JP3187317B2 - Interactive program generation device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an interactive processing program generating apparatus for automatically generating a computer program source code for performing interactive processing such as a voice response apparatus. The present invention relates to an interactive processing program generation device that automatically generates a program source code for performing processing and realizes interactive processing of a voice response device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a voice response device, a dialogue process with a service user is frequently changed. Therefore, a simple language or the like which is different for each model is prepared so that the dialogue process can be changed with a small number of man-hours. .

[0003] Many of the above-mentioned conventional simple languages prepare a general-purpose API for using the function of a voice response device, and describe procedures in a syntax similar to the C language. Is described such that a label is set at the transition destination as shown in FIG. 21 and a "goto" statement is used to jump to the designated transition destination.

[0004] A state transition program created by a programmer in the simplified language is converted by a preprocessor 2201 in the same manner as the C language shown in FIG. 22 is converted into an object code (machine language) that can be interpreted by a specific computer. In general, a macro definition or expansion of an include statement is performed, and the syntax is interpreted by the syntax analysis unit 2202, and the object code generation unit 2203 converts the grammar into a code that can be interpreted by the interpreter of the voice response device. .

[0005]

FIG. 2 shows a menu hierarchy and input items of an interactive flow for making a reservation of a public facility or the like using a voice response device.

When programming the interactive flow shown in FIG. 2 in the simplified language shown in the conventional example, the process of prompting the same input contents and acquiring the PB code (for example, inputting the facility number) is made into a part (subroutine). It is common practice to improve the efficiency of programming by performing reuse.

However, also in this case, a label for performing a transition between components, such as a transition to a component executed immediately before in response to an input error, is used in addition to a process for calling a subroutine of a functional component as shown in FIG. 1) It is necessary for the programmer to carefully create the label so that the label is unique as a whole. 2) The program source becomes complicated. 3) The specific transition destination in the part. If a label (for example, the label name immediately before) is described, there is a problem that the position in the program code is specialized and the reusability as a part is lost.

Accordingly, an invention according to claim 1, wherein, be one that aims to solve the conventional problems, an input items and menu hierarchy as shown in FIG. 2 for interaction with voice response unit The main flow of the dialogue shown is to list the componentized function names and to express them with symbols for menu hierarchical expression, and labels for state transition are automatically generated from the functional component names. Thus, an object of the present invention is to simplify the program code describing the operation of the voice response device, and improve the productivity and maintainability of the program.

[0009]

[0010]

[0011]

[0012]

[0013]

[0014]

To achieve Disclosed resolve means for the foregoing purpose, interactive program generating apparatus according to claim 1, in interaction with the voice response unit, input prompting guidance sent user pushbutton (PB) A functional component definition storage unit for storing a set of processes corresponding to input and received PBs as functional components constituting interactive processing, and a menu hierarchical structure of procedures and guidance in which the functional components are described in the order of execution. A procedure / hierarchical structure definition storage unit, a procedure / hierarchical structure interpreting unit for interpreting the procedures and the hierarchical structure, a functional component expanding unit for expanding the group of functional components into a program code, and the procedure / hierarchical structure interpreting unit A hierarchical structure storage unit that stores the menu hierarchy information being interpreted, and from the menu hierarchy information and the function name to be executed,
By providing a label creation unit for automatically generating a label indicating the position in the program as well as specify the transition destination,
It has a configuration that generates an interactive processing program code that can be interpreted by the voice response device and automatically generates a label for state transition.

[0015]

[0016]

[0017]

[0018]

[0019]

[0020]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a programmer who creates a dialogue flow of a voice response device describes an information service menu in a grammar that can be interpreted by a dialogue processing program generation device of the present invention. In the dialog processing program generation device according to the present invention, the procedure / hierarchical structure interpreter analyzes the syntax of the described dialog flow one sentence at a time for each processing procedure, and stores the currently analyzed menu hierarchy in the hierarchical structure storage.

Next, a label for state transition is created from the interpreted function name by appending the hierarchical information to the label creating unit, and inserted into the operation definition file. The functional component development unit searches the functional component definition storage unit based on the function name,
The function is developed into an interactive processing program that can be interpreted by the voice response device and output to an operation definition file.

At this time, if there is a description of an instruction to transition to the execution position of another function in the functional component , a transition destination label is generated based on the name of the functional component at the transition destination and the information in the hierarchical structure storage unit. , Inserted into the action definition file. By repeating the above operation for all the dialog flow description sentences, a dialog processing program that can be interpreted by the voice response device is generated.

