APPARATUS, SYSTEM, AND METHOD FOR NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING

• US 20110071819A1
• Filed: 09/22/2009
• Published: 03/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Next IT Corporation (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Inventors: Zartler, Mark, Miller, Tanya
• Granted Patent: US 8,943,094 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/243 Natural language query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/2455 Query execution
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/258 Data format conversion from or to a database
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3329 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/43 Querying
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/232 Orthographic correction, e.g. spell checking or vowelisation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/242 Dictionaries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/40 Processing or translation of natural language natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/22 Interactive procedures; Man-machine interfaces

Abstract

Various embodiments are described for searching and retrieving documents based on a natural language input. A computer-implemented natural language processor electronically receives a natural language input phrase from an interface device. The natural language processor attributes a concept to the phrase with the natural language processor. The natural language processor searches a database for a set of documents to identify one or more documents associated with the attributed concept to be included in a response to the natural language input phrase. The natural language processor maintains the concepts during an interactive session with the natural language processor. The natural language processor resolves ambiguous input patterns in the natural language input phrase with the natural language processor. The natural language processor includes a processor, a memory and/or storage component, and an input/output device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

electronically receiving, by a computer-implemented natural language processor, a natural language input phrase from an interface device;

attributing, by the natural language processor, a concept to the phrase;

searching a database, by the natural language processor, for a set of documents to identify one or more documents associated with the attributed concept to be included in a response to the natural language input phrase;

maintaining, by the natural language processor, the concept during an interactive session; and

resolving ambiguous input patterns, by the natural language processor, in the natural language input phrase;

wherein the natural language processor comprises;

a processor circuit;

a memory and/or storage circuit; and

an input/output device circuit.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the concept comprises any one or more patterns of:

one or more vocab terms comprising a grouping of unambiguous synonyms and misspellings,

one or more helper terms comprising words that have no unambiguous synonyms,

one or more building blocks, individual building blocks comprising one or more of a list of vocab/helper terms or a list of concepts, and

one or more dictionary text files, tabular text data files, regular expressions, lex types and other constructs to impact scoring, and contextual awareness.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein maintaining the concept further comprises:

storing, by the natural language processor, in the memory and/storage circuit a word received in a first input pattern as a value to the attributed concept; and

associating, by the natural language processor, an ambiguous word received in a second, subsequent, input pattern, to the word.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying, by the natural language processor, a goal associated with the natural language input phrase; and

initiating, by the natural language processor, an interactive dialog between the interface device and the natural language processor to acquire information associated with the goal.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

requesting, by the natural language processor, additional information from the interface device when the identified goal cannot be completed;

assigning, by the natural language processor, a primary goal variable to be used to complete the identified goal;

initiating, by any one of the natural language processor and a user, a tangential request;

performing, by the natural language processor, the tangential request;

completing, by the natural language processor, the tangential request; and

returning, by the natural language processor, the completed tangential request to the goal variable to complete the primary goal.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein searching further comprises:

performing, by the natural language processor, a primary search in the database based on the natural language input phrase;

providing, by the natural language processor, a primary response in accordance with the primary search;

performing, by the natural language processor, a secondary search in the database after the primary search; and

providing, by the natural language processor, a secondary response to the interface device in accordance with the secondary search.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the performing the primary search comprises searching the database, by the natural language processor, for concepts attributed to the natural language input phrase;

and

wherein performing the secondary search comprises searching, by the natural language processor, on material concepts identified in the natural language input phrase.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising providing to the interface device, by the natural language processor, related responses based on the secondary search.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

creating, by the natural language processor, multiple concept matching units; and

prompting the interface device, by the natural language processor, for clarification of ambiguous concepts contained in the multiple concept matching units.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

specifying, by the interface device, an ordering of any two or more of the vocab terms, helper terms, and building blocks within at least one of the patterns in the natural language input phrase.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising specifying, by the interface device, a proximity of any two or more of the vocab terms, helper terms, and building blocks within the at least one of the patterns in the natural language input phrase.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of receiving, attributing or searching is performed at least in part by an information retrieval engine (IRE).

13. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more of the identified documents does not contain a term expressly found in the inputted phrase.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising searching the set of documents in the database, by the natural language processor, to identify one or more documents containing at least one term found in the inputted phrase.

15. The method of claim 14, further comprising ranking, by the natural language processor, a plurality of documents in the set of documents based at least in part on the number of terms in each of the plurality of documents that match a term in the inputted phrase.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising organizing, by the natural language processor, the plurality of documents based at least in part on the ranking.

17. The method of claim 1, further comprising indexing, by the natural language processor, the set of documents according to one or both of vocabulary terms or concepts.

18. One or more computer-readable media having computer-readable instructions thereon which, when executed by a computer, implement the method of claim 1.

19. A system, comprising:

a natural language processor comprising;

a processor circuit;

a memory and/or storage circuit; and

an input/output device circuit;

the natural language processor to electronically receive natural language input phrase from an interface device;

attribute a concept to the phrase;

search a database for a set of documents to identify one or more documents associated with the attributed concept to be included in a response to the natural language input phrase;

maintain the concept during an interactive session; and

resolve ambiguous input patterns in the natural language input phrase.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the natural language processor is to:

store in the memory and/storage circuit a word received in a first input pattern as a value to the attributed concept; and

associate an ambiguous word received in a second, subsequent, input pattern, to the word.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the natural language processor is to:

identify a goal associated with the natural language input phrase; and

initiate an interactive dialog between the interface device and the natural language processor to acquire information associated with the goal.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the natural language processor is to:

request additional information from the interface device when the identified goal cannot be completed;

assign a primary goal variable to be used to complete the identified goal;

receive a tangential request initiated, by any one of the natural language processor and a user;

process the tangential request;

complete the tangential request; and

return the completed tangential request to the goal variable to complete the primary goal.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the natural language processor is to:

perform a primary search in the database based on the natural language input phrase;

provide a primary response in accordance with the primary search;

perform a secondary search in the database after the primary search; and

provide a secondary response to the interface device in accordance with the secondary search.

24. The method system of claim 19, wherein the natural language processor is to:

create multiple concept matching units; and

prompt the interface device for clarification of ambiguous concepts contained in the multiple concept matching units.

25. The system of claim 19, specifying, by the interface device, an ordering of any two or more of the vocab terms, helper terms, and building blocks within at least one of the patterns in the natural language input phrase.

26. The system of claim 19, wherein the natural language processor is to search the set of documents in the database to identify one or more documents containing at least one term found in the inputted phrase.

27. The system of claim 19, wherein the natural language processor is to index the set of documents according to one or both of vocabulary terms or concepts.