Question pre-processing in a question and answer system
First Claim
1. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to:
- initialize a timer to a threshold amount of time;
receive a first input of content-bearing natural language from a user computing device;
initiate running of the timer in response to receiving the first input of content-bearing natural language;
determine whether or not a second input of content-bearing natural language is received from the user computing device prior to the threshold amount of time being reached by the timer;
in response to receiving the second input of content-bearing natural language prior to the threshold amount of time being reached by the timer, group the second input with the first input to generate a question comprising content of both the first input and the second input, and reset the running of the timer; and
provide, in response to the timer reaching the threshold amount of time without further input being received from the user computing device, the question to a Question-and-Answer (QA) system as an input question for processing by the QA system.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Mechanisms are provided for assembling natural language user inputs into questions for a question-and-answer (QA) system. The mechanisms initialize a timer to a threshold amount of time, receive a first input of content-bearing natural language from a user computing device, and initiate running of the timer in response. The mechanisms determine whether a second input of content-bearing natural language is received from the user computing device prior to the threshold amount of time being reached by the timer. If so, the second input is grouped with the first input to generate a question comprising content of both the first input and the second input, and the timer is reset. In response to the timer reaching the threshold without further input from the user computing device, the question is provided to the QA system as an input question for processing by the QA system.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to:
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initialize a timer to a threshold amount of time; receive a first input of content-bearing natural language from a user computing device; initiate running of the timer in response to receiving the first input of content-bearing natural language; determine whether or not a second input of content-bearing natural language is received from the user computing device prior to the threshold amount of time being reached by the timer; in response to receiving the second input of content-bearing natural language prior to the threshold amount of time being reached by the timer, group the second input with the first input to generate a question comprising content of both the first input and the second input, and reset the running of the timer; and provide, in response to the timer reaching the threshold amount of time without further input being received from the user computing device, the question to a Question-and-Answer (QA) system as an input question for processing by the QA system. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An apparatus comprising:
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a processor; and a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to; initialize a timer to a threshold amount of time; receive a first input of content-bearing natural language from a user computing device; initiate running of the timer in response to receiving the first input of content-bearing natural language; determine whether or not a second input of content-bearing natural language is received from the user computing device prior to the threshold amount of time being reached by the timer; in response to receiving the second input of content-bearing natural language prior to the threshold amount of time being reached by the timer, group the second input with the first input to generate a question comprising content of both the first input and the second input, and reset the running of the timer; and provide, in response to the timer reaching the threshold amount of time without further input being received from the user computing device, the question to a Question-and-Answer (QA) system as an input question for processing by the QA system. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification