A narrow opening for coins or other items in a machine or container. Also: a position, especially in a game or event, such as a time slot for an appointment or a goal in ice hockey.
The earliest slot machines, invented by Charles Fey in 1887, had three reels and used poker symbols, including hearts, diamonds, spades, and horseshoes. These machines were less likely to break down due to mechanical faults and required a smaller amount of coinage.
Fey’s machines allowed multiple winning combinations and incorporated an automatic payout system. His machine was more successful than the earlier Sittman and Pitt invention. It grew in popularity and became an integral part of many casinos.
A slot is a dynamic placeholder that either waits for content (passive) or calls out to a renderer to fill it with content (active). It’s recommended that you use slots and scenarios together, but not in conjunction with each other—using more than one scenario could produce unpredictable results.
You can add multiple slots to an utterance using the Utterance tab. Each slot must be mapped to a slot type. Slot types define how the bot processes the information in a slot. For example, if an utterance mentions two executive rooms for three nights starting tomorrow, the bot will look for the slot labelled Rooms Required.
You can add synonyms for slot type values so that Dialog Engine will recognize different words and phrases for the same slot. To do this, select the Enable Synonyms checkbox next to the slot type value.