Dialogue processing system and method
First Claim
1. A dialogue processing system for performing a natural language dialogue with a user, comprising:
- a predetermined number of slots, each said slot being a storage area for storing one predefined information item which is required to perform a processing for a service requested by said user;
an analyzer extracting information corresponding to said information item from information entered by a certain user in said one dialogue and storing the extracted information in the slot for the information item;
a knowledge base storing information relating to said predefined information items, anda response processor determining whether said one dialogue is completed based on whether all of said information items required to perform said processing for said service requested by said user have been stored into all of said predetermined number of slots, and outputting response information to said certain user in accordance with an information storage state of said slotswherein said response processor comprises a checker that checks whether there is inconsistency between information stored in said slots and information stored in said knowledge base by using said information stored in said slots and said information stored in said knowledge base, andwherein progress of said one dialogue is controlled based on said information storage state of said predetermined number of slots without using any dialogue sequence definition.
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Abstract
An object of the present invention is to realize a natural dialogue with a system having a simple configuration. The dialogue processing system of the present invention to perform a dialogue with a user, comprises: a plurality of slots (slot 11), wherein each of the slots is a storage area storing a preset information item (for example, boarding date, departure point, destination, or flight name) that are required to achieve the purpose of the dialogue with the user (for example, an airline ticket reservation); an analyzer (the speech details analyzer 19) for extracting information corresponding to the information items from information (for example, free sentence entered in natural language) entered by the user in the dialogue and for storing the extracted information in the slot for that information item; and a response processor (the dialogue processor 21) for outputting response information (a sentence prompting the input of insufficient information) to the user in accordance with information storage state of the slots.
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Citations
27 Claims
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1. A dialogue processing system for performing a natural language dialogue with a user, comprising:
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a predetermined number of slots, each said slot being a storage area for storing one predefined information item which is required to perform a processing for a service requested by said user; an analyzer extracting information corresponding to said information item from information entered by a certain user in said one dialogue and storing the extracted information in the slot for the information item; a knowledge base storing information relating to said predefined information items, and a response processor determining whether said one dialogue is completed based on whether all of said information items required to perform said processing for said service requested by said user have been stored into all of said predetermined number of slots, and outputting response information to said certain user in accordance with an information storage state of said slots wherein said response processor comprises a checker that checks whether there is inconsistency between information stored in said slots and information stored in said knowledge base by using said information stored in said slots and said information stored in said knowledge base, and wherein progress of said one dialogue is controlled based on said information storage state of said predetermined number of slots without using any dialogue sequence definition. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A storage medium for storing a program for processing a natural language dialogue with a user, said program configured to perform a process, the process comprising:
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ensuring a predetermined number of slots on a storage device, each said slot being a storage area for storing a predefined information item which is required to perform a processing for a service requested by said user; extracting information corresponding to said information item from information entered by a certain user in said one dialogue and storing the extracted information in the slot for the information item; a knowledge base storing information relating to said predefined information items, and determining whether said one dialogue is completed based on whether all of said information items required to perform said processing for said service requested by said user have been stored into all of said predetermined number of slots, and outputting response information to said certain user in accordance with an information storage state of said slots, and wherein said response processor comprises a checker that checks whether there is inconsistency between information stored in said slots and information stored in said knowledge base by using said information stored in said slots and said information stored in said knowledge base, and wherein progress of said one dialogue is controlled based on said information storage state of said predetermined number of slots without using any dialogue sequence definition. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method for processing a natural language dialogue with a user, said method comprising:
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ensuring a predetermined number of slots on a storage device, each said slot being a storage area for storing a predefined information item which is required to perform a processing for a service requested by said user; extracting information corresponding to said information item from information entered by a certain user in said one dialogue and storing the extracted information in the slot for the information item; a knowledge base storing information relating to said predefined information items, and determining whether said one dialogue is completed based on whether all of said information items required to perform said processing for a service requested by said user have been stored into all of said predetermined number of slots, and outputting response information to said certain user in accordance with an information storage state of said slots, and wherein said response processor comprises a checker that checks whether there is inconsistency between information stored in said slots and information stored in said knowledge base by using said information stored in said slots and said information stored in said knowledge base, and wherein progress of said one dialogue is controlled based on said information storage state of said predetermined number of slots without using any dialogue sequence definition. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A method of processing a natural language dialogue with a user, the method comprising:
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providing a predetermined dialog objective, the predetermined dialog objective comprising a set slots of information, each slot comprising a specific field of information that needs to be filled to complete the dialog objective; preparing or selecting natural language prompts to be presented to the user, where the prompts are prepared or selected based on which slots have filled fields and which do not; storing information relating to said predefined information items in a knowledge base, and receiving sentence-like natural language responses to the natural language prompts and, for each response, using natural language processing to automatically extract one or more fields of information that the user intended to convey with the response, where, for at least one received response, two different fields are extracted and determined to correspond to slot fields, where at least one of the extracted fields was supplemental information volunteered from the user without having been previously specifically prompted for by a prompt prepared or selected to be presented to the user, whereby progress of the natural language dialogue is controlled based on the information storage state of the predetermined number of slots without reference to any dialogue sequence definition. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27)
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Specification