Automated assistant for user interaction via speech

US10276160B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Semantic Machines, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Jacob Daniel Andreas · San Francisco, US
• Taylor Darwin Berg-Kirkpatrick · Berkeley, US
• Pengyu Chen · Cupertino, US
• Jordan Cohen · Gloucester, US
• Laurence S. Gillick · Newton, US
• David Leo Wright Hall · Berkeley, US
• Daniel Klein · Orinda, US
• Michael Newman · Somerville, US
• Adam David Pauls · San Francisco, US
• Daniel L. Roth · Boston, US
• Jesse Daniel Eskes Rusak · Redmond, US
• Andrew Robert Volpe · Boston, US
• Steven A. Wegmann · Cambridge, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Nov 10, 2016
• Grant date: Apr 30, 2019
• Expiry date: Nov 10, 2036

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G10L2015/223
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

An interaction assistant conducts multiple turn interaction dialogs with a user in which context is maintained between turns, and the system manages the dialog to achieve an inferred goal for the user. The system includes a linguistic interface to a user and a parser for processing linguistic events from the user. A dialog manager of the system is configured to receive alternative outputs from the parser, and selecting an action and causing the action to be performed based on the received alternative outputs. The system further includes a dialog state for an interaction with the user, and the alternative outputs represent alternative transitions from a current dialog state to a next dialog state. The system further includes a storage for a plurality of templates, and wherein each dialog state is defined in terms of an interrelationship of one or more instances of the templates.