JP2002099416A - Information processor using agent - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve the problem that it is hard for an agent to always respond precisely to various requests from users. SOLUTION: In an information processor using an agent, when users require requests to an agent control part 12, a request analyzing part 14 analyzes the requests, so that a response control part 16 decides responses according to analyzing results. If it is possible to provide a service for the requests, a suitable calling is chosen from an interaction data memory part 18 to output to the users. If impossible, words expressing apologies are chosen to output to the users and to simultaneously record the requests that are impossible to response into a log record part 20, then an information part 22 informs the requests to a manager.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus. The present invention particularly relates to an information processing apparatus using an agent for supporting a user.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the spread of the Internet and mobile phones, more and more people have come into contact with computers and various information terminals. Over the past few years, the sales volume of personal computers and other equipment has grown significantly,
So-called beginners are increasing rapidly. With a dramatic improvement in CPU power and memory capacity, a GUI (graphical graphics
The user interface is also being improved. It is quite difficult for a beginner to master the advanced functions of the device and correctly access necessary information without a GUI or other help.

As one of such user support technologies, use of an agent is known. Agents are primarily anthropomorphic characters, appearing on computer screens and interacting with the user to obtain user requests,
This is transmitted to the computer. The result of the processing in the computer is again provided to the user through the agent. The presence of the agent frees the user from being stubborn against the machine of the computer, and makes the computer feel more familiar.

[0004]

On the other hand, the designer of the agent has a lot of troubles invisible to the user. Users expect the agent to understand any request and respond immediately. However, it is difficult to predict all the diverse requirements of various users in advance, and even if it is possible, it is unknown how the user expresses the requirements in words and sentences. Work is not easy either.

The present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and an object of the present invention is to realize an agent capable of flexibly responding to various requests of a user. Another object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus that enables an agent to more accurately understand a user's request. Still another object of the present invention is to provide an information processing apparatus capable of gradually increasing the degree of understanding of a user's request.

[0006]

An information processing apparatus according to the present invention comprises: an agent control unit for providing an agent supporting a user to the user; a request analysis unit for analyzing a request input by the user; As a result, when the service can be serviced for the request, the information necessary for the service is provided to the agent control unit. When the service cannot be serviced for the request, a response control unit that records the request as an unfulfilled request is provided. Including. Further, a notification unit for electronically notifying the administrator of the apparatus of the recorded unreachable request may be included.

[0007] "request", when talking with the other to be made with the objective of "I want to know the operation of the PC", simply "Hello" in order to talk to the agent, can be regarded as the word also request. Therefore, "service" may refer to an appropriate conversation itself in addition to the case where the agent teaches the operation of the PC. Therefore, the “necessary information” may refer to utterance data appropriate for the scene in addition to the operation method of the PC.

[0008] "If the service cannot be performed" has two meanings. One is when the request itself cannot be parsed or understood, and the other is when the request can be understood but there is no information to respond to it. “Not present” is not limited to the case where the information does not exist in the present apparatus, but also includes the case where the information cannot be found even if an attempt is made to obtain the information from outside the present apparatus. Conversely, "service is possible" means that the request can be understood and there is appropriate information to meet the request. However, these series of processing processes are performed electronically, and although it can be understood, it does not necessarily need to be at the level and meaning that humans generally understand.

"Record as unreachable request" also has two meanings. One is a case where all requests are recorded in a log, and an unreachable request is recorded with an identifier. The other is a case where a normal record is not taken, and this is recorded only when an unfulfilled request occurs.

[0010] Another embodiment of the present invention also relates to an information processing apparatus using an agent. The apparatus includes an agent control unit that provides an agent supporting the user to the user, a dialog data storage unit that holds a dialog that the agent should have with the user, and an input that the user inputs to the agent control unit. A request analysis unit for analyzing a request, a response control unit for determining a response to the request based on a result of the analysis, and a log storage unit for holding a conversation record between the user and the agent are included.

