User Interaction 2 - Chatbox Prototype

Interacting with the Chatbox prototype

After conducting some research into how chatbots work and what techniques can be used to build rich and capable bots, our team started to sketch some straightforward interactions with the so called "Elastabot. As, we discovered that we can implement the ability to send or receive attachments, ask the bot for more information by pressing the relevant buttons or by asking direct questions, we began by drawing some basic conversations. We are aiming to later implement the bot to use Artificial Intelligence so that it could make relevant suggestions based on the conversation with the user.

Botsociety.io

In order to create an interactive version of the Elastabot, we chose to use the tools provided by the Botsociety. Botsociety offers an online platform that can be used to create interactive chatbot prototypes that can be shared with other users. As we wanted our bot to be able to interact in a number of different ways, Elastabot can not only offer "button" alternatives, but also understand regular questions and browse the Internet for information. It can answer questions related to the plant/s owned by the user, user interface navigation and even topics such as weather forecast and/or solar energy. The bot is currently only set to ask a series of standard questions after it finishes answering the user's initial question, such as "Is there anything else I could help you with?". Our team is aiming to create an interactive chatbot using machine learning algorithms that will be able to hold a fluent conversation and even make suggestionsbased on the conversation with the user.