Dialog system for a man-machine interaction, comprising co-operating dialog devices

• US 20040039636A1
• Filed: 06/18/2003
• Published: 02/26/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 12/18/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Deutsche Telekom AG
• Original Assignee: Deutsche Telekom AG
• Inventors: Schuhmacher, Karlheinz, Feldes, Stefan
• Granted Patent: US 7,437,292 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/32 Multiple recognisers used in sequence or in parallel; Score combination systems therefor, e.g. voting systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/0631 Creating reference templates; Clustering
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/355 Interactive dialogue design tools, features or methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/493 Interactive information services, e.g. directory enquiries ; Arrangements therefor, e.g. interactive voice response [IVR] systems or voice portals

Abstract

In known methods heretofore, a user was only able to be connected directly and inflexibly to a goal-directed dialog expert or to a chat-oriented dialog expert, also referred to as chat bot.

The present invention proposes a dialog system which will make it possible for a user to carry on a dialog with dialog experts (50, 60) having different capabilities, during an existing dialog session.

To this end, a terminal device (10, 20) is connected to a special switching device (40), which, in dependence upon his communicated user statement, provides him with the optimal system statement from a multiplicity of system statements received from various dialog devices (50, 60).

Claims

1. A dialog system for a man-machine interaction having cooperating dialog devices, comprising at least one terminal device (10, 20), where a user can input a user statement;

at least one first switching device (40;

40′

, 40″

, 40′

″

)), which is connectible to the terminal device (10, 20);

a plurality of dialog devices (50, 60), which are assigned to the first switching device (40) and which, functioning in response to a user statement, are able to generate system messages;

the first switching device (40) having;

a first device (44) for relaying a user statement coming from

a terminal device to at least some of the assigned dialog devices (50, 60); and

a second device (49), which, functioning in response to the system messages received from the dialog devices (50, 60), selects a system message and transmits the system statement contained therein to the terminal device (10, 20).

2. The dialog system as recited in claim 1, wherein the system message generated by a dialog device (50, 60), functioning in response to a user statement, includes a system statement intended for the terminal device (10, 20), an identification code identifying the dialog device (50, 60), and/or an identifier, the identifier signals whether or not a system statement has been generated for a terminal device, or what quality the generated system statement has;

and the second device (49) of the first switching device (40) has a detector device (43) for capturing the identifier and the identification code of a system message, a memory (46) for storing a priority list of the assigned dialog devices, and a decision device (42), which, using the stored priority list and the output signal from the detector device (43), selects the system statement of a specific dialog device (50, 60) in order to relay it to the terminal device (10, 20).

3. The dialog system as recited in claim 1 or 2, wherein the second device (49) of the first switching device (40) has a memory (45) for storing the received system messages.

4. The dialog system as recited in one of claims 1 through 3, wherein a user interface (12, 22) is assigned to the terminal device (10, 20) to provide a first communication protocol and/or data format for exchanging data with the first switching device (40);

the dialog devices (50, 60) each have an interface (52, 62) for providing a second communication protocol and/or data format for exchanging data with the first switching device (40); and

the first device of the first switching device has a conversion device (44) for converting the first communication protocol and/or data format into the second communication protocol and/or data format and vice versa.

5. The dialog system as recited in one of claims 1 through 4, wherein the first switching device (40) has a timer for monitoring the receipt of a system message within a preset time span.

6. The dialog system as recited in one of claims 2 through 5, wherein the first switching device (40) has a confirmation device for transmitting a confirmation message to the dialog device (50, 60) whose system statement has been relayed to the terminal device (10, 20).

7. The dialog system as recited in claim 6, wherein at least some of the dialog devices (50, 60) have a device (54, 64) for counting and analyzing the received confirmation messages.

8. The dialog system as recited in claim 7, wherein functioning in response to the counting and evaluation device (54, 64), the dialog devices (50, 60) are able to generate a predefined system message, and, functioning in response to a predefined system message, the detector device (43) in the first switching device (40) prompts the decision device (42) to transmit the corresponding system statement to the terminal device (10, 20).

9. The dialog system as recited in one of claims 2 through 8, wherein the priority list (46) stored in the first switching device (40) is able to be modified.

10. The dialog system as recited in one of claims 1 through 9, wherein a sub-switching device (70;

80) is assigned to each dialog device (50;

60); and

a plurality of sub-dialog devices (90-92;

93-95) are assigned to each sub-switching device (70;

80).

11. The dialog system as recited in claim 10, wherein each sub-switching device (70;

80) has the following features;

a device (72, 82) for transmitting a user statement relayed by the particular assigned dialog device (50;

60) to at least some of the assigned sub-dialog devices (90-92;

93-95); and

a device (74;

84), which, functioning in response to the system messages received from the sub-dialog devices (90-92;

93-95), selects a system message and transmits it to the first switching device (40).

12. The dialog system as recited in one of claims 1 through 11, wherein goal-directed and chat-oriented dialog devices can be used.

13. The dialog system as recited in one of claims 1 through 12, wherein a second switching device (100) is connected to the terminal device (10, 20) and to a plurality of first switching devices (40′

, 40″

, 40′

″

);

the second switching device (100) having;

a first device (102) for relaying a user statement coming from the terminal device (10, 20) to at least some of the first switching devices (40), and

a second device (104), which, functioning in response to the system messages received from the first switching devices (40′

, 40″

, 40′

″

), selects a system message and transmits the system statement contained therein to the terminal device (10, 20); and

the first switching devices (40′

, 40″

, 40′

″

) being designed for relaying a selected system message to the second switching device (100).

14. A dialog system for a man-machine interaction having cooperating dialog devices, comprising at least one terminal device (10, 20), where a user can input a user statement, a plurality of interconnectible dialog devices (130, 140, 150), each dialog device (130, 140, 150) having:

a device (135, 145, 155) for receiving and evaluating a user statement generated by the terminal device;

a device (136, 146, 156) for generating a system message in dependence upon the analyzed user statement;

a decision device (137, 147, 157) for relaying the user statement to another dialog device (130, 140, 150) or for relaying a generated system message to the terminal device (10, 20) in dependence upon the analyzed user statement.