Dialogue flow interpreter development tool

• US 20060206299A1
• Filed: 01/03/2006
• Published: 09/14/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Unisys Corporation
• Original Assignee: Unisys Corporation
• Inventors: Tamri, Samir, Scholz, Karl Wilmer, Irwin, James S.
• Granted Patent: US 7,389,213 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/26
• 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 the flow of a conversation, said design tool producing a human-readable data file; and

an interpreter for interpreting said data file, said interpreter automatically enabling the human-computer interaction.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising a library, wherein the library contains said data files.

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

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

accepting instructions, said instructions specifying a flow of conversation between a human and a computer;

producing a human readable data file for input to an interpreter;

interpreting said data file; and

providing the human-computer dialogue-enabled interaction.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 4 containing further instructions enabling the generated code to be immediately accessible to other software developers.