Patent ID: 7143040

Claim:
An interactive dialogue apparatus comprising: means for generating prompts to be output; means for processing input responses to produce response data; a store for storing response data; a store storing data defining an initial state, a plurality of subsequent states, possible transitions between states, and for each transition an associated condition to be satisfied before that transition is deemed allowable, at least some of said conditions involving the stored response data; and control means operable to (a) perform a parsing operation in which it examines whether transition conditions are satisfied so as to identify a subsequent state in respect of which— (i) the condition(s) associated with the transition(s) from a reference state to that state are satisfied, and (ii) no conditions associated with any transition from that state are satisfied; (b) select, in dependence upon the state thus identified, a prompt to be output; wherein the control means is operable upon receipt of a response to repeat the parsing operation using said initial state as the reference state.