Team Status Update for Feb 15

The dimensions of KATbot are as shown above.

Risks and Risk Management:

The most significant risk is a poor fill in the blank algorithm for the machine learning based stories. Without this feature, the stories will not be cohesive or grammatically correct, defeating the purpose of our storytelling, educational tool. To ensure this feature works, we are planning to use sentences with only one or two inputs and vocabulary at predetermined educational levels. We know, based on documentation, that the tool we are using for this algorithm works with this format. If we are still unable to get the fill in the blanks working, we can always minimize the extent to which we customize the story, or change the story templates to require even less cohesion.

Another big risk is speech recognition. Since our target audience includes children that cannot read, this feature is vital. We need to be able to identify simple phrases in the context of user interaction. Our contingency plan is to have speech recognition running on the same laptop as the ML algorithm. We also have a touch screen display, so we can ask for user input to be typed rather than spoken.

Design Changes:

The text display that best suits our project design has the added feature of a touch screen. This is beneficial since we can now use the touch screen as a backup plan for speech recognition and we can also add buttons on the screen for more control (ex. reset or help buttons).
In addition, our final goal is to have the machine learning algorithm on a Nvidia jetson nano, as opposed to just on the laptop, because we want the entire product to be in one unit. To accomodate this change, we are leaving room in out budget to purchase one.

The schedule for the project remains the same.