Dialog supporting apparatus that selects similar dialog histories for utterance prediction
First Claim
1. A dialog supporting apparatus which supports an on-going dialog made by a first dialog participant and a second dialog participant, said apparatus comprising:
- a recording medium for storing a plurality of dialog histories each comprised of dialogs which are utterance strings of a plurality of people including the first dialog participant, the second dialog participant, and one or more dialog participants other than the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant, the dialog histories being stored in association with first information identifying the people, including the first dialog participant, the second dialog participant, and the one or more dialog participants other than the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant, of the dialog histories and second information indicating a topic of a dialog;
a dialog history selection unit operable to;
obtain the first information identifying the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant and the second information indicating the topic of the dialog;
extract, from said recording medium, one or more of the plurality of dialog histories based on the first information identifying the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant and the second information indicating the topic of the dialog, wherein each of the extracted one or more of the plurality of dialog histories is associated with a corresponding first dialog participant or second dialog participant indicated by the obtained first information and the topic of the dialog indicated by the obtained second information, and each of the extracted one or more of the plurality of dialog histories is either (i) a dialog history of a dialog made between the first dialog participant and a third dialog participant other than the second dialog participant or (ii) a dialog history of a dialog made between the second dialog participant and a fourth dialog participant other than the first dialog participant; and
select, from said recording medium, a dialog history that is different from any of the extracted one or more of the plurality of dialog histories, wherein the selected dialog history has a highest degree of similarity with respect to the extracted one or more of the plurality of dialog histories; and
an utterance prediction unit operable to predict a next utterance of either the first dialog participant or the second dialog participant in the dialog, based on the dialog history selected by said dialog history selection unit, and to predict, as a next utterance of either the first dialog participant or the second dialog participant in the dialog, an utterance which is included in the dialog history selected by said dialog history selection unit and appears next to an utterance corresponding to an utterance in the dialog.
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Abstract
A dialog supporting apparatus is provided which can support an on-going dialog so that the dialog is smoothly completed irrespective of the other party in the dialog. The dialog supporting apparatus includes utterance receiving units which receive the utterances of the dialog participants and output utterance information for identifying an utterance. Moreover, the dialog supporting apparatus includes utterance outputting units which output the utterance information from the other participant in the dialog as an utterance, and an utterance processing unit which transforms the utterance identified by the utterance information into an other utterance form. Furthermore, the dialog supporting apparatus includes a dialog history selection unit which selects an optimum dialog history in a dialog history database and an utterance prediction unit which predicts utterances in the dialog based on the selected dialog history.
26 Citations
14 Claims
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1. A dialog supporting apparatus which supports an on-going dialog made by a first dialog participant and a second dialog participant, said apparatus comprising:
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a recording medium for storing a plurality of dialog histories each comprised of dialogs which are utterance strings of a plurality of people including the first dialog participant, the second dialog participant, and one or more dialog participants other than the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant, the dialog histories being stored in association with first information identifying the people, including the first dialog participant, the second dialog participant, and the one or more dialog participants other than the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant, of the dialog histories and second information indicating a topic of a dialog; a dialog history selection unit operable to; obtain the first information identifying the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant and the second information indicating the topic of the dialog; extract, from said recording medium, one or more of the plurality of dialog histories based on the first information identifying the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant and the second information indicating the topic of the dialog, wherein each of the extracted one or more of the plurality of dialog histories is associated with a corresponding first dialog participant or second dialog participant indicated by the obtained first information and the topic of the dialog indicated by the obtained second information, and each of the extracted one or more of the plurality of dialog histories is either (i) a dialog history of a dialog made between the first dialog participant and a third dialog participant other than the second dialog participant or (ii) a dialog history of a dialog made between the second dialog participant and a fourth dialog participant other than the first dialog participant; and select, from said recording medium, a dialog history that is different from any of the extracted one or more of the plurality of dialog histories, wherein the selected dialog history has a highest degree of similarity with respect to the extracted one or more of the plurality of dialog histories; and an utterance prediction unit operable to predict a next utterance of either the first dialog participant or the second dialog participant in the dialog, based on the dialog history selected by said dialog history selection unit, and to predict, as a next utterance of either the first dialog participant or the second dialog participant in the dialog, an utterance which is included in the dialog history selected by said dialog history selection unit and appears next to an utterance corresponding to an utterance in the dialog. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A dialog supporting system comprising:
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a dialog supporting apparatus and a server apparatus which support an on-going dialog made by a first dialog participant and a second dialog participant, wherein said server apparatus comprises; a recording medium for storing a plurality of dialog histories each comprised of dialogs which are utterance strings of a plurality of people including the first dialog participant, the second dialog participant, and one or more dialog participants other than the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant, the dialog histories being stored in association with first information identifying the people, including the first dialog participant, the second dialog participant, and the one or more dialog participants other than the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant, of the dialog histories and second information indicating a topic of a dialog; and a dialog history selection unit operable to; obtain the first information identifying the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant and the second information indicating the topic of the dialog; extract, from said recording medium, one or more of the plurality of dialog histories based on the first information identifying the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant and the second information indicating the topic of the dialog, wherein each of the extracted one or more of the plurality of dialog histories is associated with a corresponding first dialog participant or second dialog participant indicated by the obtained first information and the topic of the dialog indicated by the obtained second information, and each of the extracted one or more of the plurality of dialog histories is either (i) a dialog history of a dialog made between the first dialog participant and a third dialog participant other than the second dialog participant or (ii) a dialog history of a dialog made between the second dialog participant and a fourth dialog participant other than the first dialog participant; and select, from said recording medium, a dialog history that is different from the extracted one or more of the plurality of dialog histories, wherein the selected dialog history has a highest degree of similarity with respect to the extracted one or more of the plurality of dialog histories, and wherein said dialog supporting apparatus comprises an utterance prediction unit operable to; request one of the dialog histories from said server apparatus by sending, to said server apparatus, the first information identifying the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant; and predict a next utterance of either the first dialog participant or the second dialog participant in the dialog, based on the dialog history sent by said server apparatus, and predict, as a next utterance of either the first dialog participant or the second dialog participant in the dialog, an utterance which is included in the dialog history selected by said dialog history selection unit and appears next to an utterance corresponding to an utterance in the dialog.
