Method and system for extending dialog systems to process complex activities for applications

• US 20080134058A1
• Filed: 11/30/2006
• Published: 06/05/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Robert Bosch LLC (Robert Bosch GmbH)
• Original Assignee: Robert Bosch Corporation (Robert Bosch GmbH)
• Inventors: Raya, Madhuri, Shen, Zhongnan, Weng, Fuliang, Meng, Yao
• Granted Patent: US 9,082,406 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/760
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/016 After-sales
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command

Abstract

A dialog system that includes a dialog manager to manage a conversation between the dialog system and a user, and to associate the conversation with a complex activity, and a plan engine to execute a plan script in connection with the complex activity, the plan script including a set of atomic dialog activities and logic to control a data and sequence flow of the atomic dialog activities, the set of atomic dialog activities being sub-activities of the complex activity, the complex activity being specified via a declarative activity specification language that connects the atomic dialog activities with a process.

Claims

1. A dialog system, comprising:

a dialog manager to manage a conversation between the dialog system and a user, and to associate the conversation with a complex activity; and

a plan engine to execute a plan script in connection with the complex activity, the plan script including a set of atomic dialog activities and logic to control a data and sequence flow of the atomic dialog activities, the set of atomic dialog activities being sub-activities of the complex activity,

wherein the complex activity is specified via a declarative activity specification language that connects the atomic dialog activities with a process.

2. The dialog system of claim 1, wherein the process is related to at least one of a web service and a business process.

3. The dialog system of claim 2, wherein the plan engine is configured to interact with a process engine that executes a process script in connection with the process, the process script including a set of atomic process activities and corresponding order constraints of the atomic process activities, the set of atomic process activities being sub-activities of the process.

4. The dialog system of claim 3, wherein the process script conforms to a standard XML-based language designed to accomplish tasks across multiple organizations in a distributed computing environment using a combination of Web services.

5. The dialog system of claim 3, wherein the process script conforms to BPEL4WS (Business Process Execution Language for Web Services).

6. The dialog system of claim 1, wherein the dialog manager is configured to interpret semantically incoming user requests and utterances, and perform an appropriate action on a device controlled by the dialog system.

7. The dialog system of claim 1, wherein the dialog manager is configured to maintain a history and current context of the conversation.

8. The dialog system of claim 7, wherein the dialog manager maintains the history and current context via a structure to store the atomic dialog activities as conversational threads.

9. The dialog system of claim 1, wherein the dialog manager is configured to at least one of provide a report to a user, ask a question, and obtain a parameter value from the user.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

at least one of providing a report to a user, asking a question, and obtaining a parameter value from the user.

10. A dialog system, comprising:

a dialog manager to manage a conversation between the dialog system and a user, and to associate the conversation with a complex activity, the dialog manager being configured to interpret semantically incoming user requests and utterances, and perform an appropriate action on a device controlled by the dialog system; and

a plan engine to execute a plan script in connection with the complex activity, the plan script including a set of atomic dialog activities and logic to control a data and sequence flow of the atomic dialog activities, the set of atomic dialog activities being sub-activities of the complex activity, the atomic dialog activities being stored as conversation threads;

wherein the complex activity is specified via a declarative activity specification language that connects the atomic dialog activities with a process related to at least one of a web service and a business process, and

wherein the plan engine is configured to interact with a process engine that executes a process script in connection with the process, the process script including a set of atomic process activities and corresponding order constraints of the atomic process activities, the set of atomic process activities being sub-activities of the process, the process script conforming to BPEL4WS (Business Process Execution Language for Web Services).

11. A method for extending a dialog system to process application activities, the method comprising:

managing a conversation between the dialog system and a user, and to associate the conversation with a complex activity; and

executing a plan script in connection with the complex activity, the plan script including a set of atomic dialog activities and logic to control a data and sequence flow of the atomic dialog activities, the set of atomic dialog activities being sub-activities of the complex activity,

wherein the complex activity is specified via a declarative activity specification language that connects the atomic dialog activities with a process.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the process is related to at least one of a web service and a business process.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the plan script is executed in conjunction with a process script that is executed in connection with the process, the process script including a set of atomic process activities and corresponding order constraints of the atomic process activities, the set of atomic process activities being sub-activities of the process.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the process script conforms to a standard XML-based language designed to accomplish tasks across multiple organizations in a distributed computing environment using a combination of Web services.

15. The method of claim 13, wherein the process script conforms to BPEL4WS (Business Process Execution Language for Web Services).

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

semantically interpreting incoming user requests and utterances; and

performing an appropriate action on a device.

17. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

maintaining a history and a current context of the conversation.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

storing the atomic dialog activities as conversational threads.