Summary
The project was undertaken for my Programming For Online Prototyping class at the Integrated Innovation Institute. It involved designing the interaction of the bot and development of the system architecture, the database and the Amazon Alexa skill.
Functionality
Primary Function
Verbally tell Lingua a phrase and the language you want it translated into. You will receive an SMS, as well as, a verbal response with your translation.
Secondary Function
Users can revisit old translations and play a quizzing game with questions based on previously translated phrases.
Future Function
Connect to a social API such as Facebook or Twitter where a user can share scores from the quiz or share learning progress.
Software and Network
Lingua integrates three API's in it's functioning. It connects to the Microsoft Translate API for translations. The Alexa API provides the input and speech interaction while the Twilio API provides the SMS feedback. The app was written in Ruby Sinatra and was deployed using the Heroku platform service.
Interaction Design
Lingua is a simple bot, constantly trying to keep you on your toes. When she's not busy helping you out, she's learning new languages and new ways to challenge you. She was designed to be quirky, sarcastic and self-aware.
Interaction Diagram
Data System
PostgreSQL was used to build the database. There are 3 databases for the users which include their user details, translation history and quizzing history. A 4th database is used to streamline handling errors. It contains a list of languages for which the Microsoft Translation API offers translations.
