Patent ID: 7260531

Claim:
An interactive system for achieving a prescribed task by conducting a data search based upon information exchanged interactively, comprising: first memory means for storing a database containing data, each item of data having a plurality of attributes and a plurality of values assigned to the plurality of attributes, respectively, each attribute being associated with a set of attribute words representing the values, respectively, that can be assigned to the associated attribute; second memory means for storing a plurality of questions about the attribute words; classification means for classifying the data contained in the database stored in said first memory means into classes corresponding to the attribute words representing the values assigned to the attributes of the data; pronunciation distance calculation means for calculating a pronunciation distance of each set of attribute words associated with a given attribute, based on phonemic distances between the attribute words of the set of attribute words associated with the given attribute; decision means for deciding an order of presenting the questions stored in said second memory means in order of the attributes associated with sets of attribute words having decreasing pronunciation distance; presentation means for presenting the questions in the order that has been decided by said decision means; speech recognition means for recognizing speech entered in response to a presented question; narrowing means for limiting the data to be searched in the database stored in said first memory means to data having a value represented by an attribute word that is a word that has been recognized by said speech recognition means; and entropy calculation means for calculating an entropy of each attribute, wherein said decision means decides the order of presenting the questions stored in said second memory means in order of the attributes having decreasing value of a weighted sum of the pronunciation distance calculated by said pronunciation distance calculation means and the entropy calculated by said entropy calculation means.