Augmented Conversational Understanding Architecture

• US 20120254227A1
• Filed: 03/31/2011
• Published: 10/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/31/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Heck, Larry Paul, Chinthakunta, Madhusudan, Mitby, David, Stifelman, Lisa
• Granted Patent: US 10,642,934 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3329 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• 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

Abstract

An augmented conversational understanding architecture may be provided. Upon receiving a natural language phrase from a user, the phrase may be translated into a search phrase and a search action may be performed on the search phrase.

Claims

1. A method for providing an augmented conversational understanding architecture, the method comprising:

receiving a natural language phrase from a user;

translating the natural language phrase into a search phrase; and

performing a search action according to the search phrase, wherein performing the search action according to the search phrase comprises mapping the natural language phrase to at least one node of an ontology.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the ontology comprises data associated with a plurality of search engine results.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the natural language phrase is received as an audio stream.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the search phrase comprises at least one semantic concept.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one contextual semantic concept comprises a word not contained in the natural language phrase.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a plurality of search results according to the search action; and

providing the plurality of search results to the user.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising providing the plurality of search results to a plurality of users.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the natural language phrase is derived from a conversation among the plurality of users.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing a plurality of application programming interfaces (APIs); and

identifying at least one required parameter for each of the plurality of APIs.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein each of the plurality of APIs is associated with a website search function.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein translating the natural language phrase into the search phrase comprises:

identifying a context associated with the natural language phrase;

determining whether at least one of the plurality of APIs is associated with the identified context; and

in response to determining that at least one of the plurality of APIs is associated with the identified context, translating at least one word of the natural language phrase into the at least one required parameter associated with the at least one of the plurality of APIs.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein performing the search action comprises calling the at least one of the plurality of APIs with the at least one required parameter.

13. A computer-readable medium which stores a set of instructions which when executed performs a method for providing an augmented conversational understanding architecture, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:

receiving a natural language phrase from a user;

creating a context state associated with the natural language phrase;

translating the natural language phrase into an executable action;

identifying a domain associated with the executable action according to the identified context; and

performing the executable action within the identified domain.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the context state comprises at least one of the following:

a role associated with the user, at least one previous user objective, at least one previous user action request, a location of the user, a time, a date, a category associated with the first action request from the user, a data type associated with the first action request from the user, and a data category associated with previous user action requests.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the executable action comprises at least one of the following:

a search action, a data creation action, a data modification action, and a communication action.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 13, further comprising:

providing at least one suggested next action to the user.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 16, further comprising:

receiving a second natural language phrase from the user;

determining whether the second natural language phrase is associated with the at least one suggested next action; and

in response to determining that the second natural language phrase is associated with the at least one suggested next action, performing the at least one suggested next action.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 17, further comprising:

in response to determining that the second natural language phrase is not associated with the at least one suggested next action, providing at least one second suggested next action to the user.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 18, further comprising:

updating the context state according to the second natural language phrase.

20. A system for providing a context-aware environment, the system comprising:

a memory storage; and

a processing unit coupled to the memory storage, wherein the processing unit is operative to;

receive an action request from the user, gather a context state associated with a user, wherein the context state comprises at least one of the following;

a role associated with the user, at least one previous user objective, at least one previous user action request, a location of the user, a time, a date, a category associated with the first action request from the user, a data type associated with the first action request from the user, and a data category associated with previous user action requests,

create a plurality of objectives according to the context state,

execute the requested action according to the context state,

determine whether the requested action is associated with accomplishing the at least one of the plurality of objectives, wherein being operative to determine whether the context state is associated with accomplishing the at least one predicted objective comprises being operative to compare the context state to a plurality of user context states each associated with the at least one of the plurality of objectives,

in response to determining that the action is associated with accomplishing the at least one of the plurality of objectives, update the context state,

determine whether the context state comprises a completed objective of the plurality of objectives, and

in response to determining that the context state does not comprise the completed objective, provide a suggested next action.