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Abstract

A simplification of the process of developing call or dialog flows for use in an Interactive Voice Response system is provided. Three principal aspects of the invention include a task-oriented dialog model (or task model), development tool and a Dialog Manager. The task model is a framework for describing the application-specific information needed to perform the task. The development tool is an object that interprets a user specified task model and outputs information for a spoken dialog system to perform according to the specified task model. The Dialog Manager is a runtime system that uses output from the development tool in carrying out interactive dialogs to perform the task specified according to the task model. The Dialog Manager conducts the dialog using the task model and its built-in knowledge of dialog management. Thus, generic knowledge of how to conduct a dialog is separated from the specific information to be collected in a particular application. It is only necessary for the developer to provide the specific information about the structure of a task, leaving the specifics of dialog management to the Dialog Manager. Computer-readable media are included having stored thereon computer-executable instructions for performing these methods such as specification of the top level task and performance of a dialog sequence for completing the top level task.

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