SERVICE PROVIDING SYSTEM, INFORMATION PROCESSING DEVICE, INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD, AND PROGRAM

Abstract

To provide a service providing system configured to present a theme for which an input of information is received from a user, at the timing when the user can respond.SOLUTION: A service providing system includes a terminal device which displays a theme for which an input of information is received from a user, and an information processing apparatus which collects information on the theme input by the user from the terminal device. The information processing apparatus includes: a control unit which determines a second theme registered in theme data, as a theme to be presented to the user, immediately after the first theme ends, on the basis of the theme data in which multiple themes for which information collection has not been completed are registered; and a first communication unit which transmits a message including the second theme to a terminal device used by the user. The terminal device includes a second communication unit which receives the message from the information processing apparatus, and a display control unit which displays the message on a screen.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 3

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a service providing system, an information processing device, an information processing method, and a program. [Background technology]

[0002] One application that utilizes natural language processing is a task-oriented dialogue system. For example, there are systems in which a system and a user interact with each other to accomplish a predetermined task, such as question-and-answering that automatically generates answers to questions from the user, or operating various devices. In a task-oriented dialogue system, the system may acquire necessary information, and systems and techniques are already known that ask the user for missing information to answer the user's question (see, for example, Patent Document 1). In recent years, there has also been a dialogue system technique that supports the input of information for users who are involved in work that requires continuous input of information. Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0003] However, in conventional techniques, if a topic that accepts information input from a user is not presented at a time when the user can respond, the possibility of collecting information related to that topic decreases.

[0004] In view of the above-mentioned problems, the present invention has an object to provide a service providing system capable of presenting a topic that accepts information input from a user at a timing when the user can respond. [Means for solving the problem]

[0005] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a terminal device that displays a topic and accepts input of information from a user, and a method for displaying a topic related to the topic input by the user. input Information from the terminal device Receptionand an information processing device for performing a service providing system, the information processing device comprising: a dialogue control unit which judges whether the topic is continuing or has ended based on the input information and a dialogue state with the user, and determines a time to present the continuing topic to the user based on a schedule related to the topic; and for each of the multiple topics in which the topic is continuing, calculates values ​​of a first index determined by a time function indicative of the user's degree of memory retention related to the topic at the current time and a second index determined by a time function indicative of the user's degree of memory retention related to the topic at the time when the topic will be presented next and which is not presented at the current time, and immediately after the dialogue control unit judges that a first topic, which is one of the multiple topics, has ended, selects at least one of the topics using the value of the first index and the value of the second index as a second topic to be presented to the user after the first topic. A control unit and the The above to be presented to the user The present invention is characterized in that it has a service provision system having a first communication unit that transmits a message including a topic to the terminal device used by the user, the terminal device having a second communication unit that receives the message from the information processing device, and a display control unit that displays the message on a screen. Effect of the Invention

[0006] According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a service providing system that can present a topic that accepts information input from a user at a timing when the user can respond. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0007] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a service providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention. [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a hardware configuration of an information processing system and a terminal device. [Diagram 3] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a functional configuration of an information processing system. [Figure 4] 13 is a flowchart showing an example of a process of a dialogue system unit. [Diagram 5] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example (1) of topic attribute data. [Figure 6] FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating information used when generating topic attributes. [Figure 7] FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a function relating to memory retention rate. [Figure 8] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing various examples of functions relating to memory retention rate. [Figure 9] 1 is a flowchart for selecting a topic. [Figure 10] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example (1) of display content. [Figure 11] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example (2) of display content. [Figure 12] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example (3) of display content. [Figure 13] FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example (4) of display content. [Figure 14] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example (5) of display content. [Figure 15] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example (2) of topic attribute data. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0008] Hereinafter, a configuration diagram of an example of an information processing system according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0009] [First embodiment] <System configuration example> In this embodiment, an embodiment is described assuming support for a salesperson's sales activity report. Consider a scene in which, when a salesperson visits a customer and ends his / her sales activity, the information gathering dialogue system asks the client terminal to report on the activities of the most recently visited customer.

[0010] As a premise, consider a situation in which a dialogue has multiple topics and a user and a system have multiple dialogues over a long period of time. For example, there may be a situation in which a salesman or customer engineer visits a customer and reports on the contents of the visit and the results. Since there are multiple visits, a dialogue with multiple reports is necessary. There may be a situation in which information is acquired from a user who is involved in a task that requires continuous input of information. In such a situation, consider a case in which a salesman or customer engineer reports the contents of the visit and the results to the system, and the response from the salesman or customer engineer is interrupted in the middle of a dialogue regarding a certain report. For example, the salesman or customer engineer may have a task that takes priority over the report. The topic information used in the dialogue with the user is information regarding the user's schedule, plan, or result related to the topic, or some or all of them.

[0011] In the above case, the system needs to collect reports, but it also needs to consider the tasks that salesmen and customer engineers prioritize. However, since human memory fades over time, it is necessary to collect the reports before they are forgotten.

[0012] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a service providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0013] The information processing system 200 is a system that receives information including a topic and information on the date and time when an event related to the topic occurred from the external data 100, and interacts with a user using a terminal device 300 via a network.

[0014] The information processing system 200 may be realized by one information processing device 4, or may be realized by distributing the information processing device 4 among multiple information processing devices 4. For example, there may be an information processing device 4 for each service, one information processing device 4 may provide multiple services, or multiple information processing devices 4 may provide one service.

