Patent ID: 7562006

Claim:
A dialog supporting device which supports dialog, said device comprising: an example database configured to store a first plurality of examples and a second plurality of examples which are used in dialog, respective first plurality of examples being associated with respective second plurality of examples; an utterance receiving unit configured to receive an utterance of a user; an example selecting unit configured to (i) select a first example from the first plurality of examples by searching said example database based on the utterance received by said utterance receiving unit, and (ii) select a second example from the second plurality of examples associated with the selected first example; an utterance difference calculating unit configured to (i) calculate a difference between the utterance and the first example selected by said example selecting unit, and (ii) obtain difference information representing the calculated difference, the difference information being related to a portion of dialog which is included in the utterance but not included in or corresponding to the first example; and a sending unit configured to send the second example obtained by said example selecting unit and the difference information obtained by said utterance difference calculating unit, to a dialog supporting device of a dialog partner of the user.