Semantic Processing of Out-Of-Vocabulary Words in a Spoken Dialogue System

One of the most important causes of failure in spoken dialogue systems is usually neglected: the problem of words that are not covered by the system's vocabulary (out-of-vocabulary or OOV words). In this paper a methodology is described for the detection, classification and processing of OOV words in an automatic train timetable information system. The various extensions that had to be effected on the different modules of the system are reported, resulting in the design of appropriate dialogue strategies, as are encouraging evaluation results on the new versions of the word recogniser and the linguistic processor.Comment: 4 pages, 2 eps figures, requires LaTeX2e, uses eurospeech.sty and epsfi

COSY-MATS: An Intelligent and Scalable Summarisation Shell

In this paper, an architecture is presented for robust and portable summarisation, cosy-mats. cosy-mats can avoid the superficiality and domain-dependence of ie approaches by means of high-level (pragmatic and rhetorical) content selection features. It can also obviate the text typedependence and cumbersome computation involved in nlu-based summarisation systems, because surface criteria are additionally used in the content selection process, as are identified mappings between those and the high-level features. In this way, cosy-mats should retain its generic and scalable character, while also permitting intelligent application-specific processing. 1 Motivations behind the Design of COSY-MATS The goal of the research reported here has been to develop a flexible, easily-portable and scalable, but also efficient and robust, nlp system that automatically generates summaries of real-world unrestricted texts. To this effect, an architecture was designed for a hybrid COnnectionist--SYmboli..

Automaton-Descriptions and Theorem-Proving: A Marriage made in Heaven?

In this paper, Finite-State-Automata (FSA) and theorem-proving approaches to spoken dialogue systems (SLDS) are contrasted to each other. FSA are too rigid to deal with unpredictable user reactions, such as corrections or counter-questions, whereas planbased approaches are usually too complex to be effectively used, given the unreliability of word recognition and the elliptical and unconventional nature of spontaneous speech. As an alternative, a Dialogue Manager architecture is proposed which uses knowledge on both the possible sequences of dialogue acts and the dynamic representation of the task and requirements for its fulfillment. The behaviour of the specific user is taken into consideration, including their expectations about the system and the service offered, as are instances of miscommunication and disagreement in the course of the dialogue, and the successful completion of sub-plans relevant to the task and the dialogue flow

SQEL: A Multilingual and Multifunctional Dialogue System

Within the EC-funded project SQEL, the German EVAR spoken dialogue system has been extended with respect to multilinguality and multifunctionality. The current demonstrator can handle four different languages and domains: German, Slovak, and Czech (and their national train connections), and Slovenian (European flights). The SQEL demonstrator can also access databases on the WWW, which enables users without an internet connection to meet their information needs by just using the phone. The system starts up with a German opening phrase and the user is free to use any of the implemented languages. Amultilingual word recognizer implicitly identifies the language, which is then associated with the appropriate domain and database. For the remainder of the dialogue, the corresponding monolingual recognizer is used instead. Experiments to date have shown that the multilingual and the (respective) monolingual recognizers attain comparable word accuracy rates, although the former is less efficient. The existence of language-independent task parameters, such as goal and source location, has meant that porting the system to a new language involves mainly the development of lexica and grammars (apart from the word recognizers) and not an extensive restructuring of the interpretation process within the Dialogue Manager. The latter is sufficiently flexible to switchbetween the different domains and languages

Metalogue: A Multiperspective Multimodal Dialogue System with Metacognitive Abilities for Highly Adaptive and Flexible Dialogue Management

This poster paper presents a high-level description of the Metalogue project that is developing a multi-modal dialogue system that is able to implement interactive behaviors that seem natural to users and is flexible enough to exploit the full potential of multimodal interaction. We provide an outline of the initial work undertaken to define a an open architecture for the integrated Metalogue system. This system includes components that are necessary for the implementation of the processing stages for a variety of application domains: initialization, training, information gathering, orchestration, multimodality, dialogue management, speech recognition, speech synthesis and user modelling