JPH0822459A - Conversation controller and information processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To set a choice of words by discriminating a degree of friendliness and politeness from the ending of a word that a user has inputted. CONSTITUTION:This controller has a word ending politeness discrimination part 6 which discriminates the level of friendliness and politeness of the ending of the word inputted to the input part 3 of the information processor, a word ending selection part 11 which selects and outputs a corresponding word end according to the level discrimination by the word ending politeness discrimination part 6, and an output word conversion part 10 which receives an output standard word from a transaction program 12 and converts the output word of the standard word of the transaction program 12 to have a friendliness and politeness corresponding to the input by using the word end outputted from the word ending selection part 11.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a conversation control device and an information processing device. It can be used in an information processing device that requires a man-machine interface that is like talking to a real person.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a conversation between a user and a system in the processing of an information processing apparatus, a word output from the system has been output in a certain format without taking into consideration the friendliness and politeness.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a conventional information processing apparatus, and FIG. 9A is a block diagram of the system. In the figure,
33 is a keyboard, and user 1 is an information processing device
Input the words to give to 15. Reference numeral 34 denotes a display, which displays words output by the information processing device 15 to the user 1.

An I / O control unit 14 controls input / output devices such as a keyboard and a display to convert output signals from the devices into character string information and outputs character string information output from the system. Is converted into a signal for controlling the equipment. Reference numeral 12 denotes a business program, which processes business, and here performs an inventory inquiry. 1
Reference numeral 6 is an inventory table in which the product name and the inventory quantity are recorded in association with each other. (B) of the figure is a block diagram of the inventory table. The stock table is composed of stock item names and stock quantities.

Conventionally, when the user 1 makes an inventory inquiry in such a system, when he inputs "Is there a wristwatch?" From the keyboard 33, this word is I / I from the keyboard 33.
It is sent to the O control unit 14, and is sent from the I / O control unit 14 to the business program 12 as a character string. The business program 12 deciphers the word as the character string and recognizes that the target is a "watch".

Since the business is an inventory inquiry, the business program 12 searches the inventory table 16 to check the inventory of "watches". When there is stock, the number of stocks is also output and the character string "There are 123 watches."
It is passed to the I / O control unit 14. The I / O control unit 14 passes the received character string to the display 34 together with the output command in order to output it.

The display 34 displays the received character string. Also, when there is no stock, the business program 12 creates a character string "There is no watch."
It is passed to the control unit 14.

Similarly, the display 34 displays the character string "I don't have a wrist watch." However, in such a case, even if the word from user 1 is more carefully "Is there a wristwatch?" Instead of "Is there a wristwatch?" Even if it is said, the display from the display 34 can always be the same as "There are ... watches" or "no watches."

[0009]

As various systems using information processing apparatuses have been put into practical use, it has become necessary to make a computer anthropomorphic and to provide a man-machine interface that is familiar to users.

In view of such a point, the present invention provides a means for determining the degree of familiarity and politeness from the ending of a word input by a user, and determining / changing the wording of a message sent from the system to the user. The purpose is to do.

[0011]

The above-mentioned problems can be solved by a conversation control device and an information processing device configured as follows.

FIG. 1 shows the principle of the present invention. (1) Correspond according to the ending politeness discriminating unit 6 which discriminates the level of familiarity and politeness of the word input to the input unit 3 of the information processing device, and the level discriminated by the ending politeness discriminating unit 6 The ending selection unit 11 that selects and outputs the selected ending, and the output in the standard words of the business program 12 using the ending words that are output from the ending selection unit 11 in response to the standard words output from the business program 12 An output word conversion unit for converting a word into a familiarity corresponding to the input
10 and. (2) A voice recognition device is used as the input unit 3 of the information processing device,
A voice output device is used for the output unit 4 of the information processing device, and the conversation control device described in the above item 1 is used for conversation control. (3) The conversation control device according to the above item 1, further comprising a level storage unit 7 for storing the judgment level of the previously input word,
The word ending politeness determining unit is configured to refer to the word ending input to the input unit when determining the familiarity and politeness.

[0013]

[Action]

(1) The word end politeness determination unit 6 determines the level of familiarity and politeness of the word end input to the input unit 3 of the information processing device. As a result, the setting standard can be set for the friendliness and politeness of the words to be output. End selection section
Reference numeral 11 selects and outputs a corresponding ending according to the level judged by the ending politeness judging unit 6. The output word conversion unit 10 receives the output words in the standard words of the business program 12 from the business program 12 and outputs the output words in the standard words of the business program 12 using the endings output from the ending selection unit 11. Convert it into a politeness that corresponds to the input. This will allow us to deal with the required level of familiarity and politeness. (2) An information processing device that requires a man-machine interface can realize a natural conversation by using voice. Therefore, the input unit 3 of the information processing device
A voice identification device is used for the above, a voice output device is used for the output unit 4 of the information processing device, and the conversation control device described in the above item 1 is used for the conversation control.

