Patent ID: 7676369
Filing Date: 2010-03-09
Classification: G10L

Abstract:
1. A conversation control apparatus, comprising: (a) a conversation database having stored therein: (b) a voice input unit configured to receive speech input of a user; (c) a sensor unit configured to acquire facial image data of the user; (d) an emotion estimation module configured to estimate a current emotion of the user, based upon a characteristic quantity of an expression computed from the facial image data of the user acquired by the sensor unit, and to generate event information indicative of a result of the estimate; (e) a past conversation information storage unit storing a plurality of past conversation information items determined based upon a past speech by the user and a past reply sentence in response to the past speech, the past reply sentence having been output by the conversation control apparatus; (f) an output unit configured to output sentences; and (g) a conversation control unit, the conversation control unit being configured to execute the following operations: (viii) output the relevant reply sentence, extracted in the operation (vii), to the user.