In this configuration, if the response control unit can service the request as a result of the analysis, the response control unit reads out the necessary conversation data from the conversation data storage unit and provides it to the agent control unit. I do. on the other hand,
If the request cannot be serviced, the request is recorded in the log storage unit as an unfulfilled request.

[0012] The "response" indicates whether or not the service is available.
Can be made. That is, if the service cannot be provided, for example, the agent notifies the user to that effect.
At this time, the agent may be made to make an utterance with appreciation. In other words, while apologizing to the user in the front-end process, record the requests that could not be serviced in the back-end, enrich the interactive data, improve the request analysis algorithm,
Measures for the future, such as advanced information retrieval required for services, will be possible.

It is to be noted that any combination of the above-described components and any conversion of the expression of the present invention between a method, an apparatus, a system, a recording medium, and the like are also effective as embodiments of the present invention.

[0014]

FIG. 1 shows a configuration of an information processing apparatus 10 (hereinafter simply referred to as an "information terminal 10") using an agent according to an embodiment. This configuration is, in terms of hardware, the CPU, memory,
It can be realized by other LSIs, and is realized by a program having an agent output function loaded in a memory in software. However, here, the functional blocks realized by their cooperation are illustrated. Therefore, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that these functional blocks can be realized in various forms by hardware only, software only, or a combination thereof.

This configuration can be realized as a stand-alone device, and can be arbitrarily selected, for example, an agent control unit 12, a request analysis unit 14, a response control unit 16, an interactive data storage unit 18, a log storage unit 20, and a search unit 24. In addition, functional blocks such as the agent data storage unit 34 can be provided in the back-end server. This server is
For example, a Web server or other service entity on the Internet may be used. The functional blocks such as the agent control unit 12 have the main processing functions on the server side such as CGI (Common Gateway Interface), and the main processing functions on the client side such as Java ™ applet and ActiveX ™. What moves, API
The present invention can be realized in various modes such as an (Application Program Interface) type in which a Java application or the like, which is a main function of processing, is arranged in both a server and a client. When deploying function blocks on the server side,
The rest of the functional parts are implemented in the user device as a client. The degree of freedom in sharing functions between the server and the client is very high. Hereinafter, for convenience of explanation, it is assumed that the configuration of FIG. 1 is entirely implemented in the information terminal 10, and a basic agent operation is possible even in an offline state.

The agent control unit 12 includes an agent output unit 30 for displaying an agent to a user, and a request input unit 32 for acquiring a request given by the user to the agent in the device. The agent data storage unit 34 holds image data for displaying an agent. The user's request is given as a voice to speak to the agent, or as words or sentences input on the agent display screen.

If the input request is a voice, the request analysis unit 14 recognizes the request, performs a process such as kana-kanji conversion as necessary, and converts the request into a character string. Thereafter, the character string is decomposed into morphemes. If the input request is in the form of a sentence from the beginning, the character string may be decomposed into morphemes. For example, if there is an input “Hello, good morning”, the morpheme obtained as a result of the analysis by the request analysis unit 14 is, for example, “Hello”, “good morning”.

The obtained morpheme is sent to the response control unit 16. Here, the dialog data storage unit 18 is referred to based on the keywords “hello” and “good morning”, and a response is determined. The conversation data storage unit 18 stores conversation data to be responded to by the agent for each main keyword. For example, the response control unit 16 selects a response “Good morning” from the conversation data storage unit 18 based on “Good morning”, and sends it to the agent output unit 30. The agent output unit 30 informs the user of "Good morning" by the action and voice of the agent, and in some cases, by text.

On the other hand, if the user's request involves a search for information such as “I want to know the weather of tomorrow”, the response control section 16 transfers keywords such as “tomorrow” and “weather” to the search section 24. , The retrieval unit 24 acquires the weather forecast via the Internet 40. On the other hand, a fixed phrase “Tomorrow's weather is ...” is read from the conversation data storage unit 18 and sent to the agent output unit 30 together with the information obtained from the Internet 40. The agent output unit 30 informs the user that "Tomorrow's weather is cloudy".

