Sin ttulo de diapositiva

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Dialogue-based approach to intelligent
assistance on the web Ana García-Serrano Technica
l University of Madrid, Spain FLINT
2001 University of California, Berkeley August
2001
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ADVICE (EU project)
Http//www.advice.iao.fhg.de
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The e-commerce solutions (2000)

• Internet as a giant marketplace
• Web-catalogues
• Mainly focus on the presentation of goods and on
  sales processes itself.
• The interaction is guided by the user
• By a click on the article he can get more
  information about the
• product as components, characteristics,
  quantity,...
• From the customer point of view the search and
  the selection of products is a difficult task
• ? mainly due to the lack of assistance on the
  Web.

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Intelligent assistance to e-commerce
1. Human-like seller Complementing the services
of the current e-commerce systems
? perform a dialogue-based interaction (when,
why...) ? information generation process
according to the particular needs of the user
(what) ? use expressive presentations
(animation, natural language ...)
2. Advanced user interface (How, which devices,
...)
3. Software engineering
? legacy systems (plug-in solution) ?
interoperability
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Technologies involved (first step)
Quality of information

• Knowledge-based engineering
• KSM Methodology and tool Cuena, 98, ...
• multi-paradigm representation and inference
  models
• scalability
• Multimodal interfaces
• Multimedia (coherent presentations) Cohen, 00
  ...
• Dialogue models Searle 75, Allen 94, Mittal
  Moore, 95...
• Agent-based design
• agent as an abstraction concept key
• Jennings, Sycara, Wooldridge, 98, Wooldridge,
  Mandani, Rao, Stout,99
• support for distributed and heterogeneous
  software Bueno 99

Expressive Com.
Interoperability,...
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7

8

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Interaction Agent

• Session Model (static)
• Context (referred data)
• interaction preferences

• Dialogue Manager (dynamic)
• State of dialogue
• Thread joint (intention)

Input
User Model
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Dialogue-based interaction (Dynamic)
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Communicative acts of the user/system
Searles Speech acts (Advice project proposal)
Representative acts
Inform lt t, m,
s, c gt
Patterns
type
matter
subject
content
Im John Smith
introduction
identity
user
John Smith
Saw
I want a circular saw
data
identity
product
product

confirmation
deny
No, ....
Type data, advice, declaration, suggest,
explanation, introduction, confirmation
Matter approve, deny purchase, identity
,...
Subject product, user, system, task
Content
...
Directive acts (Request, command) Authoritative
acts Courtesy acts Null
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(No Transcript)
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Dialogue-based interaction (Dynamic)
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Dialogue-based interaction (Dynamic)
Offers
partial
solution
Show catalogue
Show ...
l

Ask_product
Ask ...
confirm
l
command or
Greeting ended
confirm(task)
Authorize
Solve task
user for
Greeting
task
greeting
deny
inform
question
thank
fork
(
confirm__deny)
inform
System
inform
close
System
provides
disannoyance
requires
explanation
thank
question
explanation
System
l
question
grateful
question
inform
confirm
l
fork
System
solves
question
Farewell
Offer
end
session
l

farewell or

confirm
disconnect
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Dialogue-based interaction
(utterance or user cliks on the saw
alternative) I think I need a
pendulum-cut saw

• Identification of the comunicative acts
• null, inform(data, identity, product, saw)
• inform(data,feature,product,typependulum-cut)

• Identification of a new state into the (current)
  question-answer dialogue pattern solve,

• Identification of the next interaction step
  prune of the configurable offer (decision tree),
  perform an action ...

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Customised configuration of the offer
................... U Well, I want a circular
saw. S What kind of saw do you want to
purchase, a pendulum-cover saw or a
plunge-cut saw?
TOOL
ltask pendulum/plungegt
SAW
SANDER
PLUNGE
PENDULUM
AT65
AT65
AT65
AT65
AT65
ATF55
............
AT65EBplus
AT65
ATF55
ATF55EB
ATF55FS
ATF55EBplus
ATF55EBFS
ATF55EBplusFS
AT65FS
AT65EBplusFS
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Generic model formulation of the domain
A Knowledge Unit is described by a set of
knowledge sub-areas and the tasks is capable to
perform
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Domain model formulation Tool knowledge Unit
(saws)
PATTERN atf55EBplus DESCRIPTION type saw
a, name 'atf55EBplus' m, saw subtype
plunge b, power '1200' c, weight
'4800' d, saw blade speed lt 4800 e, saw
blade diameter '160' f, bevel cuts lt 45
g, cutting depth lt 55 h, dust extractor
connection 36 i, systainer 'yes'j, rail
guide 'no'k, electronics 'yes'
l, RELEVANCE OF CHARACTERISTICS a -gt50, b
-gt50, c -gt 50, d -gt100, f -gt50, h -gt50, j -gt
50, k -gt50, l -gt 50, m -gt 100, c,b -gt
50, b,f -gt 50, b,h -gt 50, c,b,j,k,l-gt100,
b,f,j,k,l-gt100, b,h,j,k,l-gt100
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Dialogue-based interaction
Interface Agent
Interaction Agent
Session Model
.
1.-
Recent Discourse Memory
2.-
Context

product tool saw
NL INTERPRETER
Dialogue Manager
Thread Joint stack

Command (req-prod)


l
3D Character
Discourse Maker
.

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Architecture Overview (current prototype)
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Some preliminary conclusions

• The KSM provided the required methodology, but
  the current model was operationalized using
  Ciao-Prolog and Java.
• Evaluation (focused on some main aspects of the
  interaction, interventions for achieving a goal,
  steps made through an intervention, worthless
  interventions, etc)
• the dialogues for achieving goals are long, in
  general.
• the variability in discourses is too low
• The performance of the current prototype is good
  enough ...

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Next step...

• System should short interactions, trying to
  interrupt user as less as possible, for which is
  needed to control reactions (react monitor?)
• New user model approach (clustering?)
• Improve the generic and domain models (update
  approach?)
• The NL interpreter and generator has to be
  enlarged (corpus-based)
• Interoperability ontology for complete the shop
  system integration
• Multi-user functionality (RMI, to a MAS
  architecture?)