System and method for supporting interactive user interface operations and storage medium

An interactive operation supporting system for an apparatus, comprising a display unit, a speech input unit, a speech output unit and an operation control unit, wherein said operation control unit comprises:

• an assistant control means for generating a personified assistant and making said assistant appear on a screen of said display unit;
• an output speech control means for determining speech required for said assistant to output said assistant's speech to the outside through said speech output unit after speech synthesis;
• an input speech recognition means for recognizing user's voice as a speech inputted through said speech input unit;
• an interaction management means for managing interaction between said assistant and said user according to said assistant's speech determined by said output speech control means and said user speech recognized by said input speech recognition means;
• an ambient state generating means for enabling said personified assistant to act as if urging the user to input commands using the input speech recognition means when the interactive operating system is placed in a wait state;
• a connection means for connecting a television set/monitor to said system;
• a command interpreting means for specifying a user's intention or specifying said inputted user command based on a content of interaction traced by said interaction management means;
• and
• a command execution means for executing function commands, said function commands including a channel selection or channel change command,
• wherein in response to said command interpreting means interpreting an inputted user command as a channel change command, said assistant control means places respective changeable broadcasting program display windows in the shape of a ring around said assistant, and a part of the ring has a gap with no broadcasting program display window, and a broadcasting program display window of a program on a temporarily selected channel is placed at the forefront of the ring,
• wherein said output speech control means determines an assistant's speech based on a content of interaction managed by said interaction management means or an inputted user command specified by said command interpreting means, and
• wherein said output speech control means determines an assistant's speech for leading a user's intention when said command interpreting means fails to specify said user's intention or said inputted user command.