Patent ID: 8682669

Claim:
A spoken dialog system, comprising: a computer including a processor, and memory, including: a data store for data derived from collected utterances received via the audio input; a data store for logging data including data reporting the association between a state of the dialog system when the utterances were recorded and the utterances; and a classifier component including a state-dependent semantic classifier generated using state-vector variables for a-the state of the dialog system, the system state being a vector of these variables including variable ranges or quantized variable values; wherein the state-dependent semantic classifier generated by a process including; matching the utterances to each state vector variable; selecting subsets of the state vector variables; determining which of the subsets of the state vector variables have at least one variable combination that corresponds with a minimum training size of n or greater utterances, wherein combinations of variables are derived at every state; and generating the state-dependent classifier using the state subset and variable combination that correspond with the n or greater utterances, wherein more than one subset of n or greater training utterances exists for a given state subset and variable combination, and wherein the system is configured such that at least variable ranges or quantized variable values are extracted from the system state to produce a plurality of distinct utterance subsets matching every possible system state.