System, apparatus, and method for processing natural language, and non-transitory computer readable recording medium

• US 10,553,210 B2
• Filed: 07/18/2016
• Issued: 02/04/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Chung, Ji-hye, Kim, Kyung-duk
• Primary Examiner(s): Baker, Matthew H
• Application Number:
  US15/212,758
• Publication Number:
  US 20170069315A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,296 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/20 Natural language analysis semantic analysis of natural language G06F40/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/56 Natural language generation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command

Abstract

A system, apparatus, and method for processing a natural language, and a computer readable recording medium are provided. The system includes a user device configured to receive a compound or complex sentence and a natural language processing apparatus configured to generate a plurality of control commands for the user device based on whether operations intended by a user are sequentially performable in the compound or complex sentence received from the user device.

Claims

1. An apparatus for processing a natural language, the apparatus comprising:

a memory that stores operation information describing whether certain operations are sequentially performable;

a communication interface; and

a processor configured to;

obtain, via the communication interface, a compound or complex sentence uttered by a user corresponding to a plurality of operations including a first operation and a second operation intended by the user;

divide the obtained compound or complex sentence into a plurality of shorter sentences;

identify whether the operations intended by the user in each of the plurality of shorter sentences are sequentially performable operations; and

based on identifying that the operations intended by the user are sequentially performable operations, generate a plurality of control commands corresponding to the operations intended by the user, based on the operation information stored in the memory; and

based on identifying that the operations intended by the user are not sequentially performable, output information that indicates that at least one of the operations intended by the user is not performable, wherein the processor is further configured to identify whether the second operation is performable in a status of the apparatus if the first operation is performable in the apparatus.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of shorter sentences is a basic sentence.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:

based on the operations intended by the user in each of the plurality of shorter sentences being identified as being sequentially performable, identify the operations intended by the user in each of the plurality of shorter sentences based on a dialog context of the operations and a stored dialog history, and generate the control commands corresponding to the identified operations.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the processor is configured to generate a system answer for performing a sub-dialog with the user to identify the operations.

5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein based on the operations intended by the user in each of the plurality of shorter sentences being identified as not being sequentially performable, the processor is configured to generate a control command for outputting a warning message and to generate a control command for performing only one operation from among the operations intended by the user in each of the plurality of shorter sentences.

6. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the processor is further configured to, based on a voice signal corresponding to a control command being provided to the user, synthesize the control command and the voice signal.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the memory further stores direction information which describes an order in which the certain operations are sequentially performable.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein

among the plurality of shorter sentences, a first short sentence corresponding to the first operation is received before a second short sentence corresponding to the second operation, and

if the second operation is not performable in the apparatus after performing the first operation, the processor is configured to identify that the second operation is not sequentially performable with the first operation, and generate a control command for performing only the first operation among the first operation and the second operation intended by the user.

9. A method of processing a natural language, the method comprising:

storing operation information in a memory, the operation information describing whether certain operations are sequentially performable;

obtaining, via a communication interface, a compound or complex sentence uttered by a user corresponding to a plurality of operations including a first operation and a second operation intended by the user;

dividing the obtained compound or complex sentence into a plurality of shorter sentences;

identifying whether the operations intended by the user in each of the plurality of shorter sentences are sequentially performable operations;

based on identifying that the operations intended by the user are sequentially performable operations, generating a plurality of control commands corresponding to the operations intended by the user, based on the operation information stored in the memory;

identifying whether the second operation is performable in a status of an apparatus if the first operation is performable in the apparatus; and

based on the operations intended by the user in each of the plurality of shorter sentences not being sequentially performable, outputting information that indicates that at least one of the operations intended by the user is not performable.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein each of the plurality of shorter sentences is a basic sentence.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

based on the operations intended by the user in each of the plurality of shorter sentences being identified as being sequentially performable, identifying the operations intended by the user in each of the plurality of shorter sentences based on a dialog context of the operations and a stored dialog history; and

generating the control commands corresponding to the identified operations.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the generating the control command comprises generating a system answer for performing a sub-dialog with the user to identify the operations.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the generating of the control command comprises, based on the operations intended by the user in each of the plurality of shorter sentences being identified as not being sequentially performable, generating a control command for outputting a warning message and generating a control command for performing only one operation from among the operations intended by the user in each of the plurality of shorter sentences.

14. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

based on a voice signal corresponding to a control command being provided to the user synthesizing the control command and the voice signal.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein

among the plurality of shorter sentences, a first short sentence corresponding to the first operation is received before a second short sentence corresponding to the second operation, and

the method further comprises if the second operation is not performable in the apparatus after performing the first operation, identifying that the second operation is not sequentially performable with the first operation, and generating a control command for performing only the first operation among the first operation and the second operation intended by the user.

16. The method of claim 9, wherein the storing comprises storing direction information which describes an order in which the certain operations are sequentially performable.

17. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium comprising a program for executing a method of processing a natural language, wherein the method comprises:

storing operation information in a memory, the operation information describing whether certain operations are sequentially performable;

obtaining, via a communication interface, a compound or complex sentence uttered by a user corresponding to a plurality of operations including a first operation and a second operation intended by the user;

dividing the obtained compound or complex sentence into a plurality of shorter sentences;

identifying whether the operations intended by the user in each of the plurality of shorter sentences are sequentially performable operations;

based on identifying that the operations intended by the user are sequentially performable operations, generating a plurality of control commands corresponding to the operations intended by the user, based on the operation information stored in the memory;

identifying whether the second operation is performable in a status of an apparatus if the first operation is performable in the apparatus; and

based on the operations intended by the user in each of the plurality of shorter sentences not being sequentially performable, outputting information that indicates that at least one of the operations intended by the user is not performable.

18. The non-transitory computer readable recording medium of claim 17, wherein

among the plurality of shorter sentences, a first short sentence corresponding to the first operation is received before a second short sentence corresponding to the second operation, and

the method further comprises if the second operation is not performable in the apparatus after performing the first operation, identifying that the second operation is not sequentially performable with the first operation, and generating a control command for performing only the first operation among the first operation and the second operation intended by the user.