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We introduce Lingo, a hyper-local conversational agent embedded deeply into the urban infrastructure that provides rich, purposeful, detailed, and in some cases, playful information relevant to a neighbourhood. Drawing lessons from a mixed-method contextual study (online survey, n = 1992 and semi-structured interviews, n = 21), we identify requirements for such a hyper-local conversational agent and a sample set of questions serving urban neighbourhoods of Belgium. Our agent design is manifested into a two-part system. First, a multi-modal reasoning engine serves as a hyper-local information source using automated machine-learning models operating on camera, microphone, and environmental sensor data. Second, a smart conversational speaker and a smartphone application serve as hyper-local information access points. Finally, we introduce a covert communication mechanism over Wi-Fi management frames that bridges the two parts of our Lingo system and enables the privacy-preserving proxemic interactions. We describe the design, implementation, and technical assessment of Lingo together with usability (n = 20) and real-world deployment (n = 5) studies. We reflect on information quality, accessibility benefits, and interaction dynamics and demonstrate the efficacy of Lingo in offering hyper-local information at the finest granularity in urban neighbourhoods while reducing access time up to a factor of 25.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1145\/3534573","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,7,7]],"date-time":"2022-07-07T18:50:18Z","timestamp":1657219818000},"page":"1-31","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1145\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":10,"title":["The City as a Personal Assistant"],"prefix":"10.1145","volume":"6","author":[{"given":"Utku G\u00fcnay","family":"Acer","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Nokia Bell Labs, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Marc van den","family":"Broeck","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Nokia Bell Labs, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Chulhong","family":"Min","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Nokia Bell Labs, United Kingdom"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mallesham","family":"Dasari","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Carnegie Mellon University, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Fahim","family":"Kawsar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Nokia Bell Labs, United Kingdom"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"320","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,7,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"e_1_2_2_1_1","unstructured":"2020. 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