User Requirements on a Natural Command Language Dialogue System

User Requirements on a Natural Command Language Dialogue System

Doroteo Torre, J. Gabriel Amores, Jos´e F. Quesada, Carlos Garc´ıa

Distribution: Public

Specification, Interaction and Reconfiguration in Dialogue Understanding Systems: IST-1999-10516 Deliverable D3.1 September, 2000

Specification, Interaction and Reconfiguration in Dialogue Understanding Systems: IST-1999-10516

G¨oteborg University Department of Linguistics SRI Cambridge Natural Language Processing Group Telef´onica Investigaci´on y Desarrollo SA Unipersonal Speech Technology Division Universit¨at des Saarlandes Department of Computational Linguistics Universidad de Sevilla Julietta Research Group in Natural Language Processing

For copies of reports, updates on project activities and other SIRIDUS-related information, contact: The SIRIDUS Project Administrator SRI International 23 Millers Yard, Mill Lane, Cambridge, United Kingdom CB2 1RQ [email protected]

See also our internet homepage http://www.cam.sri.com/siridus

c 2000, The Individual Authors

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 3/70

No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the copyright owner.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 4/70

Contents

1 Introduction

7

2 Context Analysis: The Telephone Scenario

9

2.1

2.2

Demonstrator Scenario . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9

2.1.1

Project Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

9

2.1.2

Project Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

User Analysis: Needs and Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 2.2.1

Individual User Needs and Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2.2.2

Institutional Needs and Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

3 System Technical Requirements

14

3.1

Overview of the Demonstrator Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

3.2

Architecture Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 3.2.1

Restrictions arising from the PABX Interaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

3.2.2

External Resources: Corporate Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

3.2.3

User Interface Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

3.2.4

Discussion on Advanced Capabilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001 4 User Requirements at the Command and Dialogue Levels 4.1

4.2

Page 5/70 23

User Requirements at the Command System Level: Telephone Functions . . . . . 23 4.1.1

Dialling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

4.1.2

Redialling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

4.1.3

Transferring incoming calls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

4.1.4

Cancellation of incoming calls transfer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

4.1.5

Conference call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

4.1.6

Office number look up by name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

4.1.7

E–mail address look up by name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

User Requirements at the Dialogue Level: Human–Machine Interaction . . . . . 36

5 Survey of Similar Systems

40

5.1

Natural Information Interface (Bell Labs) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

5.2

Watson (AT&T) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

5.3

Wildfire (Wildfire Communications) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

6 The Spanish Telephone Command Dialogue Corpus 6.1

44

English Version (translated) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 6.1.1

Dialogue 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

6.1.2

Dialogue 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

6.1.3

Dialogue 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

6.1.4

Dialogue 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

6.1.5

Dialogue 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 6/70

6.1.6

Dialogue 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

6.1.7

Dialogue 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

6.1.8

Dialogue 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

6.1.9

Dialogue 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

6.1.10 Dialogue 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 6.2

Spanish Version (original) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 6.2.1

Dialogue 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

6.2.2

Dialogue 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

6.2.3

Dialogue 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

6.2.4

Dialogue 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

6.2.5

Dialogue 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

6.2.6

Dialogue 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

6.2.7

Dialogue 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

6.2.8

Dialogue 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

6.2.9

Dialogue 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

6.2.10 Dialogue 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 7/70

Chapter 1 Introduction SIRIDUS Work Package 3 aims at the generation of a demonstrator software for a Spanish spoken language interface to a telephone using a Natural Command Language. The process, as a whole, has been divided into four main stages:

Specification and Analysis of User Requirements System Design Implementation Evaluation

This document concentrates on the first stage: Specification and Analysis of the User Requirements. Following the recommendations of the Software Engineering Standards for User Requirements Specification (RESPECT: Requirements Engineering and Specification in Telematics [Maguire, 1997]), this process should be performed in parallel to Organization and Business Requirements and System Technical Requirements Specification. Therefore, this document will link together the three aspects where necessary. In the elaboration of this document, we have taken into account the guidelines of the DISC project, paying special attention to Speech Recognition, Dialogue Management and Human Factors components. Chapter 2 analyzes the context of the intended application, including a summary of the main project goals and requirements and an analysis of the potential users and their environment.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 8/70

In order to have a realistic picture about the feasibility of the application, Chapter 3 describes the System Technical Requirements that have to be taken into account, which may be classified into three main groups: First, section 3.1 analyzes the PABX constraints and current limitations. These will determine the implementation of the different telephone commands. Second, section 3.2 describes the constraints imposed by the technical characteristics of the external resources, and, finally, section 3.3 concentrates on the user interaction environment, paying special attention to the speech input/output interface, and the use of a telephone terminal. The specific user requirements that appear at the command and dialogue levels are the focus of chapter 4. The current set of telephone functions and other functions imposed by the nature of the scenario will also be described in detail in this chapter. Chapter 5 compares the characteristics and functionality of the system under development with some known systems in similar and related domains. Finally, chapter 6 contains 10 dialogues representative of the Telephone Operator System scenario in English and Spanish.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 9/70

Chapter 2 Context Analysis: The Telephone Scenario This chapter analyzes the scenario considered for the Natural Command Language dialogue system demonstrator to be developed in SIRIDUS Work Package 3 from a general point of view. Section 2.1 begins with a general description of the demonstrator to be developed and the scenario considered. After this initial description, section 2.2 analyses the scenario from the point of view of the individual user and the institutions that will use the system, paying special attention in both cases to the needs and benefits that the system will bring to them.

2.1 Demonstrator Scenario The scenario considered is a relatively large institution with a PABX that provides local extensions to the individuals who are part of that institution. These local extensions allow the users to perform certain advanced functions, like transferring incoming calls, conference calls and so on. Examples of these kinds of institutions are relatively large private or public companies, universities, government departments, etc.

2.1.1 Project Summary The motivation for using a spoken language dialogue system in this scenario arises from the consideration of the use that individual users make of the PABX in this kind of institutions. This consideration will be analysed in greater detail in section 2.2. At this point it is enough to say that the traditional system based on a PABX and local extensions for large institutions requires

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 10/70

the individual users to perform a series of recurrent and not very user–friendly operations. A spoken language dialogue system working over the phone and providing access to the telephone functions supported by the PABX would allow individual users to perform these tasks in a more efficient, and user–friendly way. The main goal of the demonstrator of SIRIDUS Work Package 3 is, therefore, to build a demonstrator that allows several users to have access to some telephone functions in this scenario by means of natural spoken language over the phone. The resulting demonstrator will involve the development of a system with real potential applicability. This process will be carried out in parallel with other work packages in SIRIDUS. Thus, the development of the demonstrator will be able to take advantage, whenever it is reasonably possible and technically convenient, of the results of other work packages and, viceversa: other work packages may also benefit from the development of such a system. The demonstrator will also provide an example of a system able to handle Natural Command Languages, which were not analysed within the TRINDI project.

2.1.2 Project Requirements The implementation of the demonstrator will take the company Telef´onica I+D as a working example of the scenario described in the previous section, since the development of the demonstrator requires to have full access to the PABX (which must be controlled and programmed), and to the corporate directory (this need will be justified later). The choice of Telef´onica I+D as an example of institution imposes the additional restriction that Spanish will be the working language. The use of Spanish implies that a continuous speech recogniser and a speech synthesiser for Spanish need to be available. Telef´onica I+D will provide this technology and make the necessary configuration modifications in order to tune them to this domain. The development of the dialogue system will also require the use of natural language processing tools and dialogue management tools. These tools will be provided by Julietta Research Group on Natural Language Processing of the University of Seville. Finally, it will be necessary for the development of the demonstrator to have some knowledge about the domain. Telef´onica I+D will provide such knowledge in the form of a corpus of dialogues in this domain. This corpus was compiled by Telef´onica I+D using a Wizard of Oz approach, and contains 61 dialogues with different users. In each dialogue each user tried to achieve the performance of several telephone functions. Chapter 6 contains several dialogues of this corpus plus several others similar to those appearing in the corpus.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 11/70

2.2 User Analysis: Needs and Benefits In the scenario of the intended demonstrator two sorts of users can be identified. On the one hand there are individual users who make use of the dialogue system to have access to several telephone functions. On the other hand, there is an institution that makes use of the system to allow its personnel to have access to telephone functions in an easier and more friendly way. This section analyses the needs of users in this scenario from both perspectives and the benefits that the use of a dialogue system will bring to them.

