WO2004075047A2 - Method and system of representing software assistants on mobile mobile terminals - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and system which makes it possible in mobile systems, by way of its proper description language for software assistants, to separate the program logic from the description of the behavior and look. The program logic locally present on the mobile terminal and firmly implemented by previous download forms a parameterizable software framework. Said framework graphically displays the software assistant on the display, coordinates the interactions with the user and triggers possible actions. The description of the behavior and the look of the assistant is for example also separate so that the assistant or for example the dress may change but remain otherwise the same. This program logic is flexible enough to impart to the assistants any behavior and look desired merely by parameterization via a description language.

Description

description

Method and arrangement for displaying software assistants on mobile devices

The invention relates to a method and an arrangement for displaying software assistants on mobile devices, which are understood to mean software programs that interact with the user, support him in his work and a graphic representation, usually in the form of a “living” figure, for example Human or animal.

Previous software assistants, such as The widespread paper clip assistant of the Microsoft Office package are equipped with rigid behavioral structures that are very closely linked to the specific task of the assistant.

The modeling of the behavior of these "real-life" assistants reflects some natural behavior and can therefore be very complex. Since the assistant reacts to user input, the behavior is also very dynamic. To make the assistant attractive and varied, for example, its appearance must be be described effectively and flexibly.

The use of various software assistants adapted to the respective communication situation is particularly problematic in the case of mobile end devices, since the local storage, the local computing power and in particular the data streams to be transmitted are particularly limited here.

The object of the invention is to provide a method and an arrangement for displaying software assistants on mobile devices, in which the behavior and appearance of the assistant can be changed or adapted to the respective communication situation, and the is efficient enough for use in a mobile device with limited system resources. This object is achieved according to the invention with regard to the method by the features of patent claim 1 and with regard to the arrangement by the features of patent claim 10. The further claims relate to advantageous refinements of the method according to the invention.

The invention essentially consists in that a separate description language for software assistants in mobile systems separates the program logic from the description of the behavior and appearance at a high level of abstraction, the program logic existing locally on the mobile terminal being pre-downloaded Parameterizable software framework that graphically shows the software assistant on the display, coordinates the interaction with the user and triggers any actions. For example, the description of the behavior and appearance of the assistant is also separate, which means that the assistant can change clothes, for example, but otherwise remain the same. This program logic is flexible enough to give the wizards any behavior and appearance just by parameterizing them using a description language.

The invention is explained in more detail below using an example shown in the drawings. It shows

Figure 1 is a block diagram to explain the inventive method at the end user and

FIG. 2 shows a block diagram to explain the method according to the invention with regard to the definition of such software assistants. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of the method according to the invention for an end user 1 whose mobile end device, which has a resource manager 3 and an assistant machine 2 in the form of a program, the

Resource manager makes locally available text files 81, locally available animation files 91 and / or locally available dialog files available at the request of the assistant machine 2 or if the desired files are not locally available, a mobile data connection 7 to a corresponding server 5 or 6 builds up and retrieves corresponding files 82, 92, 102 there.

By separating the program logic or the assistant machine from the description, i.e. one

Description language for software assistants, it is possible to add new dialogs and appearance descriptions dynamically and thus expand the behavior and appearance of the software assistant as desired and adapt to current conditions. New dialogs do not have to be ready-made, but can be generated at runtime. This can take place locally via the files 81, 91 and 101 on the terminal as well as remotely on other computers or servers 5 or 6 if, for example, current data from databases 82, 92 and 102 are to be incorporated into the behavior ,

Likewise, the texts 81, 82 for the speech inputs and outputs are separated from the behavior in order to enable adaptation to the mother tongue and / or the language habits of the end user.

A high level of abstraction is achieved through a declarative description of the behavior. The behavior is divided into individual dialogs 101 and 102. A dialog refers to the appearance of the assistant in this dialog, describes the voice response of the assistant, Possible input and decision options for the end user as well as the possible subsequent dialogues depending on the behavior of the end user. Actions are also described that can be triggered when entering or leaving the dialog.

