System and Method for Generating Phrases

• US 20120191445A1
• Filed: 01/21/2011
• Published: 07/26/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 01/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Disney Enterprises Incorporated (The Walt Disney Company)
• Original Assignee: Disney Enterprises Incorporated (The Walt Disney Company)
• Inventors: Markman, Vita G., Veprinsky, Michael, Hughston, Roger H., Beechum, Andrew R., Trestman, Arkady G.
• Granted Patent: US 9,552,353 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/2
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/289 Phrasal analysis, e.g. finite state techniques or chunking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/45 Example-based machine translation; Alignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/55 Rule-based translation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/56 Natural language generation

Abstract

Techniques are disclosed for generating phrases for selection by users communicating in an online virtual world environment. A phrase generation engine automatically constructs new phrases using pre-approved words from a dictionary of frequently used words and language-specific rules for phrase formation to ensure safety and supplement an existing database of commonly used, pre-approved phrases. Increasing the number of phrases that are available for selection by a user increases the user expressivity. Each word in the dictionary is annotated with semantic and grammatical information that constrains how the word is combined with other words to generate a new phrase. Each new phrase may also be tagged to enable translation into a different language so a phrase in a first language selected by a first user may be displayed in a second language to a second user.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for generating phrases, the method comprising:

receiving one or more words annotated with grammatical information, wherein the annotated words are organized into groups based on meanings of the annotated words;

generating phrases using combinations of the annotated words based on the grammatical information, phrase formation rules, and the groups; and

storing the generated phrases in a memory.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more words are annotated with semantic information and the generating further comprises using combination of the annotated words based on the semantic information.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a semantic tag for a first generated phrase of the generated phrases, wherein the semantic tag includes a verb and a verb argument extracted from the first generated phrase.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the semantic tag includes an object extracted from the first generated phrase.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising assigning a numeric identifier to the semantic tag.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising storing the semantic tag in the memory.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein the first generated phrase is represented in a first language and further comprising translating the verb and verb argument from the first language to a second language to produce a translated semantic tag.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising retrieving a second generated phrase that is represented in a second language and corresponds to the translated semantic tag.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising sending the second generated phrase to a user of an online environment.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the phrase formation rules include a first set of rules corresponding to a first language and a second set of phrase rules corresponding to a second language and the annotated words include a first set of annotated words that are represented in the first language and a second set of annotated words that are represented in the second language.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a selection from a first user of a first generated phrase of the generated phrases; and

sending the selected first generated phrase to at least a second user of an online environment.

12. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory, wherein the memory includes phrase generation engine configured to perform an operation that generates phrases, the operation comprising;

receiving annotated words that are annotated with grammatical information, wherein the annotated words are organized into groups based on meanings of the annotated words;

generating phrases using combinations of the annotated words based on the grammatical information, phrase formation rules, and the groups; and

storing the generated phrases in a storage.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the phrase generation engine is further configured to transmit the generated phrases to client systems that are configured to provide an online environment and store the generated phrases.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause a computer system to generate phrases, by performing the steps of:

receiving annotated words that are annotated with grammatical information, wherein the annotated words are organized into groups based on meanings of the annotated words;

generating phrases using combinations of the annotated words based on the grammatical information, phrase formation rules, and the groups; and

storing the generated phrases in a memory.

15. A computer-implemented method for translating phrases, the method comprising:

receiving a first generated phrase that is represented in a first language;

determining a semantic tag for the first generated phrase, wherein the semantic tag includes a verb and a verb argument extracted from the first generated phrase;

translating the verb and the verb argument into a second language to produce a translated semantic tag; and

retrieving a second phrase represented in a second language that corresponds to the translated semantic tag.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising transmitting the second phrase to a first user of an online environment.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the first generated phrase is selected by a second user of the online environment.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising receiving a first character of the first generated phrase that is entered by the second user to initiate phrase chat with the first user.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising displaying a set of generated phrases including the first generated phrase, wherein the generated phrases in the set of generated phrase each have a first character that matches the first character that is entered by the second user.

20. The method of claim 15, wherein the first generated phrase is generated using combinations of words represented in the first language that are annotated with semantic and grammatical information and combined based on phrase formation rules that are specific to the first language.

21. The method of claim 15, wherein the second phrase is generated using combinations of words represented in the second language that are annotated with semantic and grammatical information and combined based on phrase formation rules that are specific to the second language.

22. The method of claim 15, wherein the semantic tag includes an object extracted from the first generated phrase the object is translated into a second language to produce the translated semantic tag.

23. The method of claim 15, wherein the retrieving of the second phrase comprises matching a numeric identifier associated with the first generated phrase with a corresponding numeric identifier associated with the second phrase.

24. The method of claim 15, further comprising storing the semantic tag in a memory.

25. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a memory, wherein the memory includes phrase translation engine configured to perform an operation that translates phrases, the operation comprising;

receiving a first generated phrase that is represented in a first language;

determining a semantic tag for the first generated phrase, wherein the semantic tag includes a verb and a verb argument extracted from the first generated phrase;

translating the verb and the verb argument into a second language to produce a translated semantic tag; and

retrieving a second phrase represented in a second language that corresponds to the translated semantic tag.

26. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause a computer system to translate phrases, by performing the steps of:

receiving a first generated phrase that is represented in a first language;

determining a semantic tag for the first generated phrase, wherein the semantic tag includes a verb and a verb argument extracted from the first generated phrase;

translating the verb and the verb argument into a second language to produce a translated semantic tag;

retrieving a second phrase represented in a second language that corresponds to the translated semantic tag.