2.2.1 Individual User Needs and Benefits Individual users (or just ‘users’) in this context usually make an important number of phone calls every day to different colleagues in their organisation. For some of these phone calls the user may already know the extension. However, it is very common that the user needs to look up the extension in a corporation directory in order to actually place the phone call. There is a clear need for providing these users with a quicker and more friendly way to perform this routine task. As a first stage in helping them, some large corporations have edited their own telephone directories for a long time. The drawbacks of this mechanism are evident: it is costly, the look up procedure is slow and not very friendly, and it is very difficult to maintain the directory up to date. More recently, paper directories have been substituted by WEB–based directories on the Intranet of the organisation, which has resulted in a quicker and more user–friendly look up procedure. However, there is still a need for an explicit and separate look up procedure which is by no means user–friendly. After the user has the information he has requested, he still has to place the phone call. In summary, the WEB–based procedure has some advantages over the paper based directory, but it still requires the user to perform several actions to make a call:

1. Open the Intranet WEB page with the directory. 2. Look–up the name of the person whose extension is needed (by typing it in a keyboard). 3. Once the person has been found, dial the extension (which requires the user to retain the extension and to dial it)

An automatic dialogue system will allow users to call other colleagues in their organisation without the need for dialling any phone number.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 12/70

Such a system would have a number of advantages over the WEB–based directory. It would allow users to identify the person they want to talk to by their name. Moreover, such system would avoid the need for separate actions. In particular, there would be no need to go through the intermediate, non user–friendly process of obtaining the extension number, and then calling. These advantages would allow a quicker and easier way to make internal phone calls in an organisation. Regarding the maintenance of the directory, it would reside in a centralised server, thus being as easy to maintain up to date as the WEB based corporate directory. Making a call to an internal extension is one of the most commonly used telephone functions in an organisation. However, there are still several kinds of telephone functions that users often use. These include transferring incoming calls, placing conference calls, transferring ongoing calls, etc. These functions are typically performed by dialling several codes in a pre–defined sequence. However, since these codes are difficult to remember, users tend not to use them. Although paper instructions have been commonly used to help users, they don’t solve the problem at all. WEB based systems, on the other hand, don’t seem to be very helpful in this case. Automatic dialogue systems seem to be very appropriate for these circumstances as well. Namely, they could allow users to perform some or all of these functions using their voice and natural language. Finally, there are several recurrent actions that employees in these organisations routinely perform. For example, it is very common to look up someone else’s e–mail address or office number. This actions could be facilitated via a WEB based corporate information look up service. However, this method has similar drawbacks as those pointed out above, since the user has to type the name of the person whose e–mail address or office number is being searched. It would be far more natural, easy and quick to just ask for that information using speech and natural language. Again, this functionality could be provided by a dialogue system. There are many more examples that can be found within the context of a corporate telephone scenario where a spoken language dialogue system may be helpful and convenient. For example, a dialogue system may facilitate and provide a unified interface for accessing the messages stored in an answering machine, for sending speech messages, listening to e-mails, dictating e–mails through the phone, etc. It is also worth pointing out that having a Dialogue Systems extends the capabilities of the PABX. For example, ”the repeat” command is not actually a provided function of the PABX. Obviously, it would be desirable that one and the same dialogue system would provide all these functions, making all of them accessible in a unified and consistent way.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 13/70

2.2.2 Institutional Needs and Benefits An organisation consists of individuals. Therefore, the advantages that a spoken language dialogue system would provide to individual users will also be advantageous for the organisation as a whole. However, an organisation is not a collection of isolated individuals but a collection of individuals who interact with each other. This interaction is a very important issue, since depending on the interaction among the individuals integrating an organisation it may be efficient or inefficient, quick or slow, etc. Therefore, from the organisation’s point of view it would be very interesting to promote efficiency in the communication among the individuals who conform it. A spoken language dialogue system implementing several of the functions described in the previous section would certainly increase efficiency in the communication among people in the organisation, thus making the organisation itself more efficient.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 14/70

Chapter 3 System Technical Requirements This document is primarily concerned with the user requirements on the Natural Command Language dialogue demonstrator that will be built in SIRIDUS Work Package 3. However, it is quite clear that user requirements can’t be defined without taking into consideration other sources of restrictions. More specifically, there is a series of technical factors arising from the system to be implemented that must be taken into account when defining the user requirements. Otherwise, some user requirements might not be fulfilled because of technical difficulty or even impossibility. This chapter describes the proposed architecture for the demonstrator from a conceptual point of view. Then it analyses the potential restrictions and difficulties arising from that architecture. In particular, this chapter will show that there are three main sources of restrictions arising from that architecture, and will analyse the influence of these restrictions on the user requirements. Finally, this chapter will discuss other advanced functions that, although theoretically possible with the proposed architecture, will not be implemented in the demonstrator due to the technical difficulties that they imply.

3.1 Overview of the Demonstrator Architecture An analysis of the functionality of the intended demonstrator shows that there are three different sorts of tasks to be performed by the system. First of all, the system is a spoken language dialogue system, and therefore the most important task is to recognise the utterances from the user, analyse them, perform the actions requested by

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 15/70

the user, and provide some kind of feedback in the form of a synthetic voice to the user. This kind of tasks is common to all spoken language dialogue systems, and therefore it will not be further described in this document. Secondly, the spoken language dialogue system, particularly the dialogue manager, will need to have access to a corporate database with information about those belonging to the institution. This database will be necessary in order to provide services like name dialling, e–mail look up by name, etc. Therefore the demonstrator will have to perform some tasks in order to handle the database allowing the dialogue manager to access its contents. Finally, the spoken language dialogue system will allow the user to have access to several telephone functions. Some of them, like transferring incoming calls, require some sort of control and programming of the internal PABX. Therefore, the demonstrator will have to include some tasks to control the interaction with the PABX in order to perform the actions requested by the dialogue manager.

Command Languages between the Dialogue Manager and the Database and the PABX It is worth pointing out that the whole system can be described as a Natural Command Language dialogue system that translates commands issued by the user using their voice over the phone and natural language into commands of two underlying (artificial) Command Languages: The Command Language that allows the interaction between the dialogue manager and the database containing information about people in the institution (through a database interface). This interaction will proceed basically in the following way: the dialogue manager will issue commands (using this Command Language) to the database interface, which subsequently will translate these commands into database commands and will return an answer to the dialogue manager. The Command Language that allows the interaction between the dialogue manager and the PABX (through a PABX interface). This interaction will be carried out by means of commands (in this particular Command Language) that the dialogue manager will issue to the PABX interface, which in turn will perform the appropriate control or programming actions on the PABX and will return an answer to the dialogue manager.

Extended Capabilities provided by the Dialogue System It is also worth noting that the demonstrator to be developed will be able to provide functions that would be impossible to provide using only the PABX or only the corporate database.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 16/70

In this sense the Natural Command Language dialogue system to be developed will combine the functionalities of the two underlying (artificial) Command Language systems, thus providing extended capabilities, which can be accessed in a unified and user–friendly way through commands expressed in natural language using voice over the phone.

Overall Architecture of the Telephone Operator Dialogue System Figure 3.1 shows a conceptual representation of the architecture that a demonstrator like the one to be built will require. The figure shows that there are four different conceptual components in the architecture. Three of them represent the different sorts of tasks to be performed in the demonstrator and the fourth one is the PABX itself: The PABX shows two sets of lines that are able to carry telephone conversations, represented with solid lines in the figure. The first set consists of external lines which are connected to the Public Switching Telephone Network, thus allowing users to have access to telephone numbers outside the institution. In the demonstrator these lines will be used to allow users to make external phone calls. The second set of lines represents the internal extensions. Usually, each one is assigned to one extension in the institution. In the demonstrator, we will need to assign one or several of these lines to the spoken language dialogue system (this is represented in the figure with four local extensions connected to the spoken language dialogue system). These lines will be used in the conversations between a user and the demonstrator, both for recognition (user input) and for the synthesised speech (output to the user). The PABX will also be connected to a module managing the interface between the dialogue manager and the PABX via a serial line. In principle, it seems that the only interaction needed between the dialogue manager and the PABX takes the form of commands from the dialogue manager to the PABX. However, some sort of information flow in the opposite direction may also be necessary. For instance, the dialogue manager may need to be notified when the PABX has initiated a new connection between the dialogue manager and a user extension. The PABX interface module should be able to control the flow of information in these two directions. The module labelled spoken language dialogue system will include a speech recogniser and a speech synthesiser of Spanish working over telephone lines. It will also include a natural language processing module and a dialogue manager. This module will be in charge of handling everything related to the communication with the user via spoken language. It will also be in charge of accessing the corporate directory when needed, requesting the execution of several telephone functions to the PABX interface, and performing the required actions when a user is connected.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 17/70

Figure 3.1: Overall Architecture of the Telephone Operator Spoken Dialogue System

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 18/70

The database will contain information about the people in the institution. This information will be needed in order to provide services in a friendly way, and also to manage the dialogue in a more intelligent way.

3.2 Architecture Restrictions Once the conceptual system architecture for the demonstrator under consideration has been analysed, it is quite clear that there are some potential sources of restrictions for the resulting dialogue demonstrator. One is the interaction with the PABX. In particular, this interaction will define which telephone functions are susceptible of being implemented and which ones are not. This interaction will also affect the way in which users access the dialogue demonstrator. Another potential source of restrictions is the content of the corporate database (or corporate directory). In particular, the content of this database and the possibilities for accessing it from several modules of the system will restrict the functions that the dialogue system will be able to perform, and also the capabilities of the dialogue manager. Finally, having to perform the dialogue over the phone, and the use of imperfect speech recognition and speech synthesis technologies will impose several restrictions on the user interface.

