Patent Document ID: 8095371
Application ID: 11673126

Base Claim:
1. A method for providing voice responses to spoken input items received from a user during a session between the user and a voice response system, comprising: providing computer recognition of spoken input items; providing system responses to spoken input items; storing, in a dialog history log, a record of recognized spoken input items and system responses thereto, said record representing a dialog history; responsive to a determination that the system cannot provide a valid system response to spoken input items, using a dialog state determination model to determine the current state of the dialog with the user based on the dialog history log and a dialog state diagram definition file defining each expected dialog state for the session; forwarding the determined current dialog state to a visual information display remote from the user for use by a human operator other than the user; and forwarding a dialog state diagram including a representation of each dialog state defined by the dialog state diagram definition file, including at least one dialog state, other than a transition between dialog states, not yet entered during the session, to the visual information display for use by the human operator.

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Claim 4:
4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the dialog state determination model includes empirical data and/or algorithms for determining a current dialog state from the dialog history log.