Language-understanding systems employing machine translation components

• US 20070118352A1
• Filed: 01/22/2007
• Published: 05/24/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Douglas, Shona, Alshawi, Hiyan
• Granted Patent: US 7,467,081 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/45 Example-based machine translation; Alignment
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/40 using speech recognition speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4936 Speech interaction details speech recognition per se G10L15/00

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method and system for augmenting a training database of an automated language-understanding system. In one embodiment, a training example in a first language may be received from the training database. The first language-training example may be translated to a second language output. The second language output may be translated to a first variant of the first language-training example. An action pair including the first variant of the first language-training example and an action command associated with the first language-training example may be stored in an augmented training database.

Claims

1. A method for augmenting an initial training database of an automated language-understanding system, comprising:

receiving a training example in a first language from the initial training database;

translating the first language training example to a second language output;

translating the second language output to a first variant of the first language training example; and

storing an action pair including the first variant of the first language-training example and an action-command associated with the first language-training example in an augmented training database.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

translating the second language output to a third language output;

translating the third language output to a second variant of the first language training example; and

outputting the second variant of the first language-training example to an output manager.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising:

storing an action pair including the second variant of the first language-training example and the action command associated with the first language-training example in the augmented training database.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the action-command is a computer executable command.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first language-training example is in at least one of:

English, German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Russian, Greek, Armenian, or Hindi.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the second language output is in at least one of:

English, German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Russian, Greek, Armenian, or Hindi.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the first variant is in at least one of:

English, German, French, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Russian, Greek, Armenian, or Hindi.

8. A system for augmenting an initial training database of an automated language-understanding system, comprising:

a first language-translation unit configured to translate a first language-training example to a second language output;

a second language-translation unit configured to translate the second language output to a first variant of the first language training example; and

a database configured to store an action pair including the first variant of the first language-training example and an action-command associated with the first language-training example.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising:

a third language-translation unit configured to translate the second language output to a third language output; and

a fourth language-translation unit configured to translate the third language output to a second variant of the first language-training example.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising:

an output manager configured to output the second variant of the first language-training example.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the database is configured to store the second variant of the first language-training example and the action-command associated with the first language-training example.

12. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon a plurality of executable instructions, the plurality of instructions comprising instructions to:

receive a training example in a first language from the initial training database;

translate the first language training example to a second language output;

translate the second language output to a first variant of the first language training example; and

store an action pair including the first variant of the first language-training example and an action-command associated with the first language-training example in an augmented training database.

13. The machine-readable medium of claim 12 having stored thereon additional executable instructions, the additional instructions comprising instructions to:

translate the second language output to a third language output;

translate the third language output to a second variant of the first language training example; and

output the second variant of the first language-training example to an output manager.

14. The machine-readable medium of claim 13 having stored thereon additional executable instructions, the additional instructions comprising instructions to:

store an action pair including the second variant of the first language-training example and the action command associated with the first language-training example in the augmented training database.

15. A system for augmenting an initial training database of an automated language-understanding system, comprising:

a language-translation unit configured to translate a first language-training example to a second language output and configured to translate the second language output to a first variant of the first language training example; and

a database configured to store an action pair including the first variant of the first language-training example and an action-command associated with the first language-training example.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the language translation unit further configured to translate the second language output to a third language output and to translate the third language output to a second variant of the first language-training example.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

an output manager configured to output the second variant of the first language-training example.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the database is configured to store the second variant of the first language-training example and the action-command associated with the first language-training example.