System and method for a spoken language interface to a large database of changing records

• US 20050004799A1
• Filed: 05/07/2004
• Published: 01/06/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/31/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Telelogue (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Telelogue (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Lyudovyk, Yevgenly
• Application Number:
  US10/840,377
• Publication Number:
  US 20050004799A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/254
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/00 Speech recognition G10L17/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/183 using context dependencies, e.g. language models
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/197 Probabilistic grammars, e.g. word n-grams
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention provide a spoken language interface to an information database. A plurality of word N-grams from each entry in the information database may be generated. A corresponding probability score for each word N-gram included in the plurality of word N-grams may also be generated. Any one word N-gram from the plurality of word N-grams may be included in a distorted version of the entry generated based on a transformation rule. Duplicate word N-grams from the plurality of word N-grams generated from each entry in the information database may be identified. Corresponding probability scores for the identified duplicate word N-grams may be accumulated. One of the duplicate word N-grams and the corresponding accumulated probability score may be stored in a grammars database.

Claims

1. A method for providing a spoken language interface to an information database, comprising:

generating a plurality of word N-grams from each entry in the information database and a corresponding probability score for each word N-gram included in the plurality of word N-grams, and wherein any one word N-gram from the plurality of word N-grams is included in a distorted version of the entry generated based on one or more transformation rules;

identifying duplicate word N-grams from the plurality of word N-grams generated from each entry in the information database;

accumulating corresponding probability scores for the identified duplicate word N-grams; and

storing one of the duplicate word N-grams and the corresponding accumulated probability score in a grammars database.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the word N-grams are word bi-grams.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the word N-grams are word tri-grams.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the plurality of word N-grams are generated by applying the transformation rule to one or more entries in the information database.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the transformation rule is a word omission rule which indicates that one or more words of the one or more entries in the information database can be skipped.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the transformation rule is a word inversion rule which indicates that one or more words of the one or more entries in the information database can be inverted.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more transformation rules include both a word omission rule and a word inversion rule.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more transformation rules include a rule that does not result in combinatorial growth of number of distorted forms.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the information database is a listings database.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the grammars database is updated daily, weekly or monthly.

11. The method of claim 1, furthering comprising:

inserting a start indicator before a first word of the entry; and

inserting an end indicator after a last word of the entry.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the corresponding probability score for each word N-gram included in the plurality of word N-grams for a given entry is calculated using the formula:

Prob(I₁, I₂, . . . , I_N)=C*OM(I₁, 1₂, . . . , I_N)*INV(I₁, I₂, . . . , I_N)*VAL(w(I₁), w(I₂), . . . w(I_N)), where I₁, I₂, . . . , I_N represent positions of words in the entry that compose the word N-gram, C represents a normalizing constant, OM represents an omission part probability, INV represents an inversion part and VAL represents a validity part probability.

13. A method for processing a user'"'"'s request for information, comprising:

generating a plurality of word N-grams from each entry in the information database and a corresponding probability score for each word N-gram included in the plurality of word N-grams, and wherein any one word N-gram from the plurality of word N-grams is included in a distorted version of the entry generated based on a transformation rule;

identifying duplicate word N-grams from the plurality of word N-grams generated from each entry in the information database;

accumulating corresponding probability scores for the identified duplicate word N-grams;

storing one of the duplicate word N-grams and the corresponding accumulated probability score in a grammars database;

receiving the user'"'"'s request for information;

recognizing the user'"'"'s request against the word N-grams stored in the grammars database;

matching the recognized user'"'"'s request with one or more entries from information database;

selecting the matched entries from the information database with corresponding confidence levels that meet or exceed a threshold.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

forwarding information associated with the selected entry with highest confidence level to a user.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

forwarding information associated with the selected entries to a user for confirmation.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the information database is a directory listings database and the request for information is a request for a telephone number, the method further comprising:

forwarding a number associated with the selected entry to a user.

17. Apparatus comprising:

an information database to store a plurality of information entries;

a processor configured to;

generate a plurality of word N-grams from each entry in the information database and a corresponding probability score for each word N-gram included in the plurality of word N-grams, and wherein any one word N-gram from the plurality of word N-grams is included in a distorted version of the entry generated based on a transformation rule,

identify duplicate word N-grams from the plurality of word N-grams generated from each entry in the information database, and

accumulate corresponding probability scores for the identified duplicate word N-grams; and

a grammars data base to store one of the duplicate word N-grams and the corresponding accumulated probability score.

18. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising:

a recognizer to recognize the user'"'"'s request against the word N-grams stored in the grammars database and wherein the processor further configured to;

match the recognized user'"'"'s request with one or more word N-grams stored in the grammars database and

select an entry from the information database associated with a matching N-gram, if the match has a corresponding confidence level that meets or exceeds a threshold.

19. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising:

an output manager to forward information associated with the selected entry with highest confidence level to a user.

20. The apparatus of claim 17, further comprising:

an output manager to forward information associated with the selected entries to a user for confirmation.

21. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of executable instructions to be executed by a processor to implement a method for providing a spoken language interface to an information database, the method comprising:

generating a plurality of word N-grams from each entry in the information database and a corresponding probability score for each word N-gram included in the plurality of word N-grams, and wherein any one word N-gram from the plurality of word N-grams is included in a distorted version of the entry generated based on a transformation rule;

identifying duplicate word N-grams from the plurality of word N-grams generated from each entry in the information database;

accumulating corresponding probability scores for the identified duplicate word N-grams; and

storing one of the duplicate word N-grams and the corresponding accumulated probability score in a grammars database.

22. The machine-readable medium of claim 21, the method further comprising:

inserting a start indicator before a first word of the entry; and

inserting an end indicator after a last word of the entry.