Specifying a conversational computer agent and its outcome with a grammar

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2018308476-A1
Application number	US-201715493436-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Apr 21, 2017
Priority date	Apr 21, 2017
Publication date	Oct 25, 2018
Grant date	—

Abstract

An entity grammar that specifies a computer conversational agent may be received. User utterances are interpreted based on the entity grammar and prompts for the conversational agent to pose are determined based on the entity grammar. An outcome of the dialog is built by storing words in the user utterances and the prompts that match tokens in the entity grammar. The entity grammar specifies both a dialog flow and data structure of the outcome.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A method of providing a computer conversational agent and outcome, the method performed by at least one hardware processor, the method comprising:
receiving an entity grammar specifying the computer conversational agent, the entity grammar comprising rules that define compound entities in terms of tokens, choice, and product and according to which the computer conversational agent is to conduct a dialog with a user; receiving user utterance; interpreting the user utterance based on the entity grammar; determining a prompt for the computer conversational agent to pose to the user based on interpreting the user utterance and the entity grammar; uttering the prompt to the user; building the outcome by storing words in the user utterance and the prompt that match the tokens in the entity grammar; and repeating the receiving of user utterance, the determining of a prompt, the uttering of the prompt and the building of the outcome until the dialog ends, the end of the dialog determined based on the grammar, wherein the entity grammar specifies both a dialog flow of the dialog and data structure of the outcome.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the authoring user is allowed to specify the computer conversational agent via the entity grammar.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the entity grammar contains assertions and actions.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein the actions are executed to actuate one or more services.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the actions are actuated based on the outcome.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising providing a finite state machine that governs the progress of the dialog.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the finite state machine comprises entity states of undefined, filled, confirmed and rejected, which apply to pieces of the outcome.

8 . A computer readable storage device storing a program of instructions executable by a machine to perform a method of providing a computer conversational agent and outcome, the method comprising:
receiving an entity grammar specifying the computer conversational agent, the entity grammar comprising rules that define compound entities in terms of tokens, choice, and product and according to which the computer conversational agent is to conduct a dialog with a user; receiving user utterance; interpreting the user utterance based on the entity grammar; determining a prompt for the computer conversational agent to pose to the user based on interpreting the user utterance and the entity grammar; uttering the prompt to the user; building the outcome by storing words in the user utterance and the prompt that match the tokens in the entity grammar; and repeating the receiving of user utterance, the determining of a prompt, the uttering of the prompt and the building of the outcome until the dialog ends, the end of the dialog determined based on the grammar, wherein the entity grammar specifies both a dialog flow of the dialog and data structure of the outcome.

9 . The computer readable storage device of claim 8 , wherein the authoring user is allowed to specify the computer conversational agent via the entity grammar.

10 . The computer readable storage device of claim 8 , wherein the entity grammar contains assertions and actions.

11 . The computer readable storage device of claim 10 , wherein the actions are executed to actuate one or more services.

12 . The computer readable storage device of claim 11 , wherein the actions are actuated based on the outcome.

13 . The computer readable storage device of claim 8 , further comprising providing a finite state machine that governs the progress of the dialog.

14 . The computer readable storage device of claim 13 , wherein the finite state machine comprises entity states of undefined, filled, confirmed and rejected, which apply to pieces of the outcome.

15 . A computer conversational agent system, comprising:
a memory device; and at least one hardware processor coupled to the memory device and receiving an entity grammar specifying the computer conversational agent, the entity grammar comprising rules that define compound entities in terms of tokens, choice, and product, and according to which the computer conversational agent is to conduct a dialog with a user; the at least one hardware processor receiving user utterance; the at least one hardware processor interpreting the user utterance based on the entity grammar; the at least one hardware processor determining a prompt for the computer conversational agent to pose to the user based on interpreting the user utterance and the entity grammar; the at least one hardware processor uttering the prompt to the user; the at least one hardware processor building a dialog outcome by storing on the memory device, words in the user utterance and the prompt that match the tokens in the entity grammar; the at least one hardware processor repeating the receiving of user utterance, the determining of a prompt, the uttering of the prompt and the building of the dialog outcome until the dialog ends, the end of the dialog determined based on the grammar, wherein the entity grammar specifies both a dialog flow of the dialog and data structure of the dialog outcome.

16 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the authoring user is allowed to specify the computer conversational agent via the entity grammar.

17 . The system of claim 15 , wherein the entity grammar contains assertions and actions.

18 . The system of claim 17 , wherein the actions are executed to actuate one or more services.

19 . The system of claim 18 , wherein the actions are actuated based on the dialog outcome.

20 . The system of claim 15 , further comprising providing a finite state machine that governs the progress of the dialog, wherein the finite state machine comprises entity states of undefined, filled, confirmed and rejected, which apply to pieces of the dialog outcome.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Hirzel Martin J
• Mandel Louis
• Shinnar Avraham E
• Simeon Jerome
• Vaziri Mandana

Classifications

• G06F40/295

  Named entity recognition · CPC title

• G06F40/35

  Discourse or dialogue representation · CPC title

• G06F40/211 Primary

  Syntactic parsing, e.g. based on context-free grammar [CFG] or unification grammars · CPC title

• G06F40/247

  Thesauruses; Synonyms · CPC title

• G10L13/00

  Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems · CPC title