The response control unit 16 cannot always understand the user's request. If the user makes a completely unexpected request, the response control unit 16
Can not find appropriate conversation data in. In that case, the response control unit 16 records the request in the log storage unit 20 as an “unreachable request”, and as a part of the error processing, a standard apology such as “Sorry, the contents of the question cannot be understood well.” Is read from the conversation data storage unit 18 and sent to the agent output unit 30. The agent output unit 30 informs the user of this apology. The minimum information to be recorded in the log storage unit 20 is an unfulfilled request. However, in reality, it is often convenient to leave a history of the interaction between the user and the agent. An example will be described in which all exchanges are recorded and the unachieved requests are clearly indicated.

The notification unit 22 reads the unreachable requests from the log storage unit 20 periodically or whenever an unreachable request is generated, or when a certain number of unreachable requests are accumulated, and sends it to an arbitrary manager via the Internet 40. Notify by e-mail. The administrator may be at the same site as the information terminal 10.
The administrator can gradually increase the function and performance of the agent by newly registering the unreachable request and the response to it in the interactive data storage unit 18.

FIG. 2 shows a service procedure of the agent by the information terminal 10. First, when the information terminal 10 is activated, the agent output unit 30 outputs the agent to the user (S10). The request input unit 32 waits until there is a request from the user (S12). If there is a request (Y in S12), the request is decomposed into morphemes by the request analysis unit 14 (S14). The morpheme is the response control unit 16
And the possibility of the service is determined (S16).
If appropriate dialog data is found in the dialog data storage unit 18, it is determined that the service is possible (Y in S16), and the search unit 24 is used from the dialog data storage unit 18 and, if necessary, to provide the service. Information is acquired (S1
8) The service is executed via the agent output unit 30 (S20).

On the other hand, when the response control unit 16 determines that the service is not possible, that is, when the user's request cannot be understood (Y in S16), the response control unit 16 sends a thank-you statement from the interactive data storage unit 18. Is read from the agent output unit 30 and output from the agent output unit 30 (S22), recorded as an unreachable request in the log storage unit 20 (S24), and the notification unit 2
2 appropriately notifies this to the administrator (S26).

3 to 8 show actual examples of exchange between the user and the agent. In FIG. 3, an electric agent 62, which specializes in electric services as an agent, appears on the screen 60, and accepts a user's question regarding the electric appliance. The user inputs a request such as a question in the input area 64. Here, "mobile phone is strange" is entered.

The electric agent 62 responds to this input.
Returns a question, "What's wrong?", As shown in FIG. The user has input "cannot be charged". In response to this input, the first item of the checkpoint when charging is not possible is read from the interactive data storage unit 18, and as shown in FIG. 5, the electric agent 62 asks, "Is the battery pack removed?"I'm speaking. On the other hand, the user inputs "Yes", that is, the fact that the user has not come off. Thereafter, check items are confirmed one after another through an exchange not shown. Therefore, the function of the electric agent 62 in this example is nothing less than the embodying of a so-called FAQ (assumed question and answer) in an electric appliance.

FIG. 6 shows the response of the electric agent 62 when the request cannot be understood. The user's question is, "What is the voltage in Africa?", And the background may be that the user wants to know whether or not the electronic appliances they carry are available when they go to Africa. However, since such a question is not expected in the design stage of the electric agent 62 and there is no appropriate answer in the interactive data storage unit 18, this request is regarded as an unfulfilled request and the log storage unit 20
Record to. The electric agent 62 is "... Sorry! I don't know. Support Center 03-xxxx
Please confirm to -xxxx. ", And the baton is touching the operator. The administrator sees the unfulfilled request and stores information on commercial voltages around the world in the interactive data storage unit 18.
The FAQ can be continuously enhanced.

