VastuBot
A Vastu companion- An SMS Bot
Context
Vastu Shastra (vāstu śāstra — literally “science of architecture”) is a traditional Indian system of architecture originating in India. Texts from the Indian subcontinent describe principles of design, layout, measurements, ground preparation, space arrangement, and spatial geometry.
Nowadays the influence of Vastushatra is spreading rapidly and is affecting the daily life of many people in India. The systematic application of the Vastu Shastra has proven to increase the spatial productivity of an enclosure, but there have also been a substantial number of unauthentic sources advocating false information about these concepts. Social media platforms — Whatsapp forwards and Facebook posts — also play a major role in sculpting people’s beliefs. Not just that, cases of Vastu-Shastra frauds have also been reported.
Intervention
VastuBot is an SMS chatbot that helps users have authentic information about Vastu-Shastra, gives them tip on making their home Vastu-compliant and bust common myths about it. Giving space/room-specific tips to the user also becomes a core function of the bot.
Bot personality
This informative chatbot is knowledgeable and confident in his responses. In addition to that, the bot holds a formal character, projecting to be a professional Vastu-consultant at the user’s disposal.
The bot prioritizes giving user-specific tips according to the spaces mentioned by the user. One can see how the other functions of this bot are prioritized as mentioned below:
Ordinarily, people look for general tips about Vastu, ways in which they can make their homes Vastu-compliant, and for false Vastu tips, they had faith in till now.
Designing the Dialogue
Before the bot begins to suggest simple and easy steps for doing Vastu for home, he would want to know if the user knew what Vastu is; if yes, continue, but if not, he is there to help!
Once the user is- or has become- aware of what Vastu Shastra is, he is now ready to take the next step, that is, to make their home a Vastu compliant one, through casual conversations!
When the user initiates the conversation, he is greeted by a painting by Mark Conlan that symbolize peace.
The first layer of dialogue is where the VastuBot and the user converse about Vastu in general, where the bot gets to know whether the user is aware of Vastu concepts. If not, the VastuBot prompts the user whether he would like to know more about Vastu by giving tips.
The second layer of dialogue is when the user asks the VastuBot for tips and/or MythBusters. This is when the bot looks for information in a pre-defined directory and answers the questions asked by the Bot.
The third layer is when the user asks the bot for specific ways in which his/her room can be made Vastu-compliant. VastuBot asks for additional information to get to a point where he can answer questions.
VastuBot/ V gratefully accepts the things that he doesn't know and assures the user that he would get on them and that the user should check again later.
Demo Video
You can talk to VastuBot on (301)691–4995!
Discussion
In addition to chatbot-framework deployed right now, including a feature that allows users to upload the floor plans of their houses — through which the bot extracts basic information — and then give suggestions based on this information would save the user the time to manually input the details in a text-based format.