Abstract: Systems and methods for constructing a series of interactions with a user to collect multiple pieces of related information for the purpose of accomplishing a specific goal or topic (a multi-slot dialog) using a component-based approach are disclosed. The method generally includes outputting a primary header prompt to elicit values for slots in a segment from the user, receiving a primary user response containing a value for each slot in at least a subset of the slots in the segment, processing the primary user response to determine at least one possible recognition value for each slot contained in the primary user response, filling each slot contained in the primary user response with a matched value selected from the corresponding possible recognition values, and repeating the outputting, receiving, processing and filling for any unfilled slots in the segment until all slots in the segment of slots are filled.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a computer implemented method and apparatus for flexibly recognizing meaningful data items within an arbitrary user utterance. According to one example embodiment of the invention, a set of one or more key phrases and a set of one or more filler phrases are defined, probabilities are assigned to the key phrases and/or the filler phrases, and the user utterances is evaluated against the set of key phrases and the set of filler phrases using the probabilities.

Abstract: Systems and methods for constructing a series of interactions with a user to collect multiple pieces of related information for the purpose of accomplishing a specific goal or topic (a multi-slot dialog) using a component-based approach are disclosed. The method generally includes outputting a primary header prompt to elicit values for slots in a segment from the user, receiving a primary user response containing a value for each slot in at least a subset of the slots in the segment, processing the primary user response to determine at least one possible recognition value for each slot contained in the primary user response, filling each slot contained in the primary user response with a matched value selected from the corresponding possible recognition values, and repeating the outputting, receiving, processing and filling for any unfilled slots in the segment until all slots in the segment of slots are filled.