The above object can be achieved by providing such a structure. (3) In the conversation control, it is rough to decide the correspondence level to the user in one conversation, so it is desirable to correct the correspondence level initially set in a plurality of conversations. Therefore, a level storage unit 7 for storing the determination level of the previously input word is provided, and the ending politeness determining unit refers to the ending of the word input to the input unit when determining the familiarity and politeness. With this, it is possible to gradually correct the correspondence level while talking.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a system using the conversation control device of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 2 denotes a conversation control device, which is a word between the business program 12 and the I / O control section 14 and which is the output of the I / O control section 14
It is converted to a format that can be easily processed into 12 and passed to the business program 12, and the words output from the business program 12 are I /
This is converted into a format that can be easily processed and passed to the O control unit 14, and corresponds to a so-called front-end processor.

The conversation control device 2 includes an I / O interface section 5, a word ending politeness discriminating section 6, a level storage section 7, an input word converting section 8, a business program interface section 9, a word ending selecting section 11, and an output word converting section 10. Become.

Reference numeral 5 denotes an I / O interface section,
It serves as an interface between the conversation controller 2 and the I / O controller 14. Reference numeral 6 denotes an ending politeness discriminating unit, which is I
The end of a word input from the / O control unit 14 and input to the input unit 3 is determined for familiarity and politeness, and the determined level is output to the level storage unit 7.

Reference numeral 7 denotes a level storage unit for recording the level at which the word end politeness discriminating unit 6 discriminates the ending of the input word with respect to familiarity and politeness. Reference numeral 8 denotes an input word conversion unit, which converts the ending of an input word into an internal reference ending.

Reference numeral 9 denotes a business program interface section for passing the input words whose endings have been converted by the input word conversion section to the business program 12 and receiving the words output from the business program 12. Reference numeral 11 denotes a word ending selection unit, which selects and outputs a corresponding word ending according to the level stored in the level storage unit 7.

Reference numeral 10 denotes an output word conversion unit, which receives an output word in a standard language of the business program 12 from the business program 12 and outputs the output word from the ending selection unit 11 by using the tail. It is the one that converts into the friendliness and politeness corresponding to.

In addition, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 5 indicate the same components. In this embodiment, unlike the prior art, the words output from the I / O control unit 14 are once passed to the I / O interface unit 5 of the conversation control device 2.

The input character string is "Is there a wristwatch?", And this is passed from the I / O interface unit 5 to the ending politeness judging unit 6. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a word end determination table of the word end politeness determination unit. The ending determination table has the ending of an input word and the level of familiarity and politeness corresponding to it.

The ending degree of politeness discriminating unit 6 compares the ending portion of the character string with the ending determination table 17 which has in its own end,
We ask for a level of "2" that represents friendliness and politeness. FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart (1) of the embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5A shows the operation of the ending politeness determining unit.

First, in step 60, the input of the user 1 is waited for. When the input sentence arrives, the process proceeds to step 61, one word ending is taken out from the word ending judgment table 17, the characters are taken out from the end of the input sentence by the same length as the number of characters of the ending, and collated with the ending.

If they match in step 62, the process proceeds to step 63, and if they do not match, the process proceeds to step 64. If they match, the corresponding judgment level is taken out from the word ending judgment table 17 in step 63, stored in the level storage section 7, and the process ends.

If all word endings in the word ending determination table 17 have not been checked in step 64, the process returns to step 61,
When the collation is completed, the process proceeds to step 65. In step 65, the judgment level is set to "0". The level “0” means undecided. When the determination is completed, the input word conversion unit 8 is activated.

The input word is also passed to the input word conversion unit 8 to convert the end of the word into the internal standard format “Areika”. Figure 5
(B) is a flow chart of the input sentence conversion unit. In step 64, the ending of the input sentence is converted into the standard ending and passed to the business program 12 to end. This is because, if there are various business programs and the function of determining the ending of each is provided, it will be duplicated and the processing will be performed in common within the conversation control device 2. If there is no matching ending, the input sentence is passed to the business program 12 as it is.

The converted input words are passed as a character string to the business program 12 via the business program interface unit 9. The business program 12 deciphers the character string and searches the inventory table 16 as in the conventional case.
The character string “there are three” is passed to the business program interface unit 9 of the conversation control device 2. The inventory table 16 has the same format as the conventional one.

The business program interface unit 9 transfers this character string to the ending selection unit 11. The ending selection unit 11 is shown in FIG.
Is an operation flowchart (2) of the embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 6C is a flowchart of the ending selection unit.

At step 67, the level indicating the friendliness and politeness stored is retrieved from the level storage unit 7. Step
In step 68, the word end having the same level is selected from the word end selection table 18 and passed to the output sentence conversion unit.

