Patent ID: 9564129
Date: 2017-02-07
CPC Classifications: G06F,G10L

Claim:
1. A voice dialogue method that is performed by a voice dialogue system, the voice dialogue system including: a voice signal generation unit; a voice dialogue agent unit; an additional voice dialogue agent unit; a voice output unit; and a voice input control unit, the voice dialogue method comprising: a step of, by the voice signal generation unit, receiving a voice input and generating a voice signal based on the received voice input; a step of, by the voice dialogue agent unit, performing voice recognition processing on the generated voice signal and determining, based on a result of the voice recognition processing and agent information, which one of the voice dialogue agent unit and the additional voice dialogue agent unit is appropriate for performing voice-related processing that is processing based on the voice signal, the agent information being stored in a memory included in the voice dialogue agent unit and associating the additional voice dialogue agent unit with one or more keywords; a step of, when the voice dialogue agent unit determines that the voice dialogue agent unit is appropriate for performing the voice-related processing, by the voice dialogue agent unit, performing processing based on the result of the voice recognition processing to generate a response signal, and by the voice output unit, outputting a voice based on the response signal generated by the voice dialogue agent unit; a step of, when the voice dialogue agent unit determines that the additional voice dialogue agent unit is appropriate for performing the voice-related processing, by the voice dialogue agent unit, transferring the voice signal to the additional voice dialogue agent unit, by the additional voice dialogue agent unit, performing new voice recognition processing on the transferred voice signal and performing processing based on a result of the new voice recognition processing to generate a response signal, and by the voice output unit, outputting a voice based on the response signal generated by the additional voice dialogue agent unit; and a step of, when the voice output unit outputs a voice, by the voice input control unit, keeping the voice signal generation unit in a receivable state for a predetermined period after output of the voice, the receivable state being a state in which a voice input is receivable.