Patent ID: 7617301
Filing Date: 2009-11-10
Classification: G06Q,G10L,H04L

Abstract:
1. A dialogue apparatus for performing dialogues with a user terminal operated by a user, comprising: a dialogue unit that performs a first and second dialogue with the user terminal; a control unit that judges whether to start the second dialogue during the first dialogue, and starts the second dialogue during the first dialogue in accordance with the a judgment result; and, that accomplishes both the first dialogue and the second dialogue to obtain respectively a first result and a second result, the first result being a result of the accomplished first dialogue, the second result being a result of the accomplished second dialogue; a first monitoring unit that monitors execution states of one or more information acquisition processes for acquiring information to be used for continuing the first dialogue being executed; an estimation unit that, for continuing the first information acquisition process, estimates time necessary to acquire the information to be used for continuing the first dialogue being executed; and a result transmission unit that transmits the first and the second results to the user terminal respectively or together; wherein the control unit initiates the second dialogue when judging to start the second dialogue based on the estimated time.