Extended person-machine interface

摘要

Current computer natural language systems lack discourse capabilities. They mainly treat utterances in isolation and are not able to track the coherence of extended dialogue. In general, however, human communication and task performance are not accomplished in this manner. Useful interface systems should incorporate extended conversational power. In this paper, we present an abstract computational system for extended person-machine interface. The system is theoretically motivated by an investigation into the human conversational system. The computer system incorporates many of the rules used by individuals in everyday interactions. Use of these rules enable implicit communication between conversants about their underlying models of an interaction. They function in place of explicit meta-communication about the structure of an ongoing exchange. Such communication is necessary since building compatible models of an interaction is necessary for effective interaction. Providing a comparable system of rules for the computer is then mandatory if we expect it to be able to integrate subsequent requests and exchanges to earlier ones.