Dialogue system and a dialogue method

Abstract

A dialogue system comprising: an input for receiving input data relating to a speech or text signal originating from a user; an output for outputting speech or text information specified by a dialogue act; and a processor configured to: update a belief state, the belief state comprising information corresponding to one or more dialogue options, each dialogue option comprising a slot and a corresponding slot value, based on the input signal; determine a dialogue act, wherein a dialogue act is determined by applying one or more rules to world state information, the world state comprising information relating to the dialogue, wherein rules are applied in two or more ordered stages for each dialogue turn, wherein one of the stages is a first update stage, comprising applying one or more further rules controlling updating of the world state information based on the belief state information, and another of the stages is an act selection stage, comprising determining the dialogue act by applying the one or more rules to the world state information, and wherein the first update stage is before the act selection stage; output speech or text information specified by the determined dialogue act at the output.