[0023]

[0024]

[0025]

[0026]

[0027]

First Embodiment Hereinafter , a first embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of the interactive processing program generating device according to the present embodiment. FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a facility reservation information service menu targeted in the present embodiment. FIG. 3 is a program list describing the dialog flow of FIG. 2 according to a dialog flow description grammar used in the present embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the interactive processing program generation device according to the present embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a generation result of an operation definition file that can be interpreted by the voice response device.

Before describing the operation, a description grammar of a dialog flow language used as an example in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. The "menu number input" functional component constituting the menu hierarchy of FIG.
NPUT_MENU ". Each functional component sends input promotion guidance, accepts user push button (PB) input,
It is composed of a set of processes according to the input PB. FIG.
In the case of the 301 "Enter menu number" functional object, send the guidance "Please enter the menu number", obtain the menu number of the PB code input by the user, and obtain the obtained PB number (menu number) Branch (transition) to each menu (reservation service, guidance service in FIG. 2)
Is performed. The branch label for branching to each service according to the menu number is indicated by 302 in FIG.
Describe as follows. Here, the number of “*” indicates the depth (level) of the hierarchy.

In the functional component “TOUROKU”, the acquired P
If the B code has a function of transiting to another part in the program code, the specific transition destination is not provided as a functional component definition, and as shown in 303 of FIG. Functional component name "INPUT_SHISETSU"
Is described immediately after. Note that the transitionable functional components are limited to the same menu hierarchy. Further, it is assumed that the menu structure can be defined only by a tree structure as shown in FIG.

The grammar described above is an example for describing the present embodiment, and the present invention is not limited to a program language based on the grammar. However,
The present invention will be described with respect to 1) that transitionable functional components are limited to the same menu hierarchy, and 2) that menu structure can be defined only by a tree structure as shown in FIG. It is assumed that

Next, the operation will be described with reference to FIGS. A programmer who creates a dialog flow of the voice response device creates the dialog flow shown in FIG. 3 based on the information service menu of FIG. 2 using a grammar that can be interpreted by the dialog processing program generation device of the present embodiment.

The dialogue processing program generating apparatus according to the present embodiment converts the described dialogue flow into a procedure / hierarchical structure interpreter.
102 analyzes the syntax one sentence at a time for each processing procedure. When interpreting from the top of FIG. 3, “INPUT_MENU” 301 is interpreted as designation of an execution functional component, and then the current hierarchical structure is acquired from the hierarchical structure storage unit 101. Since there is no hierarchy level because the current hierarchy level is the top (head of the service),
The label for state transition is “INPUT_MENU”.

The created state transition label is inserted into the operation definition file 105. Next, the functional component expanding unit 104 searches the functional component definition storage unit 108 and expands the expanded result into the operation definition file 105.

Returning to the top of the flowchart of FIG. 4, the procedure / hierarchical structure interpreting unit 102 interprets 302 * L1 in FIG. 3, which is the next sentence of the described dialog flow. Since “* L1” is a hierarchical structure definition, processing is performed on the hierarchical structure definition statement.

First, the current hierarchical label is obtained from the hierarchical structure storage unit 101. Since there is no current hierarchical label, the new hierarchical label generated by the label creating unit 103 is “L1”. The hierarchical label “L1” is stored in the hierarchical structure storage unit 101. Also, the hierarchical label “L1” is inserted into the operation definition file 105.

Returning again to the top of the flowchart of FIG.
Get the next statement (INPUT_SHISETSU) of the described dialog flow. Since this is an execution functional component designation, the current hierarchical label “L1” is acquired from the hierarchical structure storage unit 101. The label creating unit 103 appends the hierarchical label to the functional component name to generate a label “INPUT_SHISETSU_L1”,
Insert it into the action definition file 105. Next, functional component deployment unit 1
04 searches the functional component definition storage unit 108 and expands the expansion result into the operation definition file 105.

The operation of the next sentence "INPUT_MON_DAY" is the same as that of "INPUT_SHISETSU".

