TrafficCamBot

Microsoft Bot Framework bot for viewing traffic cameras.

Example dialog:

Supported Interactions

view

• Selects a city/set of traffic cameras to view. Sets this as state in the conversation.
• Examples:
  • view bay area
  • View the traffic cameras for Seattle

list

• Lists the names of all of the cameras for the currently-selected city.
• Examples:
  • list

(enter a camera name)

• This is how you view a camera image. The bot keeps an index of a number of alternative names (e.g. variations on "st", "street", etc.) where possible, and uses some heuristics (including a Lucene index) to try and figure out what the user meant.
• The most reliable way to get a result, obviously, is to enter an exact camera name (case-insensitive).
• But certain more-conversational styles will often work as well, e.g. "Show me the traffic camera at Sunset Blvd".
• These are based on the phrase-search query scoring in the Lucene index, so ymmv.
• If multiple cameras may match, the user is presented with a numbered menu...

enter a camera number from a choice list

• If the user was presented with a choice list by the bot, they can enter the appropriate integer to view a given camera.
• The choice list stays in conversational state until another one needs to be presented.

Adding a New CameraDataService

If you have a new set of traffic cameras you would like the bot to support, follow these steps:

• Look at the existing examples.
• Create a new class in the Data folder, TrafficCamBot.Data namespace.
• Extend CameraDataServiceBase. (You may also just implement ICameraDataService, but you'll lose lots of nice stuff like the Lucene index by default).
  • Return a unique name from the Name property. Note that this name should be displayable to the user (i.e. user-friendly and meaningful).
  • In the constructor, call SetCameraNames with a list of all of the camera names your service will understand/support.
  • Implement GetImageUrlForCamera (basically, given the name of one of your cameras, return the appropriate CameraImage structure).
  • Send a pull request.