Conversation System and Conversation Software

• US 20080065371A1
• Filed: 02/27/2006
• Published: 03/13/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Original Assignee: Honda Motor Co., Ltd. (Honda Motor Company)
• Inventors: Nakano, Mikio, Komatani, Kazunori, Okuno, Hiroshi
• Application Number:
  US11/577,566
• Publication Number:
  US 20080065371A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue

Abstract

A system or the like is provided that is capable of interacting with a user while appropriately eliminating an inconsistency between a user'"'"'s speech and a recognized speech.

According to the interactive system 100 of the present invention, an ith-order query Q₁ for asking a user'"'"'s meaning is generated based on an ith-order output linguistic unit y_ki related to an ith-order input linguistic unit x_i (i=1, 2, --) included in the recognized speech. Thereby, it is determined whether there is an inconsistency between the user'"'"'s meaning and the ith-order input linguistic unit xi on the basis of an ith-order response A_i recognized as a user'"'"'s response to the ith-order query Q_i.

Claims

1. An interactive system having a first speech section for recognizing a user'"'"'s speech and a second speech section for outputting a speech, the interactive system comprising:

a first processing section for retrieving a linguistic unit related to a first-order input linguistic unit from a second dictionary database and recognizing the same as a first-order output linguistic unit with a requirement that it is possible to retrieve a linguistic unit acoustically similar to a first-order input linguistic unit, which is included in the speech recognized by the first speech section, from a first dictionary database; and

a second processing section for generating a first-order query for asking a user'"'"'s meaning and causing the second speech section to output the query on the basis of a first-order output linguistic unit recognized by the first processing section and for determining whether the user'"'"'s meaning conforms or not to the first-order input linguistic unit on the basis of a first-order response recognized by the first speech section as a user'"'"'s response to the first-order query.

2. The interactive system according to claim 1, wherein:

the first processing section recognizes a plurality of first-order output linguistic units; and

the second processing section selects one of a plurality of the first-order output linguistic units recognized by the first processing section on the basis of factors representing the degrees of difficulty in recognition of a plurality of the first-order output linguistic units, respectively, and generates the first-order query on the basis of the selected first-order output linguistic unit.

3. The interactive system according to claim 2, wherein the second processing section selects one of a plurality of the first-order output linguistic units recognized by the first processing section, on the basis of one or both of a first factor that represents the degree of difficulty in conceptual recognition or the frequency of occurrence within a given range and a second factor that represents the degree of difficulty in acoustic recognition or a minimum average of acoustic distances from a given number of other linguistic units, regarding each of a plurality of the first-order output linguistic units.

4. The interactive system according to claim 2, wherein the second processing section selects one of a plurality of the first-order output linguistic units on the basis of the acoustic distance between the first-order input linguistic unit and each of a plurality of the first-order output linguistic units recognized by the first processing section.

5. The interactive system according to claim 2, wherein the first processing section recognizes, as the first-order output linguistic unit, a part or all of:

a first type linguistic unit including a different part between the first-order input linguistic unit and a linguistic unit acoustically similar thereto;

a second type linguistic unit representing a different reading from the original reading in the different part;

a third type linguistic unit representing a reading of a linguistic unit corresponding to the different part in another language system;

a fourth type linguistic unit representing one phoneme included in the different part; and

a fifth type linguistic unit conceptually similar to the first-order input linguistic unit.

6. The interactive system according to claim 5, wherein the first processing section recognizes a plurality of linguistic units among the kth type linguistic unit group (k=1 to 5), as the first-order output linguistic units.

7. The interactive system according to claim 1, wherein, if the second processing section determines that the user'"'"'s meaning does not conform to an ith-order input linguistic unit (i=1, 2, --), then:

the first processing section retrieves a linguistic unit acoustically similar to the ith-order input linguistic unit from the first dictionary database and recognizes the same as an (i+1)th-order input linguistic unit, and then retrieves a linguistic unit related to the (i+1)th-order input linguistic unit from the second dictionary database and recognizes the same as an (i+1)th-order output linguistic unit; and

the second processing section generates an (i+1)th-order query for asking the user'"'"'s meaning and causes the second speech section to output the same on the basis of the (i+1 )th-order output linguistic unit recognized by the first processing section, and then determines whether the user'"'"'s meaning conforms or not to the (i+1)th-order input linguistic unit on the basis of an (i+1)th-order response recognized by the first speech section as a user'"'"'s response to the (i+1)th-order query.

