DIALOGUE CONTROL DEVICE, DIALOGUE CONTROL METHOD AND NON-TRANSITORY COMPUTER-READABLE INFORMATION RECORDING MEDIUM

• US 20170060839A1
• Filed: 06/30/2016
• Published: 03/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Casio Computer Company Limited
• Inventors: Kawamura, Yoshihiro
• Granted Patent: US 9,953,078 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/334 Query execution G06F16/335 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90332 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/227 of the speaker; Human-factor methodology
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/63 for estimating an emotional state

Abstract

An emotion estimator of a dialogue control device estimates a dialogue partner'"'"'s emotion based on the dialogue partner'"'"'s facial expression or voice prosody. A dialogue controller controls the dialogue with the dialogue partner using a topic selected based on whether the emotion estimated by the emotion estimator is good or bad. Specifically, the dialogue controller controls the dialogue with the dialogue partner based on a topic map created by a topic mapper and including a topic that the dialogue partner likes.

Claims

1. A dialogue control device, comprising:

a selector which selects a topic with reference to a dialogue database;

an emotion estimator which estimates a dialogue partner'"'"'s emotion; and

a dialogue controller which controls a dialogue with the dialogue partner using the topic selected by the selector, and changes the topic that is to be selected from the dialogue database based on the dialogue partner'"'"'s emotion estimated by the emotion estimator to control the dialogue with the dialogue partner.

2. The dialogue control device according to claim 1, wherein the dialogue controller selects the topic based on whether the emotion estimated by the emotion estimator is good or bad.

3. The dialogue control device according to claim 1, wherein the dialogue controller comprises a creator which creates a topic map including a topic that the dialogue partner likes based on whether the emotion estimated by the emotion estimator is good or bad.

4. The dialogue control device according to claim 3, wherein the topic map includes a plurality of different topics and associates with each of the plurality of different topics a score showing a level of the dialogue partner'"'"'s interest in each topic.

5. The dialogue control device according to claim 4, further comprising:

a first selector which randomly selects one topic from a plurality of different topics; and

a first dialoguer which has a dialogue with the dialogue partner based on the topic selected by the first selector,

wherein the creator adds to or subtracts from a score of the currently selected topic by the first selector depending on whether the emotion estimated by the emotion estimator is good or bad while the first dialoguer is having a dialogue with the dialogue partner, and creates the topic map.

6. The dialogue control device according to claim 5, wherein the creator adds to a score of a currently selected topic if the emotion estimated by the emotion estimator is good and subtracts from a score of a currently selected topic if the emotion estimated by the emotion estimator is bad.

7. The dialogue control device according to claim 5, further comprising:

a second selector which selects a topic with a score that is equal to or greater than a threshold from a plurality of topics included by the topic map that the creator creates if the emotion estimated by the emotion estimator is bad; and

a second dialoguer which has a dialogue with the dialogue partner based on the topic selected by the second selector.

8. The dialogue control device according to claim 5, further comprising:

a second selector which selects a topic with a highest score from a plurality of topics included by the topic map that the creator creates; and

a second dialoguer which has a dialogue with the dialogue partner based on the topic selected by the second selector,

wherein the second selector selects a topic with a second highest score next to the score of the currently selected topic if the emotion estimator estimates that the dialogue partner'"'"'s emotion during the dialogue is bad.

9. The dialogue control device according to claim 5, further comprising:

a second selector which selects a topic received from the dialogue partner from a plurality of topics included by the topic map that the creator creates; and

a second dialoguer which has a dialogue with the dialogue partner based on the topic selected by the second selector,

wherein the second selector selects a topic with a higher score than the score of the currently selected topic if the emotion estimator estimates that the dialogue partner'"'"'s emotion during the dialogue is bad.

10. The dialogue control device according to claim 7, further comprising:

a updater which updates the topic map created by the creator wherein the second dialoguer adds to or subtracts from the score of the topic currently selected by the second selector depending on whether the dialogue partner'"'"'s emotion during the dialogue is good or bad.

11. The dialogue control device according to claim 7, wherein the first and second dialoguers ask the dialogue partner a question based on a currently selected topic, respond to an utterance from the dialogue partner about a topic or make an utterance about searched information on the topic to the dialogue partner.

12. The dialogue control device according to claim 3, wherein the topic map comprises an n-dimensional feature vector where n is the number of feature vectors exhibiting characteristics of a topic.

13. A dialogue control method, comprising:

providing a topic to a dialogue partner;

estimating a dialogue partner'"'"'s emotion;

detecting a change in the dialogue partner'"'"'s emotion; and

changing the topic that are to be provided based on the change in the dialogue partner'"'"'s emotion.

14. The dialogue control method according to claim 13, further comprising:

creating a topic map which includes a plurality of topics and with which a level of the dialogue partner'"'"'s interest in each of the topics is associated.

15. The dialogue control method according to claim 14, further comprising:

providing a topic for leading the dialogue partner'"'"'s emotion toward a desired direction with reference to the topic map.

16. The dialogue control method according to claim 14, further comprising:

updating the topic map in response to the change in the dialogue partner'"'"'s emotion.

17. A non-transitory computer-readable information recording medium that records a program for causing a computer to work as:

selecting a topic with reference to a dialogue database;

estimating a dialogue partner'"'"'s emotion; and

controlling a dialogue with the dialogue partner using the selected topic, and changing the topic that is to be selected from the dialogue database based on the dialogue partner'"'"'s estimated emotion to control the dialogue with the dialogue partner.