Dialogue apparatus for controlling dialogues based on acquired information, judgment result, time estimation and result transmission

• US 7,617,301 B2
• Filed: 05/19/2005
• Issued: 11/10/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Kii, Takahiro
• Primary Examiner(s): Vincent; David R
• Assistant Examiner(s): OLUDE AFOLABI, OLATOYOSI
• Application Number:
  US11/132,324
• Publication Number:
  US 20050209856A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,636 Days
• Field of Search: 705/5, 705/6, 705/1, 705/28, 705/26, 705/27, 709/204, 709206-207, 709217-219, 718/103, 718/107, 718/758, 725/40, 725/39, 725/37, 725/32, 725/22, 715/733, 704/270
• US Class Current: 709/221
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/62 Establishing a time schedule for servicing the requests
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/329 in the application layer [OSI layer 7]

Abstract

The user'"'"'s waiting time in a dialogue system is effectively utilized. A dialogue apparatus makes a first dialogue with a user and judges whether a second dialogue should be started when a user'"'"'s waiting time occurs during the first dialogue, For example, when information necessary to further continue the first dialogue is acquired via a network during the first dialogue, a waiting time occurs, If the waiting time is expected to be long, the second dialogue is made during the first waiting time, After this dialogue ends, the first dialogue is resumed, Thus, the waiting time during the dialogue becomes shorter, so that the connection time is effectively utilized.

Claims

1. A dialogue apparatus for performing dialogues with a user terminal operated by a user, comprising:

a dialogue unit that performs a first and second dialogue with the user terminal;

a control unit that judges whether to start the second dialogue during the first dialogue, and starts the second dialogue during the first dialogue in accordance with the a judgment result; and

, that accomplishes both the first dialogue and the second dialogue to obtain respectively a first result and a second result, the first result being a result of the accomplished first dialogue, the second result being a result of the accomplished second dialogue;

a first monitoring unit that monitors execution states of one or more information acquisition processes for acquiring information to be used for continuing the first dialogue being executed;

an estimation unit that, for continuing the first information acquisition process, estimates time necessary to acquire the information to be used for continuing the first dialogue being executed; and

a result transmission unit that transmits the first and the second results to the user terminal respectively or together;

wherein the control unit initiates the second dialogue when judging to start the second dialogue based on the estimated time.

2. The dialogue apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a history unit in which history of time required for acquiring information used for continuing a dialogue is stored,

wherein the estimation unit estimates time necessary to acquire information based on information acquisition time history.

3. The dialogue apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the estimation unit requests an estimation of time necessary to acquire information from an information search device that executes the information acquisition process for acquiring the information, and receives a response to the request from the information search device, and the control unit judges whether to start the second dialogue based on the response.

4. The dialogue apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a second monitoring unit that monitors a dialogue execution state to perform one of the dialogues being executed with the user terminal,

wherein the control unit manages the dialogue execution state to perform the dialogue and dialogue execution states to stop temporarily other dialogues.

5. The dialogue apparatus according to claim 4,

wherein the control unit selects and/or switches to a dialogue with the user terminal based on the dialogue execution state and on the information acquisition processing execution state.

6. The dialogue apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the control unit further stores information relating to the temporarily stopped dialogue up to the time of stop, and resumes the dialogue based on the stored information and on information acquired for continuing the dialogue.

7. The dialogue apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a dialogue history storage unit that correlates a user identifier that identifies a user to use a user terminal and an identifier of the dialogue being executed with the user terminal and stores the same,

wherein the control unit selects a second dialogue from among dialogues other than a dialogue being executed with the user terminal.