The appearance of the assistant is determined by the skin or skin, e.g. a cat or a child, as well as animation 91 or 92 for this skin, e.g. smiling or waving, described. By separating them into individual animation sequences, the appearance becomes modular, allows frequent reuse of individual sequences and thus saves resources as well as smooth, lifelike animations.

It is also possible that the program logic in

Dependency of dialogs 101 and 102 shows different skins. For example, a cat's skin can be displayed for private dialogues and an image of a consultant if the dialogues describe actions in professional life. The change between skins takes place within the program logic 2 and advantageously does not require a second instance of the program logic.

The description of the behavior and the appearance is kept simple and intuitive in order to allow the largest possible (also non-technical) group of people to awaken the appropriate assistants for "life".

Descriptive languages that are easy to understand for humans are often not based on compactness or simple processing

Computers or mobile devices optimized. However, mobile devices and the mobile data connections to these devices require compact representations of the information in order to save network bandwidth and storage space. In addition, as little effort as possible should be made to read the description in a fault-tolerant manner, since this increases the processing time. For this reason, as shown in FIG. 2, so-called authoring programs AP are used for the description of the assistant A, which allow the description of the behavior and appearance in an end-user-friendly manner and can be easily read and checked, for example in an XML format or in a format of one other meta markup language, save and additionally carry out a syntactic and partly semantic check of the description before it is exported to a compact, optimized format including the checksum and transferred to the local terminal device for displaying Assistant A.

Additional encryption and digital signature of the information is possible depending on the area of application.

Through a description language for software assistants, the appearance or the associated feelings as well as the behavior of assistant A on mobile end devices, such as mobile phones and PDAs, through a dialog definition 101 or 102, an animation library 91 or 92 and a text library 81 or 82 defined.

Typical examples of syntax and application are given below, but the invention is not limited to these examples.

The dialog syntax can be specified in the Backus-Naur form, for example, as follows:

<dialog>:: = dg = <unique-id>; {<attribute>; }

<unique-id> :: = <string>

<attribute>:: = <default-marker> | <animations> | <background> |

<text-pane> | <init-actions> | <locale> | <text> | <system-events> | <transition> | <progress-bar> |

<Timer>

<default-marker> :: = default <animations> to: <animation-expr><animation-expr><aniation-id> | (<animation-expr>) |

<ani ation-expr> && <anirαation-expr> |

<animation-expr> | | <Animation-expr>

<animation-id> <string>

<background> bg: <image-file>

<text-pane> tp: <image-file>

<image-file> <string>

<init-actions> ia: <action-id> {, <action-id>}

<action-id> <string>

<locale> lo: en | de | fr | it | it

<text> dt: <text-id> {, text-id}

<text-id> <string>

<system-events> se: <sys-event-id> {, <sys-event-id>}

<sys-event-id>:: = key | idle | sms

<transition> tr: <com and>, <dialog-id>, (<actions> none)

<command> <text-id> | none

<dialog-id> <string>

<actions> <action> {, <action>}

<action> <action-id> [(<event-mapping> {/ <event-mapping>})]

<event-mapping> <event-id>% <dialog-id>

<event-id> success | failure | progress

<progress-bar> pb: <x>, <y>, <widt>, <heig t>

<x> <integer>

<y> <integer>

<idth> <integer>

<height> <integer>

<timer> at: <timer-value>, <dialog-id>, (<actions>] none)

<timer-value> <integer>

The animation identifiers refer to animation files * .ani. The graphic format for the background and the

Text areas is, for example, PNG. The init and exit actions must be available in an appropriate action class library his. The expression locale "en" points to a file "<base name> _en. Txt". The size timer-value is a non-negative integer that defines the time until the exit action is executed or until a determination dialog is activated.

In the transition definition, the expression “none” means that after playing an animation, the assistant machine 2 automatically switches to the specified dialog.

