Conversational Interfaces 2014/2015

Platform + Scaling

In this module, exploring paradigms for interaction, navigation, conversation; considering different paradigms for authoring / writing (interactive) characters.

Scaling to consider also scales of time.

Part I: Conversational interfaces

• Douglas Englebart: Mother of all demos
• Daughter of all demos, Saskia Aldinger https://vimeo.com/40683500
• Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, (Samsung means to come)[1]
• Donald Rodney, AUTOICON (CD-ROM)
• A Conversation with Eliza
• The Eliza Effect
• Weizenbaum clip (Plug and Pray? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB5oZcsAJm8)
• Videodrome, Professor Oblivion, dir. David Cronenberg, 1983
• Put that there, Architecture Machine Group, MIT, 1981
• Image interrogation, Blade Runner dir. Ridley Scott, 1982
• Antonio Roberts, Electic Voice Phenomenon
• Apple: Knowledge Explorer
• TODO: robust IRC ( video extract? )
• TODO: Bots talking to each other (clip)
• TODO: Turing test (video doc?)
• CC IRC?
• The machine stops? (get online version?)

Situate the IRC protocol

• Work in progress: Botopera

Practical Exercise * IRC server * pipeline to chatbot... (ircpipebot for quick chatbots?)

Mockup a conversational interface... * A: Python (/ IRC) * B: Transformations of a text, to be performed in a text editor * C: Image response (a la daughter of all demos ), or Image interrogation

Work through ... Eliza transformation

Part II: Navigational

• Aspen Movie Map
• Information Landscapes
• Hypercard? (arrange an exercise?)
• Various Xanadu implementations
• General Magic ?!

? Whoosh/Roll Your Own Google ?! ? example of pipeline & ircpipebot? (checkout botopera!)

• IRC as distributed protocol ? ( Netsplit )
• HTTP

Alternative protocols * IRC * Hypercard * Director/Flash... * SMIL * CD+G, CD-I ?

• pandoc
• makefiles
• Regular Expressions

Create a dialog (either in code or static text) with an existing text/character. * text filter ( in python ) search & replace (in editor, in python) * Regular Expressions

• Modernizer...