Statistical NLU for Cognitive Overload Dialogue

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Solution Overview

Problem

Spoken dialogue interface systems are limited by restricted language and scripted interactions, struggling to handle context- and situation-dependent human dialogue, especially in cognitively overloaded domains like driving or helicopter operation, where users need flexible and robust language understanding to issue instructions on the fly.

Innovation Solution

A flexible dialog system with full spoken language understanding, multi-threaded dialogue management, and dynamic updates, utilizing a statistical natural language understanding module and dialogue manager to interpret user utterances and manage interactions effectively, even with imperfect input, and supporting dynamic content updates across various domains.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If key word spotting techniques and finite state techniques are used for language understanding, then the system can handle constrained spoken language expressions, but the system cannot properly process frequent language phenomena such as pronouns, ambiguity, and revisions

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvelanguage understanding accuracyVSAvoidhandling of language phenomena

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces traditional key word spotting and finite state techniques with statistical natural language understanding methods. This substitution enables the system to handle complex language phenomena like pronouns, ambiguity, and revisions by using probabilistic models that can interpret context-dependent meanings, thereby improving both reliability and adaptability of language processing

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The system changes the parameters of language understanding by transitioning from deterministic rule-based approaches to statistical models with multiple interpretation possibilities. This allows the system to accommodate variations in spoken language expressions and properly process frequent language phenomena through probabilistic reasoning rather than fixed patterns

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

2Stability of the object's composition

If scripted dialogue interactions are used, then the system can maintain structured conversations, but the system cannot handle flexible, context- and situation-dependent human dialogue

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedialogue structureVSAvoidcontext-dependency handling

Core Design Contradiction:

Stability of the object's compositionVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The patent introduces dynamic dialogue management that adapts to context and situation rather than following fixed scripts. The system can dynamically adjust its responses based on the conversational context, user intentions, and situational factors, allowing it to maintain structured conversations while simultaneously handling flexible, context-dependent human dialogue effectively

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

3Device complexity

If narrow language understanding models are used, then the system can process simple utterances, but the system cannot handle robust, wide-coverage language understanding required in cognitively overloaded domains

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvelanguage model simplicityVSAvoidlanguage understanding coverage

Core Design Contradiction:

Device complexityVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements a universal natural language understanding system that can handle multiple types of utterances and contexts through a single robust framework. The statistical language model is designed to be multi-functional, capable of processing simple and complex utterances, resolving ambiguities, and adapting to different domains, thereby achieving wide-coverage language understanding without requiring separate specialized models for each scenario

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Data Source

PatentUS7716056B2Method and system for interactive conversational dialogue for cognitively overloaded device users

Publication Date: 2010.05.11 ROBERT BOSCH CORP

AI summary

A system and method to interactively converse with a cognitively overloaded user of a device, includes maintaining a knowledge base of information regarding the device and a domain, organizing the information in at least one of a relational manner and an ontological manner, receiving speech from the user, converting the speech into a word sequence, recognizing a partial proper name in the word sequence, identifying meaning structures from the word sequence using a model of the domain information, adjusting a boundary of the partial proper names to enhance an accuracy of the meaning structures, interpreting the meaning structures in a context of the conversation with the cognitively overloaded user using the knowledge base, selecting a content for a response to the cognitively overloaded user, generating the response based on the selected content, the context of the conversation, and grammatical rules, and synthesizing speech wave forms for the response.