Semantic Cursor

https://semantic-cursor.glitch.me

Concept

Semantic Cursor is a small multi-user game I made as a final project for Machine Learning for the Web.

My goal was to build a playful exploration of a sematic space. I was also interested in exploring the use of conversational interfaces for collaboration.

Users accessing the app share a single game of Semantic Cursor. The goal is to traverse the semantic space, word by word to get from one random word to another random word.

Learnings

• it is annoying when someone interrupts you
• turn taking is impossible to signal
• there are some bad words in there
• the random problems are more solveable than expected
• the cognitive load is heavier than I expected
• there are some weird pockets, eg a very large space of male first names

Future Opportunities

• Signaling others (presence, activity)
  • active user count
  • other user currently typing signal
• Physics
• blacklisting scary words
• retraining Word2Vec with a topical corpus specific to different communities
• more game mechanics