3.2.1 Restrictions arising from the PABX Interaction The main feature of the demonstrator to be developed is that it will allow users to have access to some telephone functions using spoken natural language. In order to actually perform the telephone functions required by the user, the demonstrator, namely the dialogue manager, will need to interact with the local PABX. This interaction will be possible by means of a direct serial connection to the local PABX and the use of a commercial software that facilitates that interaction. This software supports and provides relatively simple access to several PABX functions, while other functions are simply not supported, or would require a great amount of development and test effort. In sum, we should highlight that only a limited degree of control on the PABX will be possible. There are several functions that appear in the Natural Command Language Spanish Corpus (see Chapter 6) that will not be implemented in the demonstrator due to this limitation.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 19/70

The set of PABX functions which have been identified as possible to be implemented using the technology available, and useful for users are the following:

1. Making a telephone call 2. Transferring incoming calls 3. Cancellation of incoming calls transfer 4. Making a conference call

The interaction between the demonstrator and the PABX also determines how the users will be able to establish a communication with the dialogue system. One first and obvious way in which users may get in contact with the demonstrator is by dialling a specific four–digit number. However, this option is not very user friendly because it requires the user to remember the number that provides access to the dialogue system. Alternatively, it is also possible to choose an easy-to-remember number, or even to program the PABX so that it automatically connects the internal extension with the dialogue system when a single–digit number is dialled. In the dialogue system demonstrator, however, we will try to allow some users to get in contact with the dialogue system even without having to explicitly dial a number. In order to do so, the PABX could be programmed so that several local extensions behave in an active way. More explicitly, when the handset of one of these local extensions is picked up, the PABX will detect it and, if there is no dialling in several seconds, the PABX will automatically connect to the dialogue demonstrator and will notify the dialogue system that a new connection has been established. The dialogue manager will then start a conversation with the user.

3.2.2 External Resources: Corporate Directory One of the main features of the dialogue demonstrator is that it will allow users to have access to information about other people in the same institution using those people’s names as input. In order to do so, the dialogue system, particularly the dialogue demonstrator, will need to have access to a database with information about all the people belonging to the organisation. The information stored in the database and the way in which it can be accessed will determine the possible functions to perform and the form in which the parameters to those functions can be provided by the user. For example, if the database does not differentiate between first name and

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 20/70

surname, it will not be possible to search by those fields independently (’Call Mr. Smith’ would not be a legal request.). We will develop a simple database and will determine which of the available information in the organisation that will be taken as an example (Telef´onica I+D) will also be available in the database of the demonstrator. For that reason the corporate directory database should only impose the restriction that only the information available in the corporate directory of Telef´onica I+D could also be available in the corporate directory to be used in the demonstrator. Fortunately, that information will not impose severe limitations on the demonstrator, as the internal directory of Telef´onica I+D already includes the following information for each person in the company:

First name First surname Second surname Extension number E–mail address Office number

3.2.3 User Interface Restrictions The user interface to the dialogue system imposes several restrictions that will play an important role in the final performance of the system. Here we will analyse some of these limitations. Firstly, the only possible interface between the dialogue system and the user will be speech. This fact may be important because in some circumstances an speech–based interface results inefficient (for example in the case in which the dialogue manager gives information based on a map). Fortunately, in our domain the kind of information that the system and the user need to interchange is perfectly identifiable in terms of speech only. Secondly, the speech that both the system and the user will receive will not be clean speech, but speech that has been transmitted through a telephone line (telephonic speech) and a PABX. The main difference between telephonic speech and clean speech is the bandwidth, which is much more limited in the case of telephonic speech. In addition, noises and interference result in a loss of quality which will inevitably lead to a worse speech recognition rate.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 21/70

Finally, the use of an imperfect speech recogniser and synthesiser may lead to misrecognitions and misinterpretations from both sides of the dialogue. The misinterpretation from the user, however, is highly improbable due to the high intelligibility of speech synthesisers and the high competence of humans at speech recognition. Misrecognition and misinterpretation from the system is far more common, and many factors have been identified as their cause:

Imperfect acoustic modelling: The acoustic models will be speaker–independent, but they will model some users better than others, and will produce better results with some users than with others. Moreover, some models could be badly trained and therefore behave badly with all users. A limited lexicon and the impossibility of detecting that a word out of the vocabulary has been pronounced inevitably leads to misrecognition. Imperfect Language modelling: If a correct sentence is considered to be incorrect by the language model, the recogniser will try to choose another one, maybe leading to misinterpretation. Background noise and voices also cause problems.

3.2.4 Discussion on Advanced Capabilities There is a large number of different and more advanced capabilities that could be provided in the environment considered for the demonstrator to be developed in SIRIDUS Work Pakage 3. For this demonstrator, however, we have decided to limit the number and complexity of the functions provided due to technical difficulties, to time and budget constraints, and also because the main goal of the demonstrator in SIRIDUS is not to build a final product, but to provide an example of the development of an almost–real Natural Command Language dialogue system. Adding more advanced functions doesn’t improve substantially the demonstrator as an example of Natural Command Language dialogue system and greatly complicates its development in aspects not related to the dialogue management problem. Is is important to note, however, that the conceptual architecture proposed for the demonstrator would allow, with minor changes in some cases, the implementation of additional advanced functions. Our hope is that these advanced functions can be implemented in future projects. Some of the advanced functions that could be implemented in future projects are the following:

More advanced call routing capabilities. For instance, being able of dealing with request like ”put me through to the person responsible for the development of dialogue systems”.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 22/70

Increasing the helpfulness of the system, so that it can not only execute the commands of the user, but also suggest alternatives. For instance, suggesting to call the secretary, if the extension is busy or doesn’t answer. Providing a way for connecting the dialogue system to an ongoing conversation, so that one of the speakers could, just using spoken natural commands: – Transfer an ongoing call to other extension. – Connect and disconnect extensions to an ongoing conversation, thus allowing dynamic multi–party coference calls. Providing a unified way to access e–mail and speech messages trough the phone. Performing user identification, so that, once identified, a user could perform all the functions as if he were calling from his own extension. This would be particularly important to access to the e–mail and speech messages remotely.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 23/70

Chapter 4 User Requirements at the Command and Dialogue Levels 4.1 User Requirements at the Command System Level: Telephone Functions This section describes the different functions that the demonstrator will provide, as well as their required and optional parameters.

4.1.1 Dialling Dialling requires a parameter that identifies the destination of the call. This destination needs to be determined by one of the following parameters: 1. A name The demonstrator will require the first name and the first surname to identify the person to which the user refers to. Two examples of dialogues that will allow a user to perform this function are presented below. In the first case the user provides all the information needed in an utterance. In the second, she provides only the function in the first utterance and the system requests the rest of the information. Example 1:

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001 Spanish Version – – – – – –

S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Quiero llamar a Juan Perelada. S(3): ¿Realmente quiere llamar a Juan Perelada? U(2): S´ı. S(4): EJECUCION DE LA LLAMADA.

English Version – – – – – –

S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): I would like to call Juan Perelada. S(3): Do you really want to place a call to Juan Perelada? U(2): Yes. S(4): CALLING.

Example 2: Spanish Version – – – – – – – –

S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Quiero hacer una llamada. S(3): Por favor, indique el destino de la llamada. U(2): A Juan Perelada. S(4): ¿Realmente quiere llamar a Juan Perelada? U(3): S´ı. S(5): EJECUCION DE LA LLAMADA.

English Version – – – – – – – –

S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): I would like to place a call. S(3): Specify the destination for the call. U(2): Juan Perelada. S(4): Do you really want to place a call to Juan Perelada? U(3): Yes. S(5): CALLING.

2. An extension (four digits)

Page 24/70

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 25/70

When the parameter of the function ’dial’ is a number composed of four digits it will be interpreted by the dialogue system as a valid internal extension, and therefore the system will try to place a call to that extension. Two examples of dialogues that will allow a user to perform this function are presented below. In the first case the user provides all the information needed in an utterance. In the second, she provides only the function in the first utterance and the system requests the rest of the information. Example 1: Spanish Version – – – – – –

S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Quiero llamar al 1234. S(3): ¿Realmente quiere llamar al 1234? U(2): S´ı. S(4): EJECUCION DE LA LLAMADA.

English Version – – – – – –

S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): I would like to place a call to the number 1234. S(3): Do you really want to place a call to the number 1234? U(2): Yes. S(4): CALLING.

Example 2: Spanish Version – – – – – – – –

S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Quiero hacer una llamada. S(3): Por favor, indique el destino de la llamada. U(2): Al 1234. S(4): ¿Realmente quiere llamar al 1234? U(3): S´ı. S(5): EJECUCION DE LA LLAMADA.

English Version – S(1): Welcome to the system. – S(2): Please, specify a function. – U(1): I would like to place a call.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001 – – – – –

Page 26/70

S(3): Specify the destination for the call. U(2): 1234. S(4): Do you really want to place a call to the number 1234? U(3): Yes. S(5): CALLING.

3. An external line (nine digits) If the parameter of the dialling function is a number composed of nine digits it will be interpreted as a valid external line number, and therefore the system will try to place a phone call to that external line number. Two examples of dialogues that will allow a user to perform this function are presented below. In the first case the user provides all the information needed in an utterance. In the second, she provides only the function in the first utterance and the system asks for the rest of the information. Example 1: Spanish Version – – – – – –

S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Quiero llamar al 123456789. S(3): ¿Realmente quiere llamar al 123456789? U(2): S´ı. S(4): EJECUCION DE LA LLAMADA.

English Version – – – – – –

S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): I would like to place a call to the number 123456789. S(3): Do you really want to place a call to the number 123456789? U(2): Yes. S(4): CALLING.

Example 2: Spanish Version – – – – –

S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Quiero hacer una llamada. S(3): Por favor, indique el destino de la llamada. U(2): Al 123456789.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 27/70

– S(4): ¿Realmente quiere llamar al 123456789? – U(3): S´ı. – S(5): EJECUCION DE LA LLAMADA. English Version – – – – – – – –

S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): I would like to place a call. S(3): Specify the destination for the call. U(2): 123456789. S(4): Do you really want to place a call to the number 123456789? U(3): Yes. S(5): CALLING.

