Kathleen M Howard

US Patent:

7496514, Feb 24, 2009

Filed:

Jul 16, 2007

Appl. No.:

11/778405

Inventors:

Steven I. Ross - S. Hamilton MA, US
Jeffrey G. MacAllister - Chestnut Hill MA, US
Christopher A. Hyland - Foxboro MA, US
Marijane M. Zeller - Medford MA, US
Kathleen A. Howard - Burlington MA, US

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G10L 11/00
G10L 15/18
G06F 17/27
G06N 5/02

US Classification:

704270, 704 9, 704257, 706 46

Abstract:

A dialog management system functions to manage the dialog between a user of a computer system and one or more speech enabled software applications. The user provides spoken input to a microphone connected to the computer system, and hears responses from one or more applications through a speaker connected to the computer system. The dialog management system includes a dialog manager, a turn manager, a speak queue, dialog contexts, and dialog state. The dialog manager provides top-level control of the dialog and stores responses based on the user's spoken input in a speak queue for later output to the user. The turn manager controls delivery of the responses to the user based on the dialog context and the dialog state, to provide a polite asynchronous dialog with the user that enables the user to be in control of the dialog. The dialog context provides information about each dialog. The dialog state provides information about whose turn it is (computer or user) to speak.

US Patent:

20020133355, Sep 19, 2002

Filed:

Jan 10, 2002

Appl. No.:

10/044647

Inventors:

Steven Ross - S. Hamilton MA, US
Jeffrey MacAllister - Chestnut Hill MA, US
Christopher Hyland - Foxboro MA, US
Marijane Zeller - Medford MA, US
Kathleen Howard - Burlington MA, US

Assignee:

International Business Machines Corporation - Armonk NY

International Classification:

G10L021/00
G10L011/00

US Classification:

704/275000

Abstract:

A dialog management system functions to manage the dialog between a user of a computer system and one or more speech enabled software applications. The user provides spoken input to a microphone connected to the computer system, and hears responses from one or more applications through a speaker connected to the computer system. The dialog management system includes a dialog manager, a turn manager, a speak queue, dialog contexts, and dialog state. The dialog manager provides top-level control of the dialog and stores responses based on the user's spoken input in a speak queue for later output to the user. The turn manager controls delivery of the responses to the user based on the dialog context and the dialog state, to provide a polite dialog with the user that enables the user to be in control of the dialog. The dialog context provides information about each dialog. The dialog state provides information about whose turn it is (computer or user) to speak.