SHIO ~ fun in monotony
Group 1: Natania, Krishna Pranav, Tanya
Context:
For this assignment, we want to look at the experience of climbing up and down the staircases of the Srishti N5 campus.
The way such a mundane and otherwise exhausting experience can be made a positive one would be by allowing the users of the staircase to interact with one another, or to have some kind of conversation facilitated with the help of an interface during the course of their usage of the stairs.
Problem statement:
Students walking up the staircases to their classes often have an unpleasant ascend to their destination, as they are worn out, exhausted or lazy to make the climb. They may even come across ‘awkward’ moments on the stairs when around other students they don’t know.
We hope to solve this by introducing a conversational agent that facilitates conversation either between the students or with the agent itself. It also distracts and occupies the users, giving a certain kind of incentive to use the stairs.
Motivation
As students, we have always felt the need to use lifts because we are tired of climbing foor floors on a daily basis. It is the same monotonous routine of climbing up and down. Since all of us have gone through this, we decided to choose this context to try and make the experience better.
Details
At the beginning of the staircases, on the ground floor of the N5 campus, there would be a small gadget that the students would make use of by swiping their identity cards. The staircase supports and connects itself with voice interface; a chatbot, named “Shio” and when the students swipe their card, the bot collects this data and addresses the people on the staircase.
When the situation arises, that there is a lot of foot traffic detected, Shio will pick names at random and greet them as they enter and leave the college premises. The chatbot would also entertain on-goers by playing music and talking about trending subjects, and would even make jokes now and again.
For example, X and Y have swiped their cards and are using the staircase then, the bot addresses them by saying “Hey X and Y! How are you doing today?” This would be followed by the students answering the question.
Since voice based interaction is the most natural mode of conversation, we hope to use a voice based agent to allow the students to be engaged in a conversation while using the staircases.
Another level added to this chatbot, Shio, would be when some users are casually walking up the stairs, they have the opportunity to play a game to pass the time that would ordinarily be wasted panting from the monotonous ascend. Stairs tiled with alternate black and white square blocks offer the users a chance to create their own tunes, by either following the black blocks, or white blocks, respectively.
Applications of SHIO:
- Students would prefer using stairs for the entertainment factor
- Encourages using stairs which in turn results in exercise motivation
- Acts as a database that tracks foot traffic at different times, generating data for the peak hours and mellow hours in which the staircases are used.
- The data can also be accessed by the cleaning staff, as it will help them know the timings most students will come and go. This will help them not waste their energy cleaning multiple times a day, restricting it to a minimum amount for their benefit.
- This data can also be provided to the canteen staff so they are equipped with enough eatery items for the number of students coming, to ensure that crowds don’t pile up and cause havoc for them.
