The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 24, 2006
Filed:
Jan. 10, 2002
Steven I. Ross, S. Hamilton, MA (US);
Elizabeth A. Brownholtz, Andover, MA (US);
Jeffrey G. Macallister, Chestnut Hill, MA (US);
Steven I. Ross, S. Hamilton, MA (US);
Elizabeth A. Brownholtz, Andover, MA (US);
Jeffrey G. MacAllister, Chestnut Hill, MA (US);
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
A conversation manager processes a spoken utterance from a user of a computer that is directed to an application program hosted on the computer. The conversation manager includes a reasoning facility which accesses goal-directed rules stored in a rules base (e.g., database). The reasoning facility also has access to a conversational record that includes a record of previous utterances and a semantic analysis for each utterance. The reasoning facility processes a representation of the utterance by using the goal-directed rules. The reasoning facility uses means-end analysis to determine the proper rules to execute, and thus the script calls to make to achieve the goal of processing the utterance. While processing the utterance, the reasoning facility attempts to resolve any ambiguities in the representation of the utterance and to fill in any missing information that is needed to achieve its goal. The reasoning facility then generates a response to the utterance, which can be a question to the user or a command to the application program based on the utterance.