[0015] Furthermore, the information processing system 200 may be compatible with cloud computing. Cloud computing refers to a usage mode in which resources on a network are used without being aware of specific hardware resources. The information processing system 200 compatible with cloud computing may be called a cloud system. The information processing system 200 may be located on the Internet or on-premise.

[0016] Furthermore, the information processing system 200 creates screen information of a Web page to be displayed on the terminal device 300 and transmits the information. The screen information is created using HTML, XML, CSS (Cascade Style Sheet), JavaScript (registered trademark), and the like. The Web page may be provided by a Web application. A Web application refers to software or a mechanism thereof that is executed on a Web browser by cooperation between a program written in a programming language (e.g., JavaScript (registered trademark)) that runs on a Web browser and a program on the Web server side. The Web application can also dynamically change the Web page.

[0017] The terminal device 300 is a mobile phone such as a smartphone, a tablet terminal, a personal computer, etc. The terminal device 300 is connected to a network, and is connected to the information processing system 200 through the network. The terminal device 300 is equipped with a program having a screen display function such as a Web browser. This program is only required to have a function of displaying screen information received from the information processing system 200 as a screen, and is not limited to a Web browser, and may be a program dedicated to the information processing system 200.

[0018] The external data 100 is information obtained by referring to a server that manages schedules, a server that accumulates activity plans and results, etc. It is information related to topics collected by the information processing system 200, and is data including sales activity plans and results. The sales activity plans are data including dates and times and visit destinations. The results of sales activities are data including visit destinations and activity results.

[0019] <Hardware configuration> Fig. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of a PC (server) 5 which is an example of the information processing system 200 and the terminal device 300. As shown in Fig. 2, the PC (server) 5 is constructed by a computer, and includes a CPU 501, a ROM 502, a RAM 503, a HD (Hard Disk) 504, a HDD (Hard Disk Drive) controller 505, a display 506, an external device connection I / F (Interface) 508, a network I / F 509, a bus line 510, a keyboard 511, a pointing device 512, a DVD-RW (Digital Versatile Disk Rewritable) drive 514, and a media I / F 516.

[0020] Among these, the CPU 501 controls the overall operation of the service providing system 1 and the terminal device 30. The ROM 502 stores programs such as an IPL used to drive the CPU 501. The RAM 503 is used as a work area for the CPU 501. The HD 504 stores various data such as programs. The HDD controller 505 controls the reading or writing of various data from the HD 504 under the control of the CPU 501. The display 506 displays various information such as a cursor, a menu, a window, a character, or an image. The external device connection I / F 508 is an interface for connecting various external devices. In this case, the external device is, for example, a USB (Universal Serial Bus) memory or a printer. The network I / F 509 is an interface for data communication using the network 2. The bus line 510 is an address bus, a data bus, or the like for electrically connecting each component such as the CPU 501 shown in FIG. 2.

[0021] The keyboard 511 is a type of input means having a plurality of keys used for inputting characters, numbers, various instructions, etc. The pointing device 512 is a type of input means for selecting and executing various instructions, selecting a processing target, moving a cursor, etc. The DVD-RW drive 514 controls reading and writing of various data from a DVD-RW 513 as an example of a removable recording medium. The DVD-RW drive 514 is not limited to a DVD-RW, and may be a DVD-R or the like. The media I / F 516 controls reading and writing (storing) of data from a recording medium 515 such as a flash memory. The audio device 517 is a means for inputting audio from a microphone or the like and outputting audio from a speaker or the like.

[0022] <About the function> Next, the functional configuration of the service providing system 1 according to this embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 3. Fig. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the service providing system 1 according to this embodiment.

[0023] The information processing system 200 holds topic attribute data in the dialogue system unit 220, and uses this information to dialogue with the user. The topic attribute data is information about the topic that the user and the system talk about, and includes as information an index indicating the user's memory retention level regarding the topic. For example, if the user is a salesperson, the topic is information about the destinations that have already been visited and the destinations that are scheduled to be visited. The index indicating the user's memory retention level regarding the topic (hereinafter, sometimes simply referred to as the "user's memory retention level") is calculated using information about, for example, the date and time of the visit, or the end date and time of the visit, or the date and time when the topic was first presented to the user, or the end date and time of the dialogue in which the topic was first presented to the user. The more information about past visits there is, the lower the user's memory retention level.

[0024] The control unit 210 has a function of generating and updating data provided in the dialogue system unit 220. The control unit 210 has the following functions.

[0025] - Estimate and calculate the user's memory retention regarding the topic presented to the user, and generate and update that information.

[0026] Determine the acquisition status of predetermined information items (date and time of sales report, customer name, etc.) for the topic presented to or discussed with the user.

[0027] Receive either information on topics to be used in a dialogue with a user and a dialogue history, or information on topics to be used in a dialogue with a user or a dialogue history.

[0028] Based on the above information, one or more candidate topics to be presented to or discussed with the user are extracted, human memory regarding the topic or the degree to which the user remembers it, the degree to which information is retained, or the recency of the topic is estimated, and the topics to be presented to the user are controlled based on the estimation results.

[0029] - Determine the state of the dialogue with the user and determine whether the conversation has ended or been interrupted.

[0030] The information used above may have a function of retaining the information, or may be retained in the external data 100 or the information processing system 200. Also, a dialogue control unit 222, which will be described later, may execute some or all of these functions.

