DIALOGUE ANALYSIS

• US 20180315418A1
• Filed: 04/28/2017
• Published: 11/01/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/28/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bolsakovas, Ignas, Brown, Kevin C., Thorne, Dominic E., White, Graham
• Granted Patent: US 10,692,516 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/35 Discourse or dialogue representation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1807 using prosody or stress
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0272 Voice signal separating
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/48 specially adapted for particular use
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1831 Tracking arrangements for later retrieval, e.g. recording contents, participants activities or behavior, network status
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/216 Handling conversation history, e.g. grouping of messages in sessions or threads
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/42221 Conversation recording systems at the subscriber's set H04M1/656
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/56 Arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities video conference systems H04N7/15

Abstract

A method of determining a participant'"'"'s contribution to a conversation or dialogue by generating a contribution score is provided. The contribution score may be determined based on at least one of a. prosody analysis of a participant'"'"'s input and an input reaction measure indicative of another participant'"'"'s reaction to the participant'"'"'s input. An associated computer system and computer program product is also provided.

Claims

1. A method of generating a contribution score indicative of a first participant'"'"'s contribution to a dialogue between the first participant and one or more other participants, the method comprising:

analyzing, by a processor of a computing system, a dialogue input of the first participant using a prosody analysis technique to obtain prosody information associated with the dialogue input;

determining, by the processor, whether at least one of the one or more other participants provides a response, in the dialogue, to the dialogue input of the first participant;

in response to determining that the response is provided;

determining, by the processor, an input reaction measure indicative of a reaction by the at least one of the one or more other participants to the dialogue input of the first participant;

generating, by the processor, the contribution score based on at least the input reaction measure; and

in response to determining that no response is provided;

generating, by the processor, the contribution score based on at least the prosody information associated with the dialogue input.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating the contribution score in response to determining that a response is provided is further based on the prosody information of the dialogue input.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the prosody analysis technique is selected from the group consisting of:

a tone analysis technique, a pitch analysis technique, a rhythm analysis technique, and a spectral analysis technique.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the determining the input reaction measure comprises analyzing, by the processor, the response using a tone analysis algorithm to determine the input reaction measure.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the input reaction measure comprises:

analyzing, by the processor, the response to determine whether the response is positive or negative; and

determining, by the processor, the input reaction measure based on the determination of whether the response is positive or negative.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein:

the analyzing the dialogue input of the first participant using a prosody analysis technique comprises analyzing, by the processor, the dialogue input of the first participant so as to determine an emotion score indicative of an emotion of the first participant during provision of the dialogue input; and

the generating the contribution score in response to no response being provided comprises generating, by the processor, the contribution score based on the emotion score;

the response from the first participant having a high contribution score influences the contribution score of the first participant to a greater extent than a participant having a lower contribution score.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining, by the processor, an initial contribution score, and wherein the generating the contribution score comprises generating the contribution score further based on the initial contribution score.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the obtaining the initial overall contribution score comprises obtaining, by the processor, a previous contribution score associated with a previous contribution of the first participant to a dialogue.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the obtaining the initial contribution scores comprises determining, by the processor, an initial contribution based on at least one attribute of the first participant.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one attribute is selected from the group consisting of:

a role of the first participant, a knowledge level of the first participant, a seniority of the first participant, an experience level of the first participant, a security level of the first participant, responsibilities of the first participant, and an age of the first participant.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying, by the processor, the identity of the first participant in the dialogue.

12. A method of ranking participants in a dialogue between a first participant and one or more other participants, the method comprising:

generating the contribution score of the first participant according to claim 1;

obtaining a respective contribution score for each of the one or more other participants; and

ranking each participant in the dialogue based on their respective contribution scores.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising providing the contributions score for each participant to a predetermined participant in the dialogue.

14. A computer program product, comprising a computer readable hardware storage device storing a computer readable program code, the computer readable program code comprising an algorithm that when executed by a computer processor of a computing system implements a method for generating a contribution score indicative of a first participant'"'"'s contribution to a dialogue between the first participant and one or more other participants, the method comprising:

.

analyzing, by a processor of a computing system, a dialogue input of the first participant using a prosody analysis technique to obtain prosody information associated with the dialogue input;

determining, by the processor, whether at least one of the one or more other participants provides a response, in the dialogue, to the dialogue input of the first participant;

in response to determining that the response is provided;

determining, by the processor, an input reaction measure indicative of a reaction by the at least one of the one or more other participants to the dialogue input of the first participant;

generating, by the processor, the contribution score based on at least the input reaction measure; and

in response to determining that no response is provided;

generating, by the processor, the contribution score based on at least the prosody information associated with the dialogue input.

15. A computer system comprising:

a processor;

a memory device coupled to the processor; and

a computer eadable storage device coupled to the processor, wherein the storage device contains program code executable by the processor via the memory device to implement a method for generating a contribution score indicative of a first participant'"'"'s contribution to a dialogue between the first participant and one or more other participants, the method comprising;

analyzing, by a processor of a computing system, a dialogue input of the first participant using a prosody analysis technique to obtain prosody information associated with the dialogue input;

determining, by the processor, whether at least one of the one or more other participants provides a response, in the dialogue, to the dialogue input of the first participant;

in response to determining that the response is provided;

determining, by the processor, an input reaction measure indicative of a reaction by the at least one of the one or more other participants to the dialogue input of the first participant;

generating, by the processor, the contribution score based on at least the input reaction measure; and

in response to determining that no response is provided;

generating, by the processor, the contribution score based on at least the prosody information associated with the dialogue input.

16. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the generating the contribution score in response to determining that a response is providedis further based on the prosody information of the dialogue input.

17. The computer system of claim 15, further comprising analyzing, by e processor, the response using a tone analysis algorithm to determine the input reaction measure.

18. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the input reaction measure is determined by:

analyzing, by the processor, the response to determine whether the response is positive or negative; and

determining, by the processor, the input reaction measure based on the determination of whether the response is positive or negative.

19. The computer system of claim 15, further comprising obtaining, by the processor, an initial contribution score, and generating the contribution score further based on the initial contribution score.

20. A system for ranking participants in a dialogue between a first participant and one or more other participants, the system comprising the computer system according to claim 15, wherein the processor is further adapted to:

obtain a respective contribution score for each of the one or more other participants; and

rank each participant in the dialogue based on their respective contribution scores.