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Conceptualization and implementation of a Fridge-based Voice Agent that accompanies, nudges, and teaches users to reduce food waste over time
The main objective of the project is to make use of the capabilities of a voice agent to assist the user on its goal of reducing food waste. The ideal user would be a young professional with a busy schedule, interested in starting to implement sustainable practices on every encounter in a household context. Social gatherings, meal prep, assisting on cooking skills would be part of the encounters between the user and the agent, promoting as a secondary goal to connect with people interested in changing their food habits in order to make an impact on the environment.
Help the user to reduce food waste in a household context by providing assistance in meal planning, expiration reminders and connecting with similar users. As well as providing an interactive experience with the help of a friendly, helpful and encouraging Voice Agent.
Do you follow a specific diet?
Do you cook? If the answer is yes, how often?
Rate your cooking skills
Where do you usually buy food?
How often do you experiment with unfamiliar/exotic ingredients?
Do you check expiring dates when buying food?
How organized are you when buying food?
How often do you throw out food because it has gone bad/expired?
What do you do with your food residues?
Do you use any additional help to do your groceries? (e.g., apps to track food consumption, buy groceries, meal planning service, etc.).
What actions do you take in your daily routine to avoid food waste?
“Sara,” a fictional character whose Hero Journey would become the basis for our voice agent prototype. She is young, busy and motivted. Her goal is to reduce food waste and create a community. She took her household nd locality as her goal environment.
Expiration Info:
1. Hi, what type of food it is?
2. What kind of meat it is?
3. Hi, yes it expired yesterday. Do not eat it. Say”more” to know how to dispose this item?
4. “----Expires soon. Would you like to have recipes for it?”
LogIn information:
1. You are backing from grocery shopping. Please tell it our AI
2. You hve consumed all the tomatoes. Please tell it our AI
3. “Perfect I saved your info, Should I add tomato to your shopping list?”
4. Tell our AI that you go to grocery shopping.
Meal planning:
1. Tell our AI that you do not know what to eat
2. “Hi! Would you like me to help you prepare dinner?”
3. “How many people do you expect?”
Social Networking:
1. Tell our AI that you have left overs for your friends.
2. “Sure, please name your leftovers and how much you have?”
3. Tell our AI that you do not want to cook today/ ask for shared food.
According to the dialogue tree, a number of intents were created for Alice in Dialogflow, representing the features and dialogue depth. Follow-up intents, fall-back intents, and contexts were used. For example, the expiry info intent provides different responses. Even with the same request/question, the answer can be that the food is still good to eat or has already expired.
Our fridge voice agent “Alice” was tested via the bot feature of Dialogflow. Both internal tests and tests with friends and family were carried out. Alice is available via the following URL: https://bot.dialogflow.com/6e26fe77-9f13-4adf-a59d-908cf954e6c3
Always helpful
Make use of external devices
Show advantages and disadvantages of user’s behavior
Special gatherings/ Cooking skills @any / large food Database
Promotes social interaction
Compatibility with other devices