TALKO- A reception desk conversational agent
Abstract
The reception area, located on the 2nd floor in N5 campus of the Srishti Institute of Art, Design, and Technology, is like the help desk for students for a variety of reasons. The receptionists make sure to solve issues such as managing ID cards, solving students’ queries about different faculty or courses, informing about the locations or changes, etc. For someone who is new to N5, this can be a little baffling. Moreover students can find it very confusing if there are no receptionists around to answer their queries or inform them about something or the other. Sometimes, some might even prefer to not talk to another person because of their own personal issues and insecurities. Thus, with the use of a conversational agent, can the reception area be made more user-friendly? Can the space, thus be used, even in the absence of a receptionist and serve some sort of purpose to users even if the receptionists are around and they choose to interact with it? Exploring this, the following concept has been finalized upon, after coming up with a few different ideas.
Concept note
TALKO is the conversational agent on the reception desk at N5 Campus in the Srishti Institute of Art Design and Technology. It works on both voice and text based control systems in order to be inclusive and allow the user a choice of their preference. This screen is projected onto the desk and appears only when needed. Projection Mapping has been used to map the buttons that a user presses on the screen. Projection Mapping also ensures that a user does not have to constantly be cautious while he places his arms on the desk, or is talking to the receptionists if they are there, or be wary like he’d have to if there was a screen embedded in the desk instead.
To activate it, the user has to speak into the microphone of the headphones that are connected to the desk and are placed at a side for access to the users. Once the words “Hi TALKO” are registered, the start up screen gets projected, allowing the user to use the conversational agent accordingly.
The conversational agent opens up to a screen asking the user to pick the category they’d like to talk about including- Faculty, Information, Admissions, Wellness, etc. Given that people aren’t too open about talking to the wellness team or even talking out loud about needing some sort of help, hopefully talking via text to the conversational agents about their whereabouts should be of some help. The Wellness option facilitates a user to talk to the conversational agent and fix an appointment with any of the counsellors available, in a time slot comfortable with the user. The Faculty option notifies the faculty if a student wants to meet them, but otherwise answers queries about locating some faculty or the other, knowing which faculty or administration person to approach for what, etc. The Information option is basically like an online library of sorts which contains all information about different majors, new notices about other miscellaneous things, etc. Admissions specifically caters to new people in N5 Campus of Srishti, who are there to enquire about admissions and aren’t students yet. The process of understanding the process of how Srishti works and how the admissions go can be simplified by talking to someone instead of by reading a brochure or pamphlet. Using the Equipment option, one can enquire about availability of equipment like cameras, or speakers, etc and also receive information on the procedure to acquire it. Other than this, there will be an Other option, for any other queries, where you can talk to TALKO about anything else that these categories seem to not cover, and TALKO shall respond accordingly.
The headphones with the microphone, are preferred over speakers, given that the reception area usually has someone or the other in the vicinity. What a user needs to know, or speaks about, to the conversational agent, doesn’t need to be a public declaration. The agent also does not need to be addressing everybody in the vicinity by having the answer being broadcasted through speakers. Hence, headphones and the microphone, along with the text option, are attempts at ensuring confidentiality for the users.
Buttons of a tick ✔ and a cross ✖ are always present at the side of the screen. To end a conversation the user has to click the tick icon, after which the user is asked for feedback on whether they are content with the conversation or not. The user can then answer via the tick or the cross again, and TALKO asks if they’d like to have a conversation about anything else. If there has been no conversation from the user’s end for two minutes, TALKO shuts by itself showing a default message.
This is to be implemented at the N5 Campus reception in an attempt to save a user’s time in case of the absence of a receptionist, or to talk about something they seem to not be able to, with the receptionist, thus making the reception area user-friendly.
Video-
Conceptualized and prototyped by-
Srushti D Gangawanwale
Calvin J Stanley
