Query Formation and Modification

• US 20150186551A1
• Filed: 01/02/2014
• Published: 07/02/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 01/02/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Adobe Inc.
• Original Assignee: Adobe Systems Incorporated (Adobe Inc.)
• Inventors: Badimon, Mathieu Ren
• Granted Patent: US 9,507,879 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90332 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems

Abstract

Query formation and modification techniques are described. In one or more embodiments, a query is received that is formed in a text field as a phrase in a human-readable language that includes a visual indicator that represents a missing term that is a subject of the query. Based on the query, a defined database is searched, and one or more modified versions of the phrase are presented that replace the visual indicator with a respective result of the searching. In addition, one or more options are presented that are selectable to automatically complete the phrase as a sentence in the human-readable language.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving a query formed in a text field as a phrase in a human-readable language that includes a visual indicator representing a missing term that is a subject of the query;

searching a defined database based on the query; and

presenting one or more modified versions of the phrase that replace the visual indicator with a respective result of the searching.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising presenting one or more options that are selectable to automatically complete the phrase as a sentence in the human-readable language.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the phrase includes one or more of a subject, a verb, or a context.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the phrase is selectable to initiate presentation of the one or more modified versions of the phrase.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the one or more modified versions of the phrase are presented in the text field.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein multiple modified versions of the phrase are presented responsive to selection of a portion of the phrase.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the selected portion of the phrase includes the visual indicator that represents the missing term.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the multiple modified versions of the phrase are each presented with a different respective result of the query that is modified based on a respective modified version of the phrase.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the phrase comprises one of a sentence or a clause.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual indicator comprises one or more of punctuation, a symbol, or an alphanumeric character.

11. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

a query module including instructions executable by the one or more processors to perform operations including;

receiving a user input comprising one or more text characters; and

assisting the user in forming a query as a phrase in a human-readable language by at least using the one or more text characters to generate suggested phrases that are user-selectable to complete at least a portion of the query, at least one of the suggested phrases having a visual indicator that represents a term that is a subject of the query and which is missing from the at least one of the suggested phrases.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprise:

generating a result of the query based on selection of one of the suggested phrases; and

presenting the result of the query by at least replacing the visual indicator with the result of the query to complete the phrase.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein a plurality of the suggested phrases each include a visual indicator that represents a respective missing term that is the subject of the query based on a context of a respective suggested phrase, wherein the operations further comprise modifying the plurality of suggested phrases by replacing each visual indicator with a respective result of the query.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the suggested phrases are generated responsive to selection of the phrase that includes the visual indicator.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the phrase includes a sentence in the human-readable language.

16. One or more computer readable storage media storing instructions that, responsive to execution by a computing device, cause the computing device perform operations comprising:

receiving via a text field a query formed as a phrase in a human-readable language;

causing a result of the query to be displayed in the text field;

receiving a selection of a portion of the query; and

responsive to receiving the selection of the portion of the query, presenting multiple options that are selectable to change one or more terms of the phrase to create a modified version of the query, one or more of the multiple options being presented with a result to a respective modified version of the query independent of receiving a selection of the one or more of the multiple options.

17. The one or more computer readable storage media of claim 16, wherein the phrase includes a visual indicator representing a missing term in the phrase that is a subject of the query, and wherein the one or more of the multiple options are presented with the result to the respective modified version of the query replacing the visual indicator in the phrase.

18. The one or more computer readable storage media of claim 16, wherein the operations further comprise searching a defined database responsive to the selection of the portion of the query to identify the multiple options.

19. The one or more computer readable storage media of claim 16, wherein the phrase comprises a sentence.

20. The one or more computer readable storage media of claim 16, wherein the visual indicator comprises a non-text character that represents a request for particular data.