Memory architecture for dialogue systems

• US 6,973,532 B2
• Filed: 09/05/2002
• Issued: 12/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 09/07/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sony Deutschland GmbH (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Limited (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Di Profio, Ugo
• Primary Examiner(s): Elmore, Stephen C.
• Application Number:
  US10/235,434
• Publication Number:
  US 20030051096A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,188 Days
• Field of Search: 711/111, 711/125, 711/154, 704/201, 704/231, 710/3
• US Class Current: 711/111
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3329 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue

Abstract

A dialogue system (8) comprises a plurality of memory units (4) each of which is able to store an information unit and at least one logical connection between two or more of said memory units (4). An information unit is stored in one memory unit (4) at the time of occurrence of the information unit, and at least one logical connection to at least one other memory unit (4) is assigned to said memory unit (4) after storage of the information unit and said at least one logical connection is stored in said memory unit (4).

Claims

1. Dialogue system (8) comprising:

input means (2) for receiving dialogue information supplied by a user (1);

output means (7) for providing dialogue information to said user (1);

a plurality of memory units (4) for storing said dialogue information,

wherein during a dialogue with a user, the dialogue system (8) passes through several dialogue states, and

wherein, in each dialogue state, an information unit comprising dialogue information generated by said user (1) and/or the dialogue system (8) in said dialogue state is stored in one of said plurality of memory units (4); and

assigning means for assigning each memory unit (4) pointing information linking the respective memory unit (4) to at least one other memory unit (4), said pointing information being stored in the memory unit (4) to which said pointing information is assigned.

2. Dialogue system (8) according to claim 1, characterized by

at least one memory manager module (3) for managing at least one group of logically connected memory units (4), respectively.

3. Dialogue system (8) according to claim 2, characterized in that each memory manager module of said least one memory manager module (3) stores an index of the content of each managed group of memory units (4).

4. Dialogue system (8) according to claim 2, characterized in that each memory manager module of said at least one memory manager module (3) stores an index of the content of at least one memory unit (4) of each managed group of memory units (4).

5. Dialogue system (8) according to claim 2, characterized in that a memory manager module (3) stores pointing information pointing to the first and/or a pointing information pointing to the last logically connected memory units (4) of each managed group of memory units (4).

6. Dialogue system (8) according to claim 1, characterized by

at least one memory layer (5) which comprises

a group of one or more logically connected memory units (4), and each of which memory layers (5) is assigned to a processing stage of the dialogue system (8).

7. Dialogue system (8) according to claim 6, characterized by

a memory manager module (3) for each of the memory layers (5).

8. Memory management method within a dialogue system (8), comprising:

receiving dialogue information supplied by a user (1);

providing dialogue information to said user (1);

storing said dialogue information in a plurality of memory units (4),

wherein during a dialogue with a user (1), the dialogue system (8) passes through several dialogue states, and

wherein, in each dialogue state, an information unit comprising dialogue information being created by said user (1) and/or the dialogue system (8) in said dialogue state is stored in one of said memory units (4);

assigning to each memory unit (4) pointing information linking a memory unit (4) to at least one other memory unit (4); and

storing said pointing information in the memory unit (4) to which said pointing information is assigned.

9. Memory management method according to claim 8, characterized by the step of:

defining a group of logically connected memory units (4); and

managing the information unit stored therein in a memory manager module (3).

10. Memory management method according to claim 9, characterized by the step of:

storing pointing information pointing to the first and/or pointing information pointing the last logically connected memory units (4) of each managed group of memory units (4) in a memory manager module (3).

12. Computer readable storage medium, having stored thereon program code for performing the method as defined in claim 8 when said computer program is executed on a computer or a digital signal processor.

11. Computer readable storage medium, having stored thereon program code for embodying a dialogue system, comprising:

wherein during a dialogue with a user, the dialogue system (8) passes through several dialogue states, and

wherein, in each dialogue state, an information unit comprising dialogue information generated by said user (1) and/or the dialogue system (8) in said dialogue state is stored in one of a plurality of memory units (4); and

assigning means for assigning each memory unit (4) pointing information linking the respective memory unit (4) to at least one other memory unit (4), said pointing information being stored in the memory unit (4) to which said pointing information is assigned, when said program code is executed on a computer or a digital signal processor.