Abstract: A system and method to support embedded complete controller specification through explicit controller overlays are provided. The system and method partitions the controller layer of the MVC into a plurality of controller overlays. For example, a macro controller overlay, micro controller overlay, and global controller overlay are established for specifying macro controller objects, micro controller objects and global controller objects. Editors are provided for each of the plurality of controller overlays. The combination of the micro control overlay, macro control overlay, and global control overlay results in a complete controller specification for an application.

Abstract: A one-step correction mechanism for voice interaction is provided. Correction of a previous state is enabled simultaneously with recognition in a current or subsequent state. An application is decomposed into a set of tasks. Each task is associated with the collection of one piece of information. Each task may be in a different state. At any point during the interaction, while a task/state pair is active, the dialog manager may enable multiple other task/state pairs to be active in latent fashion. The application developer may then use those facilities or resources to the active task/state and the latent task/state pairs depending on contextual condition of the interaction state of the application.

Abstract: A one-step correction mechanism for voice interaction is provided. Correction of a previous state is enabled simultaneously with recognition in a current or subsequent state. An application is decomposed into a set of tasks. Each task is associated with the collection of one piece of information. Each task may be in a different state. At any point during the interaction, while a task/state pair is active, the dialog manager may enable multiple other task/state pairs to be active in latent fashion. The application developer may then use those facilities or resources to the active task/state and the latent task/state pairs depending on contextual condition of the interaction state of the application.

Abstract: A method for multiple value confirmation and correction in spoken dialog systems. A user is allowed to correct errors in values captured by the spoken dialog system, such that the interaction necessary for error correction between the system and the user is reduced. When the spoken dialog system collects a set of values from a user, the system provides a spoken confirmation of the set of values to the user. The spoken confirmation comprises the set of values and possibly pause associated with each value. Upon hearing an incorrect value, the user may react and barge-in the spoken confirmation and provide a corrected value. Responsive to detecting the user interruption during the pause or after the system speaking of a value, the system halts the spoken confirmation and collects the corrected value. The system then provides a new spoken confirmation to the user, wherein the new spoken confirmation includes the corrected value.

Abstract: A method for multiple value confirmation and correction in spoken dialog systems. A user is allowed to correct errors in values captured by the spoken dialog system, such that the interaction necessary for error correction between the system and the user is reduced. When the spoken dialog system collects a set of values from a user, the system provides a spoken confirmation of the set of values to the user. The spoken confirmation comprises the set of values and possibly pause associated with each value. Upon hearing an incorrect value, the user may react and barge-in the spoken confirmation and provide a corrected value. Responsive to detecting the user interruption during the pause or after the system speaking of a value, the system halts the spoken confirmation and collects the corrected value. The system then provides a new spoken confirmation to the user, wherein the new spoken confirmation includes the corrected value.

Abstract: A toolkit is provided for allowing a user to represent a domain for a natural language understanding application. The toolkit allows a user to create a graph that represents a domain. An NLU parser domain may be represented by a single graph, which includes one start node and one end node. Each utterance in the domain will traverse the graph from the start node to the end node. The user may then manipulate the graph to add or delete nodes and arcs. The user may also create subgraphs for subdomains. The toolkit allows the user to merge subdomains to create a larger domain or to remove paths from a start node to an end node to remove subcomponents of a domain. The single graph approach of the present invention also provides a visual representation of a domain to assist a developer in annotating training sentences.