The following sentence "TOUROKU" is the same as the case of "INPUT_SHISETSU" up to the processing in which the functional component expanding unit 104 searches and expands the functional component defining unit 108.
Specify state transition in the component definition to be expanded next (goto statement)
In determination of whether but present, the contents of the "TOUROKU" parts PB code entered, the parts that are the definition of the transition to another position, functional components name of a transition destination from a procedure-hierarchical structure storage unit 107 303 “> INPUT_SHISETSU” in FIG. 3 is acquired.

Here, ">" is a symbol indicating that the destination is designated. Append the current hierarchical label "L1" to this transition destination function name, and add the transition destination label "INPUT_SHISETSU_L
1 "is generated. Next, a transition designation statement (for example, goto INPUT_SHISETSU_L1) is generated based on the transition destination label, and inserted into a corresponding part of the operation definition file 105.

The next step 303 ">INPUT_SHISETSU" in FIG. 3 is already processed at the time of the immediately preceding component expansion in the state transition designation statement, so the procedure / hierarchical structure interpreting unit 102 does not perform any processing. The processing of the sentence "* L2" is performed. This * L2
And the next sentence "INPUT_SUBMENU" is the same as the above-described processing, and therefore will not be described.

When the procedure / hierarchical structure interpretation unit 102 processes 304 “** L1” in FIG. 3, since this is a hierarchical structure definition, first, the current hierarchical label “L2” is acquired, and a new hierarchical label “L2” is obtained. The label creating unit 103 generates “L2_L1”. This is stored in the hierarchical structure storage unit 101 as a new hierarchical label. Subsequent operations are the same as in the above-described operation example.

Finally, the dialog flow definition of FIG. 3 is converted into a program (operation definition file 105) as shown in FIG. The operation definition file 105 is converted into an object code that defines the operation of the voice response device by another compiler, or, if the voice response device is an interpreter type, by interpreting the operation definition file 105 as needed, thereby Perform the operation.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, in the interactive processing of the voice response apparatus, a set of input prompting guidance transmission, user push button (PB) input reception, and processing according to the input PB is performed. A functional component definition storage unit that stores the functional components constituting the interactive processing, a procedure / hierarchical structure definition storage unit that stores a menu hierarchical structure of procedures and guidance in which the functional components are described in the execution order, A procedure / hierarchical structure interpreting unit for interpreting the structure, a functional component expanding unit for expanding the group of functional components into a program code, and a hierarchical structure storing unit for storing menu hierarchical information being interpreted by the procedure / hierarchical interpreting unit And a label work for automatically generating a label indicating a position in a program for designating a transition destination from the menu hierarchy information and a function name to be executed. Section, automatically generate labels for state transitions, describe the functional components to be executed in the order of execution without describing the labels for state transitions one by one so that the programmer is unique. When transiting to another, it is possible to generate an interactive processing program code that can be interpreted by the voice response device with a simple interactive flow description that simply specifies the function name of the transition destination, and transitions to other parts It is also possible to reuse a functional component having a function to perform it in a program.

(Second Embodiment) Hereinafter , a second embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram in which functions necessary for realizing the present embodiment are added to the functional component development unit 104 of FIG. FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the present embodiment, and FIG. 8 is an output example of an operation definition file.

Before describing the operation, the functions realized in the present embodiment will be described. In the input of the facility number of the reservation service menu in FIG. 2, the intention of inputting the facility number of "B gymnasium" is confirmed by the following input message confirmation message.
It is assumed that "A gymnasium" is output. Here, the service user informs the system of the input error and re-enters the data. In order to perform the re-input, a certain PB column is executed in the same number of digits as the date input (for example, “9999” or the like) at the time of executing the functional component of the date input. ), A process for transitioning to the pre-executed functional component is automatically generated.

Referring to FIG. 6, only the functional component development part of FIG. 1 will be described. The processing other than the functional component development is the same as in the first embodiment. First, the functional component development unit 104 stores the definition contents of each functional component in the functional component definition unit 6.
It is read from 01, and it is determined whether the component has a definition that allows re-input instruction. If there is no definition that allows a re-input instruction, the same processing as normal expansion is performed. If the re-input designation character definition is defined, the re-input designation character string generation unit 604 obtains from the re-input designation character storage unit 607 the setting of which PB character is used as the re-input designation symbol.

Next, the PB input content comparison sentence creating unit 605
The PB input digit number of the corresponding component is acquired from the functional component definition unit 601 and a character string of the re-input designation character is created for the PB input digit number statement. For example, if the re-input designation character is “9” and the number of PB input digits is 4, “9999” is generated. Further, a comparison sentence with the PB input content is generated based on the generated character string.

