Patent ID: 7512538

Claim:
A dialog supporting device which supports dialog, for use with another dialog supporting device, said device comprising: an example database operable to hold first examples and second examples which are used in the dialog, wherein the first examples are associated with respective second examples; an utterance receiving unit operable to receive an utterance of a user; an example selecting unit operable to (i) extract first example candidates by searching said example database based on the utterance received by said utterance receiving unit, (ii) select one first example from the extracted first example candidates, and (iii) obtain a second example associated with the selected one first example; a sending unit operable to send the second example obtained by said example selecting unit, to the other dialog supporting device; a receiving unit operable to receive a second example from the other dialog supporting device; an utterance outputting unit operable to output the second example from the other dialog supporting device; and an example reevaluating unit operable to reevaluate the first example candidates extracted by said example selecting unit, based on the second example from the other dialog supporting device.