Personality generator for conversational systems

• US 6,658,388 B1
• Filed: 09/10/1999
• Issued: 12/02/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 09/10/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Uniloc 2017 LLC (SoftBank Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kleindienst, Jan, Ramaswamy, Ganesh N., Gopalakrishnan, Ponani, Coffman, Daniel M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dorvil, Richemond
• Assistant Examiner(s): Azad, Abul K.
• Application Number:
  US09/394,803
• Time in Patent Office: 1,544 Days
• Field of Search: 704/270, 704/271, 704/272, 704/275, 704/277
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/04 Details of speech synthesis systems, e.g. synthesiser structure or memory management
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue

Abstract

A method for providing a personality for a conversational system includes providing a plurality of attributes for determining a behavior of the conversational system. When a command is presented to the conversational system for execution, the command is responded to by employing the plurality of attributes such that the user experiences an interface with human characteristics.

Claims

1. A method for providing a personality for a conversational system, comprising the steps of:

providing a personality comprising a plurality of attributes for determining a behavior of the conversational system, wherein the attributes comprise attributes for specifying one or more emotions associated with the personality, wherein the emotions comprise one of a growing emotion, a dissipating emotion and both;

presenting a command to the conversational system for execution; and

responding to the command by employing the plurality of attributes such that the user experiences an interface with human characteristics, wherein an emotional level of a growing emotion increases as a function of time and decreases upon user stimuli and wherein an emotional level of a dissipating emotion decreases as a function of time and increases upon user stimuli.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the attributes include a manner of presenting information to the user.

3. The method as recited in claim 2, wherein the manner of presenting information to the user includes employing voices defined by specifying pitch, range, speaking rate and volume.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the attributes include language characteristics, grammar, speech models, vocabulary, emotions, sense of humor and learning ability.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the attributes are selectable by the user.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the attributes include user customized attributes.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the attributes are adaptable based on interaction between the user and the conversational system.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the attributes include application dependent attributes.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the step of responding to the command by employing the plurality of attributes includes the step of adapting the attributes in accordance with user preferences.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

activating an emotion when a corresponding emotional level reaches a threshold; and

resetting the emotional level to predetermined initial level.

11. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for providing a personality for a conversational system, the method steps comprising:

providing a personality comprising a plurality of attributes for determining a behavior of the conversational system, wherein the attributes comprise attributes for specifying one or more emotions associated with the personality, wherein the emotions comprise one of a growing emotion, a dissipating emotion and both;

presenting a command to the conversational system for execution; and

responding to the command by employing the plurality of attributes such that the user experiences an interface with human characteristics, wherein an emotional level of a growing emotion increases as a function of time and decreases upon user stimuli and wherein an emotional level of a dissipating emotion decreases as a function of time and increases upon user stimuli.

12. The program storage device as recited in claim 11, wherein the attributes include a manner of presenting information to the user.

13. The program storage device as recited in claim 12, wherein the manner of presenting information to the user includes employing voices defined by specifying pitch, range, speaking rate and volume.

14. The program storage device as recited in claim 11, wherein the manner of presenting information to the user includes employing voices defined by specifying pitch, range, speaking rate and volume.

15. The program storage device as recited in claim 11, wherein the attributes include language characteristics, grammar, speech models, vocabulary, emotions, sense of humor and learning ability.

16. The program storage device as recited in claim 11, wherein the attributes are selectable by the user.

17. The program storage device as recited in claim 11, wherein the attributes include user customized attributes.

18. The program storage device as recited in claim 11, wherein the attributes are adaptable based on interaction between the user and the conversational system.

19. The program storage device as recited in claim 11, wherein the attributes include application dependent attributes.

20. The program storage device as recited in claim 11, wherein the step of responding to the command by employing the plurality of attributes includes the step of adapting the attributes in accordance with user preferences.

21. The program storage device of claim 11, further comprising instructions for performing the steps of:

activating an emotion when a corresponding emotional level reaches a threshold; and

resetting the emotional level to predetermined initial level.

22. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for providing a conversational user interface with personality, the method steps comprising:

executing an application comprising a personality, the personality comprising a plurality of attributes for specifying a behavior of the conversational user interface, the attributes comprising attributes for specifying one or more emotions associated with the personality, wherein the emotions comprise one of a growing emotion, a dissipating emotion and both; and

responding to user commands by employing the plurality of attributes such that the user experiences a user interface with human characteristics, wherein an emotional level of a growing emotion increases as a function of time and decreases upon user stimuli and wherein an emotional level of a dissipating emotion decreases as a function of time and increases upon user stimuli.

23. The program storage device of claim 22, further comprising instructions for performing the steps of:

activating an emotion when a corresponding emotional level reaches a threshold; and

resetting the emotional level to predetermined initial level.