What is a Slot?
A slot is a narrow depression, groove, or notch, especially one for receiving something, such as a coin or a letter. Also, a position in a group, series, or schedule: The TV show is in the eight o’clock slot on Thursdays.
A narrow notch, groove, or opening for accepting or admitting something, such as a coin or slit in a door. Also: a place or position, as in a schedule or sequence: The movie has been slotted for next Sunday.
In computing, a slot may refer to an expansion card, such as an ISA, PCI, or AGP (accelerated graphics port) slot, or to a peripheral device attached to a computer. In the latter case, it may also mean a memory slot. The term is also used for a vacant or unallocated position on the motherboard, usually reserved for future expansion.
On a slot machine, players insert money or paper tickets with barcodes (in “ticket-in, ticket-out” machines), then activate the machine by pressing a lever or button (physical or on a touchscreen) to spin reels and display symbols. The reels stop and rearrange themselves when the player hits a winning combination, earning credits according to the machine’s pay table. Symbols vary by game but typically include classic icons such as fruit, diamonds, and stylized lucky sevens. Many slot games have a theme, and the symbols and payouts are aligned with that theme.
Many critics of increased hold say that the change degrades the player experience by decreasing average time on the machine, although academic researchers have found that players cannot feel the effect of a higher hold. Others argue that players have the option to choose a smaller denomination, or even walk away from a machine with an empty wallet, without feeling they have lost anything.
Some slot machines have a ‘candle’, which flashes in various patterns to indicate service needed, jackpot, error messages, and other conditions. Other machines have a ‘help’ screen or other interface for displaying the same information. The pay tables for a particular machine can be found on the machine or online, and players can always ask a slot attendant for assistance.
In Dialog Engine, you can use regular expressions to add synonyms for a slot type so that your bot understands multiple ways of saying the same thing. For example, you can add the slot type value New York to have the synonyms Big Apple and NYC recognized by your bot. You can also create a default slot type in the Settings page of the Conversation Editor. Then, for each utterance, you can select the slot type from the drop-down menu. This will map to the specific utterance in the Conversation Editor and in the user interface. You can select the Allow Synonyms checkbox to enable this feature.