4.1.2 Redialling This function has no parameters. The dialogue system will remember the last number dialled and will redial it. The following dialogue shows a prototypical use of the redialling function. Redialing example: Spanish Version – S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. – S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. – U(1): Quiero llamar a Juan Perelada. – S(3): ¿Realmente quiere llamar a Juan Perelada? – U(2): S´ı. – S(4): EJECUCION DE LA LLAMADA. – S(5): ¿Quiere realizar alguna otra funci´on? – U(3): S´ı, vuelve a intentarlo. – S(6): ¿Realmente quiere reintentar la llamada? – U(4): S´ı. – S(7): EJECUCION DE LA RELLAMADA.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 28/70

English Version – S(1): Welcome to the system. – S(2): Please, specify a function. – U(1): I would like to place a call to the number 123456789. – S(3): Do you really want to place a call to the number 123456789? – U(2): Yes. – S(4): CALLING. – S(5): Would you like to perform any other function? – U(3): Yes, try it again. – S(6): Do you really want to retry the phone call? – U(4): Yes. – S(7): REDIALLING.

4.1.3 Transferring incoming calls This function requires a parameter that determines the destination to which the incoming calls must be transferred. As in the case of the dialling function, this information could be provided in one of several ways. External numbers (nine digits) are not allowed in this function. So, this function requires one of the following parameters to be performed:

1. A name The demonstrator will require the first name and the first surname to identify the person to which the user refers to, and therefore to actually transfer the calls to the extension associated with that person. Two examples of dialogues that will allow a user to perform this function are presented below. In the first case the user provides all the information needed in an utterance. In the second, she provides only the function in the first utterance and the system requests the rest of the information. Example 1: Spanish Version – S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. – S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. – U(1): Desear´ıa desviar mis llamadas al n´umero de tel´efono de Juan Perelada.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 29/70

– S(3): ¿Realmente quiere desviar al n´umero de tel´efono de Juan Perelada? – U(2): S´ı, por favor. – S(4): EJECUCION DEL DESVIO. English Version – – – – – –

S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): I would like to transfer my calls to Juan Perelada’s extension. S(3): Do you really want to transfer your calls to the extension of Juan Perelada? U(2): Yes, please. S(4): TRANSFERRING CALLS.

Example 2: Spanish Version – – – – – – – –

S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Desear´ıa desviar mis llamadas. S(3): Por favor, indique el destino del desv´ıo. U(2): Al n´umero de tel´efono de Juan Perelada. S(4): ¿Realmente quiere deviar al n´umero de tel´efono de Juan Perelada? U(3): S´ı, por favor. S(5): EJECUCION DEL DESVIO.

English Version – – – – – – – –

S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): I would like to transfer my calls. S(3): Please, specify a destination for the transferring. U(2): To the extension of Juan Perelada. S(4): Do you really want to transfer your calls to the extension of Juan Perelada? U(3): Yes, please. S(5): TRANSFERRING CALLS.

2. An extension (four digits) When the parameter of the transferring calls function is a number composed of four digits it will be interpreted by the dialogue system as a valid internal extension, and therefore the system will try to transfer the incoming calls to that extension. Two examples of dialogues that will allow a user to perform this function are presented below. In the first case the user provides all the information needed in an utterance. In the second, she provides only the function in the first utterance and the system requests the rest of the information.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 30/70

Example 1: Spanish Version – – – – – –

S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Desear´ıa desviar mis llamadas a la extensi´on 1234. S(3): ¿Realmente quiere desviar a la extensi´on 1234? U(2): S´ı, por favor. S(4): EJECUCION DEL DESVIO.

English Version – – – – – –

S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): I would like to transfer my calls to the extension 1234. S(3): Do you really want to transfer your calls to the extension 1234? U(2): Yes, please. S(4): TRANSFERRING CALLS.

Example 2: Spanish Version – – – – – – – –

S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Desear´ıa desviar mis llamadas. S(3): Por favor, indique el destino del desv´ıo. U(2): A la extensi´on 1234. S(4): ¿Realmente quiere desviar a la extensi´on 1234? U(3): S´ı, por favor. S(5): EJECUCION DEL DESVIO.

English Version – – – – – – – –

S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): I would like to transfer my calls. S(3): Please, specify a destination for the transferring. U(2): To the extension 1234. S(4): Do you really want to transfer your calls to the extension 1234? U(3): Yes, please. S(5): TRANSFERRING CALLS.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 31/70

4.1.4 Cancellation of incoming calls transfer This function has no parameters. The effect of the execution of this function is that the system will cancel any incoming calls transference associated with the extension from which the function has been activated. An example of the kind of dialogue in which users would typically use this function is the following.

Example: Spanish Version – S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. – S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. – U(1): Quiero cancelar el desv´ıo de llamadas. – S(3): ¿Realmente quiere cancelar el desv´ıo de llamadas? – U(2): S´ı. – S(4): CANCELACION DEL DESVIO. English Version – S(1): Welcome to the system. – S(2): Please, specify a function. – U(1): I would like to cancel the transference of incoming calls. – S(3): Do you really want to cancel the transference of incoming calls? – U(2): Yes. – S(4): CANCELLING THE TRANSFERENCE OF INCOMING CALLS.

4.1.5 Conference call The demonstrator to be developed will only support three party telephone conferences. Therefore this function will require two parameters, each one specifying one of the parties in the conference call. As in the case of incoming call transfers, these parameters could take the form of:

1. Two names

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 32/70

The demonstrator will require the first name and the first surname to identify each person to which the user refers, and therefore to actually set up a conference call with the extensions associated with those people. An example of a dialogue that will activate this function is the following. Note that here only the case in which all the information is provided by the user at once is presented. The user has several options in this function: she can provide the function alone; the function and one of the two parameters; or the function and the two parameters. In any case, the system will decide whether it has enough parameters to execute the function; otherwise it will request that information explicitly. Two names conference call Example: Spanish Version – – – –

S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Quiero una multiconferencia con Juan Perelada y Antonio Morales. S(3): ¿Realmente quiere una multiconferencia con Juan Peraleda y Antonio Morales? – U(2): S´ı. – S(4): EJECUCION DE LA MULTICONFERENCIA. English Version – S(1): Welcome to the system. – S(2): Please, specify a function. – U(1): I would like to set up a conference call with Juan Peraleda and Antonio Morales. – S(3): Do you really want to make a conference call to Juan Peraleda and Antonio Morales? – U(2): Yes. – S(4): CONFERENCE CALL. 2. Two extensions (four digits each) When the parameters of the conference call function are two numbers, each composed of four digits, they will be interpreted by the dialogue system as two valid internal extensions, and therefore the system will try to set up a conference call with those extensions. An example of a dialogue that will activate this function follows. Note that here only the case in which all the information is provided by the user at once is presented. The user has several options in this function: she can provide the function alone; the function and one of the two parameters; or the function and the two parameters. In any case, the system will decide whether it has enough parameters to execute the function; otherwise, it will request for that information explicitly.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 33/70

Two extensions conference call example: Spanish Version – – – – – –

S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Quiero una multiconferencia con el 1234 y el 4321. S(3): ¿Realmente quiere una multiconferencia con el 1234 y el 4321? U(2): S´ı. S(4): EJECUCION DE LA MULTICONFERENCIA.

English Version – – – – – –

S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): I would like to set up a conference call with 1234 and 4321. S(3): Do you really want to set up a conference call to 1234 and 4321? U(2): Yes. S(4): CONFERENCE CALL.

3. A name and an extension (with four digits) It will also be possible to set up a conference call specifying one of the extensions by the name to which that extension is associated, and the other one by a series of four digits. An example of a dialogue that will activate this function follows. Note that here only the case in which all the information is provided by the user at once is presented. The user has several options in this function: she can provide the function alone; the function and one of the two parameters; or the function and the two parameters. In any case, the system will decide if it has enough parameters to execute the function; otherwise, it will request for that information explicitly. Name and extension conference call Example: Spanish Version – – – – – –

S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Quiero una multiconferencia con Juan Perelada y con el 4321. S(3): ¿Realmente quiere una multiconferencia con Juan Perelada y con el 4321? U(2): S´ı. S(4): EJECUCION DE LA MULTICONFERENCIA.

English Version – S(1): Welcome to the system. – S(2): Please, specify a function.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001 – – – –

Page 34/70

U(1): I would like a conference call to Juan Perelada and to 4321. S(3): Do you really want to make a conference call to Juan Perelada and 4321? U(2): Yes. S(4): CONFERENCE CALL.

4.1.6 Office number look up by name This function requires a parameter that can only take the form of a name:

1. A name The demonstrator will require the first name and the first surname to identify the person to which the user refers to, and therefore to search in a database the information requested by the user, and finally providing the user with that information. Two examples of dialogues that will allow a user to perform this function are presented below. In the first case the user provides all the information needed in an utterance. In the second, she provides only the function in the first utterance and the system requests the rest of the information. Example 1: Spanish Version – – – –

S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Quiero saber el despacho de Juan Perelada. S(3): El despacho de Juan Perelada es el 213-E.

English Version – – – –

S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): I would like to know the office number of Juan Perelada. S(3): The office number of Juan Perelada is 213-E.