[0031] The first communication unit 211 has a function of transmitting and receiving data such as triggers, activity schedules, and activity results, and transmits and receives data between the external data unit 100 and the terminal device 300 via the network 2.

[0032] The dialogue system unit 220 has a language understanding unit 221, a dialogue control unit 222, a response generation unit 223, and a record storage unit 224. Furthermore, the record storage unit 224 has a topic attribute data storage unit 225 and a user data storage unit 226, in which data used when the dialogue system dialogues with a user is stored.

[0033] The topic attribute data storage unit 225 stores topic attribute data including information on topics that the user and the system talk about, and information indicating the topic and the degree of user memory retention regarding the topic. The topic attribute data storage unit 225 also stores topics for which acquisition has not been completed partially or completely, information estimating human memory or the degree of user memory regarding the topic, the degree of information retention, or the recency of the topic. The data stored in the topic attribute data storage unit 225 is generated and updated by the control unit 210 or the dialogue control unit 222.

[0034] The user data storage unit 226 stores user data including information related to the personal attributes of the user, such as the user's name, the user's manager, and the user's contact information.

[0035] The language understanding unit 221 understands information such as the user's voice and text input from the terminal device 300. In addition, it has the following functions.

[0036] Receive a user's response from a terminal connected via the network, and judge or identify the received result.

[0037] By understanding the content of a topic, information corresponding to predetermined information items is extracted.

[0038] · Classify or determine or identify one or more topics to be addressed in a dialogue with the user.

[0039] The dialogue control unit 222 has the functions of transmitting and receiving data between the control unit 210 and the terminal device 300, selecting, executing and controlling dialogues to be carried out in the dialogue system, and detecting and updating the state of a dialogue currently being carried out with the user.

[0040] The response generation unit 223 generates or selects information such as a response to the user or a message to be sent from the system to the user for the terminal device 300. The generated message is sent to the terminal device 300 by the dialogue control unit 222. In addition, it has the following functions.

[0041] Generate or select the natural language to present to the user.

[0042] Generate natural language based on or including human memory, or human memory for a topic, or estimates of a user's degree of memorization or retention of information, or recency of a topic.

[0043] The terminal device 300 has a second communication unit 302, an operation receiving unit 303, and a display control unit 304, which are realized by a Web browser 301. The Web browser 301 downloads screen information from the information processing system 200. Each functional unit is a function or means realized by the CPU 501 executing instructions included in one or more programs included in the downloaded screen information.

[0044] The second communication unit 302 transmits and receives information related to the application between the information processing system 200 and the information processing system 200. The operation reception unit 303 receives various operations by the user on various screens displayed on the display 506. The display control unit 304 interprets screen information of the various screens and displays it on the display 506. Note that the second communication unit 302, the operation reception unit 303, and the display control unit 304 may be realized by a native application instead of the Web browser 301.

[0045] <Processing flow> 4 is a flowchart showing an example of processing performed by the dialogue system unit 220 in this embodiment. The processing of each step shown in FIG.

[0046] S 101 : The dialogue control unit 222 reads the topic attribute data held in the topic attribute data holding unit 225 and the user data held in the user data holding unit 226 .

[0047] S102: The dialogue control unit 222 reads from the topic attribute data storage unit 225 or sets a topic that the dialogue system will ask the user about.

[0048] S103: The dialogue control unit 222 executes a dialogue corresponding to the topic set in S102, and starts a dialogue with the user.

[0049] S104: The dialogue control unit 222 judges whether the dialogue has been interrupted or ended based on the dialogue state information. This is to judge whether the user has left the dialogue with the system. If the judgement result is "No", the process transitions to S105, and if the judgement result is "Yes", the process transitions to S109.

[0050] S105: If the determination in S104 is "No", the dialogue control unit 222 uses the dialogue state it manages to determine whether the current topic has ended. This is to determine whether the topic the user and the system are currently discussing is continuing or has ended. If the determination is "No", the process transitions to S103. If the determination is "Yes", the process transitions to S106. If the determination is "No", the current topic is still continuing, so the process returns to S103 and continues the dialogue according to the selected Dialog. If the determination is "Yes", the process transitions to S106 to consider the next topic to present.

[0051] S106: As the most recent topic has been finished, the next topic to talk about with the user is selected. Detailed processing will be explained in a later figure. Note that the topic presented from the topic candidates may be one, or two or more. If there are two or more topics, the topics may be presented in order, or multiple topics may be presented for selection.

[0052] S107: When the next topic is selected in S106, it is determined whether there is a topic to present to the user. If there is a topic to present (if "Yes"), the process proceeds to S103, where a Dialog corresponding to the topic is started. If there is no topic to present (if "No"), the process proceeds to S108.

[0053] S108: This is a step of making a greeting to end the dialogue with the user. The response generation unit 223 generates a text message or a voice message in a natural language, and transmits the message to the user's terminal device 300 via the first communication unit 211. The second communication unit 302 of the terminal device 300 receives the message, and in the case of a text message, the display control unit 304 displays the message on the display 506, and in the case of a voice message, the voice device 517 plays back the voice message.

[0054] S109: Since the situation for each topic has changed in this dialogue, the control unit 210 or the dialogue control unit 222 updates that information and transmits to the record storage unit 224 whether the user has completed reporting on the topic and the content of the user's report to the system. The record storage unit 224 transmits the topic attribute data to the topic attribute data storage unit 225 and the user data to the user data storage unit 226, and stores each data.

