APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR SPOKEN DIALOG

• US 20090234650A1
• Filed: 03/11/2009
• Published: 09/17/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba (Toshiba Corporation)
• Inventors: YANO, Takehide
• Granted Patent: US 8,364,493 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/251
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context

Abstract

A spoken dialogue apparatus which retrieves desired data from a data storage unit storing data in association with attribute values concerning a plurality of attributes of the data, includes a calculation unit configured to calculate estimated numbers of data as costs concerning a first response and a second response based on the retrieval condition and the retrieval result, the data being included in retrieval result after narrowed retrieval performed in accordance with an input speech corresponding to the first response asking the user to input an attribute value of an attribute which has not been input and corresponding to the second response ascertaining the truth of an attribute value of an attribute which has been input, and a selection unit configured to select a response having the lowest cost and present the response to the user.

Claims

1. A spoken dialogue apparatus which retrieves desired data from a data storage unit storing data in association with attribute values concerning a plurality of attributes of the data, comprising:

a speech recognition unit configured to perform speech recognition of an input speech of a user for a presented response to obtain a recognition candidate in one attribute from recognition target words corresponding to the presented response;

a retrieval unit configured to update a retrieval condition by use of the recognition candidate and retrieve data corresponding to the retrieval condition from the data storage unit to output as a retrieval result;

a calculation unit configured to calculate estimated numbers of data as costs concerning a first response and a second response based on the retrieval condition and the retrieval result, the data being included in retrieval result after narrowed retrieval performed in accordance with an input speech corresponding to the first response asking the user to input an attribute value of an attribute which has not been input and corresponding to the second response ascertaining the truth of an attribute value of an attribute which has been input; and

a selection unit configured to select a response having the lowest cost and present the response to the user.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the second response ascertains the truth of an attribute value which is most likely to correspond to the input speech among the attribute values.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the calculation unit further calculates a cost of a third response ascertaining the truth of an attribute value of an attribute which has not been input.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the retrieval unit deletes, from the retrieval condition, all the attribute values but an attribute value ascertained to be true with regard to the second response and modifies the retrieval condition when the retrieval result is null.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the speech recognition unit again performs speech recognition of a previous input speech in order to obtain a recognition candidate concerning said one attribute from the recognition target words when an input speech indicating that the attribute value is true with regard to the second response is obtained.

6. The apparatus according to claim 5, wherein an alias of the attribute value and an abbreviation of the attribute value are added to the recognition target words when the number of the recognition target words is less than or equal to a predetermined number.

7. A spoken dialogue method which retrieves desired data from a data storage unit storing data in association with attribute values concerning a plurality of attributes of the data, comprising:

performing speech recognition of an input speech of a user for a presented response to obtain a recognition candidate in one attribute from recognition target words corresponding to the presented response, by a speech recognition unit;

updating a retrieval condition by use of a recognition candidate and retrieving data corresponding to the retrieval condition from the data storage unit to output as a retrieval result, by a retrieval unit;

calculating estimated numbers of data as costs concerning a first response and a second response based on the retrieval condition and the retrieval result, the data being included in retrieval result after narrowed retrieval performed in accordance with an input speech corresponding to the first response asking the user to input an attribute value of an attribute which has not been input and corresponding to the second response ascertaining the truth of an attribute value of an attribute which has been input, by a calculation unit; and

selecting a response having the lowest cost and presenting the response to the user, by a selection unit.

8. The method according to claim 7, wherein the second response ascertains the truth of an attribute value which is most likely to correspond to the input speech among the attribute values.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the calculation unit further calculates a cost of a third response ascertaining the truth of an attribute value of an attribute which has not been input.

10. The method according to claim 7, wherein the retrieval unit deletes, from the retrieval condition, all the attribute values but an attribute value ascertained to be true with regard to the second response and modifies the retrieval condition when the retrieval result is null.

11. The method according to claim 7, wherein the speech recognition unit again performs speech recognition of a previous input speech in order to obtain a recognition candidate concerning said one attribute from the recognition target words when an input speech indicating that the attribute value is true with regard to the second response is obtained.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein an alias of the attribute value and an abbreviation of the attribute value are added to the recognition target words when the number of the recognition target words is less than or equal to a predetermined number.