Example 1: Spanish Version – – – –

S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Quer´ıa saber un n´umero de despacho. S(3): Por favor, indique la persona del despacho.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 35/70

– U(2): Juan Perelada. – S(4): El despacho de Juan Perelada es el 213-E. English Version – – – – – –

S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): I would like to know an office number. S(3): Please, specify the person in the office. U(2): Juan Perelada. S(4): The office number of Juan Perelada is 213-E.

4.1.7 E–mail address look up by name This function requires a parameter that can only take the form of a name: 1. A name The demonstrator will require the first name and the first surname to identify the person to which the user refers to, and therefore to search in a database the information requested by the user, and finally providing the user with that information. Two examples of dialogues that will allow a user to perform this function are presented below. In the first case the user provides all the information needed in an utterance. In the second, she provides only the function in the first utterance and the system requests the rest of the information. Example 1: Spanish Version – – – –

S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Quiero saber la direcci´on de correo elect´onico de Juan Perelada. S(3): La direcci´on de correo electr´onico de Juan Perelada es [email protected] .

English Version – – – –

S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): I would like to know the e–mail address of Juan Perelada. S(3): The e–mail address of Juan Perelada is [email protected] .

Example 2: Spanish Version

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001 – – – – – –

Page 36/70

S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Quer´ıa saber una direcci´on de correo elctr´onico. S(3): Por favor, indique la persona cuya direcci´on busca. U(2): Juan Perelada. S(4): La direcci´on de correo electr´onico de Juan Perelada es [email protected] .

English Version – – – – – –

S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): I would like to know an e–mail address. S(3): Please, specify the person whose address you want to know. U(2): Juan Perelada. S(4): The e–mail address of Juan Perelada is [email protected] .

4.2 User Requirements at the Dialogue Level: Human–Machine Interaction Some functions are imposed by the nature of the type of interaction, and not by the functionality of the PABX itself. Thus, any dialogue system should be equipped with confirmation strategies, provide help when needed, prompt the user for a continuation, or try to recover the dialogue in case of inconsistent or uninterpretable situations. Although at first sight these functions may be understood as meta–dialogue functions, some ingredients of the specific domain are always required. For example, a help function must contain domain–specific help, or a continuation function may look in the dialogue history to see if a command was previously requested and not completed. Finally, a dialogue recovery function must take into account the available set of domain–specific commands.

Confirmation (Excerpt from Dialogue 1 in Chapter 6): Spanish version – S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. – S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. – U(1): Desear´ıa desviar mis llamadas. – S(3): Por favor, indique el destino del desv´ıo.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 37/70

– U(2): Al n´umero de tel´efono 123456789. – S(4): ¿Realmente quiere deviar al 123456789? – U(3): S´ı, por favor. – S(5): EJECUCION DEL DESVIO. English version – S(1): Welcome to the system. – S(2): Please, specify a function. – U(1): I would like to transfer my calls. – S(3): Please, specify a destination. – U(2): To the telephone number 123456789. – S(4): Do you really want to transfer your calls to the number 123456789? – U(3): Yes, please. – S(5): TRANSFERRING CALLS. Help (Excerpt from Dialogue 6 in Chapter 6): Spanish version – U(9): Necesito ayuda. – S(13): Las funciones disponibles son: hacer llamadas, desviar sus llamadas, ... – S(14): ¿Desea continuar? – U(10): Quiero ayuda acerca de c´omo incluir a alguien en mi agenda personal. – S(15): Puede introducir una entrada nueva en la agenda indicando el nombre y el n´umero. English version – U(9): I need help. – S(13): The functions of the system include: placing a call, transfering calls, ... – S(14): Would you like to continue? – U(10): I need to know how can I add a new entry in my personal directory. – S(15): You can add a new entry in the directory specifying the name and the number of the person. Continuation (Excerpt from Dialogue 6 in Chapter 6) Spanish version

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 38/70

– S(16): ¿Desea continuar? – U(11): Quiero incluir a Juan en mi agenda personal. – S(17): Por favor, indique el n´umero de destino de la entrada que desea a˜nadir. – U(12): El n´umero es el 12345. – S(18): ¿Realmente quiere a˜nadir en la agenda a Juan con el n´umero 12345? – U(13): S´ı, gracias. – S(19): NUEVA ENTRADA EN LA AGENDA. – S(20): ¿Desea continuar? – U(14): Ponme con el 1234. – S(21): ¿Realmente quiere llamar al 1234? – U(15): No, adi´os. Me tengo que marchar urgentemente. – S(22): Gracias por utilizar el sistema. Adi´os. English version – S(16): Would you like to continue? – U(11): I want to add Juan in my personal directory. – S(17): Please, specify a number for the new entry. – U(12): Number 12345. – S(18): Do you really want to add Juan with the number 12345 in your personal directory? – U(13): Yes, please. – S(19): ADDING THE NEW ENTRY. – S(20): Would you like to continue? – U(14): Put me through to the number 1234. – S(21): Do you really want to place a call to the number 1234? – U(15): No, goodbye. I must leave right now. – S(22): Thank you for using the system. Goodbye. Dialogue Recovery (Excerpt from Dialogue 10 in Chapter 6) Spanish version – U(7): Quiero enviar un mensaje. – S(8): Lo siento, no consigo entenderle la funci´on nueva que desea realizar. Vamos a empezar de nuevo. ¿Podr´ıa decirme qu´e funci´on desea realizar?

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 39/70

– U(8): Quiero enviar un mensaje. English version – U(7): I’d like to send a message. – S(8): I’m sorry. I don’t understand which function you would like to perform. Let’s start from the beginning. Could you tell me which function you would like to perform? – U(8): I’d like to send a message.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 40/70

Chapter 5 Survey of Similar Systems Three systems of similar characteristics are described in this chapter:

1. Natural Information Interface (Bell Labs), 2. Watson (AT&T) and 3. Wildfire (Wildfire Communications).

5.1 Natural Information Interface (Bell Labs) This system is based on another one developed under Bob Carpenter’s supervision, which allows the user to make a call–routing request in natural speech. This request may consist of a name, a telephone number, a department, and even an activity to be performed. Additional information on this system can be found at Bell Labs [Bell Labs web page] and Bob Carpenter’s web pages [Carpenter’s web page] . Once the user has made the request, the system responds in one of these three ways:

Routing the call to the most appropiate destination. Asking the user for more information, in order to determine a suitable call destination. Transferring the call to a human operator.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 41/70

As a result, a dialogue is established between the user and the system. It finishes when the system has collected enough information to route the call or to decide that no information can be obtained from the user with the automatic interface. Bell Labs’ system has some interesting characteristics: Multiple access to the service. The user can make a request by voice, DTMF tones or using a web interface. Multilingual text-to-speech synthesis. Echo cancellation. The user can interrupt the system while it is playing a message. Speaker verification. However, some limitations can also be identified: the system has been designed to work in a call– center scenario, and, consequently, it is specialized in call–routing, but it does not allow some actions which can be very useful in the project scenario considered in Siridus Work Package 3, such as: Incoming call transference. Three party conference calls. Personal data look up.

5.2 Watson (AT&T) Watson is an interactive speech system that routes phone calls at users’ requests, made in natural language. In fact, users indicate the kind of consultation they wish to make and the system routes the call to the most appropiate person to answer them. A more detailed description of this system can be found at Watson Project web page [Watson Project web page]. When the user makes a request and the system cannot determine an appropiate destination to route the call, it establishes a natural language dialogue with the user in order to get enough information to make a suitable routing decision. This system is being tested in an insurance company real call–centers. Some interesting characteristics of this system are the following:

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 42/70

Text–to–speech synthesis is used by the system to talk to the user. Echo cancellation is available, and, as a result, the user can interrupt the system when it is speaking. Speaker verification is possible. Commercially available for several platforms.

The system has been designed to be used in call–centers. However, cannot perform some common PABX functions, such as:

Transferring an incoming call to another extension. Establishing three party conference calls. In addition, the system is not prepared to allow personal data look up.

One important limitation for this system is that it requires a training stage before it can be used for a new service. During this period, calls are routed by a human operator, while users think they are using an automatic service. Dialogues are transcribed and they are used to train the system once this training period has finished.

5.3 Wildfire (Wildfire Communications) Wildfire is a voice-operated automatic personal assistant. Information about this system can be found at Wildfilre Communications web page [Wildfire Communications web page]. This system, which operates in a telephone environment, allows a wide variety of functions:

Voice dialing, by destination number or by destination name. Voice-controlled message management. Personal address book. Incoming call alert. Transference of incoming calls.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 43/70

Incoming call screening.