[0055] This is the end of the process shown in FIG. 4, but the process executed by the dialogue control unit 222 may be executed by the control unit 210 instead.

[0056] <About the data> FIG. 5 is an example of topic attribute data read by the dialogue control unit 222 in S101 of FIG. 4. In S102, a topic that the dialogue system asks the user is read, and the topic is 'Company A, Department x', which is the value of topic in mainTopic in FIG. 5. In addition, in S106, the system selects the next topic to talk about with the user, and the candidate topics are two topics, 'Company C' and 'Company A, Department y', which are the values ​​of topic in TopicCondidate in FIG. 5. The topics included in TopicCondidate have the following two types of memory retention rates, which are indices that indicate the degree of memory of the user for this topic. One is memoryRerentionRate, which is the memory retention rate at the timing when the topic in mainTopic is presented to the user. The other is nextMemoryRetentionRate, which is the memory retention rate of the topic at the timing when the system asks the user the question at the closest time after the conversation in which mainTopic was presented has ended. These will be explained in more detail in the next FIG. 6.

[0057] FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining information used when generating topic attribute data in this embodiment, and shows the status of a salesperson's planned activities and activity results at a certain point in time. Specifically, it is assumed that the system asks the user about the results of activities of Company A's x department at 10:30 on 2020 / 12 / 23, and the report is completed. At this point, the user has not completed the reports of Company A's y department and Company C, so these two topics are presented to the user while the user's memory is still retained to some extent. Furthermore, it is assumed that the user plans to carry out activities related to Company O after the activities of Company A's x department, and the system is scheduled to ask the user about the results at 15:30 on 2020 / 12 / 24 immediately after the activities.

[0058] Furthermore, topic, date, memoryRetentionRate, and nextMemoryRetentionRate in Figure 6 will be explained.

[0059] Topic is information on topics that the system presents to the user, and indicates information on places visited that need to be reported. For example, it includes information on places visited that have not been reported and places to be visited today. To exclude topics that have been reported, this diagram is updated each time a conversation between the dialogue system and the user ends or starts.

[0060] The date indicates the date and time when the topic began or ended, or is scheduled to be provided.

[0061] The memoryRetentionRate indicates the degree of memory retention of the user for the topic. The memory retention rate is calculated using the relationship between the reference time and the time when the topic or an event for the topic occurs or ends. For example, using the difference between the visit end time and the reference time, if the visit completion time matches the reference time, the value is set to 1, and the value becomes smaller as time passes. The memory retention rate is calculated using the relationship between the reference time and the time when the topic or an event for the topic occurs or ends. In this embodiment, a threshold is set for the memory retention rate, and the topic is presented to the user again before it falls below a predetermined standard. In FIG. 6, the reference date and time is set to 10:30 on December 23, 2020.

[0062] nextMemoryRetentionRate indicates the degree of forgetting at the time when the next topic is presented if this topic is not presented at the present time. For example, in Figure 6, the memory retention rate of each topic is calculated as of 2020 / 12 / 24 15:30, which is the closest time in the future to the reference date and time (2020 / 12 / 23 10:30) when calculating the memory retention rate.

[0063] The memoryRetentionRate can also be expressed by the following equation (1). memoryRetentionRate=f(t c -t x )...Equation (1) Here, tc is the reference time and date when calculating the forgetting degree of a topic at a certain time. It corresponds to the date and time of the most recent conversation or the current date and time. x corresponds to the date and time when a user experiences an event related to a certain topic. For example, it corresponds to the date and time when a schedule for a certain topic is carried out, or the date and time when a certain topic is first asked to a user. The function f will be explained later. Equation (1) can be applied to the calculation of not only memoryRetentionRate but also nextMemoryRetentionRate. It may also be applied to a numerical value representing the freshness of information on a topic, or a numerical value representing the memory loss of information on a topic.

[0064] Figure 7 shows an example of the function f in formula (1) which indicates memory retention rate. This function is expressed as a function of the elapsed time from a certain reference point, and has the characteristic that the further in the past a topic is from the reference point, the smaller its value. This function is, for example, a curve which represents human forgetting of memory. For example, there is the forgetting curve proposed by Hermann Ebbinghaus.

[0065] Figure 8 shows various examples of functions related to memory retention. The memory retention rate may have a characteristic that the further back in time a topic is from a certain reference point, the smaller its value is. For example, it may be expressed as a linear function, or a function obtained by multiplying a step function by -1, or a combination of a linear function, a step function, and the function in Figure 5, multiplied by or added to a constant.

[0066] The memory retention rate is sometimes called an estimated value, and may be estimated or calculated in the following manner.

[0067] -The time when the user is spoken to is calculated as the reference point.

[0068] -Calculate using a function of time.

[0069] - Estimation is based on the relationship between human memory and time (for example, the degree of memory decreases as time passes).

[0070] At least some or all of the estimate is based on a function that has the characteristic of decreasing the more time that has passed since a base point in time.

[0071] -Estimate using a forgetting curve for human memory, or a linear function, or a step function, or a function created based on a linear function.

[0072] When there are two topics and the first topic is presented first, then the second topic, the estimated value of the second topic is calculated based on a reference point in time determined based on information about the time when the first topic is presented to the user.

[0073] The calculation is based on the time to present to the user, which is determined based on the schedule or plan related to the topic.

[0074] When there are two or more types of information estimates for a single topic (for example, memoryRetentionRate is the first estimate and nextMemoryRetentionRate is the second estimate), the reference point for the second estimate is calculated as the future timing when the topic will be presented to the user again.

