Apparatus for design and simulation of dialogue

• US 6,321,198 B1
• Filed: 02/23/1999
• Issued: 11/20/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 02/23/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Unisys Corporation
• Original Assignee: Unisys Corporation
• Inventors: Hank, Wayne Arnold, Walsh, Joseph Patrick, Irwin, James Scott, Diedrichs, Raymond Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): Korzuch, William
• Assistant Examiner(s): ABEBE, DANIEL DEMELASH
• Application Number:
  US09/255,900
• Time in Patent Office: 1,001 Days
• Field of Search: 704/270, 704/251, 704/272, 704/257, 704/275, 379/88.01, 379/88.13
• US Class Current: 704/270
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2203/355 Interactive dialogue design tools, features or methods
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4936 Speech interaction details speech recognition per se G10L15/00

Abstract

A novel dialogue design system is provided for creating dialogue applications of the type understood and used by automatic speech recognition systems. The dialogue design system is loaded into a computer having a display and a control keyboard and comprises a novel Dialogue Assistant (DA). The DA is controlled from the keyboard and comprises a navigator screen for defining and connecting compartments of the dialogue application. Each said compartment of a dialogue application is provided with an associated design and editing screen which enables the designer to create, build and edit compartments with associated sounds and variables. Compartments or parts of the dialogue may be played back or used in an actual or simulated environment until the application is proven and ready for use. The dialogue flow may be converted into a machine readable code used by interactive voice response systems with a minimum requirement for manual or machine software implementation.

Claims

1. A dialogue design system for creating compartments of a dialogue flow, comprising:

computer means having a visual display and input control means,

sound means coupled to said computer means including sound input means and sound output means,

a Dialogue Assistant (DA) in said computer means,

said DA comprising a plurality of compartments accessible from said input control means,

said DA comprising a navigator screen having means for selecting editing screens for compartments of variables or sounds,

each of said compartments having an associated dialogue design screen for presentation on said visual display and being accessible from said input control means,

each of said dialogue design screen having a plurality of prompts and responses,

edit box means associated with ones of said prompts and responses for editing prompts and responses,

means for storing voice and sounds to be used with edited prompts and responses, and

said input control means comprising means for connecting edited prompts and responses to generate edited compartments of a dialogue flow.

2. A dialogue design system as set forth in claim 1 wherein said editing screen for compartments provides a means for selecting screens for variables, sounds and grammars.

3. A dialogue design system as set forth in claim 2 wherein said editing screen for compartments provides a means for constructing compartments with variables and sounds.

4. A dialogue design system as set forth in claim 3 wherein said DA includes a database repository for storing said compartments with variables and sounds.

5. A dialogue design system as set forth in claim 3 wherein said compartments and variables and sounds are stored in said DA in a sequence which permits playback by a designer to simulate a run time interactive voice response (IVR) system.

6. A dialogue design system as set forth in claim 3 wherein said compartments are edited and stored in said DA in a sequence which permits playback by a designer to simulate a run time of plural compartments.

7. A dialogue design system as set forth in claim 6 wherein said input control means is provided with selection means for simulating in play back mode a compartment or sequence of compartments defining a dialogue flow.

8. A dialogue design system for simulating a dialogue flow application, comprising computer means having a visual display and input control means,

a dialogue assistant (DA) in said computer means comprising means for selecting editing screens,

a plurality of designer screens in said DA accessible from said input control means,

means for accessing a designer screen for a compartment in said DA,

each said designer screens having means for drafting the dialogue and generating sound files for prompts and replies of the compartments of a dialogue application,

means in said DA for anticipating caller responses to prompts and response tokens,

means in said DA for recording caller responses to prompts and tokens,

means in said DA for editing and refining caller prompts and replies to be used in the compartments of a dialogue application,

means in said DA for storing the edited compartments of a dialogue application, and

said input control means comprising means for connecting the edited compartments in a simulated dialogue flow application.

9. A dialogue design system as set forth in claim 8 which further includes means for playing back in a simulation mode said stored edited compartments.

10. A dialogue design system as set forth in claim 9 wherein said input control means includes means for monitoring callers questions and answers and prompts and replies generated by said DA.

11. A dialogue design system as set forth in claim 10 wherein said DA includes means for making notes and observations during a simulation mode run, and

means for refining and editing said compartments in response to callers use of the DA.

12. A dialogue design system as set forth in claim 11 which further includes means for printing out design documentation and script documentation of refined and edited compartments.

13. A dialogue design system as set forth in claim 8 which further includes means for converting the refined and edited compartment of a dialogue application stored in said DA to a standard format for use by standard Interactive Voice Response (IVR) equipment.

14. The method of making a dialogue application for use in an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems, comprising the steps of:

defining the dialogue application in terms of compartments,

designing each compartment with a Dialogue Assistant (DA) to include sound files and variables and prompts and replies,

providing a navigator screen in said DA for selecting editing screens for different compartments,

selecting editing screens for the design of said compartments,

confirming proper design of compartments by simulation test,

storing said edited and confirming compartments in a database in a computer readable form,

connecting said compartments in a dialogue flow format, and

extracting said stored dialogue flow for use in said dialogue application by said IVR systems.

15. The method as set forth in claim 14 wherein the step of extracting stored dialogue flow in said database comprises the step of converting stored dialogue to machine code for use by said IVR system.

16. The method as set forth in claim 14 wherein said step of designing comprises,

displaying on the screen of said computer a listing of the compartments to be used in said dialogue, and

the step of designing each compartment comprises the step of displaying on the computer screen a design screen for each compartment to be edited.

17. The method as set forth in claim 16 which further includes the step of displaying a navigator screen for designing and connecting compartments.

18. The method as set forth in claim 15 wherein the step of extracting said stored compartments comprises conversion into a standard machine code format readable by standard IVR systems.