Agent device, agent system, and recording medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11809885-B2
Application number	US-202117158070-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 26, 2021
Priority date	Jan 29, 2020
Publication date	Nov 7, 2023
Grant date	Nov 7, 2023

Abstract

An agent device receives input information that is input by the user, in a case in which the input information is a question from the user, executes inference processing on the input information to infer an intent of the question in order to acquire a response to the question based on the intent, in a case in which a plurality of the responses are acquired, provides the notification device with option information that includes the plurality of responses as options, in a case in which new input information is received, determines whether the new input information is information requiring the inference processing or is selection information relating to a selection result from selection of the options, and in a case in which the new input information is the selection information, provides the notification device with response information regarding the response associated with the selection result without executing the inference processing.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An agent device comprising:
a memory; and
a processor coupled to the memory, the processor being configured to:
receive, from a notification device for notifying information to a user, input information that is input by the user,
in a case in which the input information is a question from the user, execute inference processing on the input information to infer an intent of the question in order to acquire a response to the question based on the intent,
in a case in which a plurality of the responses are acquired, provide the notification device with option information that includes the plurality of responses as options,
in a case in which new input information is received, determine whether the new input information is information requiring the inference processing or is selection information relating to a selection result from selection of the options, and
in a case in which the new input information is the selection information, provide the notification device with response information regarding, among the acquired plurality of responses, the response associated with the selection result without executing the inference processing.

2. The agent device of claim 1 , wherein:
the processor is configured to perform the inference processing by inputting the received input information into a trained model generated employing information regarding a plurality of expressions relevant to a hypothetical question and information regarding correct responses to the plurality of expressions.

3. The agent device of claim 1 , wherein:
in a case in which the input information acquired from the notification device is information requiring the inference processing, the processor is configured to convert the input information to text and provide the input information that has been converted to text, and in a case in which the input information acquired from the notification device is information corresponding to the selection result, the processor is configured to provide the selection information.

4. The agent device of claim 3 , wherein:
in a case in which the option information is provided, the processor is configured to store specific information configured to specify the notification device and to store the option information, at the memory;
in a case in which the specific information and input information associated with the selection result have been acquired from the notification device, the processor is configured to specify a response associated with the selection result based on the specific information and the option information, and to provide identification information identifying the response associated with the selection result, as the selection information; and
the processor is configured to provide the notification device with response information relating to a response that corresponds to the identification information.

5. The agent device of claim 1 , wherein as the option information, the processor is configured to provide the notification device with numbers identifying a plurality of the responses together with the responses.

6. An agent system comprising an agent device, and a notification device installed in a vehicle, the agent device including
a memory, and
a processor coupled to the memory, the processor being configured to
receive, from a notification device for notifying information to a user, input information that is input by the user;
in a case in which the input information is a question from the user, execute inference processing on the input information to infer an intent of the question in order to acquire a response to the question based on intent;
in a case in which a plurality of the responses are acquired, provide the notification device with option information that includes the plurality of responses as options;
in a case in which new input information is received, determine whether the new input information is information requiring the inference processing or is selection information relating to a selection result from selection of the options; and
in a case in which the new input information is the selection information, provide the notification device with response information regarding, among the acquired plurality of responses, the response associated with the selection result without executing the inference processing.

7. The agent system of claim 6 , further comprising an interface device including:
a memory; and
a processor coupled to the memory, wherein in a case in which the input information acquired from the notification device is information requiring the inference processing, the processor of the interface device is configured to convert the input information to text and provide the input information that has been converted to text, and in a case in which the input information acquired from the notification device is information corresponding to the selection result, the processor of the interface device is configured to provide the selection information.

8. A non-transitory recording medium storing a program that is executable by a computer to perform processing, the processing comprising:
receiving, from a notification device for notifying information to a user, input information that is input by the user;
in a case in which the input information is a question from the user, executing inference processing on the input information to infer an intent of the question in order to acquire a response to the question based on the intent;
in a case in which a plurality of the responses are acquired, providing the notification device with option information that includes the plurality of responses as options;
in a case in which new input information has been received, determining whether the new input information is information requiring the inference processing or is selection information relating to a selection result from selection of the options; and
in a case in which the new input information is the selection information, providing the notification device with response information regarding, among the acquired plurality of responses, the response associated with the selection result without executing the inference processing.

9. The agent device of claim 1 , wherein the processor is configured to determine that the new input information is the selection information, in a case in which the new input information includes a number or a linguistic feature allocated to the options.

10. The agent system of claim 6 , wherein the processor is configured to determine that the new input information is the selection information, in a case in which the new input information includes a number or a linguistic feature allocated to the options.

11. The non-transitory recording medium of claim 8 , wherein determining whether the new input information is selection information is based on whether the new input information includes a number or a linguistic feature allocated to the options.

Assignees

• Toyota Motor Co Ltd

Inventors

• Maeda Eiichi
• Kubo Chikage
• Nakano Keiko
• Nishizawa Hiroyuki

Classifications

• B60K35/85

  Arrangements for transferring vehicle- or driver-related data · CPC title

• B60K35/20

  Output arrangements, i.e. from vehicle to user, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor · CPC title

• B60K35/10

  Input arrangements, i.e. from user to vehicle, associated with vehicle functions or specially adapted therefor · CPC title

• G06F9/453 Primary

  Help systems · CPC title

• B60K37/02

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic