23. The system of claim 15 , further comprising a plurality of devices including the current device, wherein each device is coupled to the device manager through a description of each device conforming to a device application programming interface (API), wherein each device description includes at least one of an activity model, a device-specific DMS, a device-specific NPRS, and code implementing further device-specific functionality.
15. A dialogue manager system based on an information-state-update approach, the system comprising: an input stage receiving an input pattern to a dialogue system generated from an acoustic signal that includes a description of a dialogue contribution from a speaker, the dialogue contribution comprising part of an activity oriented dialog concerning activities carried out by the speaker and at least one current device; an activity tree (AT) managing the activities, wherein each of the activities is initiated by a command included in the dialogue contribution from the speaker; an activity model (AM) for each device of the at least one device, the activity model comprising scripts encapsulating device-specific information and constituting a declarative specification of device capabilities and their relationships to linguistic information involved in the dialogue contribution; a plurality of dialogue moves and a dialogue move script (DMS) that corresponds to the at least one device, the dialogue manager receiving an input pattern generated from an acoustic signal that includes a description of a dialogue contribution from the speaker, the DMS recognizing the description and at least one parameter of the description, the DMS mapping the description to a one of the dialogue moves that corresponds to the recognized parameter, wherein the dialogue manager further operates to use a device-specific DMS that includes mappings to device-specific dialogue moves as part of adding one of new dialogue-capable devices and dialogue-capability for existing devices to the system; a knowledge manager coupled to the dialogue manager and to at least one database; and a device manager coupled to the dialogue manager, and configured to receive a broadcast of an interface from the new dialogue-capable device when the new dialogue-capable device is added to the dialogue manager system and further configured to associate a device-specific DMS with the new dialogue-capable device that includes mappings to device-specific dialogue moves, wherein the broadcast comprises information including functionality of the new dialogue-capable device, languages recognized by the new dialogue-capable device, and any device-specific DMS required for the new dialogue-capable device, to allow the new dialogue-capable device to self-register with a dialogue manager component of the dialogue system, and further wherein the new dialogue-capable device is defined to be a current device within an information state of the dialogue system after receipt of the broadcast.