1. Using Voice to Interact with
Geospatial Information
A platform for voice integration
John Thompson & Mike Giddens, Xentity Corporation
September 19, 2018

2. Current State of Voice
• Phones (Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa)
• Homes (Alexa, Google Home, TV’s)
• Computers (Cortana, Siri)
• Cars (Embedded, Bluetooth Add-ons)

3. Current State of Voice in GIS
• Driving Directions
• Input: “Drive Home”
• Output: Turn by Turn Directions
• Information on Points of Interest
• Input: “Where is the nearest gas station?”
• Output: “The nearest one I found is 7 Eleven on
S Gartrell Rd. Would you like directions?”

4. Growing Uses

5. Voice and GIS?

6. What’s Possible Now?
• Converting verbal questions into data queries
• Data results provided as verbal/visual information
• Virtual assistant
• Hands-free geospatial data entry (voice + GPS)

7. Actionable Questions
• Have any repairs been scheduled near mile marker 56?
• How many accidents have there been this month in
City/Zipcode/Neighborhood?
• What is the average property value in geographic area?

8. Example - Bike Share
● Goal
○ To allow bike commuters that use bike share stations to get information about their
specific stations via voice before leaving home or before arriving to destination
● Source data
○ General Bikeshare Feed Specification (GBFS) loaded into
PostGIS Database
● Questions
○ Alexa, ask bike share are there any bikes at my station?
○ Ok Google, ask bike share where is the nearest bike station?
○ … ask bike share to set my bike station to station name.
○ … ask bike share if there are any docks available at station name?
● Benefits
○ Immediate availability
○ Hands free communication
We plan to release this as a free app in 4Q 2018

9. Example - DOT
● Internal Need
○ Have drivers to be able to verbally report or query
maintenance needs.
● Source data
○ ArcGIS Online or other GIS System
○ Traffic sensors; WAZE data, INRIX data, HERE data
● Questions
○ Alexa, ask D O T are there any work
orders near Westbound I-70 Milepost 254?
○ ask DOT to open a Guard Rail ticket at my current location

10. Example - Parks and Recreation
● Goal
○ Allow “on the go” users to get quick answers about recreational opportunities
● Source data
○ ArcGIS Online Feature Services
● Questions
○ Alexa, ask Parks to give me a listing of dog parks in zip code 80104.
○ … show me a map of equestrian parks in Douglas County
○ Ok Google, ask Parks can I play baseball at Bayou Gulch Park?
○ Alexa, ask Parks does Challenger Park have a picnic shelter?

11. Example - Inspection Data Entry
● Goal
○ Voice alternative to systems like ESRI Collector.
● Source data
○ Parcel Dataset
○ Assessment History Dataset
● Dialog Flow
○ Ask skill to start a damage assessment.
○ Do you want to report at your current location? Yes
○ Are you at the residence of 123 East St? Yes
○ Ok, what type of damage is present? Hail
○ Anything else? No
○ Ok, I have recorded a hail damage assessment at 123 East Street on Tuesday September 11th.

12. Can this work for me?
Xentity’s team has the expertise and experience to make this work for you:
• We have a flexible, configurable platform already available
• We already connect with ArcGIS and Carto, and much more
• Voice Enabled solutions can be up and running in a matter of weeks
• You can use your own branding
• Change, update, and add as you like - not once and done
• Alexa available now; Google on the horizon - with one platform!

13. Don’t Start From Scratch!
Custom app development is expensive…
...and then you have to maintain it…
...and voice capabilities are expanding every month!

14. Don’t Start From Scratch!
Our service and platform makes it easy for you
to add the power of Voice to your service mix.

15. We’d love to hear from you!
John Thompson & Mike Giddens
jthompson@xentity.com mgiddens@xentity.com
Xentity Corp www.xentity.com
Golden, Colorado