BELIEF TRACKING AND ACTION SELECTION IN SPOKEN DIALOG SYSTEMS
First Claim
1. A computer-based method of performing an action in a spoken dialog system comprising:
- retrieving a policy mapping belief states of user intents to actions;
receiving a spoken utterance from a user;
determining a belief state of the user'"'"'s intent based on the spoken utterance;
selecting an action to take based on the determined belief state and the retrieved policy; and
performing the selected action.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An action is performed in a spoken dialog system in response to a user'"'"'s spoken utterance. A policy which maps belief states of user intent to actions is retrieved or created. A belief state is determined based on the spoken utterance, and an action is selected based on the determined belief state and the policy. The action is performed, and in one embodiment, involves requesting clarification of the spoken utterance from the user. Creating a policy may involve simulating user inputs and spoken dialog system interactions, and modifying policy parameters iteratively until a policy threshold is satisfied. In one embodiment, a belief state is determined by converting the spoken utterance into text, assigning the text to one or more dialog slots associated with nodes in a probabilistic ontology tree (POT), and determining a joint probability based on probability distribution tables in the POT and on the dialog slot assignments.
381 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A computer-based method of performing an action in a spoken dialog system comprising:
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retrieving a policy mapping belief states of user intents to actions; receiving a spoken utterance from a user; determining a belief state of the user'"'"'s intent based on the spoken utterance; selecting an action to take based on the determined belief state and the retrieved policy; and performing the selected action. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A spoken dialog system for performing an action comprising:
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a policy module for retrieving a policy mapping belief states of user intents to actions; a microphone for receiving a spoken utterance from a user; a belief tracking module for determining a belief state of the user'"'"'s intent based on the spoken utterance; a policy interface for selecting an action to take based on the determined belief state and the retrieved policy; and a system interface for performing the selected action.
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18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-executable code for performing an action comprising:
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a policy module configured to retrieve a policy mapping belief states of user intents to actions; a microphone module configured to receive a spoken utterance from a user; a belief tracking module configured to determine a belief state of the user'"'"'s intent based on the spoken utterance; a policy interface module configured to select an action to take based on the determined belief state and the retrieved policy; and a system interface module configured to perform the selected action.
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19. A computer-based method for determining a belief state of a user'"'"'s intent comprising:
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receiving a spoken utterance from the user; converting the spoken utterance into text; retrieving a probabilistic ontology tree (POT), the POT comprising a plurality of unobserved nodes, each unobserved node representing a domain concept and comprising a probability distribution table, wherein each unobserved node is associated with a dialog slot; assigning the text to one or more dialog slots associated with unobserved nodes based on the relatedness between the text and the domain concepts represented by the unobserved nodes; creating an observed node in the POT for each dialog slot to which text is assigned, the observed nodes comprising a probability distribution table; and determining a belief state of user intent based on the joint probability of the unobserved node probability distribution tables and the observed node probability distribution tables.
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20. A computer-based method of performing an action in a spoken dialog system comprising:
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retrieving a policy mapping conversation attributes to actions; receiving a spoken utterance from a user, the spoken utterance comprising one or more conversation attributes; selecting an action to take based on the one or more conversation attributes and the retrieved policy; and performing the selected action.
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Specification