DIALOGUE MODELS FOR VEHICLE OCCUPANTS
Methods and apparatus for creating and managing multiple dialogue models in a statistical dialogue modeling system capable of learning, and conducting human-machine dialogues based on selected models. Dialogue models are selected according to feature vectors that describe characteristics of the dialogue participants and their current situation. Mobile apparatus in motor vehicles can provide optimized dialogue service to occupants of the motor vehicles according to vehicle location and route, in addition to personal characteristics of the occupants, whether driver or passenger. When networked via a remote dialogue server, a large pool of dialogue participants is available for automatic building of dialogue models suitable for handling a variety of situations and participants.
1 . A method for operating a device to conduct a dialogue with a human dialogue participant in an environment, the method comprising:
obtaining a parameter related to at least one feature selected from a group consisting of: a feature of the dialogue participant; and a feature of the environment;
selecting a specific dialogue model from a plurality of dialogue models, such that the specific dialogue model is associated with the parameter;
generating, by the device, at least one output dialogue action based on the specific dialogue model; and
presenting, by the device, the at least one output dialogue action to the human dialogue participant.
2 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising constructing a feature vector, wherein the feature vector is derived at least in part from the parameter.
3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising determining a cluster of human dialogue participants.
4 . The method of claim 3 , further comprising selecting a dialogue model for a given cluster.
5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
grouping a plurality of human dialogue participants into a plurality of clusters; and
creating a dialogue model for each cluster of the plurality of clusters.
6 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising logging a dialogue in a storage device.
7 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising building a feature map for converting a plurality of parameters to a feature vector.
8 . The method of claim 7 , further comprising building a cluster map for mapping the feature vector to a cluster.
9 . The method of claim 6 , further comprising clustering human dialogue participants by dialogue patterns.
10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the parameter is a pre-assigned occupant ID.
11 . The method of claim 9 , further comprising building a dialogue model for each cluster of human dialogue participants.
12 . A system for choosing a selected dialogue model and for creating and managing a dialogue based on the selected dialogue model, the system comprising:
a speech generation unit;
a dialogue model set storage;
a dialogue control unit, for sending a dialogue act to the speech generation unit;
a cluster determination unit, for determining a cluster ID associated with the dialogue; and
a dialogue model selection unit for choosing a selected dialogue model from the dialogue model set storage according to the cluster ID, and for sending the selected dialogue model to the dialogue control unit;
wherein the dialogue control unit sends the dialogue act to the speech generation unit based on the selected dialogue model.
13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the speech generation unit is further operative to generating multimodal dialogue output, and wherein the dialogue act includes multimodal dialogue.
14 . The system of claim 12 , further comprising a feature determination unit for outputting a feature vector to the cluster determination unit, wherein the feature vector provides information for dialogue model selection.
15 . The system of claim 12 , further comprising a dialogue log storage for saving a dialogue for off-line analysis.
16 . A system for building a dialogue model, the system comprising:
a dialogue log storage for providing a previously-saved dialogue;
a dialogue model builder unit for building the dialogue model, based on the previously-saved dialogue from the dialogue log storage; and
a cluster map builder for building a cluster map for deriving a cluster ID from a feature vector.
17 . The system of claim 16 , further comprising a feature map builder for building a feature map for deriving the feature vector from a parameter of a dialogue.
18 . The system of claim 16 , further comprising a dialogue model set storage for storing the dialogue model from the dialogue model builder.
19 . A system for building a dialogue model, the system comprising:
a dialogue log storage for providing a previously-saved dialogue;
a dialogue model builder unit for building the dialogue model, based on the previously-saved dialogue from the dialogue log storage; and
a feature map builder for building a feature map for deriving a feature vector from a parameter of a dialogue.
20 . The system of claim 19 , further comprising a dialogue model set storage for storing the dialogue model from the dialogue model builder.