[0075] The retention rate or estimate may also be used to select or present topics to the user as follows:

[0076] The topics to be selected must fall within a predefined threshold range.

[0077] Topics are selected or presented to the user in order of the highest memory retention rate or estimated value calculated based on the time the topics are presented to the user.

[0078] Select topics whose memory retention rate or estimated value (e.g., nextMemoryRetentionRate) calculated based on a time in the future from the time when the topic is presented to the user is below a certain threshold, or rank the topics so that they are presented earlier.

[0079] Use a combination of the above methods.

[0080] Next, a flowchart showing an example of the process of "selecting the next topic" in S106 in Fig. 4 will be described with reference to Fig. 9. This process is started when the result of the determination of whether the current topic has ended in S105 in Fig. 4 is "Yes". The process of each step shown in Fig. 9 will be described below.

[0081] S201: In order to obtain the next candidate topic, the dialogue control unit 222 reads the topic attribute data stored in the topic attribute data storage unit 225. The specific value to be used is the value of TopicCandidate in FIG.

[0082] S202: The dialogue control unit 222 refers to the memoryRetentionRate value of each topic in the TopicCandidate in Fig. 5, and extracts those whose values ​​are equal to or greater than a threshold. Here, the provisional threshold is set to 0.285. In the example of Fig. 5, there are two topics, Company C and Company A's y department, but the memoryRetentionRates of each topic are 0.34 and 0.33, both of which are equal to or greater than the threshold, so the two topics, Company C and Company A's y department, are extracted.

[0083] S203: The dialogue control unit 222 calculates the number of topics extracted in S202, and judges whether the number is more than one. In the example of Fig. 5, two topics are extracted, so in this case, the judgment result in S203 is "Yes". If the number of topics is not more than one, that is, if the number of topics is one or less, the judgment result is "No". If the judgment result is "Yes", the process transitions to S204, and if the judgment result is "No", the process transitions to S207.

[0084] S204: The dialogue control unit 222 refers to the value of nextMemoryRetentionRate for each topic of TopicCandidate in Fig. 5, and judges whether there is a topic whose value is less than the threshold. For example, if the threshold is 0.285, in the example of Fig. 5, the value of nextMemoryRetentionRate for the topic of Department y of Company A is 0.28, which is less than the threshold. Therefore, in the example of Fig. 5, the judgment result of this step is "Yes". If the judgment result is "Yes", the process proceeds to S205, and if the judgment result is "No", the process proceeds to S206.

[0085] S205: The dialogue control unit 222 selects a topic for which the nextMemoryRetentionRate of each topic in the TopicCandidate in FIG. 5 is less than the threshold. The topic selected here is the topic to be presented to the user next. In the example of FIG. 5, the y department of Company A is selected as the next topic. Note that the number of topics selected here may be one or more. It is sufficient to select a topic for which the memoryRetentionRate belonging to the topic is greater than or equal to the threshold and the NextmemoryRetentionRate is less than the threshold. The meaning of this step is that the system intends to preferentially select a topic whose memory retention rate will be less than the threshold when it next speaks to the user. By doing so, it becomes possible to ask the user about a topic when he / she has retained a certain level of memory. The process ends with the output of this step. When the process ends, the process proceeds to S107 in Fig. 4. Here, the threshold used in S204 and the threshold used in S205 may be set to different thresholds.

[0086] S206: This step is performed by the dialogue control unit 222 when the result of the determination in S204 is "No", that is, when there is no topic whose memory retention rate will be less than the threshold value when the system next talks to the user. Since it is possible for multiple topics to retain memories that are more than the threshold value when the system next talks to the user, the user considers that newer memories are easier to answer, and selects, for example, the topic with the largest memoryRetentionRate value in FIG. 5. Note that, although this figure considers that newer memories are easier to answer, other methods may be adopted. For example, the method of selecting topics in this step may be to select all topics whose memoryRetentionRate belonging to topic is more than the threshold value, or to adopt a method of selecting topics in ascending order of memoryRetentionRate values, or to adopt a method of selecting topics in descending order of memoryRetentionRate values. The process ends with the output of this step. When the process ends, the process transitions to S107 in FIG. 4.

[0087] S207: If the determination result of S203 is that the number of extracted topics is 1 or less, the dialogue control unit 222 performs the process of this step. This step is a step for determining whether the number of extracted topics is 1 or 0. If the number of extracted topics is 1, the process transitions to S208, and if the number of extracted topics is not 1, the process transitions to step S209.

[0088] S208: In this step, the dialogue control unit 222 performs processing when there is only one candidate for the selected topic. Therefore, the currently extracted topic will be selected as the next topic. Processing ends with the output of this step. When processing ends, the process transitions to S107 in FIG. 4.

[0089] S209: If the number of topics extracted in S207 is not 1, the dialogue control unit 222 generates information that there is no topic to be presented as the next topic in this step. The process ends with the output that there is no next topic. When the process ends, the process transitions to S107 in FIG. 4.

[0090] This is the end of the process shown in FIG. 9, but the process executed by the dialogue control unit 222 may be executed by the control unit 210 instead.

[0091] <Example of displayed content> Next, a description will be given of display contents that the information processing system 200 displays on the terminal device 300. Fig. 10 shows an example (1) of the display contents.

