By Ms. Lisa Ong, Principal Lecturer & Consultant, Software Engineering & Design Practice

1. “Hey Cortana!”
Microsoft Bot Framework
#ISSLearningDay2018
Lisa Ong, NUS-ISS
13 July 2018

2. What we’ll cover today
• Cortana
• Microsoft Bot Framework
• Putting it together
• Takeaways
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3. Cortana
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4. Cortana can assist in...
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https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cortana

5. Cortana can run on…
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https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cortana

6. Cortana can do more…
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https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/cortana

7. Cortana, your digital student
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https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/cortana

8. Cortana, worthwhile?
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https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsofts-cortana-now-has-230-skills-and-amazons-alexa-25000/

9. Cortana bot, developer pros and cons
• Pros
• Enterprise-friendly:
• no separate application install on Windows
• iOS, Android, Smart Speakers
• Simple bot SDK on Node.JS and .NET/C#
• Cons
• Tied to Azure Bot Framework
• Not “code free”
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10. Microsoft Bot Framework
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11. What’s a bot?
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https://blog.markgrowth.com/how-chat-bots-can-help-you-increase-conversion-6561ba0b8ab0
https://www.engadget.com/2016/11/01/omate-yumi-home-robot-alexa/

12. What’s a Cortana bot?
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• The brains behind a Cortana Skill
• Voice activated using “Ask <bot keyword>” from Cortana
https://www.engadget.com/2016/11/01/omate-yumi-home-robot-alexa/

13. Use case: ISS Cortana Kiosk
Prospective student:
“Ask ISS what are the courses on Agile?”
Bot: looks up answer (course list) …
Cortana:
“Here are the courses on Agile:”
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14. Use case: ISS Cortana Kiosk
Visitor:
“Ask ISS where is classroom 2-03?”
Bot: looks up answer (location of 2-03) …
Cortana:
“Okay, take the elevator to the second floor, turn left…”
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15. How it works
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https://medium.com/@ashish_fagna/introduction-to-microsoft-azure-bot-service-luis-language-understanding-8826d29d013e

16. • “The Entry point”
• Voice queries from Cortana
• Results from backend
• 1 channel per bot keyword
(e.g. Ask ISS)
Part 1 (of 3): Cortana Channel
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1

17. • “Message Router and Glue”
• Incoming queries from
Cortana
• Outgoing replies from bot
service
Part 2 (of 3): Bot Connector
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2

18. • “The Brains”
• Implements logic to answer
queries
• Calls other web services
• Call other cognitive APIs
• Code in Javascript, Java,
Python, .NET
Part 3 (of 3): Bot Web Service
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3

19. Putting it together
Walkthrough: ISS Cortana Bot
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20. #ISSLearningDay2018

21. #ISSLearningDay2018

22. Takeaways
• Powerful way of creating Cortana Skills
• Build bots using Java, JS, Python, .NET:
https://github.com/Microsoft/BotBuilder
• Simple end user deployment on Windows, iOS, and
Android
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23. Thank You!
lisaong@nus.edu.sg
github.com/lisaong/iss-cortana-bot
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