Next, the pre-executed function transition processing statement creation unit 606 acquires the name of the functional component to be executed immediately before from the procedure / hierarchical structure definition storage unit 608, and the current hierarchical label from the hierarchical structure storage unit 603, Generate a label for transition to the previous execution function,
A transition processing statement is generated as a transition destination label of the transition statement (goto statement) when the re-input is specified. Finally, normal component development processing is performed, and the result is inserted into the operation definition file. FIG. 8 shows an example of a generation result when re-input is specified.

As is apparent from these descriptions, the pre-execution function transition processing statement creation unit 606 constitutes the pre-execution function component label storage processing generation unit defined in claim 3, and the PB input content comparison statement creation unit 605. Constitutes a pre-execution functional component transition automatic generation mechanism defined in claim 3.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, in addition to the configuration of the first embodiment, the functional component expanding unit executes the position of the functional component executed before the currently executed functional component. Pre-execution functional component label storage processing generation unit for generating a process for storing a state transition label indicating the status transition, and a pre-execution functional component for automatically generating a process of transitioning to the pre-execution functional component when a specified number of digits of a designated character is input By further including a transition automatic generation mechanism, when a specific PB code string is input, it is possible to automatically generate a flow that transits to a previous input re-input state.

(Third Embodiment) Hereinafter , a third embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 9 is a functional block diagram in which functions necessary for realizing the present embodiment are added to the functional component development unit 104 of FIG. FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the present embodiment.

Before describing the operation, the functions realized in the present embodiment will be described. In the reservation service menu of FIG. 2, after inputting the facility number and the date of the month, a confirmation instruction for making an actual reservation is input. Words that represent the contents that are not numbers but not input numbers (facility is "A gymnasium"
It is common to output a confirmation voice when the date is “October 16,” etc.). In this embodiment, a method of generating the confirmation message will be described.

Only the operation of the part for expanding the functional components in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIGS. The processing other than the functional component development is the same as in the first embodiment. First, the functional component development unit 104 reads out the definition contents of each functional component from the functional component definition unit 901, and an instruction for confirming all input contents is determined.
To determine whether the parts that have been defined. All input contents confirmation instructions
If not defined , perform the same processing as normal expansion.

If all the input content confirmation instructions have been defined, the input item detection unit 903 searches the procedure / hierarchical structure definition storage unit 905 to obtain which functional component has been called in the corresponding menu. . Next, the confirmation message creating unit 904 creates a confirmation message sending process code based on the acquired contents of all items. Finally, normal component development processing is performed, and the result is inserted into the operation definition file.

According to the present embodiment, in addition to the configuration of the first embodiment, the functional component expanding unit performs all the input operations in the menu before sending the last confirmation message of each menu. By further including an input item detection unit for detecting an item and a confirmation message generation unit for generating a confirmation message for the detected input item, processing for sending confirmation messages for a plurality of items input in the interactive processing is automatically performed. Can be generated.

(Fourth Embodiment) Hereinafter , a fourth embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 11 is a functional block diagram in which functions necessary for realizing the present embodiment are added to the functional component development unit 104 of FIG. FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the present embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 11, only the functional component developing section 104 shown in FIG. 1 will be described. The processing other than the functional component development is the same as in the first embodiment.

As a premise, the voice guidance output designation of each functional component is specified by a phoneme index for file search such as “OUTPUT:, 4, menu number in two digits”.
It is assumed that the numbers and the output contents are described in character strings.

First, the functional component development unit 104 reads the definition contents of each functional component from the functional component definition unit 1101, and the utterance content text acquisition unit 1104 extracts an utterance character string from the definition contents. Next, the speech synthesizer 1105 converts the extracted character string into speech data. The phoneme unit registration unit 1106
The converted voice data is registered in the speech unit file 1103 of the voice response device that executes the interactive flow in a format that can be interpreted by the voice response device using the Index number defined for the functional component.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, in addition to the configuration of the first embodiment, when a new functional component is created and registered, the functional component creator places a voice output instruction portion in the component definition.
An utterance text acquisition unit that describes the utterance content in text and extracts the text from the functional component description, a speech synthesis device that converts the acquired text into speech data (phoneme segments), and a speech synthesized by the speech synthesis device By further including a phoneme unit registration unit for registering data (phoneme unit) as a phoneme file used by the voice response device for outputting guidance voice, the voice response device executes interactive processing without recording voice using a microphone or the like. It becomes possible.

