Navigation alerting using conversation analysis

• US 10,451,430 B2
• Filed: 07/26/2016
• Issued: 10/22/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bostick, James E., Ganci, Jr., John M., Keen, Martin G., Rakshit, Sarbajit K.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lin, Abby Y
• Assistant Examiner(s): Taveras, Kenny A.
• Application Number:
  US15/220,212
• Publication Number:
  US 20180031385A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 21/3608 using speech input, e.g. using speech recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/284 Lexical analysis, e.g. tokenisation or collocates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/289 Phrasal analysis, e.g. finite state techniques or chunking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/09626 where the origin of the information is within the own vehicle, e.g. a local storage device, digital map
• CPC Class Codes: G08G 1/096827 where the route is computed onboard
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/02 Feature extraction for speech recognition; Selection of recognition unit
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1815 Semantic context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word meaning
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1822 Parsing for meaning understanding
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence

Abstract

At an application executing in a device in a vehicle, a phrase is detected in a conversation occurring between two users. A determination is made that the phrase is usable in providing a navigation directive. Using NLP, a deep parsing the conversation is performed to extract a context applicable to the phrase. the context is evaluated to determine whether the context is related to a navigation of the vehicle. At the device, from the conversation, a future location is computed of the vehicle during the navigation. Using data from a data source, a suboptimal driving condition is identified on a route between a present location of the vehicle and the future location. A user in the vehicle is alerted about the suboptimal driving condition on the route.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting, at an application executing in a device in a vehicle, in a conversation occurring between two users, a phrase;

determining that the phrase is usable in providing a navigation directive;

performing, using Natural Language Processing (NLP), a deep parsing of the conversation, the deep parsing extracting a context applicable to the phrase;

evaluating the context to determine whether a likelihood that the context is related to a navigation instruction spoken between the two users during the conversation for navigation of the vehicle is greater than a threshold;

computing, at the device, from the conversation, a future location of the vehicle during the navigation based upon the navigation instruction responsive to determining that a likelihood that the context is related to a navigation instruction spoken between the two users during the conversation for navigation of the vehicle is greater than the threshold;

identifying, using data from a data source, a suboptimal driving condition on a route between a present location of the vehicle and the future location; and

alerting a user in the vehicle about the suboptimal driving condition on the route.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting to the user an option to use a navigation application for navigating the vehicle; and

initiating the navigation application responsive to an input from the user, the input selecting the option, wherein the initiating populates a value in the navigation application, the value being calculated from the conversation.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

extracting a future event from the conversation; and

using the future event in computing the future location.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the future event is a change of direction to be made by the vehicle.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the future event is a change of speed to be made by the vehicle.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein the future event is a change of a pathway to be made by the vehicle.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing the conversation to determine a destination of the navigation; and

using the destination to compute the future location.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the destination is the future location.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

inferring the destination from a purpose of the navigation, the purpose being specified in the conversation.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the data source is a crowd-sourced repository of driving conditions related information.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

further evaluating the context to determine whether the navigation related to the context is presently used to navigate the vehicle.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein information related to the context occurs prior to the phrase in the conversation.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein information related to the context occurs after the phrase in the conversation.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing a shallow parsing of a portion of the conversation, the shallow parsing using the NLP, and the shallow parsing determining that the phrase is usable in providing the navigation directive.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

passively listening to the conversation, wherein the conversation is not configured to trigger any application in any device.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the phrase is not preconfigured in the application to trigger any particular operation.

17. A computer usable program product comprising one or more computer-readable storage devices, and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, the stored program instructions comprising:

program instructions to detect, at an application executing in a device in a vehicle, in a conversation occurring between two users, a phrase;

program instructions to determine that the phrase is usable in providing a navigation directive;

program instructions to perform, using Natural Language Processing (NLP), a deep parsing of the conversation, the deep parsing extracting a context applicable to the phrase;

program instructions to evaluate the context to determine whether a likelihood that the context is related to a navigation instruction spoken between the two users during the conversation for navigation of the vehicle is greater than a threshold;

program instructions to compute, at the device, from the conversation, a future location of the vehicle during the navigation based upon the navigation instruction responsive to determining that a likelihood that the context is related to a navigation instruction spoken between the two users during the conversation for navigation of the vehicle is greater than the threshold;

program instructions to identify, using data from a data source, a suboptimal driving condition on a route between a present location of the vehicle and the future location; and

program instructions to alert a user in the vehicle about the suboptimal driving condition on the route.

18. The computer usable program product of claim 17, wherein the computer usable code is stored in a computer readable storage device in a data processing system, and wherein the computer usable code is transferred over a network from a remote data processing system.

19. The computer usable program product of claim 17, wherein the computer usable code is stored in a computer readable storage device in a server data processing system, and wherein the computer usable code is downloaded over a network to a remote data processing system for use in a computer readable storage device associated with the remote data processing system.

20. A computer system comprising one or more processors, one or more computer-readable memories, and one or more computer-readable storage devices, and program instructions stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more memories, the stored program instructions comprising:

program instructions to detect, at an application executing in a device in a vehicle, in a conversation occurring between two users, a phrase;

program instructions to determine that the phrase is usable in providing a navigation directive;

program instructions to perform, using Natural Language Processing (NLP), a deep parsing of the conversation, the deep parsing extracting a context applicable to the phrase;

program instructions to evaluate the context to determine whether a likelihood that the context is related to a navigation instruction spoken between the two users during the conversation for navigation of the vehicle is greater than a threshold;

program instructions to compute, at the device, from the conversation, a future location of the vehicle during the navigation based upon the navigation instruction responsive to determining that a likelihood that the context is related to a navigation instruction spoken between the two users during the conversation for navigation of the vehicle is greater than the threshold;

program instructions to identify, using data from a data source, a suboptimal driving condition on a route between a present location of the vehicle and the future location; and

program instructions to alert a user in the vehicle about the suboptimal driving condition on the route.