Risks
The greatest risk that we are currently facing is the low performance of the speech recognition system. As we started writing the speech recognition algorithm, we realized that although the Python SpeechRecognition library usually returns coherent sentences, which helps our NLP system to parse the input, the speed and accuracy of recognition is not very optimistic. We will test how to change certain metrics in the SpeechRecognition library for a more accurate output, and in the worst case, we can switch to other speech recognition algorithms compatible with Python.
Design Changes
We may be able to use fewer infrared sensors. We conducted testing this week and found that the system was still able to detect relatively short human figures accurately with just one or two sensors.
To accommodate inflexibilities in our current speech recognition and NLP modules, we decided that checkout can only be triggered by certain keywords (“checkout,” “finish,” and “done”). We will also be taking item orders one by one, so a sample interaction would look like this:
Kiosk: “Welcome! Please order your first item!”
Customer: “One hamburger, please.”
Kiosk: “You’ve ordered one hamburger. Is this correct?”
Customer: “Yes.”
Kiosk: “One hamburger, confirmed. Please order your next item, or say ‘finish’ to checkout.”
Customer: “Checkout.”
Kiosk: “Are you ready to checkout?”
Customer: “Yes.”
Kiosk: “Checkout successful! Your total is $XX.XX. Your order number is XX. You will be called when your order is ready. Thank you for using Meal By Words!”
Schedule
There is no schedule change this week. Everyone is on track with our plan.