(Fifth Embodiment) Hereinafter , a fifth embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 13 is a functional block diagram in which a pointing device 1301, a display device 1303, an input / output control device 1304, and a dialog flow converter 1305 are added to the configuration of FIG. FIG.
FIG. 15 illustrates an example of a user interface of the dialog flow creation device according to the present embodiment displayed on the display device 1303 of FIG. 13. FIG. 15 illustrates a procedure / hierarchical structure definition file from the dialog flow created on the GUI. FIG. 16 is a flow chart for explaining an operation for creating a procedure / hierarchical structure definition file from a diagram of a dialog flow created on the GUI.

First, the operation procedure of the dialog flow creation device according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 1401 is an edit screen for creating a dialog flow, 1402 is a functional component constituting the dialog flow, 1403 is a PB for menu branching
A code number, 1404 is a line segment for expressing a transition between functional components, 1405 is a mouse cursor for moving the functional component or drawing a line segment using the pointing device 1301 in FIG. 13, and 1406 is a dialogue. It is a display area of a functional component group for constructing a flow.

The person who creates the dialog flow arranges 1402 parts in a tree structure on the screen of 1401 and changes the transition between the parts by a line segment 14.
Build the menu hierarchy of the dialog flow by subtracting 04. In the constructed dialog flow, the dialog flow conversion unit 1305 searches for a tree-structured flow as shown in FIG. 14, and generates the procedure / hierarchical structure definition file of FIG.

A procedure for converting a dialog flow created by a dialog flow creator into a procedure / hierarchical structure definition file will be described with reference to FIGS. The conversion result is the same as in FIG. First, a search for a tree structure is started from the top of the flow (“input menu number” in FIG. 15), and a functional component name (FIG.
“INPUT_MENU”) into the file 1311.

Next, it is determined whether a branch has been set for the functional component "input menu number". As is apparent from FIG. 15, branching in two directions of menu numbers “1” and “2” is set, and both are paths that have not been searched yet. In this case, since the menu branch with the lowest number that has not been searched is “1”, it is inserted into the file 1311 as a branch label (“* L1” in FIG. 3) together with a symbol indicating a hierarchical label.

Next, the search for the path is restarted, and the functional component "input of facility number" is obtained. As before, the part name ("INPU
T_SHISETSU ”) into the file 1311. Since the branch is not defined, the next part "month and date input" according to the flow
Get. The processing is the same, and the next part "application registration" is obtained.

In this part, since the designation of transition to another functional part is defined as 1501 in FIG. 15, the part name of the part "input facility number" to which the line segment points is acquired, and the first part is obtained.
Representing the GOTO control statement shown in the embodiment (> INPUT_S
HISETU) into file 1311.

The next part is searched for, but since the "application registration" part is at the end in the flow, there is no next part, and the search destination is the menu "input menu number" which corresponds to the upper hierarchy as shown by 1502 in FIG. Return to It is determined whether there is a branch that has not been searched for in the return destination component. Since the path on the “2” side has not been searched in “input menu number”, a menu label (“* L2” in FIG. 3) representing a hierarchical label is inserted into the file 1311. Search for a branch and get "Enter submenu number".

The part name (INPUT_SUBMENU) is stored in the file 1311.
To determine if a branch is defined. Since the menu branch is defined in two directions, the menu label of the branch destination that has not been searched yet is inserted into the file 1311 as a symbol (“** L1” in FIG. 3) representing the hierarchical label.

Thereafter, as in the case of the above-mentioned "input of menu number", a process of searching for a component of a lower hierarchy and inserting it into the file 1311 is repeated. Finally, after searching for the “voice playback” component at the end of 1503, the process returns to the upper-level “submenu number input”, and there are no branches that have not been searched yet. Return to "Enter Number". Also here, there is no branch that has not been searched, and the process returns to the top menu, so the conversion process ends.

After the conversion is completed, the converted file
1311 is used as a procedure / hierarchical structure definition storage unit, and an operation definition file 1309 is generated in the same procedure as in the first embodiment.

