SBIR Phase I: A Platform for Commercial Dialogue Systems with Fluid Turn-Taking Skills

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是，它将朝着提高人们与计算机交谈的效率和灵活性的社会需求取得进展，并减少许多人在尝试使用当前的语音支持系统完成工作时的挫败感。语音系统的商业应用正在迅速增加，包括充当虚拟助手、自动化客户服务功能的系统，通常使人们能够在家里、汽车和日常生活中用语音完成事情。随着这些应用程序在整个社会中的扩展，我们将不可避免地发现自己越来越频繁地与自动化系统交谈。该公司的创新平台旨在使人们在这些互动中能够更自然、更高效地进行交流。该项目将开发各种方法，以改善人们在与各种企业和组织开发的基于语音的应用程序交互时的沟通方式。该项目将加强对如何将对话系统技术的先进研究创新带入商业领域的了解，并有助于创新的新对话平台的技术开发。这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目推动了语言处理和对话系统技术的开发和商业化，这些技术可以提高与自动化系统交谈的效率和自然度，同时减少用户的挫折感。该项目解决了软件体系结构标准化、语言处理模型的通用化以及创作和控制自动对话内容的方法方面的技术障碍。第一阶段的目标是证明拟议对话平台的总体技术可行性。项目计划包括数据收集、技术开发和评估步骤，以实现这一目标。一个预期的结果是增进对最有希望的技术途径的了解，从而在商业对话系统中实现更自然的对话技能。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is that it will make progress toward the societal need to increase the efficiency and flexibility with which people can talk to computers, and reduce the frustration that many people feel in trying to get things done with current speech-enabled systems. Commercial applications of speech-enabled systems are increasing very rapidly, including systems that act as virtual assistants, automate customer service functions, and generally enable people to get things done with their voices in their homes, cars, and throughout daily life. As these applications expand throughout society, we will inevitably find ourselves speaking to automated systems more and more often. The company's innovative platform is designed to enable people to communicate more naturally and efficiently in these interactions. This project will develop ways to improve how people can communicate as they interact with speech-based applications developed by a variety of businesses and organizations. The project will enhance understanding of how advanced research innovations in dialogue systems technology can be brought into the commercial arena and contribute to the technical development of an innovative new dialogue platform. This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project advances the development and commercialization of language processing and dialogue system technologies that increase the efficiency and naturalness of speaking to an automated system while reducing user frustration. The project addresses technical hurdles in the standardization of software architecture, generalization of language processing models, and methods for authoring and controlling the content of automated conversations. The objective for Phase I is to demonstrate the overall technical feasibility of the proposed conversational platform. The project plan includes data collection, technical development, and evaluation steps to achieve this objective. An anticipated outcome is an improved understanding of the most promising technical avenues to enable more natural conversational skills in commercial dialogue systems.