FIG. 7 shows an example of searching for information. Here, a cooking agent 66, which is a specialized agent for providing the user with information on cooking, especially menu items, appears.
The user inputs "recommended Chinese food?" The cooking agent 66 acquires the recommended menu of Chinese via the search unit 24, and displays the list in the search result area 68. Details are provided via the Internet 40 by clicking on each title displayed in the search result area 68. In this case, if the user asks, "What is a typical menu in ancient Rome?"
This is recorded as an unfulfilled request. The administrator can enhance the interactive data storage unit 18 by reviewing the menu information from various angles.

FIG. 9 shows the internal configuration of the log storage unit 20.
Here, a user-agent interactive session 80
Are recorded, "userABC", "use"
rDEF ”, one interactive session each 8
0 is illustrated. When the information terminal 10 is a stand-alone type, a plurality of users are recognized at the time of login, so that the histories of the plurality of users remain. When the log storage unit 20 is built in a back-end Web server or the like, histories are recorded for a plurality of users of a plurality of information terminals 10.

The dialog session 80 further has a dialog record column 90 and a non-delivery flag column 92. In the former case, utterances of the user and the agent are recorded after "u" and "a", respectively. In the latter case, the utterance of the user, that is, “1” is recorded when the request is an unfulfilled request, and “0” otherwise.
Here, it can be seen that the userDEF's question "What is the voltage in Africa?"

FIG. 10 shows an unreachable request list 100 generated by the notifying unit 22. Unreachable request list 100
Is a user field 10 for recording the name of the user who has issued the unreached request.
2. It has a mail address column 104 of the user, a date and time column 106 when the unreached request has occurred, and a full text column 108 of the unreached request. The administrator can check the unreachable request and return the answer to each user by e-mail or the like.

The present invention has been described based on the embodiments. This embodiment is an exemplification, and it is understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made to the combination of each component and each processing process, and that such modifications are also within the scope of the present invention. is there.

For example, the response control unit 16 may use the morpheme as a keyword or may directly illuminate the entire utterance of the user to the interactive data storage unit 18. In the embodiment, the unreachable request is included in the interactive data storage unit 18 as needed. At this time, the unreachable request is not decomposed into keywords, and the sentence is grouped together. ], And the answer can be registered at the same time.

[0033]

According to the present invention, an easy-to-use agent can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an information terminal according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a procedure in which an agent is used in the information terminal according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an exchange between a user and an agent.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an exchange between a user and an agent.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an exchange between a user and an agent.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing exchange between a user and an agent.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an exchange between a user and an agent.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an exchange between a user and an agent.

FIG. 9 is an internal configuration diagram of a log recording unit.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an unreachable request list.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 information terminal, 12 agent control unit, 14
Request analysis unit, 16 response control unit, 18 interactive data storage unit, 20 log storage unit, 22 notification unit, 24
Search unit, 30 agent output unit, 32 request input unit.

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Tsugufumi Matsuoka 2-5-5 Keihanhondori, Moriguchi-shi, Osaka F-term in Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd. 5B049 FF01 5B075 PQ02 PR03 UU24

Claims (3)

[Claims] An agent control unit for providing an agent supporting the user to the user; a request analysis unit for analyzing a request input by the user; and a result of the analysis, when the request can be serviced. A response control unit that provides necessary information to the agent control unit for that purpose, and records the request as an unfulfilled request if the request cannot be serviced. Information processing device. 2. The information processing apparatus using an agent according to claim 1, further comprising a notifying unit that electronically notifies the administrator of the apparatus of the recorded unreachable request. 3. An agent control unit for providing an agent supporting the user to the user, a dialog data storage unit for storing a dialog that the agent should have with the user, and an input from the user to the agent control unit A request analysis unit that analyzes the request, a response control unit that determines a response to the request based on a result of the analysis, and a log storage unit that holds a dialogue record between the user and the agent. The unit reads the conversation data necessary for the request from the conversation data storage unit and provides the agent data to the agent control unit when the analysis result indicates that the request can be serviced. Wherein the request is recorded in the log storage unit as an unfulfilled request. Use the information processing apparatus.