According to the present embodiment, in addition to the configuration of the first embodiment, the functional component is displayed as a component object on a bitmap display, and a line connecting the component objects is displayed. A pointing device capable of dragging and dropping the component object and connecting the component objects with a line, an input / output control device controlling the display device and the pointing device, A dialog flow conversion unit for interpreting the tree-structured dialog flow expressed by the component objects and the line segments and converting the dialog flow into a descriptive language is provided, whereby the dialog flow of the voice response device is assembled on a graphical user interface. Generate interactive processing source code easily by just going Door is possible.

(Sixth Embodiment) First, an outline of the present embodiment will be described. The same service as that used to provide information using a conventional voice response device is also provided on the same menu in the World Wide Web (WWW).
Suppose that it becomes necessary to do it systematically. At this time, a new WW
Menu display for W, input items in a special language (Hyper
Provides a means to start an information service without writing in Text Markup Language (HTML).

Hereinafter , a sixth embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 17 shows a media conversion rule in the configuration of FIG.
A function storage unit 1702 has been added, and the functional component development unit has the functions described in the first embodiment, as well as the media conversion rule.
Interpretation of file storage unit and operation definition file 17 for voice response device
In addition to 08, a function for generating an HTML file 1710 has been added.

FIG. 18 shows a conversion rule for converting a functional component definition written in a media-independent intermediate language into a voice response device operation definition language and HTML.

FIG. 19A shows an example of a dialog flow menu hierarchy for a voice response device, and FIG. 19B shows a menu hierarchy for a voice response device of FIG. 19A replaced with a link between HTML files. FIG. 20 shows an example, and FIG.
7 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of generating the HTML file 1710 by the functional component developing unit 1705 of FIG.

The operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The operations of the procedure / hierarchical structure interpretation unit and the label creation unit are the same as those in the first embodiment. Functional component development unit 1705
When developing a functional component, determine whether it is a component that defines a role as a menu, a general component that prompts input and accepts code input, or a component that registers or retrieves to the DB. to decide.

If the menu is a menu, an HTML file is generated with the current hierarchical label (when there is no hierarchical label, “TOP” is used as a label) as a file name (TOP.html). Next, header information (such as a title) as HTML is generated from a functional component name or the like and inserted into a file.

Next, according to the media conversion rule storage unit 1702, the definition contents of the functional components are converted into HTML. The functional component definition storage unit 1707 is defined by an intermediate language that does not depend on the media as in the functional component definition example of FIG. 18, and specifies "GOTO: L" to transit to the reservation menu of label L1
If the description "1;reservation" is a language exclusively for a voice response device, the transition command "goto" and the transition destination label L1 created by the label creation unit 1704 in FIG. 17 are combined to generate "goto L1".

The same definition sentence is converted as in the HTML generation example of FIG. That is, as shown in the row of the menu branch instruction in FIG. 18, $ a is replaced with the branch label L1 added with the hierarchical label of the first embodiment held in the hierarchical structure storage unit 1701, and $ b Is replaced by the character string “reserved”. “.Html” shown in the HTML generation example is a file extension, and “$ a.html” is a file name of a link destination. The text of the "reservation menu" is used as it is as the HTML link text 1803. The instructions converted for each medium in this way are inserted into the respective operation definition files.

Next, the development of the branch following 1902 in FIG. 19A will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG. Since the "input facility number" functional component is a general component, the voice output command and the code acquisition command are converted according to the media conversion rule of FIG. "OUTPUT" is a voice response device command
It is replaced with "play", and the "facility number" in the text portion becomes the display character string in HTML as it is in HTML.

Next, the code acquisition instruction "INPUT" is expanded. For voice response devices, it is replaced by a command called "get_pb", and in HTML "INPU
It is replaced with a “T” tag. The contents of the general parts expanded here are temporarily stored in the memory. The expansion of the “input month and date” functional part 1903 is similarly performed.

Do not branch menu in flow chart 19
1902, 1903, and 1904 are one HT as in 1906 of FIG.
Inserted into the ML file.

In the 1904 "application registration" part, as shown in the registration row of FIG. 18, two identical processes are described from the beginning according to TEL (= voice response device), WWW and media. The functional component expanding unit 1705 expands the DB update instruction command according to the description of the media conversion rule 1702.

In HTML, a FORM tag is generated as shown in the HTML generation example of FIG. Where "./cgi-bin/
"commit-db" is a CGI script for updating the database, and must be created separately.

