In this paper we show how established object modelling techniques can be used in the creation of spoken dialogue management systems. One of the motivations behind the particular approach adopted here is the observation that, in spoken human-to-human dialogues, certain skillsets and patterns of dialogue evolution are common to many different contexts; other dialogue skills and accompanying real-world knowledge are required only for more specialised transactions within particular business domains. As a starting point for modelling an automated spoken dialogue management system we recommend a use case analysis of the required functionality. The use case analysis encourages the developer to identify generic-specific relationships and interactions between different dialogue management skills. We consider some of the broad philosophies underlying current dialogue management systems and outline practical high-level dialogue behaviour based on mixed-initiative, frame-based processing, combined with a rigorously applied confirmation strategy. On the basis of the use case requirements analysis, we explore a possible design for an object-oriented dialogue management system, indicating the roles and relationships of the various classes that embody the required dialogue functionality, and showing how
This article describes how an object-oriented approach can be applied to the architectural design of a spoken language dialog system with the aim of facilitating the modification, extension, and reuse of discourse-related expertise. The architecture of the developed system is described and a functionally similar VoiceXML system is used to provide a comparative baseline across a range of modification and reuse scenarios. It is shown that the use of an object-oriented dialog manager can provide a capable means of reusing existing discourse expertise in a manner that limits the degree of structural decay associated with system change.
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