[0092] This is an example in which the information processing system 200 requests the user to report on the activities of the x department of Company A, and then the result report is completed, and the system presents topics that have not been completed. M101, M110, M112, M114, M201, and M203 are system messages, and the rest are user responses. The messages include a message presenting a topic, a message indicating that the topic has been completed, and a message presenting a topic previously presented to the user again. The message indicating that the topic has been completed is displayed at a later time than the message presenting the topic, and the message presenting a topic previously presented to the user again is presented to the user after the message indicating that the initially presented topic has been completed. In the example of FIG. 10, M101 and M110 are messages that the system presents to the user as the first topic. This message is characterized in that, for example, a greeting and a topic that the system and the user will talk about are described in natural language. In the example of FIG. 10, M114 is a message indicating that the topic presented by the system has been completed. For example, this corresponds to a message that a report on a topic presented by the system has been completed, that the report has been accepted, or that a next action such as registering the report in another system is presented. In the example of Fig. 10, M201 is a message that notifies the user that the first topic presented in M114 has been completed, and then presents a topic previously asked about to the user as a second topic.

[0093] A message to be transmitted from the information processing system 200 is created by the response generation unit 223 and transmitted to the terminal device 300 by the first communication unit 211. The second communication unit 302 of the terminal device 300 transmits the received message to the display control unit 304, which displays the message on the display 506. The operation reception unit 303 receives a user's input and transmits the message input by the user to the second communication unit 302. The second communication unit 302 transmits the received message to the first communication unit 211 of the information processing system 200. In the example of FIG. 10, the message is text, but may be audio. In the case of an audio message, the terminal device 300 inputs and outputs audio using the audio device 517.

[0094] The processing of each message will be explained below.

[0095] M101: The dialogue control unit 222 determines to transmit a message requesting the user to report on Company C, "Thank you for your hard work. Please report on Company C today," on the date and time of 12 / 22 at 16:30, based on the information on the topic attribute shown in Fig. 6. The first communication unit 211 transmits the message to the terminal device 300.

[0096] M110: The dialogue control unit 222 determines to send a message requesting a report on the x department of company A to the user, "Good morning. Please give us a report on the x department of company A," at 10:30 today (12 / 23), based on the information on the topic attribute shown in FIG. 6. The first communication unit 211 sends the message to the terminal device 300.

[0097] M111: The user inputs "Meeting with President XX. Planning to establish ▲▲ in xx ward" at 10:33 as a report from the operation reception unit 303 of the terminal device 300. The second communication unit 302 of the terminal device 300 transmits the input report to the first communication unit 211 of the information processing system 200. The language understanding unit 221 analyzes and understands the content of the received report.

[0098] M112: The dialogue control unit 222 decides to send the following message to the user at 10:34, confirming the received report content: "Thank you. Please confirm the content. [Report content] Customer: Company B, Interviewer: President XX, Report: Plan to establish ▲▲ in xx ward. "Addition / Edit content" "Content OK" "End"." The first communication unit 211 sends the message to the terminal device 300.

[0099] M113: At 10:34, the user selects “Content OK” as a response from the operation reception unit 303 of the terminal device 300. The second communication unit 302 of the terminal device 300 transmits the selected response to the first communication unit 211 of the information processing system 200.

[0100] M114: The dialogue control unit 222 decides to send a message in response to the received response, "Your report has been received," at 10:35. The first communication unit 211 sends the message to the terminal device 300. The dialogue control unit 222 also instructs the record retention unit 224 to update the topic attribute data and user data based on the report content. Furthermore, the dialogue control unit 222 decides that the topic of Company B has ended based on the report content.

[0101] M201: The dialogue control unit 222 decides to send the message "Would you like to report on y department of company A on 10 / 22?" "Report" "Later"" at 10:35 to the user to confirm the report on y department of company A, which is an unfinished topic, immediately after the topic on company B is finished. The first communication unit 211 sends the message to the terminal device 300.

[0102] M202: At 10:36, the user selects “Report” as a response from the operation reception unit 303 of the terminal device 300. The second communication unit 302 of the terminal device 300 transmits the selected response to the first communication unit 211 of the information processing system 200.

[0103] M203: The dialogue control unit 222 determines to transmit the message “Thank you. Please enter your response” in response to the user's response at 10:36. The first communication unit 211 transmits the message to the terminal device 300.

[0104] M204: The user starts inputting a report through the operation reception unit 303 of the terminal device 300.

[0105] The above is the processing for the message shown in Fig. 10. Here, the processing executed by the dialogue control unit 222 may be performed by the control unit 210, and if necessary, the language understanding unit 221 understands information related to topic attributes, and the response generation unit 223 creates a message.

[0106] Fig. 11 shows another example (2) of the display content. The difference between Fig. 10 and Fig. 11 is that message M201 in Fig. 10 is M205 in Fig. 11. M205 is a message presenting a topic that has been asked of the user in the past. This message is characterized by the fact that it contains natural language related to the degree to which the user retains memory of the topic. For example, there are various ways of saying it, such as before your memory becomes vague or while your memory is fresh.

[0107] FIG. 12 shows another example (3) of the display content. The difference between FIG. 10 and FIG. 12 is that the message M201 in FIG. 10 is M206 in FIG. 12. M206 is a message presenting a topic that has been asked of the user in the past. This message is characterized in that it contains natural language related to the user's memory retention level for the topic. In the present invention, the topic to be presented is selected while checking the memory retention rate at the timing of presenting the next scheduled topic, and is characterized in that a description is made comparing the memory state at the next reporting timing with the memory state when reporting now. The way of saying it is not limited to the way shown in FIG. 12.