Furthermore, there is an expanded version of Wildfire with other functions, such as conference calling, call–on–call service, fax services and others. Wildfire uses automatic speech recognition with echo cancellation, and is available for different languages: English, French and Italian. The system is commercially available, and in fact it is offered by some telephone service providers, such as Orange and France Telecom. The main weakness of this system is that it does not support natural language dialogues. Instead, keywords must be used to access the services. This means that the user has to learn how to use the system, as she needs to know which keyword must be uttered to activate a function in the system.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 44/70

Chapter 6 The Spanish Telephone Command Dialogue Corpus This chapter contains 10 dialogues representative of the Telephone Operator System scenario: the Spanish Telephone Command Dialogue (STCD) Corpus. The dialogues were originally produced in Spanish and then translated into English. The dialogues are divided into two groups, according to the way in which they were obtained:

Dialogues 1 through 7 were extracted from real test with TeleDelfos [Quesada et al, 2000], the first prototype implementing a dialogue manager in this scenario. These tests were carried out using text input and output. Therefore, these tests don’t suffer from the effects of speech misrecognition. To try to simulate these effects and to test also the confirmation and correction dialogues, in some dialogues some parameters are specified first, then rejected, and finally substituted by other parameters (e.g. U:call X, S: Do you want to call X?, U: No, call Y). Dialogues 8, 9 and 10 belong to the corpus of dialogues which Telef´onica I+D has supplied for this project. This corpus has been obtained from the dialogues held between one out of about 60 different people and a person that tried to simulate the behaviour of an automatic dialogue system. Specifically, the system being simulated was an automatic dialogue system capable of accepting natural commands related to the use of common and advanced telephone functions. For each dialogue the orthographic transcriptions were obtained for both the sentences uttered by the person simulating the automatic dialogue system and the ones uttered by the person that tries to achieve the execution of certain telephone funcions. Each person tried to attain the execution of about five functions.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 45/70

It’s worth noting that both kind of dialogues were obtained before the actual functionality of the system in terms of possible commands had been decided (see Chapter 4 for a detailed description of the commands). Therefore, the dialogues may contain examples of functions that will not be supported in the final version of the system, and viceversa.

6.1 English Version (translated) 6.1.1 Dialogue 1 S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): I would like to transfer my calls. S(3): Please, specify a destination. U(2): To the telephone number 123456789. S(4): Do you really want to transfer your calls to the number 123456789? U(3): Yes, please. S(5): TRANSFERRING CALLS. S(6): Would you like to continue? U(4): No, that’s all. S(7): Thank you for using the system. Goodbye.

6.1.2 Dialogue 2 S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): I would like to place a call. S(3): Specify the destination for the call. U(2): Juan.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001 S(4): Do you really want to place a call to Juan? U(3): Yes. S(5): CALLING. S(6): Would you like to continue? U(4): No. S(7): Thank you for using the system. Goodbye.

6.1.3 Dialogue 3 S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): Good mornig, I would like to place a call to the number 123456789. S(3): Do you really want to place a call to the number 123456789?. U(2): No, to the number 987654321. S(4): Do you really want to place a call to the number 987654321? U(3): Yes. S(5): CALLING. S(6): Would you like to continue? U(4): No. S(7): Thank you for using the system. Goodbye.

6.1.4 Dialogue 4 S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): Hello, I would like to place a call. S(3): Please, specify a destination for the call.

Page 46/70

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001 U(2): No, a collect call. S(4): Please, specify a destination for the collect call. U(3): Number 1234. S(5): Do you really want to place a collect call to the number 1234? U((4): Yes. S(6): PLACING THE COLLECT CALL. S(7): Would you like to continue? U(5): Yes. S(8): Please, specify a function. U(6): Now, I want to send a message. S(9): Who would you like to send a message? U(7): To Juan. S(10): Do you really want to send a message to Juan? U(8): Yes. S(11): SENDING THE MESSAGE. S(12): Would you like to continue? U(9): No. S(13): Thank you for using the system. Goodbye.

6.1.5 Dialogue 5 S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): I want to add a new entry in my personal directory. S(3): Please, specify a name for the new entry. U(2): Number 1234456789.

Page 47/70

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 48/70

S(4): Please, specify a name for the new entry. U(3): Juan. S(5): Do you really want to add Juan with the number 123456789 in your directory? U(4): Yes. S(5): ADDING THE NEW ENTRY. S(6): Would you like to continue? U(5): No. S(7): Thank you for using the system. Goodbye.

6.1.6 Dialogue 6 S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): Hello, I would like to place a collect call. S(3): Please, specify a destination for the collect call. U(2): To the number 123456789. S(4): Do you really want to place a collect call to the number 123456789? U(3): No, to the number 213456789. S(5): Do you really want to place a collect call to the number 213456789. U(4): Yes. S(6): PLACING THE COLLECT CALL. S(7): Would you like to continue? U(5): Yes, please. S(8): Please, specify a function. U(6): I wish to send a message to Juan Perez. S(9): Do you really want to send a message to Juan Perez?

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 49/70

U(7): No, to Pedro. S(10): Do you really want to send a message to Pedro? U(8): Ok. S(11): SENDING THE MESSAGE. S(12): Would you like to continue? U(9): I need help. S(13): The functions of the system include: placing a call, transfering calls, ... S(14): Would you like to continue? U(10): I need to know how can I add a new entry in my personal directory. S(15): You can add a new entry in the directory specifying the name and the number of the person. S(16): Would you like to continue? U(11): I want to add Juan in my personal directory. S(17): Please, specify a number for the new entry. U(12): Number 12345. S(18): Do you really want to add Juan with the number 12345 in your personal directory? U(13): Yes, please. S(19): ADDING THE NEW ENTRY. S(20): Would you like to continue? U(14): Put me through to the number 1234. S(21): Do you really want to place a call to the number 1234? U(15): No, goodbye. I must leave right now. S(22): Thank you for using the system. Goodbye.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

6.1.7 Dialogue 7 S(1): Welcome to the system. S(2): Please, specify a function. U(1): Hello, I would like to place a call. S(3): Please, specify a destination for the call. U(2): Number 1234. S(4): Do you really want to place a call to the number 1234? U(3): Yes, please. S(5): CALLING. S(6): Would you like to continue? U(4): Yes. S(7): Please, specify a function. U(5): Now, I want to transfer my calls. S(8): Please, specify a destination for the transferring. U(6): To the number 1234. S(9): Do you really want to transfer your calls to the number 1234? U(7): No, to the number 2134. S(10): Do you really want to transfer your calls to the number 2134? U(8): Yes. S(11): TRANSFERING THE CALL. S(12): Would you like to continue? U(9): Yes, please. S(13): Please, specify a function. U(10): I wish to send a message. S(14): Who would you like to send a message? U(11): To Juan Perez.

Page 50/70

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 51/70

S(15): Do you really want to send a message to Juan Perez? U(12): No, to Pedro. S(16): Do you really want to send a message to Pedro? U(13): Ok. S(17): SENDING THE MESSAGE. S(18): Would you like to continue? U(14): Put me through to the number 1234. S(19): Do you really want to place a call to the number 1234? U(15): Yes. S(20): CALLING. S(21): Do you want to continue? U(16): No, thanks. S(22): Thank you for using the system. Goodbye.

6.1.8 Dialogue 8 S(1): Welcome to the system. Which function would you like to perform? U(1): I want to place a conference call. S(2): Who would you like to place a conference call? U(2): Number nine one five four nine four seven zero zero and number nine one three thirty seven forty zero zero. S(3): Is the number nine one five four nine four seven zero zero correct? U(3): Yes. S(4): I’ll put you through to the numbers nine one five four nine four seven zero zero and nine one three thirty seven forty zero zero. U(4): S(5): Would you like to perform any other function?

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 52/70

U(5): Yes. S(6): Then, specify a function or ask for help, if you dont know the functions. U(6): I would like to place a collect call. S(7): Who would you like to place a collect call? U(7): To Juan Perez Gonzalez. S(8): I’ll put you through the collect call to Juan Perez Gonzalez. U(8): S(9): Would you like to perform any other function? U(9): Yes. S(10): Then, specify a function or ask for help, if you dont know the functions. U(10): I would like to place a call to extension nine eight nine eight. S(11): I’ll put you through to extension nine eight nine eight. U(11): S(12): Would you like to perform any other function? U(12): Yes. S(13): Then, specify a function or ask for help, if you dont know the functions. U(13): I would like to send a message. S(14): Who would you like to send a message? U(14): To Julia Medina Robles. S(15): Please, record your message after the tone. Pi. S(16): Sending the message to Julia Medina Robles. U(15): S(17): Would you like to perform any other function? U(16): No. S(18): Thank you for using the system.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 53/70

6.1.9 Dialogue 9 S(1): Welcome to the system. Which function would you like to perform? U(1): Good afternoon, I would like to place a call to Juan Perez Gonzalez. S(2): I’ll put you through to Juan Perez Gonzalez. U(2): S(3): Would you like to perform any other function? U(3): Yes, try it again. S(4): I’ll try to reconnect you. U(4): Ok. S(5): Would you like to perform any other function? U(5): Ok! S(6): This is an automatic telephone operator system which allows you to perform different functions. You must simply specify a function or ask for help, if you dont know the choices. U(6): Let’s see, know the email of someone. S(7): Please, you must provide the full name of the person. U(7): Marta Aranguren Blasco. S(8): I’m going to look up the information for Marta Aranguren Blasco in the database of the company. U(8): S(9): The email is marangu. S(10): Would you like to perform any other function? U(9): Let’s see, a conference call. S(11): Who would you like to place a conference call? U(10): Antonio Ruiz Lopez and Juan Alvarez Rodriguez. S(12): Is Antonio Ruiz Lopez the first person you want to place a conference call? U(11): Yes.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 54/70

S(13): I’ll put you through to Antonio Ruiz Lopez and Juan Alvarez Rodriguez. U(12): No, it’s not Juan Alvarez Rodriguez but Pedro Alvarez Rodriguez. S(14): Pedro Alvarez Rodriguez? U(13): Yes. S(15): I’ll put you through to Antonio Ruiz Lopez and Pedro Alvarez Rodriguez. U(14): Ok. S(16): Would you like to perform any other function? U(15): Let’s see, I want to change a password. S(17): Please, to change the password you must provide your full name. U(16): Marta Aranguren Blasco. S(18): Please, provide your current password. U(17): Two twelve. S(19): Please, provide your new password. U(18): One twelve. S(20): Is one twelve the new password? U(19): Yes. S(21): The password has successfully been changed. S(22): Would you like to perform any other function? U(20): No, that’s all. Thank you very much. S(22): Thank you for using the system.

