Fuzzy modelling for automatic telephone answering systems

This paper is concerned with the use of fuzzy sets for automatic telephone answering systems for large organisations or organisations providing large amounts of vaguely structured information. Currently available commercial systems are generally based on hierarchical dialogue systems, reflecting a hierarchical information structure. The authors have been investigating alternative approaches where the information structures are less well defined. In these cases, callers often have a degree of vagueness about what information they require. The paper looks at the idea of using fuzzy sets for modelling both the domain of interest and the users emerging goals, as perceived by the system. It then goes on to describe two algorithms for traversing the information structures. Conclusions and further work are then discussed