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Enhancing Lifelog Question-Answering with Retrieval-Augmented Generation and Reasoning Large Language Models

Tran, Quang-Linh orcid logoORCID: 0000-0002-5409-0916 (2026) Enhancing Lifelog Question-Answering with Retrieval-Augmented Generation and Reasoning Large Language Models. PhD thesis, Dublin City University.

Abstract
Lifelogging refers to the process of passively collecting, storing, and analysing an individual’s daily life data from wearable cameras, sensors, and mobile devices. Question-answering (QA) on lifelog data involves posing questions on lifelog data and generating answers in natural language. Lifelog QA is a compelling yet challenging problem due to the extensive volume and the multimodal and temporal nature of lifelogging. Addressing this task requires a retriever to find relevant information within the lifelog collection before generating answers. With recent advancements in large language models (LLMs), their capabilities in QA tasks show potential to advance lifelog understanding. In addition, with their reasoning capability, LLMs can solve the aggregation question in lifelogging that requires contextual understanding and reasoning. This study investigates the lifelog QA task with RetrievalAugmented Generation and reasoning LLMs by proposing an end-to-end lifelog QA system. To achieve this, I first introduce a lifelog retrieval system to retrieve relevant information necessary for answering questions. A multi-modal reranking model is also developed to further improve the retrieval performance for lifelog QA. Subsequently, a RAG pipeline is developed to analyse the context from the retriever and generate the answers to the questions. Finally, reasoning LLMs for lifelog QA are also investigated to address complex aggregation questions. In summary, this thesis primarily contributes to the field with a QA system using RAG and reasoning LLMs to address the lifelog QA task.
Metadata
Item Type:Thesis (PhD)
Date of Award:27 August 2026
Refereed:No
Supervisor(s):Gurrin, Cathal and Jones, Gareth
Subjects:Computer Science > General Computer Science
Computer Science > Computer Science (miscellaneous)
Computer Science > Computer Science Applications
DCU Faculties and Centres:DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Engineering and Computing > School of Computing
Research Institutes and Centres > ADAPT
School, Faculty or Unit:Faculty of Engineering & Computing
Faculty of Engineering & Computing > School of Computing
Use License:This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. View License
Funders:Research Ireland
ID Code:33488
Deposited On:27 Oct 2026 12:15 by Cathal Gurrin . Last Modified 27 Oct 2026 12:15
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