Spoken dialog system for human-computer interaction and response method therefor

• US 20080010070A1
• Filed: 01/09/2007
• Published: 01/10/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 07/10/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Original Assignee: Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
• Inventors: Yun, Seung, Kim, Sanghun, Oh, Seung-Shin, Park, Kyoung Hyun
• Application Number:
  US11/651,261
• Publication Number:
  US 20080010070A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/259
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/10 Prosody rules derived from text; Stress or intonation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence

Abstract

A spoken dialog system comprises a speech recognition unit for recognizing a user'"'"'s input speech to generate a character sequence corresponding thereto; a sentence contents database for storing therein a plurality of sentence contents; a knowledge search unit for searching through the sentence contents to find a match for the character sequence, in the sentence contents database; a dialog model unit for delivering the character sequence to the knowledge search unit to receive the sentence contents therefrom, and setting a dialog model by using the sentence contents; a system response unit for generating an output sentence which harmonizes with the user'"'"'s input speech or expresses a situation of the system; and a speech synthesis unit for converting the output sentence into the output speech.

Claims

1. A spoken dialog system, the system comprising:

a speech recognition unit for recognizing a user'"'"'s input speech to generate a character sequence corresponding thereto;

a sentence contents database for storing therein a plurality of sentence contents;

a knowledge search unit for searching through the sentence contents to find a match for the character sequence, in the sentence contents database;

a dialog model unit for delivering the character sequence to the knowledge search unit to receive the sentence contents therefrom, and setting a dialog model by using the sentence contents;

a system response unit for generating an output sentence which harmonizes with the user'"'"'s input speech or expresses a situation of the system; and

a speech synthesis unit for converting the output sentence into an output speech.

2. The spoken dialog system of claim 1, wherein the system response unit includes,

a sentence template database for storing therein the candidate sentences;

a candidate sentence generator for generating the candidate sentences by using the dialog model and the sentence template database;

a harmonizing rule database for storing therein user speech harmonizing rules;

an expression rule database for storing therein system situation expression rules;

a sentence selector for selecting one of the candidate sentences which is determined to be harmonized with the user'"'"'s input speech or expressing the situation of the system;

an ending form rule database for storing therein ending form changing rules;

an ending form determiner for assigning an ending form to the selected sentence by using the ending form changing rules;

an intonation pattern rule database for storing therein intonation pattern changing rules; and

an intonation pattern determiner for assigning an intonation pattern to the selected sentence by using the intonation pattern changing rules.

3. The spoken dialog system of claim 2, wherein the sentence selector uses the user speech harmonizing rules when it selects the sentence which is determined to be harmonized with the user'"'"'s input speech, and uses the system situation expression rules when it selects the sentence which is determined to be expressing the situation of the system.

4. The spoken dialog system of claim 3, wherein the candidate sentences includes:

a sentence which has a sentence pattern similar to the user'"'"'s input speech;

a sentence which uses words with difficulty levels similar to or easier than those used in the user'"'"'s input speech;

a sentence which harmonizes with the intensity of the user'"'"'s input speech;

a sentence in which response words appropriate to the user'"'"'s input speech are inserted;

a sentence which has an appropriate level harmonizing with the intensity of the meaning; and

a sentence which is appropriate to cases in which emotional interjections, emotional adjectives, or emotional nouns are used in the user'"'"'s input speech,

wherein the user speech harmonizing rules are defined to select one of the candidate sentences.

5. The spoken dialog system of claim 3, wherein the candidate sentences includes:

a sentence expressing a situation where the system requests a confirmation of the user;

a sentence expressing a situation where the user requests a confirmative answer of the system; and

a sentence expressing a situation where the system cannot answer,

wherein the system situation expression rules are, defined to select one of the candidate sentences.

6. The spoken dialog system of claim 2, wherein the situation of the system includes a reportive, an inferential, an assertive, and an exceptional situation, and the ending form changing rules assign ending forms according to the respective situations.

7. The spoken dialog system of claim 2, wherein the situation of the system includes mutual confirmation, assertion, emphasis/persuasion, and assurance/request, and the intonation pattern changing rules assign intonation patterns depending on the respective situations.

8. The spoken dialog system of claim 1, wherein the dialog model unit sets a basic sentence by using the information received from the knowledge search unit,

and the system response unit delivers the basic sentence to the speech synthesis unit if it does not generate the output sentence which harmonizes with the user'"'"'s input speech or expresses a situation of the system, and the speech synthesis unit converts the basic sentence into the output speech.

9. A method for generating a response in a spoken dialog system, the method comprising the steps of:

recognizing a user'"'"'s input speech to generate a character sequence corresponding thereto;

searching through sentence contents to find a match for the character sequence;

setting a dialog model by using the sentence contents searched;

generating an output sentence which harmonizes with the user'"'"'s input speech or expresses a situation of the system; and

converting the output sentence into an output speech.

10. The response method of claim 9, wherein the step for generating the output sentence includes:

generating a plurality of candidate sentences by using the dialog model;

selecting one of the candidate sentences which harmonizes with the user'"'"'s input speech or expresses a situation of the system;

assigning an ending form of the sentence to the selected sentence; and

assigning an intonation pattern to the selected sentence.