Methods and systems for authoring of mixed-initiative multi-modal interactions and related browsing mechanisms
First Claim
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1. A conversational browser apparatus for providing access to an application by a user, the apparatus comprising:
- a processor; and
a memory for storing program instructions that are executed by the processor for implementing;
an interaction manager;
at least one modality based browser operatively coupled to the interaction manager, the modality based browser being a voice-based browser; and
a dialog, manager operatively coupled to the interaction manager;
wherein interaction between the user, the interaction manager, the voice-based browser and the dialog manager comprises;
(i) the interaction manager obtains the application from a server in response to a user request and passes a representation of the application to the dialog manger;
(ii) the dialog manager determines a focus of the application and an intent of the user in accordance with the representation of the application, and informs the interaction manager of at least one of the focus of the application and the intent of the user;
(iii) the interaction manager then designates a particular portion of the application for presentation to the user in accordance with the voice-based browser based on the determination of at least one of the focus of the application and the intent of the user, the portion comprising at least a prompt and an input field, wherein the prompt is presented to the user and the input field specifies user input receivable in response to the prompt for use in predetermining at least one of the focus of the application and the intent of the user;
(iv) the interaction manager parses the application into a data model and one or more user interaction elements that are bound to the data model, and(v) the dialog manager manages mixed-initiative dialog interaction between the user and the application by populating an application state of the data model through interaction with the user, wherein populating the application state comprises filling one or more slots of a form, in any order, in a single user interaction, and wherein the dialog manager uses the data model to keep track of a conversation context to determine which slots of the form have been filled with information from the user and which slots of the form need to be resented to the user to complete the form.
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Abstract
Application authoring techniques, and information browsing mechanisms associated therewith, which employ programming in association with mixed-initiative multi-modal interactions and natural language understanding for use in dialog systems. Also, a conversational browsing architecture is provided for use with these and other authoring techniques.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A conversational browser apparatus for providing access to an application by a user, the apparatus comprising:
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a processor; and a memory for storing program instructions that are executed by the processor for implementing; an interaction manager; at least one modality based browser operatively coupled to the interaction manager, the modality based browser being a voice-based browser; and a dialog, manager operatively coupled to the interaction manager; wherein interaction between the user, the interaction manager, the voice-based browser and the dialog manager comprises; (i) the interaction manager obtains the application from a server in response to a user request and passes a representation of the application to the dialog manger; (ii) the dialog manager determines a focus of the application and an intent of the user in accordance with the representation of the application, and informs the interaction manager of at least one of the focus of the application and the intent of the user; (iii) the interaction manager then designates a particular portion of the application for presentation to the user in accordance with the voice-based browser based on the determination of at least one of the focus of the application and the intent of the user, the portion comprising at least a prompt and an input field, wherein the prompt is presented to the user and the input field specifies user input receivable in response to the prompt for use in predetermining at least one of the focus of the application and the intent of the user; (iv) the interaction manager parses the application into a data model and one or more user interaction elements that are bound to the data model, and (v) the dialog manager manages mixed-initiative dialog interaction between the user and the application by populating an application state of the data model through interaction with the user, wherein populating the application state comprises filling one or more slots of a form, in any order, in a single user interaction, and wherein the dialog manager uses the data model to keep track of a conversation context to determine which slots of the form have been filled with information from the user and which slots of the form need to be resented to the user to complete the form. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A conversational browser apparatus for providing access to an application by a user, the apparatus comprising:
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a processor; and a memory for storing program instructions that are executed by the processor for implementing; an interaction manager; at least one modality based browser operatively coupled to the interaction manager; and a dialog manager operatively coupled to the interaction manager; wherein interaction between the user, the interaction manager, the browser and the dialog manager comprises; (i) the interaction manager obtains the application from a server in response to a user request, the application representing interactions that the user may have with the application as a data model and one or more user interaction elements that populate an application state of the data model and that are bound thereto; (ii) the dialog manager receives attribute value pairs generated from user input and processes the attribute value pairs to populate the data model and determine a next interaction focus, wherein the dialog manager manages mixed-initiative dialog interaction between the user and the application by populating the application state of the data model through interaction with the user, wherein populating the application state comprises using the attribute value pairs to fill one or more slots of a form, in any order, in a single user interaction, and wherein the dialog manager uses the data model to keep track of the conversation context to determine which slots of the form have been filled with information from the user and which slots of the form need to be presented to the user to complete the form; and (iii) upon determination of the next interaction focus by the dialog manager, the application state and context are updated and an output is generated by the interaction manager and provided to the user for interaction via the browser. - View Dependent Claims (17)
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18. A method of authoring an application accessible by a user in accordance with a conversational browser, the method comprising the steps of:
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an interaction manager of the conversational browser obtaining the application from a server in response to a user request, the application representing interactions that the user may have with the application as a data model and one or more user interaction elements that populate an application state of the data model and that are bound thereto; a dialog manager of the conversational browser managing mixed-initiative dialog interaction between the user and the application, wherein the dialog manager manages mixed-initiative dialog by receiving attribute value pairs generated from user input and processing the attribute value pairs to populate an application state of the data model and determine a next interaction focus, wherein populating the application state comprises using the attribute value pairs to fill one or more slots of a form, in any order, in a single user interaction, and wherein the dialog manager uses the data model to keep track of the conversation context to determine which slots of the form have been filled with information from the user and which slots of the form need to be presented to the user to complete the form; and upon determination of the next interaction focus by the dialog manager, the application state and context being updated and an output being generated by the interaction manager and provided to the user for interaction via a browsing mechanism of the conversational browser. - View Dependent Claims (19)
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Specification