Task driven user intents

• US 10,585,957 B2
• Filed: 11/20/2017
• Issued: 03/10/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Heck, Larry Paul, Chinthakunta, Madhusudan, Mitby, David, Stifelman, Lisa
• Primary Examiner(s): Sharma, Neeraj
• Application Number:
  US15/818,432
• Publication Number:
  US 20180075151A1
• Time in Patent Office: 841 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9535 Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation

Abstract

Identification of user intents may be provided. A plurality of network applications may be identified, and an ontology associated with each of the plurality of applications may be defined. If a phrase received from a user is associated with at least one of the defined ontologies, an action associated with the network application may be executed.

Claims

1. A method for providing a user intent identification, comprising:

identifying a plurality of network-based applications;

generating an ontology associated with each of the plurality of network-based applications;

receiving, at a personal digital assistant, a single natural language phrase from a user;

comparing the single natural language phrase to one or more keywords associated with at least one ontology to automatically determine whether the single natural language phrase is associated with the at least one ontology associated with at least one of the network-based applications;

determining an intent of the single natural language phrase by identifying at least one intent keyword in the single natural language phrase;

determining a context of the single natural language phrase using one or more context keywords in the single natural language phrase; and

causing the personal digital assistant to automatically select and execute an agent action associated with the at least one of the plurality of network-based applications, the agent action being based, at least in part, on the determined intent and the determined context in the single natural language phrase.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether the keyword is included in the natural language phrase.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining one or more parameters for the agent action based, at least in part, on the natural language phrase.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising requesting additional information when it is determined the natural language phrase is not associated with the at least one ontology.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein causing the personal digital assistant to execute an agent action comprises causing the personal digital assistant to execute an action specific to the at least one of the plurality of network-based applications.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more keywords are obtained from parsing content associated with each of the plurality of network-based applications.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising causing a display of a result of the agent action on a display of a computing device.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the personal digital assistant automatically selects and executes the agent action in response to determining the single natural language phrase is associated with the at least one ontology.

6. A computing device, comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory coupled to the at least one processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, perform a method, comprising;

identifying a plurality of network-based applications;

generating an ontology associated with each of the plurality of network-based applications;

receiving a single natural language phrase;

comparing the single natural language phrase to one or more keywords associated with at least one ontology to automatically determine whether the single natural language phrase is associated with at the least one ontology associated with at least one of the applications;

determining an intent of the single natural language phrase by identifying at least one intent keyword in the single natural language phrase;

determining a context of the single natural language phrase using one or more context keywords in the single natural language phrase; and

causing a personal digital assistant associated with the computing device to automatically select and execute an agent action associated with the at least one of the plurality of network-based applications, the agent action being based, at least in part, on the determined intent and the determined context.

7. The computing device of claim 6, further comprising instructions for determining whether the keyword is included in the natural language phrase.

8. The computing device of claim 6, further comprising instructions for determining one or more parameters for the agent action based, at least in part, on the natural language phrase.

9. The computing device of claim 6, further comprising instructions for requesting additional information when it is determined that the natural language phrase is not associated with the at least one ontology.

10. The computing device of claim 6, wherein causing the personal digital assistant to execute an agent action comprises causing the personal digital assistant to execute an action specific to the at least one of the plurality of network-based applications.

11. The computing device of claim 6, further comprising instructions for providing at least one of the agent action and a result of the agent action on a display of the computing device.

16. The computing device of claim 6, wherein the one or more keywords are obtained from parsing content associated with each of the plurality of network-based applications.

12. A method, comprising:

identifying a plurality of network-based applications;

generating an ontology associated with each of the plurality of network-based applications;

causing a personal digital assistant associated with a computing device to receive a single natural language sentence;

comparing the single natural language sentence to one or more keywords associated with at least one ontology to determine that the single natural language sentence is associated with the at least one ontology;

determining an intent of the natural language sentence and a context associated with the natural language sentence;

and

causing the personal digital assistant to automatically select and execute an agent action associated with the at least one of the plurality of network-based applications, the agent action being based, at least in part, on the determined intent and the determined context of the single natural language sentence.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising causing a display of a result of the agent action on a display of the computing device.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more keywords of the at least one ontology are obtained from parsing content associated with each of the plurality of network-based applications.

19. The method of claim 12, further comprising requesting additional information when it is determined that the natural language sentence is not associated with the at least one ontology.

20. The method of claim 12, wherein the one or more keywords are obtained from parsing content associated with each of the plurality of network-based applications.