8. The interactive system according to claim 7, wherein:

the first processing section recognizes a plurality of (i+1)th-order output linguistic units; and

the second processing section selects one of a plurality of the (i+1)th-order output linguistic units on the basis of factors representing the degrees of difficulty in recognition of a plurality of the (i+1)th-order output linguistic units recognized by the first processing section, respectively, and generates an (i+1)th-order query on the basis of the selected (i+1)th-order output linguistic unit.

9. The interactive system according to claim 8, wherein the second processing section selects one of a plurality of the (i+1)th-order output linguistic units recognized by the first processing unit, on the basis of one or both of a first factor that represents the degree of difficulty in conceptual recognition or the frequency of occurrence within a given range and a second factor that represents the degree of difficulty in acoustic recognition or a minimum average of acoustic distances from a given number of other linguistic units, regarding each of a plurality of the (i+1)th-order output linguistic units.

10. The interactive system according to claim 7, wherein the second processing section selects one of a plurality of the (i+1)th-order output linguistic units recognized by the first processing section, on the basis of one or both of an acoustic distance between the ith-order input linguistic unit and each of a plurality of the (i+1)th-order output linguistic units and an acoustic distance between the (i+1)th-order input linguistic unit and a plurality of the (i+1)th-order output linguistic units.

11. The interactive system according to claim 8, wherein the first processing section recognizes, as a second-order output linguistic unit, a part or all of:

a first type linguistic unit including a different part between the (i+1)th-order input linguistic unit and a linguistic unit acoustically similar thereto;

a second type linguistic unit representing a different reading from the original reading in the different part;

a third type linguistic unit representing a reading of a linguistic unit corresponding to the different part in another language system;

a fourth type linguistic unit representing one phoneme included in the different part; and

a fifth type linguistic unit conceptually similar to the (i+1)th-order input linguistic unit.

12. The interactive system according to claim 9, wherein the first processing section recognizes a plurality of linguistic units among the kth type linguistic unit group (k=1 to 5), as the (i+1)th-order output linguistic units.

13. The interactive system according to claim 7, wherein, if the second processing section determines that the user'"'"'s meaning does not conform to a jth-order input linguistic unit (j≧

2), the second processing section generates a query that prompts the user to speak again and causes the second speech section to output the query.

14. An interactive software to be stored in a computer storage facility having a first speech function of recognizing a user'"'"'s speech and a second speech function of outputting a speech, wherein the interactive software provides the computer with:

a first processing function of retrieving a linguistic unit related to a first-order input linguistic unit from a second dictionary database and recognizing the same as a first-order output linguistic unit, with a requirement that it is possible to retrieve a linguistic unit acoustically similar to the first-order input linguistic unit, which is included in the speech recognized by the first speech function, from a first dictionary database; and

a second processing function of generating a first-order query for asking a user'"'"'s meaning and outputting the same by using the second speech function on the basis of the first-order output linguistic unit recognized by the first processing function and of determining whether the user'"'"'s meaning conforms or not to the first-order input linguistic unit on the basis of a first-order response recognized by the first speech function as a user'"'"'s response to the first-order query.

15. The interactive software according to claim 14, wherein, if the second processing function determines that the user'"'"'s meaning does not conform to an ith-order input linguistic unit (i=1, 2, --), the interactive software provides the computer with:

a function as the first processing function of retrieving a linguistic unit acoustically similar to the ith-order input linguistic unit from the first dictionary database and recognizing the same as an (i+1)th-order input linguistic unit and of retrieving a linguistic unit related to the (i+1)th-order input linguistic unit from the second dictionary database and recognizing the same as an (i+1)th-order output linguistic unit; and

a function as the second processing function of generating an (i+1)th-order query for asking the user'"'"'s meaning and causing the second speech function to output the same on the basis of the (i+1)th-order output linguistic unit recognized by the first processing function and of determining whether the user'"'"'s meaning conforms or not to the (i+1)th-order input linguistic unit on the basis of an (i+1)th-order response recognized by the first speech function as a user'"'"'s response to the (i+1)th-order query.