Next, the result of expansion of 1902 and 1903, which has been previously expanded and held in the memory, is inserted into the file. In addition, "<INPUT TYPE =" submi
t Insert ">". HTM that updates the DB by inputting the facility number and the date on the above and pressing the confirmation button
Generate an L file.

By expanding the remaining functional components in the same manner, the dialog flow as shown in FIG.
It is converted as an HTML document having a link as shown in FIG.

According to the present embodiment, in addition to the configuration of the first embodiment, a medium storing a conversion rule for converting a definition of a functional component into a language interpretable by a medium other than the voice response device. Further comprising a conversion rule storage unit, wherein the functional component expanding unit has a function of performing a conversion process in accordance with the instruction of the media conversion rule, and a language that can be interpreted by the converted other medium is a file different from the operation definition file. By adding a function for outputting to a media, a flow description language file for a plurality of types of media can be generated based on one type of interactive processing flow definition.

[0096]

As described above, according to the first embodiment, the functional component definition storage unit for storing the functional components constituting the interactive processing, the procedure and the guidance in which the functional components are described in the execution order A procedure / hierarchical structure definition storage unit for storing the menu hierarchical structure of the above, a procedure / hierarchical structure interpreting unit for interpreting the procedure and the hierarchical structure, a functional component expanding unit for expanding the group of functional components into program code, By providing a hierarchical structure storage unit that stores the menu hierarchical information being interpreted by the hierarchical structure interpreting unit, and a label creating unit that automatically generates a label for specifying a transition destination from the hierarchical structure information and the name of the function to be executed. , Automatically generate labels for state transitions, and specify the functional components to be executed without describing the labels for state transitions one by one so that the programmer is unique. In the case of describing in line order and transiting to the definition of a hierarchical menu and the other, it is possible to generate a dialog processing program code that can be interpreted by the voice response device with a simple dialog flow description that merely specifies the function name of the preceding function .

Further, according to the second embodiment, in addition to the configuration of the first embodiment, the functional component expanding unit determines the position of the functional component executed before the currently executed functional component. A pre-execution functional component label storage processing generation unit for generating a process for storing a state transition label to be shown, and a pre-execution functional component transition for automatically generating a process of transitioning to the pre-execution functional component when a designated number of digits of a designated character is input By further providing an automatic generation mechanism, when a specific PB code string is input, a flow for transitioning to a previous input re-input state is automatically generated, and a redoing process of the previous input in the interactive information service is automatically generated. This eliminates the need for the programmer to describe complicated processes one by one.

Further, according to the third embodiment, in addition to the configuration of the first embodiment, the functional component developing unit is input in the same menu before sending the last confirmation message of each menu. Further comprising: an input item detection unit for detecting all the items detected; and a confirmation message generation unit for generating a confirmation message for the detected input items, for confirming a plurality of items input in the interactive processing in the interactive information service. A process for sending a message is automatically generated, and a programmer can save trouble of describing complicated processes one by one.

Further, according to the fourth embodiment, in addition to the configuration of the first embodiment, when the functional component development unit newly creates and registers a functional component, the functional component creator An utterance text acquisition unit that describes the utterance content in text at a voice output instruction portion of the component definition and extracts the text from the functional component description, and a speech synthesis device that converts the acquired text into speech data (phoneme segments) A voice response unit for registering a voice segment synthesized by the voice synthesis device as a voice segment file used when the voice response device outputs guidance voice, and the voice response device can be newly added without recording voice by a microphone or the like. It is possible to realize a dialog flow including guidance.

Further, according to the fifth embodiment, in addition to the configuration of the first embodiment, displaying a functional component as a component object on a bitmap display,
A display device capable of displaying a line connecting the component objects, a pointing device capable of dragging and dropping the component object, and connecting the component objects with a line; and the display device and the pointing device An input / output control device for controlling the device; and a dialog flow conversion unit for interpreting a tree-structured dialog flow expressed by the component objects and the line segments and converting the dialog flow into a description language, thereby providing a voice response device. It becomes possible to easily assemble a dialog flow on a graphical user interface (GUI) by mouse operation or the like.