[0108] Fig. 13 shows another example (4) of the display content. The difference between Fig. 10 and Fig. 13 is that the message M201 in Fig. 10 is M207 in Fig. 13. There may be one topic or multiple topics presented in M207. If there are multiple topics, the topic presentation order is determined based on the topic memory retention. The display method may be a message written in a natural language, or may be in the form of buttons, radio buttons, or a format in which candidates can be selected by scrolling.

[0109] FIG. 14 shows another example (5) of the display content. The difference between FIG. 10 and FIG. 14 is that the message M110 in FIG. 10 is M120 in FIG. 14. The system is characterized in that it presents a message using the user's memory retention level on the topic. The part of the message containing information on memory retention level may be the part where the system first presents the topic to the user. M120 is characterized in that the difference between the memory retention level on the topic when reporting now and the memory retention level on the topic when reporting in conjunction with the next activity is incorporated in the message as natural language. The message may be text or voice. Also, the way of saying it may be other than the example of FIG. 14.

[0110] FIG. 15 shows an example of topic attribute data used when generating the message of FIG. 14. FIG. 14 includes a message comparing the memory retention level of the topic to be presented first with the memory retention level of the topic at the time of the current report and the memory retention level of the topic at the time of the next report for the topic to be presented first. FIG. 15 is characterized in that the memory retention level of the topic to be presented first is stored in the topic attribute data in a format similar to that of FIG. 5, and includes the memory retention level of the topic to be presented first (Company A's x department) and the memory retention level of that topic at the time of the next report. Note that FIG. 5 and FIG. 15 are only examples, and the data format may be JSON format or another format. In addition, other information may be added.

[0111] As shown in the examples of display contents in FIGS. 10 to 14, this system is capable of displaying messages having the following characteristics.

[0112] · Present information about human memory, or the user's degree of memorization, or retention of information, or the recency of the topic along with the topic in a message containing relevant natural language.

[0113] When multiple topics are presented, the messages are displayed in an order determined based on human memory, the degree to which the user remembers, the degree to which information is retained, or an estimate of the recency of the topic.

[0114] The message includes a message presenting a topic, a message indicating that the topic has been completed, and a message presenting again a topic previously presented to the user or a topic for which the user has not yet completed reporting, the message indicating that the topic has been completed being displayed at a later time than the message presenting the topic, and the message presenting again a topic previously presented to the user or a topic for which the user has not yet completed reporting being displayed at a later time than the message indicating that the initially presented topic has been completed.

[0115] When two or more topics are included in a message, a message is displayed that describes in natural language information that is revealed by comparing an estimate of human memory for the topic, or the degree to which the user remembers it, or the degree to which information is retained, or the recency of the topic, with an estimate of human memory for the topic, or the degree to which the user remembers it, or the degree to which information is retained, or the recency of the topic, at the timing of the next dialogue.

[0116] Display a message in natural language containing a description of the human memory for the topic at the time of the next planned interaction, or an estimate of the user's degree of memory, or degree of information retention, or recency of the topic, compared to the state of memory if reported now.

[0117] Displaying a message containing a natural language description of the human memory for the topic at the time of the next scheduled interaction, or the user's degree of memory, or the degree of information retention, or an estimate of the recency of said topic, compared to the state of memory if reported now.

[0118] As described above, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the information processing system stores topics that have been previously presented to a user and information on the recency of the topics, or the user's degree of memory retention regarding the topics, or the recency of the topics, and is able to select or determine the topics to be presented based on the user's degree of memory retention regarding the topics or the information on the recency of the topics.

[0119] In other words, by estimating the degree to which a topic to be presented to a user, for example a topic to which the user did not respond in the past or which was interrupted or ended, based on the relationship between human memory and time, and determining the timing to present the topic, it is possible to present a topic for which the result report has not been completed while the user retains a certain level of memory, making it easier for the user to respond and allowing reports to be collected.

[0120] In addition, as a means of presenting previously presented topics at a time when the user is likely to respond, the information processing system can present to the user topics that were previously presented to the user when the topic being discussed with the user has ended or immediately thereafter.

[0121] In other words, when a user is interacting with the system about another topic, a topic for which the results have not yet been reported is presented when that topic is completed, so that the topic is presented at a time when it is easy for the user to respond, making it easier to obtain a response from the user and collect reports.

[0122] In addition, the first topic presented may be one that has no retention degree or one or more types of retention degree, and the second topic presented may be one that has at least one or more types of estimated information retention degree.

[0123] Although several forms for carrying out the present invention have been described above, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and various modifications and substitutions can be made within the scope that does not deviate from the gist of the present invention.

[0124] For example, the configuration example of the functional block diagram in Fig. 3 is divided according to main functions in order to facilitate understanding of the processing by the information processing system 200 and the terminal device 300. The present invention is not limited by the manner in which the processing units are divided or the names of the processing units. The processing by the information processing system 200 and the terminal device 300 can be divided into more processing units depending on the processing content. Also, it can be divided so that one processing unit includes more processes.

[0125] Each function of the above-described embodiments can be realized by one or more processing circuits. Here, the term "processing circuit" in this specification includes a processor programmed to execute each function by software, such as a processor implemented by an electronic circuit, and a device such as an ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), a DSP (digital signal processor), an FPGA (field programmable gate array), or a conventional circuit module designed to execute each function described above.

