Depok, October 20th 2023. Starting from difficulties and obstacles when conducting research on disability groups, Dr. Husnul Fitri, S.Psi. M.Si.—Lecturer in Urban Development Studies, School of Strategic and Global Studies (SKSG), Universitas Indonesia (UI)—was moved to create Swara innovation, namely the concept of web/mobile based self-completion survey software/application that utilizes voice user interface technology. This innovation has succeeded in becoming one of five innovations in the world to receive a 2023 Sage Concept Grant from Sage Methodspace to support early stage testing of concepts and ideas.
“I am very grateful to be this year’s Sage Concept recipient. Since submitting Swara to Sage Concept Grants, I have been talking to colleagues who are experts in artificial intelligence about the possibilities of bringing this technology to real life. Of course, more time is needed to discuss the optimal form of Swara for it to become an application that helps researchers and provides broad benefits in social research, especially for disability groups,” said Dr. Husnul.
Swara is a pioneering idea for a survey tool based on speech to text technology that was created to support disabled groups—especially the visually impaired and people with limited hand mobility persons—to be more widely involved and participate more comfortably in surveys or social research. The effectiveness offered by this tool is not only beneficial for respondents from disability groups, but also researchers.
Swara’s innovation is expected to be able to collect quantitative data with a user-friendly system for disability groups. Unlike conventional data collection, Swara uses voiceover to read survey questions, record and analyze (i.e. sort, categorize) speech-based responses, and display data on a spreadsheet. That way, the process of collecting and analyzing data through this tool becomes easier and faster.
According to Dr. Husnul, the name Swara is taken from a Sanskrit word which means ‘sound, noise, or tone’. The creation of this innovation is based on the principle that technological advances in the field of research must provide benefits to a more diverse population, thereby enabling researchers to understand various groups of society at large. In this case, technology plays a role in facilitating research without sacrificing its quality.
She said, “Through Swara, I also want to convey that there are many ideas and concepts that can be born from social researchers which are then collaborated with researchers from various other fields of science to produce technology that can provide mutual benefits.”
Dr. Husnul also added that Swara is not a new technology because it has been used in the speech to text technology revolution. However, the essence of this innovation is that voiceover technology can be expanded in the field of social research and can be adapted to the needs of researchers and respondents from groups with disabilities.
In developing Swara innovation, Dr. Husnul sees that there are several aspects that need to be considered carefully. First, this program must be able to establish a relationship between voice recognition and text as a command code. Second, various variations in the human voice, such as timbre, pitch, and modulation, must be recognized because they impact accurate interpretation and appropriate responses. Apart from that, Swara must have alternative responses to anticipate user fatigue problems.
These factors are big challenges in developing Swara. Therefore, more collaboration is needed to create Swara so that it can really “talk” in the real world. “I invite partners to jointly develop Swara, from concept testing to building it into a prototype for practical application,” said Dr. Husnul.