For example, referring to the ending selection table 18 from the search result "2" of the level passed from the level storage unit 7 and "Aru", the character string "Aru" is suitable for expressing familiarity and politeness. Output word conversion section
Pass to 10. When the level of the level storage unit 7 is "0", the standard ending "Are" is selected.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the structure of the word ending selection table, in which the level, the response result from the business program, and the word ending are recorded correspondingly. FIG. 6D shows a flowchart of the output word conversion unit.

In step 67, the output word conversion unit 10 uses the character string "123 is" from the business program 12 from the ending selection unit 11 to "is" to "123".
Converted to and passed to the I / O interface section 5. This character string is passed from the conversation controller 2 to the I / O controller 14 and displayed on the display 34 as in the conventional case.

As described above, with the above-described configuration, the information processing apparatus can be personified to have a conversation with friendliness and politeness. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an information processing apparatus for carrying out a voice conversation according to an embodiment of the present invention. In order to make the information processing apparatus including such a conversation control device easier to use, a conversation using voice is conducted. It is a system for.

In the figure, reference numeral 37 is a voice recognition device which recognizes the words spoken by the user 1 and outputs them as a character string. A voice output device 38 outputs a character string inside the information processing device as voice. An I / O control unit 14a has a function of controlling the voice recognition device 37 and the voice output device 38.

In addition, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 2 indicate the same things. In such a system, the user 1 does not need to operate the keyboard 33 to create a character string and can have a natural conversation.

Recognized user from voice recognizer 37
The conversation of 1 enters the conversation control unit 2 as a character string, judges the familiarity and politeness, passes the question to the business program 12, and the character string of the output of the business program 12 is a character string which is a response suitable for the conversation of the user 1. And the character string can be output by the voice output device 38.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the ending politeness determining unit of the invention of claim 3. Step 61 and Step
62 is the same as above. In step 70, the judgment level is retrieved from the ending judgment table.

Next, instead of setting this level, in step 71, the average with the previous determination level stored in the level storage unit 7 is taken and stored in the level storage unit 7 as a new level. This operation makes the judgment level no longer an integer, but when using it, the smallest integer that exceeds it is used as the level. In this way, it is possible to avoid the difficulty of determining the correspondence level in one conversation and determine the appropriate level of familiarity or politeness.

For example, in the first conversation, since the judgment level is "2" for "Is there a wristwatch?", I answer "I have a wristwatch ...", but next I ask, "Where are the manufacturers?" When judged, the level is judged again and it is judged as "3", and the level is "2.5" averaging the previous level, and when responding, the level "3" is adopted and "S company and O company". I will respond. " In addition, it can appropriately respond to related questions such as performance and price.

When the previous result is stored and used as described above, it is necessary to clear the initial state when the conversation control device is started.

[0042]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an interface that reflects the user's familiarity with the system, the politeness of words, and the like. There is a remarkable industrial effect that it is possible to give the impression of being present.

Further, since the processing is performed by paying attention to the word ending, it can be easily realized without performing complicated sentence analysis.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a principle diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a system using the conversation control device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a word end determination table of a word end politeness determination unit.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an information processing apparatus for conducting a voice conversation according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart (1) of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an operation flowchart (2) of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an operation flowchart (3) of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the structure of a word ending selection table.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of a conventional information processing apparatus

[Explanation of symbols]

1 User 2 Conversation control device 3 Input unit 4 Output unit 5 I / O interface unit 6 Termination politeness determination unit 7 Level storage unit 8 Input word conversion unit 9 Business program interface unit 10 Output word conversion unit 11 Suffix selection unit 12 Business program 14 I / O control unit 14a I / O control unit 15 Information processing device 16 Inventory table 17 Suffix determination table 18 Suffix selection table 33 Keyboard 34 Display 37 Voice recognition device 38 Voice output device

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An ending politeness discriminating unit (6) for discriminating the level of familiarity and politeness of a word input to an input unit (3) of an information processing device, and the ending politeness discriminating unit (6). )
The ending selection section (11) that selects and outputs the corresponding ending according to the level determined by, and the ending that is output from the ending selection section (11) in response to the standard word output word from the business program (12). A conversation control device comprising: an output word conversion unit (10) for converting an output word in a standard word of the business program (12) into a friendliness politeness corresponding to the input. 2. The speech recognition apparatus is used for the input section (3) of the information processing apparatus, the speech output apparatus is used for the output section (4) of the information processing apparatus, and the conversation control apparatus according to claim 1 is used for conversation control. An information processing device characterized by the above. 3. A level storage unit (7) for storing a judgment level of a word input last time, wherein the ending politeness judging unit judges the ending of a word input to the input unit for familiarity and politeness. The conversation control device according to claim 1, wherein the conversation control device is referred to when performing the conversation.