Incremental interpretation and prediction of utterance meaning for interactive dialogue

TitleIncremental interpretation and prediction of utterance meaning for interactive dialogue
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2011
AuthorsDeVault, D., K. Sagae, and D. R. Traum
JournalDialogue & Discourse
Volume2
Start Page143
Issue1
Pagination143-170
Date PublishedMay 2011
Abstract

We present techniques for the incremental interpretation and prediction of utterance meaning in dialogue systems. These techniques open possibilities for systems to initiate responsive overlap behaviors during user speech, such as interrupting, acknowledging, or completing a user's utterance while it is still in progress. In an implemented system, we show that relatively high accuracy can be achieved in understanding of spontaneous utterances before utterances are completed. Further, we present a method for determining when a system has reached a point of maximal understanding of an ongoing user utterance, and show that this determination can be made with high precision. Finally, we discuss a prototype implementation that shows how systems can use these abilities to strategically initiate system completions of user utterances. More broadly, this framework facilitates the
implementation of a range of overlap behaviors that are common in human dialogue, but have been largely absent in dialogue systems.

URLhttp://elanguage.net/journals/index.php/dad/article/view/456