Further, according to the sixth embodiment, the first
A media conversion rule storage unit for storing a conversion rule for converting a definition of a functional component into a language interpretable by a medium other than the voice response device, and further comprising the functional component expanding unit By adding a function of performing a conversion process in accordance with the instructions of the media conversion rule and a function of outputting a language interpretable by the converted other medium to a file different from the operation definition file, It becomes possible to generate a flow description language file for media based on one type of interactive processing flow definition.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of an interactive processing program generation device according to a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a facility reservation information service menu targeted in the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is an example of a program list describing the flow of FIG. 2 according to a flow description grammar used in the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the interactive processing program generation device according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is an example of a generation result of an operation definition file that can be interpreted by the voice response device according to the first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram for explaining a configuration of an interactive processing program generation device according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 shows an output example of an operation definition file according to the second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is a functional block diagram for explaining a configuration of an interactive processing program generating device according to a third embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the third embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of an interactive processing program generating device according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the fourth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of an interactive processing program generating device according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 shows an example of a user interface of a dialog flow creation device according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a search procedure for creating a procedure / hierarchical structure definition file from a diagram of a dialog flow created on a GUI,

FIG. 16 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the fifth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 17 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of an interactive processing program generating device according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 18 is a conversion rule for converting a functional component definition into a voice response device operation definition language and HTML,

FIG. 19A shows an example of a menu hierarchy for a voice response device, FIG. 19B shows an example in which the device according to the sixth embodiment of the present invention is replaced with a link between HTML files,

FIG. 20 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the sixth embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 21 shows a conventional example of a voice response device operation definition program code;

FIG. 22 is a functional block diagram of a conventional device for compiling a programming language into object code,

FIG. 23 is a conventional example of a program code when a dialog flow is described by calling a functional component function.

[Description of Signs] 101, 603, 1302, 1701 Hierarchical structure storage unit 102, 1306, 1703 Procedure / hierarchical structure interpretation unit 103, 1307, 1704 Label creation unit 104, 602, 902, 1102, 1308, 1705 Functional component expansion unit 105, 1309 Action definition file 106, 1310 Other compiler / interpreter, etc. 107, 608, 905, 1311, 1706 Procedure / hierarchical structure definition storage 108, 601, 901, 1101, 1312, 1707 Functional component definition storage 301 Function name (Input of menu number) 302 Menu number label (1 layer) 303 State transition instruction 304 Menu number label (2 layer) 604 Re-input instruction character string generator 605 PB input content comparison character generator 606 Previous execution function transition processing statement Creation unit 607 Re-input designated character storage unit 903 Input item detection unit 904 Confirmation message creation unit 1103 Phoneme file 1104 Speech content text acquisition unit 1105 Speech synthesis unit 1106 Phoneme unit registration unit 1301 Pointing device 1303 Display Device 1304 I / O controller 1305 Dialog flow converter 1401 Edit screen 1402 Functional object 1403 PB code number 1404 Transition destination designation line 1405 Mouse cursor 1406 Parts group display area 1501 Specify transition to other parts 1502 Search path 1 1503 Search path 2 1702 Media conversion rule storage unit 1708 Voice response device operation definition file 1709 Voice response device engine program 1710 HTML file 1711 WWW server 1901 Top menu functional component 1902 Facility input functional component 1903 Month / day input functional component 1904 Application registration functional component 1905 Menu selection page 1906 Reservation registration page 2201 Preprocessor 2202 Syntax analyzer 2203 Object code generator

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-4-294424 (JP, A) JP-A-7-261969 (JP, A) JP-A-7-73026 (JP, A) JP-A-4-294 233631 (JP, A) JP-A-5-289859 (JP, A) Hashimoto and Miyai, "User Interface Simulator INTERA," Transactions of the Information Processing Society of Japan, Vol. 31, No. 10 (October 1990) p. 1497-1504 (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 9/06-9/44 G06F 3/00

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A function of storing a set of input prompting guidance transmission, user push button (PB) input reception, and processing according to the input PB in the interactive processing of the voice response device as a functional component constituting the interactive processing. A component definition storage unit, a procedure / hierarchical structure definition storage unit for storing a menu hierarchical structure of procedures and guidance in which the functional components are described in the execution order, a procedure / hierarchical structure interpreting unit for interpreting the procedure and the hierarchical structure, a functional component development unit for developing a group of the functional component in the program code, the procedures and hierarchy
The hierarchy that stores the menu hierarchy information being interpreted by the structure interpreter
Structure storage unit, the menu hierarchy information and the name of the function to be executed
From, specify the transition destination and indicate the position in the program
An interactive processing program generating apparatus, comprising: a label creating unit for automatically generating a label .