Interactive dialogues
First Claim
1. An interactive dialogue apparatus comprising:
- means for generating prompts to be output;
means for processing input responses to produce response data;
a store for storing response data;
a store storing data defining an initial state, a plurality of subsequent states, possible transitions between states, and for each transition an associated condition to be satisfied before that transition is deemed allowable, at least some of said conditions involving the stored response data; and
control means operable to (a) perform a parsing operation in which it examines whether transition conditions are satisfied so as to identify a subsequent state in respect of which—
(i) the condition(s) associated with the transition(s) from a reference state to that state are satisfied, and (ii) no conditions associated with any transition from that state are satisfied;
(b) select, in dependence upon the state thus identified, a prompt to be output;
wherein the control means is operable upon receipt of a response to repeat the parsing operation using said initial state as the reference state.
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Abstract
An interactive dialogue apparatus generates prompts and receives responses which it processes and stores response data. Progress of the dialogue is controlled using a state model which is parsed, comparing transition conditions with the stored response data, stopping at a state for which no edge condition is satisfied. Each time a fresh response is received, the model is reparsed from the start. Prompts are generated by reference to a state history, being selected by finding the longest match between the history and state sequences associated with stored prompts. Prompts are compared so that the dialogue may be terminated in the event of repetition.
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Citations
26 Claims
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1. An interactive dialogue apparatus comprising:
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means for generating prompts to be output;
means for processing input responses to produce response data;
a store for storing response data;
a store storing data defining an initial state, a plurality of subsequent states, possible transitions between states, and for each transition an associated condition to be satisfied before that transition is deemed allowable, at least some of said conditions involving the stored response data; and
control means operable to (a) perform a parsing operation in which it examines whether transition conditions are satisfied so as to identify a subsequent state in respect of which— (i) the condition(s) associated with the transition(s) from a reference state to that state are satisfied, and (ii) no conditions associated with any transition from that state are satisfied;
(b) select, in dependence upon the state thus identified, a prompt to be output;
wherein the control means is operable upon receipt of a response to repeat the parsing operation using said initial state as the reference state. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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2. An interactive dialogue apparatus comprising:
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means for generating prompts to be output;
means for processing input responses to produce response data;
a store for storing response data;
a store storing data defining an initial state, a plurality of subsequent states, possible transitions between states, and for each transition an associated condition to be satisfied before that transition is deemed allowable, at least some of said conditions involving the stored response data;
a state history store; and
control means operable to (a) perform a parsing operation in which it examines whether transition conditions are satisfied so as to identify a subsequent state in respect of which— (i) the condition(s) associated with the transition(s) from a reference state to that state are satisfied, and (ii) no conditions associated with any transition from that state are satisfied;
(b) record the identified state in the history store;
(c) select, in dependence upon the contents of the history store, a prompt to be output;
wherein the apparatus includes a prompt definition store for storing a plurality of prompt definitions, each prompt definition having a sequential pattern of one or more states associated with it, and the control means is arranged to select, of those prompts having associated with them a sequential pattern which matches at least the most recent part of the sequence of states in the state history store, the prompt having the longest such match.
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3. An interactive dialogue apparatus comprising:
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means for generating prompts to be output;
means for processing input responses to produce response data;
control means operable to perform a dialogue process in which it selects, in dependence upon the response data, a prompt to be output;
means for storing the most recent prompt that has been output;
means operable to compare the selected prompt with the stored most recent prompt and in the event of a match to terminate the dialogue process. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7)
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12. A method of operating an interactive dialogue with a user comprising:
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processing input responses to produce response data;
storing response data;
performing a parsing operation by reference to a dialogue model defined by stored data defining an initial state, a plurality of subsequent states, possible transitions between states, and for each transition an associated condition to be satisfied before that transition is deemed allowable, at least some of said conditions involving the stored response data;
wherein said parsing operation involves (a) examining whether transition conditions are satisfied, so as to identify a subsequent state in respect of which— (i) the condition(s) associated with the transition(s) from a reference state to that state are satisfied, and (ii) no conditions associated with any transition from that state are satisfied;
(b) selecting, in dependence upon the state thus identified, a prompt to be output;
and wherein upon receipt of a response the parsing operation is repeated using said initial state as the reference state. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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13. A method of operating an interactive dialogue with a user comprising:
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generating prompts to be output;
processing input responses to produce response data;
storing response data;
performing a parsing operation by reference to a dialogue model defined by stored data defining an initial state, a plurality of subsequent states, possible transitions between states, and for each transition an associated condition to be satisfied before that transition is deemed allowable, at least some of said conditions involving the stored response data;
wherein said parsing operation involves (a) examining whether transition conditions are satisfied so as to identify a subsequent state in respect of which— (i) the condition(s) associated with the transition(s) from a reference state to that state are satisfied, and (ii) no conditions associated with any transition from that state are satisfied;
(b) recording the identified state in a history store;
(c) selecting, in dependence upon the contents of the history store, a prompt to be output;
and wherein the selection of the prompt is carried out by reference to a plurality of stored prompt definitions, each prompt definition having a sequence of one or more states associated with it, and selecting the prompt in dependence upon the longest sequence of states in the prompt definition store which sequence of states is equal to a sequence of the most recent one or more states stored in the state history store.
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14. A method of operating an interactive dialogue with a user comprising:
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generating prompts to be output;
processing input responses to produce response data;
performing a dialogue process involving selecting, in dependence upon the response data, a prompt to be output;
storing the most recent prompt that has been output;
comparing the selected prompt with the stored most recent prompt and in the event of a match to terminate the dialogue process. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
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20. A method according to any one of claims including 12 to 19 including generating the prompts in spoken form.
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25. A method of operating a dialogue substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings.
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26. An interactive dialogue apparatus substantially as herein described with reference to the accompanying drawings
Specification