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Front End Design | |
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Implementation of the InterACT user interface was based on the software specification developed at the beginning of the project, and carried out using Macromedia Director 8.0. Other than some minor tweaks in later weeks, the style and layout of the user interface was designed by the first cycle team.
Click on the thumbnail to the right to view the entire specification.
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Using Synthetic Interview | |
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Synthetic Interview (SI) is a software technology created at Carnegie Mellon by Scott Stevens and Bill Joy. SI uses a statistical relevancy ranking algorithm to match input text to previously defined question IDs. Once the SI returns the question ID, a database lookup is performed to get the proper video files and transcribed answer text for the question. The total effect is to take user questions to a specific character and respond to them with prerecorded video of that character.
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Revised Back End | |
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For the first seven-week cycle, the InterACT application accessed Synthetic Interview and the databases through an ActiveX component written in Visual Basic. Serious reworking of the back end was done in the later fourteen weeks: All the Visual Basic code was ported to C++, and a Director Xtra (plugin) was built, rather than using an ActiveX component. These changes have simplified the InterACT installation process and also opened the possibility of a Macintosh port.
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Creation of Content | |
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In the first seven weeks of the project, answer content was improvised by the actors in
response to prompted questions. Since some of the improvised answers tended to be too
lengthy or overly broad, answers were more directed and scripted for the second shooting.
By supplying some keywords and ideas for the actors to improvise an answer around, they
were able to retain the character's voice and style while producing an answer more specific
and direct for the SI database. |
 
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The following charts show the increase in content in the SI database over the last fourteen weeks.
| Questions |
| | Begin | 19-Sep | 16-Oct | 14-Nov | Final |
| Donald |
370 |
374 |
585 |
990 |
1485 |
| Janet |
320 |
327 |
549 |
1194 |
1656 |
| Herb |
241 |
236 |
360 |
821 |
1045 |
| Total |
931 |
937 |
1494 |
3005 |
4186 |
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| Responses |
| | Begin | 19-Sep | 16-Oct | 14-Nov | Final |
| Donald |
81 |
73 |
67 |
149 |
170 |
| Janet |
94 |
93 |
87 |
198 |
181 |
| Herb |
66 |
53 |
52 |
123 |
120 |
| Total |
241 |
219 |
206 |
470 |
471 |
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| | Next : Production |