[0126] Additionally, the described apparatuses are merely one of several computing environments for implementing the embodiments disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a service provision system includes a plurality of computing devices, such as a server cluster, configured to communicate with each other via any type of communication link, including a network, shared memory, etc., and to implement the processes disclosed herein. [Explanation of symbols]

[0127] 100 External Data 200 Information Processing Systems 210 Control section 211 First Communications Department 220 Dialogue Systems Department 221 Language Understanding Department 222 Dialogue control section 223 Response Generation Unit 224 Record-Keeping Department 225 Topic attribute data storage unit 226 User data storage unit 300 Terminal Equipment 301 Web Browser 302 Second Communications Department 303 Operation reception section 304 Display control section [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0128] [Patent Document 1] JP 2019-185161 A

Claims

1. a terminal device for displaying topics and accepting input of information from a user; an information processing device that receives input information related to the topic input by the user from the terminal device; A service providing system having: The information processing device includes: Determine whether the topic is continuing or has ended based on the input information and the state of the dialogue with the user; a dialogue control unit that determines a time to present the ongoing topic to the user based on a schedule related to the topic; Calculate a value of a first index determined by a time function indicating the degree of memory retention of the user regarding the topic at the current time for each of the plurality of topics that are continuing, and a value of a second index determined by a time function indicating the degree of memory retention of the user regarding the topic at the next time that is not presented at the current time, a control unit that, immediately after the dialogue control unit determines that a first topic, which is one of the plurality of topics, has ended, selects at least one of the topics as a second topic to be presented to the user after the first topic, using a value of the first index and a value of the second index; a first communication unit that transmits a message including the topic to be presented to the user to the terminal device used by the user; having The terminal device A second communication unit that receives the message from the information processing device; A display control unit that displays the message on a screen; A service providing system comprising:

2. The control unit selects, as the second topic, at least one of the topics having a value of the second index less than a predetermined threshold among the topics having a value of the first index equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold. The service providing system according to claim 1 .

3. the control unit determines, when a plurality of the second topics are selected, to present the plurality of second topics to the user in descending order of the value of the first index. The service providing system according to claim 2 .

4. the message including the second topic includes natural language related to the user's memory retention of the second topic based on a comparison between the value of the first index and the value of the second index for the second topic; The service providing system according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

5. The service providing system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the second topic was presented to the user prior to the time when the dialogue control unit determined that the first topic had ended.

6. The first communication unit, a first message in natural language presenting the first topic; a second message in a natural language indicating that the first topic has been completed; and a third message in a natural language presenting the second topic that has been previously presented to the user or has not been previously presented to the user; The display control unit is displaying the second message at a later time than the first message; The service providing system according to claim 1 , wherein the third message is displayed after the second message.

7. When a plurality of the second topics are selected, the control unit determines a presentation order of the plurality of the second topics using the first index; The display control unit displays a plurality of the second topics based on a presentation order determined by the control unit. The service providing system according to claim 1 .

8. An information processing device that receives input information related to a topic input by a user from a terminal device, Determine whether the topic is continuing or has ended based on the input information and the state of the dialogue with the user; a dialogue control unit that determines a time to present the ongoing topic to the user based on a schedule related to the topic; Calculate a value of a first index determined by a time function indicating the degree of memory retention of the user regarding the topic at the current time for each of the plurality of topics that are continuing, and a value of a second index determined by a time function indicating the degree of memory retention of the user regarding the topic at the next time that is not presented at the current time, a control unit that, immediately after the dialogue control unit determines that a first topic, which is one of the plurality of topics, has ended, selects at least one of the topics as a second topic to be presented to the user after the first topic, using a value of the first index and a value of the second index; a first communication unit that transmits a message including the topic to be presented to the user to the terminal device used by the user; 13. An information processing device comprising:

9. An information processing method performed by an information processing device that receives input information related to a topic input by a user from a terminal device, comprising: Determine whether the topic is continuing or has ended based on the input information and the state of the dialogue with the user; determining a time to present the ongoing topic to the user based on a schedule for the topic; A step of calculating, for each of the plurality of topics in which the topic is continuing, a value of a first index determined by a time function indicating the degree of memory retention of the user regarding the topic at the current time, and a value of a second index determined by a time function indicating the degree of memory retention of the user regarding the topic at the next time that the topic is not presented at the current time; a step of selecting at least one of the topics as a second topic to be presented to the user after the first topic by using the value of the first index and the value of the second index immediately after determining that a first topic, which is one of the multiple topics, has ended; sending a message including the topic to be presented to the user to the terminal device used by the user; An information processing method comprising the steps of:

10. An information processing device that receives input information related to a topic input by a user from a terminal device, Determine whether the topic is continuing or has ended based on the input information and the state of the dialogue with the user; determining a time to present the ongoing topic to the user based on a schedule for the topic; A step of calculating, for each of the plurality of topics in which the topic is continuing, a value of a first index determined by a time function indicating the degree of memory retention of the user regarding the topic at the current time, and a value of a second index determined by a time function indicating the degree of memory retention of the user regarding the topic at the next time that the topic is not presented at the current time; a step of selecting at least one of the topics as a second topic to be presented to the user after the first topic by using the value of the first index and the value of the second index immediately after determining that a first topic, which is one of the multiple topics, has ended; sending a message including the topic to be presented to the user to the terminal device used by the user; A program for executing.

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