Mike

(Cypris Chat)

Since Apr 2008 in English, Second Life, Web, Education, learn & lookup, Social, Text recognition, E-Learning, Research

Chatbot Mike, chatbot, chat bot, virtual agent, conversational agent, chatterbot

Chatbot Mike is achatbot used in Second Life and on our website to help students practice English. This is part of an ongoing research project into the use of virtual world AI and language learning.

Additional comments by developer Unknown:
If you are interested in this chatbot and would like to help develop it in our Cypris Chat community then please contact me.

Second Life:	http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Wellston/167/88/23
Web:	http://cyprischat.org

Chatbot Details
Developer:	Unknown
Organisation:	Cypris Chat
Country:	Global
Language:	English
Themes:	Education, learn & lookup, Social
Features:	Text recognition, Avatar
Application:	E-Learning
Synonym used:	Chatbot
Started:	Apr 2008

Comments

There are 13 comments:

Lobna

Sep 20, 2008

so happy i found this:)

Chihiro

May 5, 2009

i am english and i know you dont do this but i want to learn Japanese.....I love it!!!

Professor Merryman

Feb 10, 2010

This posting is a bit old. I have used this chatbot quite a few times since I first posted this and it has generated some real interest from users but the problem has been the accuracy of responses from the bot lessens interest in returning to converse more because the novelty of it wears off.

These bots are good for customer service ad short fun conversations but not for long term learning in which conversational ability is the objective.

I actually came back here because now I am working on a simulation tat utilizes bots in role playing. Please contact me in Second Life if you are able to help. IM Professor Merryman.
All the best.

scott

May 24, 2010

Hi Mike,

How is it going with using bots to do role play? I am doing the same on our university island (Monash University 2 - Chinese Island) and am curious to know more about what you are doing.

Cheers,

Scott

Professor Merryman

May 24, 2010

Hi Scott. I have been using the bot on my Moodle website to offer my students some interaction on the website. As for role playing, I haven't found anyone interested in developing a programmable avatar with text-to-speech, speech-to-text capabilities for use in language learning simulations yet. But I'm looking...

Oh...IM me inworld and I'll give you a full perm version of my bot so you can explore. It's a bit outdated but still works.

Mike

scott

May 24, 2010

Hi Mike,

I would be interested to talk to you more about what you mean by "a programmable avatar". We have automated avatars in SL whose sole raison d'etre is to interact with learners in a form of role play or, more accurately, simulation. In addition to being able to conduct scripted dialogs centered on the particular context they are in (a Chinese restaurant in this case), they are able to perform certain movements (such as guiding a guest to a table by walking there - the table varies according to the number of guests) and certain actions (they can 'take an order' and rez up the dishes / drinks ordered on the table). In this sense they are programmable within the SL environment.

I am guessing from you comment "IM me inworld and I’ll give you a full perm version of my bot so you can explore. It’s a bit outdated but still works" that your bot is prim-based and also LSL-based (or do you mean your bot on Moodle)? Our bots are avatar-bots that are run from an external server (there are some inherent problems with this)and use a modified AIML engine that can recognize Chinese characters and has slightly different characteristics to, say, the Pandorabot engine (indeed, functions like <topic> and the <that> in Pandorabot don't work in SL, whereas ours do). We can use the same AIML engine on webpages too, which I have to say I only use for testing at the moment, but would like to enhance for student use at some point in the future.

On the question of text-to-speech, speech-to-text capabilities， this is a complex area for me. In fact, I have actually got a simple interface developed by another (former?) SL resident that enables whatever my bots type to be 'spoken', but it relies on the people interacting with the bots having a text-to-speech engine on their computer with a Chinese voice-package. Clearly, not everyone will have this, so while I might be able to ensure the computers my students at the university use have this, it's not really a practical option in the more general sense. I have also spoken to Dragon Naturally Speaking about their speech-to-text software, but unfortunately they don't have the language I need (Mandarin Chinese), although this would be an option for English speakers (it's not a true solution, just a workaround).

I am curious as to how your students have reacted to / used the bot on your website. Do they use it much? Are they using it as a learning / conversational tool? Do they see it as something serious / beneficial to learning language (or whatever your discipline is)? While I am currently convinced that the kind of interactive bots that we are talking about are indeed useful for learning (we have mainly used them in synchronous classes and in problem / task-based learning scenarios), I still have no solid evidence that students see them that way (although in the couple of lessons we have used them in in SL, the students have interacted with them quite happily, and indeed where information could have been gained via other avenues - reading a sign for example - quite a few students automatically opt to 'talk' to a bot to get the necessary information).

May I ask what has led you to be interested in the use of bots as interactive agents for learning?

My avatar name in SL is Xilin Yifu.

