Method and apparatus for providing a mixed-initiative dialog between a user and a machine
First Claim
1. A method of enabling a mixed initiative dialog to be carried out between a user and a machine, the method comprising:
- providing a set of reusable dialog components; and
operating a dialog manager to control use of the reusable dialog components based on a semantic frame, wherein the reusable dialog components are individually configured to carry out system initiated aspects of a dialog.
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for enabling a mixed initiative dialog to be carried out between a user and a machine are described. A speech-enabled processing system receives an utterance from the user, and the utterance is recognized by an automatic speech recognizer using a set of statistical language models. Prior to parsing the utterance, a dialog manager uses a semantic frame to identify the set of all slots potentially associated with the current task and then retrieves a corresponding grammar for each of the identified slots from an associated reusable dialog component. A natural language parser then parses the utterance using the recognized speech and all of the retrieved grammars. The dialog manager then identifies any slot which remains unfilled after parsing and causes a prompt to be played to the user for information to fill the unfilled slot. Dependencies and constraints may be associated with particular slots.
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Citations
61 Claims
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1. A method of enabling a mixed initiative dialog to be carried out between a user and a machine, the method comprising:
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providing a set of reusable dialog components; and
operating a dialog manager to control use of the reusable dialog components based on a semantic frame, wherein the reusable dialog components are individually configured to carry out system initiated aspects of a dialog. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method of enabling a mixed initiative dialog to be carried out between a user and a machine, the method comprising:
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(a) receiving speech from the user, the speech representing an utterance;
(b) recognizing the utterance;
(c) identifying the set of all slots potentially associated with a current task; and
(d) using a set of reusable dialog components corresponding to said set of slots to fill the slots associated with the current task, including (d)(1) parsing the utterance using grammars from the set of reusable dialog components, and (d)(2) after said parsing, using a prompt from one of the reusable dialog components to request information from the user to fill an unfilled slot. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method of enabling a mixed initiative dialog to be carried out between a user and a machine, the method comprising:
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(a) receiving speech from the user, the speech representing an utterance;
(b) recognizing the utterance;
(c) identifying the set of all slots potentially associated with a current task;
(d) retrieving a corresponding grammar for each of the identified slots from one of a plurality of reusable dialog components;
(e) parsing the utterance using the recognized speech and the retrieved grammars. (f) identifying one of the slots which remains unfilled after parsing the utterance;
(g) obtaining a prompt for said slot which remains unfilled from a corresponding one of the reusable dialog components;
(h) playing the prompt to the user; and
(i) repeating said (a), (b), (e), (f), (g) and (h) so as to fill all of the slots associated with the current task. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27)
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28. A method of carrying out a mixed initiative dialog between a user and a machine, the method comprising:
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receiving speech from the user, the speech representing an utterance;
recognizing the utterance using an automatic speech recognizer;
identifying the set of all slots potentially associated with a current task prior to parsing the utterance, each slot representing an item of information which may be acquired from the user;
for each of the possible slots, retrieving a corresponding grammar from a corresponding one of a plurality of reusable dialog components;
using the recognized speech and the retrieved grammars to parse the utterance, including filling one or more of the possible slots with corresponding values;
identifying one of the slots which remains unfilled;
accessing a prompt for the slot which remains unfilled from a corresponding one of the reusable dialog components; and
playing the prompt to the user. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35)
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36. An apparatus for enabling a mixed initiative dialog to be carried out between a user and a machine, the apparatus comprising:
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means for receiving speech from the user, the speech representing an utterance;
means for recognizing the utterance;
means for identifying the set of all slots potentially associated with a current task; and
means for using a set of reusable dialog components corresponding to said set of slots to fill the slots associated with the current task, including means for parsing the utterance using grammars from the set of reusable dialog components, and means for using, after said parsing, a prompt from one of the reusable dialog components to request information from the user to fill an unfilled slot. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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46. A machine-readable storage medium embodying instructions for execution by a machine, which instructions configure the machine to perform a method for enabling a mixed initiative dialog to be carried out between a user and the machine, the method comprising:
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providing a set of reusable dialog components; and
operating a dialog manager to control use of the reusable dialog components based on a semantic frame, wherein the reusable dialog components are individually configured to carry out system initiated aspects of a dialog. - View Dependent Claims (47, 48, 49)
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50. A device for enabling a mixed initiative dialog to be carried out between a user and a machine, the device comprising:
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a set of reusable dialog components individually configured to carry out system initiated aspects of a dialog;
a semantic frame; and
a dialog manager to control use of the reusable dialog components based on the semantic frame. - View Dependent Claims (51, 52, 53)
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54. A device for carrying out a mixed initiative dialog between a user and a machine, the device comprising:
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an automatic speech recognizer to recognize an utterance in speech received from the user using a set of statistical language models;
a set of reusable dialog components;
a dialog manager to use a semantic frame to identify the set of all slots potentially associated with a current task prior to parsing of the utterance, and to retrieve a corresponding grammar for each possible slot from a corresponding one of the reusable dialog components, each slot representing an item of information which may be acquired from the user; and
a natural language parser to receive the retrieved grammars and to parse the utterance using the retrieved grammars, including filling one or more of the possible slots with corresponding values;
wherein the dialog manager further is to identify one of the slots which remains unfilled following said filling, to obtain a prompt for the slot which remains unfilled from a corresponding one of the reusable dialog components, and to cause the prompt to be played to the user to request information for filling the slots which remains unfilled. - View Dependent Claims (55, 56, 57)
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58. A method of confirming and correcting slots filled during a dialog between a user and a machine, the dialog for accomplishing a task, the method comprising:
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determining that one of a plurality of slots is incorrect;
prompting the user for a corrected value for the slot;
receiving the corrected value from the user; and
using the corrected value and stored information on dependencies between the slots to control further dialog for accomplishing the task - View Dependent Claims (59, 60, 61)
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Specification