Beyond Domain-Independence: Experience With the Development of a German Language Access System to Highly Diverse Background Systems

For n a t u r a l language d i a l o g sys tems, g o i n g beyond domain independence means the a t t e m p t to c r e a t e a co re sys tem t h a t can se rve as a b a s i s f o r i n t e r f a c e s t o v a r i o u s a p p l i c a t i o n c l a s s e s t h a t d i f f e r no t o n l y w i t h r e s p e c t t o the domain o f d i s c o u r s e bu t a l s o w i t h r e s p e c t t o d i a l o g t y p e , user t y p e , i n t e n d e d system b e h a v i o r , and background sys tem. In t h e d e s i g n and i m p l e m e n t a t i o n of HAM ANS. w h i c h i s p r e s e n t l y o p e r a t i o n a l as an i n t e r f a c e to an e x p e r t s ys tem, a v i s i o n system and a da ta base sys tem, we have shown t h a t g o i n g beyond domain independence is p o s s i b l e . HAM-ANS is a l a r g e n a t u r a l language d i a l o g system w i t h bo th c o n s i d e r a b l e d e p t h and b r e a d t h , wh i ch accep ts t yped i n p u t i n c o l l o q u i a l German and produces t yped German responses q u i c k l y enough to make i t p r a c t i c a l f o r r e a l t i m e i n t e r a c t i o n . One g o a l o f t h i s paper i s t o r e p o r t o n t h e l essons l e a r n e d d u r i n g t h e r e a l i z a t i o n o f t he system HAM-ANS. Th is paper i n t r o d u c e s t h e o v e r a l l s t r u c t u r e o f t he s y s t e m ' s p r o c e s s i n g u n i t s and knowledge s o u r c e s . I n a d d i t i o n we d e s c r i b e some of t he i n n o v a t i v e f e a t u r e s c o n c e r n i n g the s t r a t e g y o f semant ic i n t e r p r e t a t i o n .