6.1.10 Dialogue 10 S(1): Welcome to the system. Which function would you like to perform? U(1): I want to place a call SILENCE place a call. S(2): Who would you like to place a call?

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 55/70

U(2): Extension nine eight nine eight. S(3): I’ll put you through to extension nine eight nine eight. U(3): S(4): Would you like to perform any other function? U(4): I want to place a call. S(5): Who would you like to place a call? U(5): No, I want to place a collect call. S(6): Who would you like to place a collect call? U(6): No, I want to send a message. S(7): If you want to place a collect call, you must provide a telephone number or a name. U(7): I want to send a message. S(8): I’m sorry. I don’t understand which function you would like to perform. Let’s start from the beginning. Could you tell me which function would you like to perform? U(8): I want to send a message. S(9): Who would you like to send a message? U(9): To Juan Medina Robles. S(10): Please, record your message after the tone. Pi. S(11): Sending the message to Juan Medina Robles. U(10): No, Julia Medina Robles. S(12): Julia Medina Robles? U(11): Yes. S(13): Sending the message to Julia Medina Robles. U(12): S(14): Would you like to perform any other function? U(13): I want to place a collect call. S(15): Who would you like to place a collect call?

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 56/70

U(14): To the number nine one three three seven nine eight nine four. S(16): I’ll put you through to the number nine one three three seven nine eight nine four. U(15): No, nine one three three seven nine eight nine eight. S(17): Number nine one three three seven nine eight nine eight? U(16): Yes. S(18): I’ll put you through to the number nine one three three seven nine eight nine eight. U(17): S(19): Would you like to perform any other function? U(18): Yes. S(20): Then, specify a function or ask for help, if you dont know the functions. U(19): I want to send a message. S(21): Who would you like to send a message? U(20): I want to place a call to Juan Perez Gonzalez. S(22): Who would you like to place a call? U(21): Juan Prieto Gonzalez. S(23): I’ll put you through to Juan Perez Gonzalez. U(22): No, Juan Perez Gonzalez. S(24): Sorry, I can’t understand you, if you wish to correct Juan Perez Gonzalez, provide a new entry. U(23): Juan Perez Gonzalez. S(25): I’ll put you through to Juan Perez Gonzalez. U(24): S(26): Would you like to perform any other function? U(25): Yes. S(27): Then, specify a function or ask for help, if you dont know the functions. U(26): I wan to try the last call again.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001 S(28): I’ll try to reconnect you. U(27): S(29): Would you like to perform any other function? U(28): No. S(30): Thank you for using the system.

6.2 Spanish Version (original) 6.2.1 Dialogue 1 S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Desear´ıa desviar mis llamadas. S(3): Por favor, indique el destino del desv´ıo. U(2): Al n´umero de tel´efono 123456789. S(4): ¿Realmente quiere desviar al 123456789? U(3): S´ı, por favor. S(5): EJECUCION DEL DESVIO. S(6): ¿Desea continuar? U(4): No, no quiero nada. S(7): Gracias por utilizar el sistema. Adi´os.

6.2.2 Dialogue 2 S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Quiero hacer una llamada.

Page 57/70

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001 S(3): Por favor, indique el destino de la llamada. U(2): A Juan. S(4): ¿Realmente quiere llamar a Juan? U(3): S´ı. S(5): EJECUCION DE LA LLAMADA. S(6): ¿Desea continuar? U(4): No. S(7): Gracias por utilizar el sistema. Adi´os.

6.2.3 Dialogue 3 S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Buenos d´ıas, me gustar´ıa llamar por tel´efono al n´umero 123456789. S(3): ¿Realmente quiere llamar al 123456789? U(2): No, al 987654321. S(4): ¿Realmente quiere llamar al 987654321? U(3): S´ı. S(5): EJECUCION DE LA LLAMADA. S(6): ¿Desea continuar? U(4): No. S(7): Gracias por utilizar el sistema. Adi´os.

Page 58/70

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

6.2.4 Dialogue 4 S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Hola, querr´ıa hacer una llamada por tel´efono. S(3): Por favor, indique el destino de la llamada. U(2): No, una llamada a cobro revertido. S(4): Por favor, indique el destino de la llamada a cobro revertido. U(3): Con el n´umero 1234. S(5): ¿Realmente quiere llamar al 1234 a cobro revertido? U(4): S´ı. S(6): EJECUCION DE LA LLAMADA A COBRO REVERTIDO. S(7): ¿Desea continuar? U(5): S´ı. S(8): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(6): Ahora quiero enviar un mensaje. S(9): ¿A qui´en quiere enviar un mensaje? U(7): A Juan. S(10): ¿Realmente quiere enviar un mensaje a Juan? U(8): S´ı. S(11): EJECUCION DEL ENVIO DEL MENSAJE. S(12): ¿Desea continuar? U(9): No. S(13): Gracias por utilizar el sistema. Adi´os.

Page 59/70

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 60/70

6.2.5 Dialogue 5 S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Quiero incluir una entrada en mi agenda personal. S(3): Por favor, indique el nombre de la entrada que desea a˜nadir. U(2): El 1234456789. S(4): Por favor, indique el nombre de la entrada que desea a˜nadir. U(3): Juan. S(5): ¿Realmente quiere a˜nadir en la agenda a Juan con el n´umero 123456789? U(4): S´ı. S(5): NUEVA ENTRADA EN LA AGENDA. S(6): ¿Desea continuar? U(5): No. S(7): Gracias por utilizar el sistema. Adi´os.

6.2.6 Dialogue 6 S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Hola, me gustar´ıa llamar a cobro revertido. S(3): Por favor, indique el destino de la llamada a cobro revertido. U(2): Al 123456789. S(4): ¿Realmente quiere llamar al 123456789 a cobro revertido? U(3): No, al 213456789. S(5): ¿Realmente quiere llamar al 213456789 a cobro revertido? U(4): S´ı.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 61/70

S(6): EJECUCION DE LA LLAMADA A COBRO REVERTIDO. S(7): ¿Desea continuar? U(5): S´ı, por favor. S(8): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(6): Deseo enviar un mensaje a Juan P´erez. S(9): ¿Realmente quiere enviar un mensaje a Juan P´erez? U(7): No, a Pedro. S(10): ¿Realmente quiere enviar un mensaje a Pedro? U(8): De acuerdo. S(11): EJECUCION DEL ENVIO DEL MENSAJE. S(12): ¿Desea continuar? U(9): Necesito ayuda. S(13): Las funciones disponibles son: hacer llamadas, desviar sus llamadas, ... S(14): ¿Desea continuar? U(10): Quiero ayuda acerca de c´omo incluir a alguien en mi agenda personal. S(15): Puede introducir una entrada nueva en la agenda indicando el nombre y el n´umero. S(16): ¿Desea continuar? U(11): Quiero incluir a Juan en mi agenda personal. S(17): Por favor, indique el n´umero de destino de la entrada que desea a˜nadir. U(12): El n´umero es el 12345. S(18): ¿Realmente quiere a˜nadir en la agenda a Juan con el n´umero 12345? U(13): S´ı, gracias. S(19): NUEVA ENTRADA EN LA AGENDA. S(20): ¿Desea continuar? U(14): Ponme con el 1234. S(21): ¿Realmente quiere llamar al 1234?

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001 U(15): No, adi´os. Me tengo que marchar urgentemente. S(22): Gracias por utilizar el sistema. Adi´os.

6.2.7 Dialogue 7 S(1): Bienvenido al sistema. S(2): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(1): Hola, me gustar´ıa llamar por tel´efono. S(3): Por favor, indique el destino de la llamada. U(2): Al 1234. S(4): ¿Realmente quiere llamar al 1234? U(3): S´ı, por favor. S(5): EJECUCION DE LA LLAMADA. S(6): ¿Desea continuar? U(4): S´ı. S(7): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(5): Ahora quiero desviar mis llamadas. S(8): Por favor, indique el destino del desv´ıo. U(6): Al 1234. S(9): ¿Realmente quiere desviar al 1234? U(7): No, al 2134. S(10): ¿Realmente quiere desviar al 2134? U(8): S´ı. S(11): EJECUCION DEL DESVIO. S(12): ¿Desea continuar? U(9): S´ı, por favor.

Page 62/70

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 63/70

S(13): Por favor, indique una funci´on del sistema. U(10): Deseo enviar un mensaje. S(14): ¿A qui´en quiere enviar un mensaje? U(11): A Juan P´erez. S(15): ¿Realmente quiere enviar un mensaje a Juan P´erez? U(12): No, a Pedro. S(16): ¿Realmente quiere enviar un mensaje a Pedro? U(13): De acuerdo. S(17): EJECUCION DEL ENVIO DEL MENSAJE. S(18): ¿Desea continuar? U(14): Ponme con el 1234. S(19): ¿Realmente quiere llamar al 1 2 3 4? U(15): S´ı. S(20): EJECUCION DE LA LLAMADA. S(21): ¿Desea continuar? U(16): No, gracias. S(22): Gracias por utilizar el sistema. Adi´os.

