System, method and program product for interactive natural dialog
First Claim
1. A computer system with one or more memories, one or more central processing units (CPU), and one or more network interfaces, the system further comprising:
- a content database stored on one or more of the memories, the content database having a content organization;
one or more presentation manager modules that present information from the computer system to one or more users over one or more of the network interfaces and accept queries from one or more of the users using one or more modalities over one or more of the network interfaces;
a a parsing engine that parses one or more natural language phrases received over one or more of the network interfaces by one or more of the presentation managers, the natural language phrases being parsed into one or more logical forms, each logical form having a grammatical and structural organization;
a dialog manager module that maintains and directs interactive sessions between each of the users and the computer system by iteratively;
receiving logical forms from one or more of the presentation managers, performing a discourse analysis on these logical forms, selectively generating follow-up questions, said follow-up questions being presented to a respective user after each iteration until said dialog manager determines further clarification is unneeded, sending action requests to an action manager responsive to a determination that further clarification is unneeded, receiving action results from the action manager, and sending presentation requests to one or more of the presentation managers;
an action manager module that receives action requests from the dialog manager, performs the action, and sends the action results to the dialog manager, and a taxonomical mapping process that associates the logical forms of the natural language phrases to the content organization of the content database.
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Abstract
This patent describes a novel system, method, and program product that are used in interactive natural language dialog. One or more presentation managers operating on a computer system present information from the computer system to one or more users over network interface(s) and accept queries from the users using one or more known input/output modalities (e.g. Speech, typed in text, pointing devices, etc.). A natural language parser parses one or more natural language phrases received over one or more of the network interfaces by one or more of the presentation managers into one or more logical forms (parsed user input), each logical form having a grammatical and structural organization. A dialog manager module maintains and directs interactive sessions between each of the users and the computer system. The dialog manager receives logical forms from one or more of the presentation managers and sends these to a taxonomical mapping process which matches the items of interest to the user against the content organization in the content database to match business categories and sends modified logical forms back to the dialog manager.
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Citations
29 Claims
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1. A computer system with one or more memories, one or more central processing units (CPU), and one or more network interfaces, the system further comprising:
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a content database stored on one or more of the memories, the content database having a content organization;
one or more presentation manager modules that present information from the computer system to one or more users over one or more of the network interfaces and accept queries from one or more of the users using one or more modalities over one or more of the network interfaces;
aa parsing engine that parses one or more natural language phrases received over one or more of the network interfaces by one or more of the presentation managers, the natural language phrases being parsed into one or more logical forms, each logical form having a grammatical and structural organization;
a dialog manager module that maintains and directs interactive sessions between each of the users and the computer system by iteratively;
receiving logical forms from one or more of the presentation managers, performing a discourse analysis on these logical forms, selectively generating follow-up questions, said follow-up questions being presented to a respective user after each iteration until said dialog manager determines further clarification is unneeded, sending action requests to an action manager responsive to a determination that further clarification is unneeded, receiving action results from the action manager, and sending presentation requests to one or more of the presentation managers;
an action manager module that receives action requests from the dialog manager, performs the action, and sends the action results to the dialog manager, and a taxonomical mapping process that associates the logical forms of the natural language phrases to the content organization of the content database. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. A method executing on a computer system with one or more memories, one or more central processing units (CPU), and one or more network interfaces, the method comprising the steps of:
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presenting information from the computer system to one or more users over one or more of the network interfaces and accepting queries from one or more of the users using one or more modalities over one or more of the network interfaces;
parsing one or more natural language phrases received over one or more of the network interfaces by one or more of the presentation managers, the natural language phrases being parsed into one or more logical forms, each logical form having a grammatical and structural organization;
maintaining and directing interactive sessions between each of the users and the computer system by iteratively;
receiving logical forms from one or more of the presentation managers, performing a discourse analysis on these logical forms, selectively generating follow-up questions, said follow-up questions being presented to a respective user after each iteration until said dialog manager determines further clarification is unneeded, sending action requests to an action manager responsive to a determination that further clarification is unneeded, receiving action results from the action manager, and sending presentation requests to one or more of the presentation managers;
receiving action requests from the dialog manager, performing the action, and sending the action results to the dialog manager; and
associating the logical forms of the natural language phrases to a content organization of a content database stored in one or more of the memories.
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28. A computer system with one or more memories, one or more central processing units (CPU), and one or more network interfaces, the computer system comprising:
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means for presenting information from the computer system to one or more users over one or more of the network interfaces and accepting queries from one or more of the users using one or more modalities over one or more of the network interfaces;
means for parsing one or more natural language phrases received over one or more of the network interfaces by one or more of the presentation managers, the natural language phrases being parsed into one or more logical forms, each logical form having a grammatical and structural organization;
means for maintaining and directing interactive sessions between each of the users and the computer system by iteratively;
receiving logical forms from one or more of the presentation managers, performing a discourse analysis on these logical forms, selectively generating follow-up questions, said follow-up questions being presented to a respective user after each iteration until said dialog manager determines further clarification is unneeded, sending action requests to an action manager responsive to a determination that further clarification is unneeded, receiving action results from the action manager, and sending presentation requests to one or more of the presentation managers;
means for receiving action requests from the dialog manager, performing the action, and sending the action results to the dialog manager; and
means for associating the logical forms of the natural language phrases to a content organization of a content database stored in one or more of the memories.
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29. A computer program product for use on a computer system which causes the computer system to perform the steps of:
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presenting information from the computer system to one or more users over one or more of the network interfaces and accepting queries from one or more of the users using one or more modalities over one or more of the network interfaces;
parsing one or more natural language phrases received over one or more of the network interfaces by one or more of the presentation managers, the natural language phrases being parsed into one or more logical forms, each logical form having a grammatical and structural organization;
maintaining and directing interactive sessions between each of the users and the computer system by iteratively;
receiving logical forms from one or more of the presentation managers, performing a discourse analysis on these logical forms, selectively generating follow-up questions, said follow-up questions being presented to a respective user after each iteration until said dialog manager determines further clarification is unneeded. sending action requests to an action manager responsive to a determination that further clarification is unneeded, receiving action results from the action manager, and sending presentation requests to one or more of the presentation managers;
receiving action requests from the dialog manager, performing the action, and sending the action results to the dialog manager; and
associating the logical forms of the natural language phrases to a content organization of a content database stored in one or more of the memories.
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Specification