Natural language query system for accessing an information system

• US 20060184476A1
• Filed: 04/06/2006
• Published: 08/17/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Smartvql
• Original Assignee: Voice-Insight
• Inventors: Kemper, Charles, Den Ouden, Aart, Leger, Francois
• Granted Patent: US 7,653,604 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/20
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24522 Translation of natural language queries to structured queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90332 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/193 Formal grammars, e.g. finite state automata, context free grammars or word networks
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context

Abstract

An interaction system for enabling a user of information systems to interact with the information systems and a method of transmitting user queries from a speech, image or handwriting recognition system to the information systems. The interaction system is connectable to at least one recognition system and at least one information system and comprises at least one domain module for containing phrase setups constructed based on object classes, attribute classes and action classes that are common to all information systems of a given application domain and are provided to be tailored to a specific information system of the application domain by applying object, action and attribute types proper to the information system and specific object, action and attribute instantiations, obtained from the specific information system, in order to define a grammar essentially consisting in a set of term elements comprising specific object, attribute and action instantiations of those object, action and attribute types and a set of rules governing the use of these term elements in a set of valid user query phrases for interaction between the user and the specific information system through the recognition and interaction systems. The interaction system can also comprise at least one generic module, connectable to a recognition system, and/or at least one adapter module, connectable to an information system. The transmission method comprises the steps of defining the grammar and converting user queries into valid user query phrases according to the grammar and/or sets of term elements and rules of the grammar.

Claims

1. An interaction system for enabling a user of at least one information system belonging to an application domain to interact with said at least one information system, so that the at least one information system executes a set of actions on a set of objects characterized by a set of attributes;

wherein

said actions, objects and attributes are classifiable in action types, object types and attribute categories specific to each one of said at least one information system, and in action classes, object classes and attribute classes common to several information systems of said application domain,

said interaction system is connectable to said at least one information system,

said interaction system is also connectable to a user interface comprising at least one recognition system, so as to enable the user to interact with that said at least one information system by means of user queries processed by said at least one recognition system, and wherein

said interaction system comprises at least one domain module for containing the object classes, attribute classes and action classes of said application domain, and phrase setups having a structure based on said object classes, attribute classes and action classes and provided to be tailored to said at least one information system of said application domain by applying in said phrase setups the specific object types, action types and attribute categories of said at least one information system corresponding to the object, action and attribute classes in said phrase setups and object, action and attribute instantiations obtained from said at least one information system corresponding to the object, action and attribute classes in said phrase setups, in order to define a grammar essentially consisting in a set of term elements comprising the object, attribute and action instantiations obtained from said at least one information system and a set of rules governing the use of these term elements in a set of valid user query phrases for interaction between the user and said at least one information system through said recognition and interaction systems.

2. An interaction system according to claim 1, also comprising:

at least one generic module, connected to the at least one domain module and connectable to said at least one recognition system, for converting said sets of term elements and rules and/or a set of valid user query phrases generated using said sets of term elements and rules into a digital form suitable for being processed by the recognition system for the recognition of user queries and for converting a digital form of a used query, produced by said recognition system in response to said user query and suitable for being processed by a computer, into a phrase according to said grammar and/or into term elements and rules from said sets of term elements and rules.

3. An interaction system according to claim 2, wherein said generic module comprises an element containing recognition system configuration information.

4. An interaction system according to claim 1, also comprising:

at least one adapter module connected to the at least one domain module and connectable to said at least one information system, for receiving object types, attribute categories and action types of said specific information system as well as object, attribute and action instantiations from said at least one information system and pass them to the at least one domain module and for driving said at least one information system to execute a demand for action contained in a user query.

5. An interaction system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one domain module comprises an element containing information about general notions of objects and attributes common to several application domains.

6. An interaction system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one domain module is connectable to a system analyst and linguist for defining the object classes, attribute classes, action classes and phrase set-ups to be contained within said at least one domain module.