6.2.8 Dialogue 8 S(1): Bienvenido al sistema, ¿Qu´e funci´on desea realizar? U(1): Quiero poner una multiconferencia. S(2): ¿A qui´en quiere hacer una multiconferencia? U(2): Al nueve uno cinco cuatro nueve cuatro siete cero cero y al nueve uno tres treintaysiete cuarenta cero cero. S(3): ¿El n´umero de tel´efono de la persona a la que quiere llamar a tres es nueve uno cinco cuatro nueve cuatro siete cero cero?

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 64/70

U(3): S´ı. S(4): Le pongo la multiconferencia con los n´umeros nueve uno cinco cuatro nueve cuatro siete cero cero y nueve uno tres treintaysiete cuarenta cero cero. U(4): S(5): ¿Desea realizar alguna otra funci´on? U(5): S´ı. S(6): Entonces, diga qu´e funci´on desea realizar, o si no las conoce pida ayuda. U(6): Quisiera llamar a cobro revertido. S(7): ¿A qui´en quiere hacer una llamada a cobro revertido? U(7): A Juan P´erez Gonz´alez. S(8): Le pongo la llamada a cobro revertido con Juan P´erez Gonz´alez. U(8): S(9): ¿Desea realizar alguna otra funci´on? U(9): S´ı. S(10): Entonces, diga qu´e funci´on desea realizar, o si no las conoce pida ayuda. U(10): Quisiera llamar a la extensi´on nueve ocho nueve ocho. S(11): Le pongo la llamada con la extensi´on nueve ocho nueve ocho. U(11): S(12): ¿Desea realizar alguna otra funci´on? U(12): S´ı. S(13): Entonces, diga qu´e funci´on desea realizar, o si no las conoce pida ayuda. U(13): Quisiera enviar un mensaje. S(14): ¿A qui´en quiere enviar un mensaje? U(14): A Julia Medina Robles. S(15): Por favor, grabe el mensaje que desea enviar despu´es de oir la se˜nal. Pi. S(16): El mensaje se env´ıa a Julia Medina Robles.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 65/70

U(15): S(17): ¿Desea realizar alguna otra funci´on? U(16): No. S(18): Entonces abandona usted el sistema, gracias por utilizar el gestor telef´onico.

6.2.9 Dialogue 9 S(1): Bienvenido al sistema, ¿Qu´e funci´on desea realizar? U(1): Buenas tardes, quisiera llamar a Juan P´erez Gonz´alez. S(2): Le pongo la llamada con Juan P´erez Gonz´alez. U(2): S(3): ¿Desea realizar alguna otra funci´on? U(3): S´ı que lo intente otra vez. S(4): Voy a reintentar la llamada. U(4): Vale. S(5): ¿Desea realizar alguna otra funci´on? U(5): Bueno! S(6): El sistema ATOS es un servicio telef´onico, donde puede realizar diversas funciones, diga simplemente qu´e funci´on quiere realizar, o si no las conoce pida ayuda. U(6): A ver saber la direcci´on de un correo electr´onico. S(7): Por favor, deme el nombre completo de la persona. U(7): Marta Aranguren Blasco. S(8): Voy a consultar la informaci´on de Marta Aranguren Blasco en la base de datos de la empresa. U(8): S(9): La direcci´on de correo electr´onico es marangu. S(10): ¿Desea realizar alguna otra funci´on?

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 66/70

U(9): A ver una multiconferencia. S(11): ¿A qui´en quiere hacer una multiconferencia? U(10): Antonio Ruiz L´opez y Juan lvarez Rodr´ıguez. S(12): ¿La primera persona a la que quiere llamar por multiconferencia es Antonio Ruiz L´opez? U(11): S´ı. S(13): Le pongo la multiconferencia con Antonio Ruiz L´opez y con Juan lvarez Rodr´ıguez. U(12): No Juan lvarez Rodr´ıguez no Pedro lvarez Rodr´ıguez. S(14): ¿Pedro lvarez Rodr´ıguez? U(13): S´ı. S(15): Le pongo la multiconferencia con Antonio Ruiz L´opez y con Pedro lvarez Rodr´ıguez. U(14): Vale. S(16): ¿Desea realizar alguna otra funci´on? U(15): A ver quer´ıa cambiar una clave antigua por una nueva. S(17): Por favor, para cambiar la clave necesito que me diga su nombre completo. U(16): Marta Aranguren Blasco. S(18): Por favor, deme la clave actual. U(17): Dos doce. S(19): Por favor, deme la nueva clave. U(18): Uno doce. S(20): ¿La nueva clave es uno doce? U(19): S´ı. S(21): La clave de acceso se ha cambiado por la nueva clave. S(22): ¿Desea realizar alguna otra funci´on? U(20): Nada m´as, muchas gracias. S(22): Entonces abandona usted el sistema, gracias por utilizar el gestor telef´onico.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 67/70

6.2.10 Dialogue 10 S(1): Bienvenido al sistema, ¿Qu´e funci´on desea realizar? U(1): Quiero llamar PAUSA quiero llamar. S(2): ¿A qui´en quiere llamar? U(2): Extensi´on nueve ocho nueve ocho. S(3): Le pongo la llamada con la extensi´on nueve ocho nueve. U(3): S(4): ¿Desea realizar alguna otra funci´on? U(4): Quiero llamar. S(5): ¿A qui´en quiere llamar? U(5): No, quiero llamar a cobro revertido. S(6): ¿A qui´en quiere hacer una llamada a cobro revertido? U(6): No, quiero enviar un mensaje. S(7): Si quiere realizar una llamada a cobro revertido, puede dar o un n´umero de tel´efono, o un nombre. U(7): Quiero enviar un mensaje. S(8): Lo siento, no consigo entenderle la funci´on nuevea que desea realizar. Vamos a empezar de nuevo. ¿Podr´ıa decirme qu´e funci´on desea realizar? U(8): Quiero enviar un mensaje. S(9): ¿A qui´en quiere enviar un mensaje? U(9): A Juan Medina Robles. S(10): Por favor, grabe el mensaje que desea enviar despu´es de oir la se˜nal. Pi. S(11): El mensaje se env´ıa a Juan Medina Robles. U(10): No, Julia Medina Robles. S(12): ¿Julia Medina Robles? U(11): S´ı.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 68/70

S(13): El mensaje se env´ıa a Julia Medina Robles. U(12): S(14): ¿Desea realizar alguna otra funci´on? U(13): Quiero llamar a cobro revertido. S(15): ¿A qui´en quiere hacer una llamada a cobro revertido? U(14): Al nueve uno tres tres siete nueve ocho nueve cuatro. S(16): Le pongo la llamada a cobro revertido con el nueve uno tres tres siete nueve ocho nueve cuatro. U(15): No, nueve uno tres tres siete nueve ocho nueve ocho. S(17): ¿Al nueve uno tres tres siete nueve ocho nueve ocho? U(16): S´ı. S(18): Le pongo la llamada a cobro revertido con el nueve uno tres tres siete nueve ocho nueve ocho. U(17): S(19): ¿Desea realizar alguna otra funci´on? U(18): S´ı. S(20): Entonces, diga qu´e funci´on desea realizar, o si no las conoce pida ayuda. U(19): Quiero enviar un mensaje. S(21): ¿A qui´en quiere enviar un mensaje? U(20): Quiero llamar a Juan P´erez Gonz´alez. S(22): ¿A qui´en quiere llamar? U(21): A Juan Prieto Gonz´alez. S(23): Le pongo la llamada con Juan P´erez Gonz´alez. U(22): No, Juan P´erez Gonz´alez. S(24): Por favor, no le entiendo bien, si quiere corregir el dato Juan P´erez Gonz´alez, diga el nuevo dato. U(23): Juan P´erez Gonz´alez.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 69/70

S(25): Le pongo la llamada con Juan P´erez Gonz´alez. U(24): S(26): ¿Desea realizar alguna otra funci´on? U(25): S´ı. S(27): Entonces, diga qu´e funci´on desea realizar, o si no las conoce pida ayuda. U(26): Quiero volver a intentar la u´ ltima llamada. S(28): Voy a reintentar la llamada. U(27): S(29): ¿Desea realizar alguna otra funci´on? U(28): No. S(30): Entonces abandona usted el sistema, gracias por utilizar el gestor telef´onico.

SIRIDUS project Ref. IST-1999-10516, February 26, 2001

Page 70/70

Bibliography [Alvarez et al, 1997] Alvarez, J., Tapias, D., Crespo, C., Cort´azar, I., and Mart´ınez. (1997) Development and Evaluation of the ATOS Spontaneous Speech Conversational System. International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, 1139–1142. [Bell Labs web page] Bell Labs web page. http://www.bell-labs.com/project/ConC. Lucent Technologies. [Carpenter’s web page] Bob Carpenters’s web page. http://www.colloquial.com/carp/Projects/index.html [Maguire, 1997] Maguire, M. (1997). RESPECT: User–Requirements Framework Handbook. Deliverable D5.1. Telematics Applications Project TE 2010. [Quesada et al, 2000] Quesada, J.F., Amores, J.G., Fern´andez, G., Bernal, J.A., and L´opez, M.T. (2000). Design constratins and representation for dialogue management in the automatic telephone operator scenario. In Poesio, M., and Traum, D. Proceddings of G¨otalog 2000, Gothenburg Papers in Computational Linguistics 00-5, pp. 137–142. [Watson Project web page] Watson Project web page. http://www.research.att.com/projects/watson. AT&T. [Wildfire Communications web page] Wildfilre Communications web page. http://www.wildfire.com. Wildfire Communications Inc.