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13. A dialog supporting method for supporting an on-going dialog made by a first dialog participant and a second dialog participant, said method comprising:
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storing, in a recording medium, a plurality of dialog histories each comprised of dialogs which are utterance strings of a plurality of people including the first dialog participant, the second dialog participant, and one or more dialog participants other than the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant, wherein the dialog histories are stored in association with first information identifying the people, including the first dialog participant, the second dialog participant, and the one or more dialog participants other than the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant, of the dialog histories and second information identifying a topic of a dialog; obtaining the first information identifying the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant and the second information indicating the topic of the dialog; extracting, from said recording medium, one or more of the plurality of dialog histories based on the first information identifying the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant and the second information indicating the topic of the dialog, wherein each of the extracted one or more of the plurality of dialog histories is associated with a corresponding first dialog participant or second dialog participant indicated by the obtained first information and the topic of the dialog indicated by the obtained second information, and each of the extracted one or more of the plurality of dialog histories is either (i) a dialog history of a dialog made between the first dialog participant and a third dialog participant other than the second dialog participant or (ii) a dialog history of a dialog made between the second dialog participant and a fourth dialog participant other than the first dialog participant; selecting, from said recording medium, a dialog history that is different from any of the extracted one or more of the plurality of dialog histories, wherein the selected dialog history has a highest degree of similarity with respect to the extracted one or more of the plurality of dialog histories; and predicting a next utterance of either the first dialog participant or the second dialog participant in the dialog, based on the dialog history selected in said selecting of the dialog history, and predicting, as a next utterance of either the first dialog participant or the second dialog participant in the dialog, an utterance which is included in the dialog history selected in said selecting the dialog history and appears next to an utterance corresponding to an utterance in the dialog.
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14. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium having stored therein a program for supporting an on-going dialog made by a first dialog participant and a second dialog participant, said program causing a computer to execute at least the following:
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storing, in a dialog history database, a plurality of dialog histories each comprised of dialogs which are utterance strings of a plurality of people including the first dialog participant, the second dialog participant, and one or more dialog participants other than the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant, wherein the dialog histories are stored in association with first information identifying the people, including the first dialog participant, the second dialog participant, and the one or more dialog participants other than the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant, of the dialog histories and second information identifying a topic of a dialog; obtaining the first information identifying the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant and the second information indicating the topic of the dialog; extracting, from said dialog history database, one or more of the plurality of dialog histories based on the first information identifying the first dialog participant and the second dialog participant and the second information indicating the topic of the dialog, wherein each of the extracted one or more of the plurality of dialog histories is associated with a corresponding first dialog participant or second dialog participant indicated by the first information and the topic of the dialog indicated by the obtained second information, and each of the extracted one or more of the plurality of dialog histories is either (i) a dialog history of a dialog made between the first dialog participant and a third dialog participant other than the second dialog participant or (ii) a dialog history of a dialog made between the second dialog participant and a fourth dialog participant other than the first dialog participant; selecting, from said dialog history database, a dialog history that is different from any of the extracted one or more of the plurality of dialog histories, wherein the selected dialog history has a highest degree of similarity with respect to the extracted one or more of the plurality of dialog histories; and predicting a next utterance of either the first dialog participant or the second dialog participant in the dialog, based on the dialog history selected in said selecting of the dialog history, and predicting, as a next utterance of either the first dialog participant or the second dialog participant in the dialog, an utterance which is included in the dialog history selected in said selecting the dialog history and appears next to an utterance corresponding to an utterance in the dialog.
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Specification