Cheers,

Scott

Professor Merryman

May 25, 2010

Wow Scott. That was a heck of a response. Where do I start?

I didn't realize from your first post just how involved you are with chatbots. It sounds to me like you are much further along than me. I am using the Pandorabot script and a regular Pandorabot. I'm not a programmer but research ways to use bots when I have the time. It's not my main research. I do, however, very much wish to create decision tree based activities in which bots are used to augment the dialogues and interactions of the students.

For an example of what I would like to do with programmed bots, let's say there is a restaurant. One student is the waitress, one a customer, and another a manager. The customer gets her food and rolls a die. Low number bad food, high number good food. Based on the roll of the die the student must react to the situation. If it's a 3 the customer must complain in a nice tone, a one and they must complain in a strong tone. Everyone reacts according to the rolls and records their experiences until the issue is resolved. The programmed avatars could be triggered to execute a talk command if the roll of the dice hits a certain number.

As for my students using the Mike bot...they just laugh and have a little fun once in a while. Nothing major. I don't use them in my classes. It's just for fun and practice.

I think bots or boids create another level of random interaction, a surpise that makes the experience more interesting. They aren't intended to teach but to facilitate a task, in my opinion.

I look forward to meeting you in world. I would love to see your restaurant.

Feel free to drop by Cypris Village

Scott Grant

May 31, 2010

Hi Mike,

Sorry I didn't reply earlier. Had 14 hours of lessons in SL last week and didn't go near my emails until just today.

Interestingly our lessons last week heavily involved our bots in our restaurant and students interacting with them conversationally to obtain key information critical to the completion of the task set for them for that lesson. While there were some minor technical problems and students asked a small number of questions that I didn't anticipate, overall the students seemed to respond extremely well to interaction with the bots. Another major benefit of using the bots as the main interlocutors in the lesson was that the tutors and myself were free to go around to individual students and look at what they were saying to the bots and help them with any linguistic issues they were having (Scott, the bot won't answer my questions! xxxx, have a look at what you typed.... that is not the Chinese character you should use / that is not how you should ask that question....try this and see how the bot responds).

I agree that the 'random' aspect of the interaction is an important element. Clearly, things are not as 'random' as they seem in our case, but there is that element of not being 100% sure what response will be given to any particular question, and maybe even a sense of achievement when student get a response that makes sense in the context of the question they asked and the the task they have been set.

Things are a bit busy over the next little while, but if you had time later in the week (Friday Australian time maybe) I would love to drop into Cypris Village and show you our island.

Cheers,

Scott

Erwin van Lun

Jun 1, 2010

@Mike, Scott: cool conversation over here!

I'd like to know more about you. May I invite you to have a look on our AI zone forum? http://www.chatbots.org/ai_zone/

We have similar discussions, although not very often about Second Life. I'm quite sure you'll get fresh new input (althought this discussion between the two of you is already exciting anyway).

Professor Merryman

Jun 2, 2010

Hi Scott. Friday, Saturday Sunday is pretty tough for me. Australian time?..great. How's a Monday-Thursday evening?

Hi Erwin...thanks for the invite. I'll take a look o'er yonder.

I can be contacted inworld by sending an IM to Professor Merryman. I'll friend you next time I'm in SL so we can get in touch.

I look forward to seeing your island.

Scott Grant

Jun 8, 2010

Hi Erwin,

Thank you for the link to the other discussion page. I will be sure to have a look.

We are heading off to Europe for a months holiday, so I may be a little quiet until early July when we get back.

Glad to have found others with similar interests. I look forward to learning more about what everyone else is doing and sharing whatever meager knowledge/experience we have gained through our use of chatbots in language education.

Cheers,

Scott

Scott Grant

Jun 8, 2010

Hi Mike,

I am about to go inworld and 'friend' you. I am sure I have met you before or seen you at one inworld gathering or another.

I will also drop you an LM for our island that will land you near our bot NPCs. They are still a little unstable at the moment (they usually go offline once every day or so) and as I will be away till early July, I can't guarantee that they will be there all the time. I will check in whenever I can while we are travelling, so I hope I can keep them online as much as possible.

I guess the other thing I would emphasize is the importance of the combination of the bot NPCs and the environment/context in which they operate. If they have any learning efficacy at all, it is this combination (along with task-design) that achieves it.

Cheers,

Scott

Mike McKay

Jun 27, 2012

I've tried many times to send a request to update my account here but I have not received a reply. I'd like to update my chatbot. It is still live and being used.

I hope someone can help me regain access to my account.

Thanks,
Professor Merryman
aka Mike McKay

My chatbot is available on our website to members only and in Second Life at Cypris Village.
http://cyprischat.org

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