SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR INFERRING INFORMATIONAL GOALS AND PREFERRED LEVEL OF DETAIL OF ANSWERS

• US 20090037398A1
• Filed: 08/04/2008
• Published: 02/05/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Horvitz, Eric J., Zukerman, Ingrid
• Granted Patent: US 7,778,820 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/35 Clustering; Classification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/35 Discourse or dialogue representation
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

A system and method for inferring informational goals and preferred level of details in answers in response to questions posed to computer-based information retrieval or question-answering systems is provided. The system includes a query subsystem that can receive an input query and extrinsic data associated with the query and which can output an answer to the query, and/or rephrased queries or sample queries. The query subsystem accesses an inference model to retrieve conditional probabilities that certain informational goals are present. One application of the system includes determining a user'"'"'s likely informational goals and then accessing a knowledge data store to retrieve responsive information. The system includes a natural language processor that parses queries into observable linguistic features and embedded semantic components that can be employed to retrieve the conditional probabilities from the inference model. The inference model is built by employing supervised learning and statistical analysis on a set of queries suitable to be presented to a question-answering system. Such a set of queries can be manipulated to produce different inference models based on demographic and/or localized linguistic data.

Claims

1-20. -20. (canceled)

21. A system for inferring an information goal given a query, comprising:

a query subsystem that receives a user query and extrinsic data relating to the user, the query subsystem operatively coupled to an inference model and a knowledge data store, the query subsystem comprising;

an inference engine that infers one or more informational goals and a preferred level of detail for an answer to the query, the inference based at least in part on the query, the extrinsic data, and inference data stored in the inference model, wherein the extrinsic data includes at least informational content being displayed to the user at the time the query is received.

34. A method for presenting answers to queries, comprising:

receiving a query from a user;

parsing the query into component parts of speech and logical forms to produce parse data;

receiving extrinsic data relating to the user, the extrinsic data including at least informational content being displayed to the user at the time the query is received;

employing the parse data and the extrinsic data to infer one or more informational goals and a preferred level of detail for answers to the query;

generating at least one answer to the query in accordance with the inferred informational goals and preferred level of detail.

40. A system for generating a response to a query at a preferred level of detail, comprising:

means for inputting a query from a user;

means for parsing the query into component parts of speech and logical forms to produce parse data;

means for employing the parse data to access a decision model, the decision model storing conditional probabilities concerning a likelihood that specific informational goals are related to a query;

means for receiving extrinsic data, the extrinsic data including at least informational content displayed to the user at the time the query is inputted;

means for employing the decision model and the extrinsic data to infer one or more informational goals associated with the query and a preferred level of detail for an response to the query; and

means for producing a response to the query in accordance with the inferred informational goals and preferred level of detail.