Dialogue system using extended domain and natural language recognition method and computer-readable medium thereof

• US 8,626,490 B2
• Filed: 01/04/2011
• Issued: 01/07/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/04/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Kim, Hong Won, Han, Woo Sup
• Primary Examiner(s): MCFADDEN, SUSAN IRIS
• Application Number:
  US12/984,120
• Publication Number:
  US 20110166852A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,099 Days
• Field of Search: 704/9
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/40 Processing or translation of natural language natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1815 Semantic context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word meaning
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1822 Parsing for meaning understanding

Abstract

A dialogue system uses an extended domain in order to have a dialogue with a user using natural language. If a dialogue pattern actually input by the user is different from a dialogue pattern predicted by an expert, an extended domain generated in real time based on user input is used and an extended domain generated in advance is used to have a dialogue with the user.

Claims

1. A method of recognizing natural language in a dialogue system, the method comprising:

parsing, by a processor, voice data of a user into syllables to generate an input set; and

understanding, by the processor, user language using an input set of an initial domain generated before dialogue with the user and an extended input set of an extended domain generated upon dialogue with the user.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein when the parsed input set is not included in the initial domain, the extended domain is used.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the extended domain is generated by generating the extended input set using associated language data of a certain word configuring the parsed input set.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein:

the associated language data includes at least one of a synonym, a hyponym and a hypernym associated with the certain word, and

the extended input set is generated by changing at least one word of the parsed input set to the associated language data.

5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising:

applying a weight to the extended input set in order to restrict a size of the generated extended domain, and

stopping the generation of the extended domain if the weight applied to the extended input set is greater than a predefined value.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the weight is differently applied depending on one of which words and how many words of the parsed input set are changed.

7. The method according to claim 6, wherein a weight applied to the extended input set generated by changing a certain word of the parsed input set to a hyponym is greater than a weight applied to the extended input set generated by changing the certain word to a synonym, and a weight applied to the extended input set generated by changing the certain word to a hypernym is greater than the weight applied to the extended input set generated by changing the certain word to the hyponym.

17. At least one non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable instructions that control at least one processor to implement the method of claim 1.

8. A method of recognizing natural language in a dialogue system, the method comprising:

parsing, by a processor, voice data of a user into syllables to generate an input set; and

generating, by the processor, an extended domain including an extended input set generated using an initial input set generated by predicting meanings necessary for a use environment and expressions corresponding thereto and associated language data of the initial input set before dialogue with a user, and understanding user language using the extended input set of the extended domain.

18. At least one non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer readable instructions that control at least one processor to implement the method of claim 8.

9. A dialogue system using an extended domain, the dialogue system comprising:

a processor to control one or more processor-executable units;

a language parser to parse voice data of a user into syllables to generate an input set; and

a language understanding unit to understand user language using an input set of an initial domain generated before dialogue with the user and an extended input set of an extended domain generated upon dialogue with the user.

10. The dialogue system according to claim 9, wherein:

the language understanding unit further includes;

an initial domain comparator to determine whether the parsed input set is included in the initial domain; and

an extended domain comparator to determine whether the parsed input set is included in the extended domain,

wherein, if the parsed input set is not included in the initial domain, the extended domain comparator makes a request for generation of the extended domain.

11. The dialogue system according to claim 10, wherein the language understanding unit further includes:

an associated word bank having associated language data of a certain word configuring the parsed input set;

an input set generator to generate the extended input set using the associated language data; and

an extended domain generator to make a request for generation of the extended input set to the input set generator according to the request for the generation of the extended domain.

12. The dialogue system according to claim 11, wherein the associated language data includes at least one of a synonym, a hyponym and a hypernym associated with the certain word, and

the input set generator changes at least one word of the parsed input set to the associated language data.

13. The dialogue system according to claim 11, wherein:

the language understanding unit further includes a domain restrictor to restrict a size of the extended domain, and

the domain restrictor applies a weight to the extended input set and makes a request for stoppage of the generation of the extended input set to the input set generator if the weight applied to the extended input set is greater than a predefined value.

14. The dialogue system according to claim 13, wherein the weight is differently applied depending on one of which words and how many words of the parsed input set are changed.

15. The dialogue system according to claim 13, wherein the domain restrictor applies to the extended input set generated by changing a certain word of the parsed input set to a hyponym a weight greater than a weight applied to the extended input set generated by changing the certain word to a synonym, and applies to an extended input set generated by changing the certain word to a hypernym a weight greater than the weight applied to the extended input set generated by changing the certain word to the hyponym.

16. A dialogue system using an extended domain, the dialogue system comprising:

a processor to control one or more processor-executable units;

a language parser to parse voice data of a user into syllables to generate an input set; and

a language understanding unit to generate an extended domain including an extended input set generated using an initial input set generated by predicting meanings necessary for a use environment and expressions corresponding thereto and associated language data of the initial input set before dialogue with a user, and to understand user language using the extended input set of the extended domain.

19. A dialogue system using an extended domain, the dialogue system comprising:

a processor to control one or more processor-executable units;

a dialogue manager to generate a response sentence based on a result of understanding a user language; and

a language generator to generate user language according to the response sentence by using an initial domain generated before dialogue with the user and an extended domain.

20. A dialogue system using an extended domain, the dialogue system comprising:

a processor to control one or more processor-executable units;

a language parser to parse voice data of a user into syllables to generate an input set;

a language understanding unit to understand user language using an input set of an initial domain generated before dialogue with the user and an extended input set of an extended domain generated upon dialogue with the user;

a dialogue manager to generate a response sentence based on a result of understanding the user language; and

a language generator to generate user language according to the response sentence by using the initial domain generated before dialogue with the user and the extended domain.