Method and System for Automatically Detecting Morphemes in a Task Classification System Using Lattices

• US 20110313769A1
• Filed: 08/27/2011
• Published: 12/22/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/05/1999
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property II LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Gorin, Allen Louis, Petrovska-Delacretaz, Dijana, Riccardi, Giuseppe, Wright, Jeremy Huntley
• Granted Patent: US 8,200,491 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/254
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/08 Speech classification or search

Abstract

In an embodiment, a lattice of phone strings in an input communication of a user may be recognized, wherein the lattice may represent a distribution over the phone strings. Morphemes in the input communication of the user may be detected using the recognized lattice. Task-type classification decisions may be made based on the detected morphemes in the input communication of the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving speech from a user;

selecting candidate morphemes from the speech;

forming, via a processor, a lattice, based, at least in part, on the candidate morphemes and stored morphemes;

determining a task objective of the speech, based at least in part on the lattice; and

routing the user according to the task objective.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving non-verbal speech from the user;

selecting non-verbal candidate morphemes from the non-verbal speech;

forming a non-verbal lattice, based at least in part, on the non-verbal candidate morphemes and the stored morphemes;

determining a second task objective of the non-verbal speech, based at least in part on the non-verbal lattice; and

determining if one of the task objective and the second task objective has priority.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the non-verbal speech comprises at least one of gestures, body movements, head movements, non-responses, text, keyboard entries, keypad entries, mouse clicks, DTMF codes, pointers, stylus, cable set-top box entries, graphical user interface entries, and touchscreen entries.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the candidate morphemes are expressed in multimodal form.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising prompting the user to provide a feedback response.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the feedback response comprises at least one of a confirmation with respect to the task objective and additional information with respect to the speech.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the lattice determines a salience measure associated with the task objective and the candidate morphemes.

8. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory storing instructions for controlling the processor to perform steps comprising;

receiving speech from a user;

selecting candidate morphemes from the speech;

forming based, at least in part, on the candidate morphemes and stored morphemes;

determining a task objective of the speech, based at least in part on the lattice; and

routing the user according to the task objective.

9. The system of claim 8, the steps further comprising:

receiving non-verbal speech from the user;

selecting non-verbal candidate morphemes from the non-verbal speech;

forming a non-verbal lattice, based at least in part, on the non-verbal candidate morphemes and the stored morphemes;

determining a second task objective of the non-verbal speech, based at least in part on the non-verbal lattice; and

determining if one of the task objective and the second task objective has priority.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the non-verbal speech comprises at least one of gestures, body movements, head movements, non-responses, text, keyboard entries, keypad entries, mouse clicks, DTMF codes, pointers, stylus, cable set-top box entries, graphical user interface entries, and touchscreen entries.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the candidate morphemes are expressed in multimodal form.

12. The system of claim 8, the steps further comprising prompting the user to provide a feedback response.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the feedback response comprises at least one of a confirmation with respect to the task objective and additional information with respect to the speech.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the lattice determines a salience measure associated with the task objective and the candidate morphemes.

15. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform steps comprising:

receiving speech from a user;

selecting candidate morphemes from the speech;

forming based, at least in part, on the candidate morphemes and stored morphemes;

determining a task objective of the speech, based at least in part on the lattice; and

routing the user according to the task objective.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, the steps further comprising:

receiving non-verbal speech from the user;

selecting non-verbal candidate morphemes from the non-verbal speech;

forming a non-verbal lattice, based at least in part, on the non-verbal candidate morphemes and the stored morphemes;

determining a second task objective of the non-verbal speech, based at least in part on the non-verbal lattice; and

determining if one of the task objective and the second task objective has priority.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 16, wherein the non-verbal speech comprises at least one of gestures, body movements, head movements, non-responses, text, keyboard entries, keypad entries, mouse clicks, DTMF codes, pointers, stylus, cable set-top box entries, graphical user interface entries, and touchscreen entries.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, wherein the candidate morphemes are expressed in multimodal form.

19. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 15, the steps further comprising prompting the user to provide a feedback response.

20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the feedback response comprises at least one of a confirmation with respect to the task objective and additional information with respect to the speech.