Fusionopolis Way, 138632, Singapore Email: andreea-n@i2r.a-star.edu.sg * National University of Singapore, School of Computing, 13 Computing Drive, 117417 Singapore Email: dcsbw@nus.edu.sg ** Raffles Institution, 1 Raffles Institution Ln, 575954, Singapore Email: quekee@gmail.com Abstract— Smart cities technologies are gradually changing our urban landscape thanks to the proliferation of billions of smart devices permanently connected through the internet. Among technologies with the highest impact on citizen’s quality of life are intelligent transportation systems and in particular, smart parking applications. In this paper, we present a study evaluation the design of a smart parking assistant developed in our lab. The system is implemented as a mobile app with an integrated GUI adapted for Android tablets. The app extends common park guidance information systems (PGI) offering suggestions based on parking fee or proximity to the destination. Two novel features – beyond the state of the art of currently available systems – are added: the use of natural language and the ability to react in real-time to changes in parking occupancy. If the number of parking lots drops to a critical level, the application redirects the driver to another parking place. Furthermore, the app includes GPS and Google maps interfacing modules which enable the application to detect the driver location and calculate the nearest car park distance. A group of five experts with a background in interface design and natural language processing evaluated the prototype using Nielsen’s set of heuristics in a think-loud approach. Results and implications for further interaction design are extensively discussed. Keywords— smart parking; PGI technology; speech interaction; natural language dialogue; interaction design; multimodal interface; interface design; user experience; expert evaluation I. INTRODUCTION Estimations suggest that by 2050 more than two-thirds of the world’s population is expected to live in cities [1], [2]. This shift from a rural to an urban-dominant planet is an indication that cities might soon need a new infrastructure to cope with the challenges imposed by the growth. In this context, IBM introduces the smart city concept in 2008 as part of their Smarter Planet initiative [3]. The concept builds on the fact that billions of digital devices are permanently connected through the internet producing a vast amount of information. Such devices can be mobile phones, tables, laptops, computers, but also home appliances, monitoring applications and transportation systems. Data analytics can help analysing the information gathered from these devices and converting it into useful knowledge that can help the city to become more efficient, more productive and less costly [4]. Currently, there is no standard definition for a smart city since each city has its own individual structure and needs. As such, there are no mandatory prescriptions on how a smart city should be built [5]. However, regardless of structure and individual needs, there are some technological requirements essential for a city to be called smart [6]. For example, an important requirement refers to the deployment of fiberoptics and wireless broadband internet available through the whole city to all citizens [7]. This requirement is crucial for a smart city foundation as it enables the embedding of sensors and a continuous data exchange between city and digital devices. Another important requirement refers to the use of smart devices, sensors and agents embedded in the physical space. These sensors ensure that real time data is provided to the city administration around the clock for analytics and knowledge extraction. The process helps the city to make better decisions and to become ‘smarter’. Further requirements refer to the development of smart urban spaces by connecting the embedded system, sensors, and smart devices to the ICT infrastructures. Such spaces are areas in the city that include electric car charge points services, Wi- 1096