An example of a typical dialog is shown below:

dg = welcome; default; on intro; bg background.png; tp textpane .png; ia lightOn, welcomeSound; lo en; dt txtl, txt2, txt3; tr cmdl, arrival, none; tr cmd2, departure, exitSound, lig tOff; pb 20, 80, 60, 15; at 120, sleeping, lightOff;

dg = low battery; an battery; ia warningSound; lo de; dt txt4; se low battery;

The animation syntax can be specified in backus-naur form as follows: <animation>: = an = <identifier>;<image-files>;<x>, - <y>;<num-frames>;<frame-width>;<frarαe-height>;<Sequence-length>;<frames>;

<identifier> = <string> <image-files> = <basename>, <num-files>, <extension> <basename> = <string> <nu -files> = <integer> <extension> = <string> < x> = <integer> <y> = <integer>

<num-f ames> = <integer>

<frame-width> = <integer> <frame-height> = <integer>

<sequence-1ength> = <integer> <frames> = <frame> {, <frame>}

<frame> = <seq-num>: [<delay>: <x-offset>: <y-offset>]] <seq-number> = <integer> <delay> = <integer> <x-offset> = <integer> <y-offset> = <integer>

The frame sequence numbers start with 1 as non-negative integers. The delay values are non-negative integers that indicate the number of units with 40 ms until a next picture is shown. The x and y offset values are relative to the x and y position of the animation. The expression sequence-length means the number of frames in the frames sequence definition.

A typical content of such an animation file is shown below:

on = intro; intro, 2, png; 0; 10; 5; 70; 36; 8th; 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 2, 0, 3;

The text syntax can be specified in backus-naur form as follows: <text-defs> :: = <text-def>{<newline><text-def>}

<text-def> :: = <text-id> = <string>

The locale given above, e.g. B. "en" also part of the file name, eg demo_en.txt for English.

The following is a typical content of one

Text file, e.g. B. demo_en.txt shown:

txtl = Hello! txt2 = I am your personal assistant. txt3 = Nice to meet you! txt4 = You're running out of battery! cmdl = start cmd2 = exit

The corresponding German text file demo_de.txt then accordingly

txtl = Hello! txt2 = I am your personal assistant. txt3 = Nice to meet you! txt4 = Your battery is low! cmdl = start cmd2 = end

ring.

Claims

claims 1. A method for displaying a software assistant (A) on a mobile terminal (MP), in the case of a program (2) in the mobile terminal depending on at least one dialog definition (101, 102) and by accessing at least one animation library (91.92) and at least one text library (81.82) the appearance and / or behavior of the software assistant is changed. 2. The method according to claim 1, in which at least one animation to be used for the assistant from the animation library and / or at least one text from the text library are specified by the dialog definition. 3. The method as claimed in claim 2, in which, in the case of a plurality of animations, the animations run either in a random or in a predetermined order, depending on the dialog definition. , Method according to claim 1, in which texts typical of this being are present and displayed for the beings represented by the animations. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the animations are selected by the dialog definition in such a way that the beings represented in the animations match the background scenario and / or the existing communication situation. 6. The method of claim 2, wherein the appearance of the assistant is through a skin Information by which dialogues describe behavior and texts describe language separately from one another. 7. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, in which at least one dialog definition (102), at least one animation library (92) and at least one text library (82) are accessed via a mobile data connection (7) if these are not locally available on the terminal. 8. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, in which a respective new dialog with an associated dialog definition is triggered by at least one input on the mobile terminal. 9. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the at least one dialog definition (102), the at least one animation library (92) and the at least one text library (82) are expressed by a meta markup language and by an authoring program (AP) respective syntax and parts of the semantics are created and checked and preprocessing and optimization on the server side. 10. Arrangement for displaying a software assistant (A) on a mobile terminal (MP), in which a state machine is represented with the aid of a program (2), the state transitions of which are made by entries on the mobile terminal and a dialog is assigned to each state, which is defined by a dialog definition, and in which the program depends on the respective Dialog definition (101, 102) and by accessing at least one animation library (91,92) and at least one text library (81,82) changes the appearance and / or behavior of the software assistant.