A CD-ROM Retrieval System with Multiple Dialogue Agents

A CD-ROM Retrieval System with Multiple Dialogue Agents Keiichi Sakai, Tsuyoshi Yagisawa, and Minoru Fujita Canon Inc., Media. Technology Laboratory 890-12 KashimMa, Saiwai-ku, I(awasaki, 211, Japan {keiichi, yag428 ,rainoru}©cis. canon, co. jp Abstract In this paper, we proposed a new diMogue system with multiple dialogue agents. In our new system, three types of agents: a) domain agents, b) strat- egy agents, and c) context agents were realized. They give the follmving advantages to the user: • the domain age.nts make the user aware of the boundary between the domains. • the strategy agents make the user aware of the difference between the strategies. • the context agents help the user to deal with multiple goals. We expect that the complex behaviors of the sys- tem will become more visible to the user in dif- ferent situations. The experimental results show that the user can retrieve effectively and obtain the expected goals easily by using these multiple agents. 1 Introduction Recently, research into 'multi-agent systenF is in- creasing. The multi-agent systeln is now one of the promising solutions to achieve a complicated system (Maes, 91; Nishida and Takada, 93; Nagao aud Takeuchi, 94). The multi-agent system which silnulates co- operation between qmman-agents' is realized by an integration of simplified autonomous flmctions. And ms a result it achieves a complicated system in total. It also has a latent potential to make a very flexible system. Thus, we believe that if we introduce the con- cept of the nmlti-agent system into a dialogue sys- tem, we are able to construct a more sophisticated system which is able to treat various linguistic phenomena and to understand or to solw., nmre cmnplicated problems. Focusing on dialogue systelns, while most cur- rent dialogue systems can treat only one domain (a small world for a single service), some re- search(Goddeau et al., 94; Nalnba et 31., 94) which aims at increasing the domains, what is called a transportable system(Grosz, 83; Paris, 89) are lmW on-going. Ill such systems, information re.- trieval across multil)le domains is realized using the relational databases. However in our systeln, it is difficult to retrieve information across nmlti- pie donlains, I)ecause the information is retrieved from CD-ROMs in which a large amount of texts are contained, 1)y using full-text retrieval tech- niques. And while there are robust and useful strategies in certain goals, there isn't an all-powerful sterat- egy which covers all goals. If a robust strategy in a certain goal is introduced into tile system, the user misunderstands that the system hKs an all- powerful strategy. Thus, in our system the user sometimes gets into trouble as follows: • the user misunderstands that the information contained across several data sources call be obtained at once. • the user is confused between a certain re- trieval strategy which is robust in a certain goal and another siml)le but rather redmldant strategy. Furthernmre, it is difficult to manage a dis- course involving multiple goals in current diMogue systems. This is because most current systems …

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