US 12,367,869 B2
Conversational assistant for conversational engagement
Edgar T. Kalns, San Jose, CA (US); Dimitra Vergyri, Sunnyvale, CA (US); Girish Acharya, Redwood City, CA (US); Andreas Kathol, El Cerrito, CA (US); Leonor Almada, Santa Clara, CA (US); Hyong-Gyun Kim, Santa Clara, CA (US); Nikoletta Basiou, Sunnyvale, CA (US); Michael Wessel, Palo Alto, CA (US); Aaron Spaulding, Menlo Park, CA (US); Roland Heusser, Daly City, CA (US); James F. Carpenter, Mountain View, CA (US); and Min Yin, San Jose, CA (US)
Assigned to SRI International, Menlo Park, CA (US)
Appl. No. 17/613,373
Filed by SRI International, Menlo Park, CA (US)
PCT Filed Jun. 15, 2020, PCT No. PCT/US2020/037768
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Nov. 22, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2021/011139, PCT Pub. Date Jan. 21, 2021.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/875,671, filed on Jul. 18, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0310079 A1, Sep. 29, 2022
Int. Cl. G10L 15/18 (2013.01); G06F 40/35 (2020.01); G10L 13/02 (2013.01); G10L 15/22 (2006.01); G10L 25/63 (2013.01); G10L 25/66 (2013.01)
CPC G10L 15/1815 (2013.01) [G06F 40/35 (2020.01); G10L 13/02 (2013.01); G10L 15/22 (2013.01); G10L 25/63 (2013.01); G10L 25/66 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A conversational assistant for conversational engagement platform, comprising:
a conversational engagement microservice platform containing various modules of a user-model augmentation module, a dialogue management module, and a user-state analysis input/output module, where the dialogue management module is configured to receive metrics tied to a user from the other modules to understand a current topic of a conversation and a user's emotions regarding the current topic of the conversation from the user-state analysis input/output module and then adapt dialogue from the dialogue management module to the user based on a first set of dialogue rules factoring in these different metrics, where the conversational engagement microservice platform containing the various modules is configured to at least use the user-state analysis input/output module to extract the metrics tied to the user through conversations with the user over multiple different periods of interaction, where the first set of dialogue rules of the conversational engagement microservice platform containing the various modules are also configured to factor both i) a duration of a conversational engagement with the user and ii) an attempt to maintain a positive experience for the user with the conversational engagement, where the dialogue management module cooperates with the user-model augmentation module to implement and maintain a flexible ontology relationship representation about the user that builds and stores learned metrics about the user over time with each conversational engagement and then in combination with the first set of dialogue rules, drive the conversations in the conversational engagement with the user, where the dialogue management module is configured to cooperate with an information-extraction and topic-understanding input/output module to receive i) the metrics tied to the user and ii) at least one of spoken words and a transcript of the conversational engagement with the user to deduce and understand the current topic of the conversation without requiring the user to provide advance notice of what the current topic of the conversation will be about,
one or more non-transitory computer readable mediums to store software implemented in the conversational engagement microservice platform, and
one or more processors configured to execute the stored software in the one or more non-transitory computer readable mediums.