Dialogue flow interpreter development tool

• US 7,389,213 B2
• Filed: 01/03/2006
• Issued: 06/17/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Unisys Corporation
• Original Assignee: Unisys Corporation
• Inventors: Tamri, Samir, Irwin, James S., Scholz, Karl Wilmer
• Primary Examiner(s): Phan, Thai
• Application Number:
  US11/325,678
• Publication Number:
  US 20060206299A1
• Time in Patent Office: 896 Days
• Field of Search: 703/22, 703/26, 703/2, 703/24, 704270-275, 704/E15.044, 715/727
• US Class Current: 703/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/38 for implementing user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context

Abstract

A computer software product is used to create applications for enabling a dialogue between a human and a computer. The software product provides a programming tool that insulates software developers from time-consuming, technically-challenging programming tasks by enabling the developer to specify generalized instructions to a Dialogue Flow Interpreter, which invokes functions to implement a speech application, automatically populating a library with dialogue objects that are available to other applications. The speech applications created through the DFI may be implemented as COM (component object model) objects, and so the applications can be easily integrated into a variety of different platforms. In addition, “translator” object classes are provided to handle specific types of data, such as currency, numeric data, dates, times, string variables, etc. These translator object classes have utility either as part of the DFI library or as a sub-library separate from dialogue implementation.

Claims

1. A system for developing dialogue-enabled software for executing on a computer that enables a human and a computer to interact comprising:

a design tool for accepting instructions specifying a programmer-defined conversation flow, said design tool producing a human-readable data file, said data file containing information relating to said programmer-defined conversation flow; and

an interpreter object for interpreting said data file, said interpreter object providing a human-computer dialogue-enabled interaction defined by the data file.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising a library of dialogue objects.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the design tool further comprises a graphical interface.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the interpreter object comprises one or more of a get prompt function that returns an appropriate prompt to play, a get grammar function that returns grammar for a current state, a get response function that returns a response object comprising a user response, and an advance state function that transitions a dialogue to a next state.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the interpreter object comprises one or more functions for retrieving state-independent properties, said state-independent properties including one or more of a project'"'"'s path, a project'"'"'s sounds path, an input mode, a barge-in mode, a current state, and a previous state.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the interpreter object logs information relating to a number of times a particular state is entered.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the interpreter comprises at least one function for providing a human side of said human-computer dialogue-enabled interaction.

8. A computer-readable medium comprising computer executable instructions for instructing a computer to perform the acts of:

accepting instructions, said instructions specifying a programmer-defined conversation flow between a human and a computer;

producing, from said instructions specifying a programmer-defined conversation flow, a human readable data file for input to an interpreter object; and

instantiating said interpreter object within an application, the interpreter object interpreting the data file to provide a human-computer dialogue-enabled interaction defined by the data file.

9. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, further comprising instructions for sharing a library of dialogue objects.

10. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, further comprising computer executable instructions for one or more of a get prompt function that returns an appropriate prompt to play, a get grammar function that returns grammar for a current state, a get response function that returns a response object comprising a user response, and an advance state function that transitions a dialogue to a next state.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, further comprising computer executable instructions for one or more functions for retrieving state-independent properties, said state-independent properties including one or more of a project'"'"'s path, a project'"'"'s sounds path, an input mode, a barge-in mode, a current state, and a previous state.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, further comprising computer executable instructions for logging information relating to a number of times a particular state is entered.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 8, further comprising computer executable instructions for providing a human side of said human-computer dialogue-enabled interaction.