7. An interaction system according to claim 1, wherein said at least one recognition system comprises a speech recognition system and the user queries can be voiced by said user.

8. An interaction system according to claim 1, wherein said at least one recognition system comprises an image recognition system.

9. An interaction system according to claim 1, wherein said recognition system comprises a handwriting recognition system.

10. An interaction system according to claim 1, wherein said interaction system is also connectable to at least one output generation module for transmitting to said at least one output generation module a digital form, suitable for being processed by said at least one output generation module, of an output of said at least one information system in the form of an output phrase also according to said grammar or of its component term elements and at least one rule from said grammar governing the use of said term elements in an output phrase.

11. A method of enabling a user of at least one information system belonging to an application domain to interact with said at least one information system, so that the at least one information system executes a set of actions on a set of objects characterized by a set of attributes;

wherein said actions, objects and attributes are classifiable in action types, object types and attribute categories specific to each one of said at least one information system, and wherein said method comprises the steps of;

identifying the application domain;

defining object, attribute and action classes common to several information systems of said application domain;

constructing phrase setups based on said object, attribute and action classes;

defining the relationships between the object types, attribute categories and action types and object, attribute and action instantiations in each one of the at least one information system and the object, attribute and action classes;

defining a grammar essentially consisting in a set of term elements comprising object, attribute and action instantiations obtained from said at least one information system and a set of rules governing the use of these term elements in a set of valid user query phrases for interaction between a user and said specific information system, by applying in the phrase set-ups object types, attribute categories and action types of said at least one information system and their respective instantiations obtained from said at least one information system, according to the relationships between the object, attribute and action types and instantiations of said specific information system and the object, attribute and action classes contained in said phrase set-ups; and

converting a digital form of a user query processed by at least one recognition system into a valid phrase according to said grammar and/or a set of term elements and rules from said grammar; and

converting said valid phrase and/or set of term elements and rules into an action description with its related parameters for said specific information system.

12. A method according to claim 11, also comprising the step of transmitting said grammar and/or a set of valid phrases according to said grammar to the at least one recognition system for facilitating the recognition of user queries.

13. A method according to claim 11, wherein the at least one recognition system is a speech, image or handwriting recognition system.

14. A method of enabling a user of at least one information system belonging to an application domain to interact with said at least one information system, so that the at least one information system executes a set of actions on a set of objects characterized by a set of attributes;

wherein said actions, objects and attributes are classifiable in action types, object types and attribute categories specific to each one of said at least one information system, and said method comprises the steps of;

identifying the application domain;

defining object, attribute and action classes common to several information systems of said application domain;

constructing phrase setups based on said object, attribute and action classes;

defining the relationships between the object types, attribute categories and action types and object, attribute and action instantiations in each one of the at least one information system and the previously defined object, attribute and action classes;

defining a grammar essentially consisting in a set of term elements comprising object, attribute and action instantiations obtained from said at least one information system and a set of rules governing the use of these term elements in a set of valid user query phrases for interaction between a user and said specific information system, by applying in the phrase set-ups object types, attribute categories and action types of said at least one information system and their respective instantiations obtained from said at least one information system, according to the relationships between the object, attribute and action types and instantiations of said specific information system and the object, attribute and action classes contained in said phrase set-ups;

converting a digital form of a user query processed by at least one recognition system into a valid phrase according to said grammar and/or a set of term elements and rules from said grammar;

converting said valid phrase and/or set of term elements and rules into an action description with its related parameters for said specific information system;

converting an output of said information system into an output phrase according to said grammar and/or output set of term elements and rules according to said grammar; and

transmitting a digital form, suitable for being processed by at least one output module, of said output phrase and/or output set of term elements and rules to said at least one output module.

15. A method according to claim 14, also comprising the step of transmitting said grammar and/or a set of valid phrases according to said grammar to said at least one recognition system for facilitating the recognition of user queries.

16. A method according to claim 14, wherein said at least one recognition system is a speech, image or handwriting recognition system.