Joking Panda on iOS

Author: Lukas Carvajal

About

An iOS app with an animated panda that says knock-knock jokes out-loud and requires the user to talk back to it.

Problem

1. While entertaining a 9-year-old at a kids party (filled with adults and no kids), I ran into an issue where I could not tell more than 2-3 knock-knock jokes.
2. When I started looking up some, the 9-year-old wanted to hear about 100 more and I was getting tired.
3. The 9-year-old wanted to practice telling the new knock-knock jokes she learned.

Developing a Solution

The 9-year-old had an iPhone so I thought I'd develop an iOS app.

My goal was really to build something that engaged kids in conversation rather than having them tap at a screen or hear a knock-knock joke said outloud the boring way ChatGPT does.

AI Technologies

• Trains a large language model using responses to knock knock jokes using SFCustomLanguageModelData. For example, 'I dunapo' is a hilarious response to a knock knock joke that normally doesn't get detected by the speech framework.

Other Technologies

• AVFAudio - plays audio files
• Speech - speech-to-text, captures laughter loudness, and synthesizes speech when audio file isn't available
• Mixpanel - event tracking

Support

• Knock knock jokes
• Riddles (coming soon)
• Dad jokes (coming soon)

Setup

1. Create a Keys.plist file in the Resources folder
2. Add the key mixpanelProjectToken with the Mixpanel project token
3. Create a Resources/knockKnockJokeData.json file and populate it with an array of JSON joke objects in the form {"id":1001,"phrases":["Knock, knock.","Who's there?","Tank.","Tank who?","You’re welcome."]}
4. Run the app

To-dos

1. Add support riddles and dad jokes
2. Allow user to practice telling jokes to the panda
3. Add fun dancing panda animations (requested by 9-year-old)