SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A COOPERATIVE CONVERSATIONAL VOICE USER INTERFACE

• US 20150228276A1
• Filed: 04/20/2015
• Published: 08/13/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: VB Assets, LLC
• Original Assignee: VoiceBox Technologies Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: BALDWIN, Larry, FREEMAN, Tom, TJALVE, Michael, WEIDER, Chris, EBERSOLD, Blane
• Granted Patent: US 10,297,249 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/18 using natural language modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1815 Semantic context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word meaning
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1822 Parsing for meaning understanding
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/183 using context dependencies, e.g. language models
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/22 Interactive procedures; Man-machine interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/0631 Creating reference templates; Clustering
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/225 Feedback of the input speech
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02166 Microphone arrays; Beamforming
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/51 for comparison or discrimination
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/63 for estimating an emotional state

Abstract

A cooperative conversational voice user interface is provided. The cooperative conversational voice user interface may build upon short-term and long-term shared knowledge to generate one or more explicit and/or implicit hypotheses about an intent of a user utterance. The hypotheses may be ranked based on varying degrees of certainty, and an adaptive response may be generated for the user. Responses may be worded based on the degrees of certainty and to frame an appropriate domain for a subsequent utterance. In one implementation, misrecognitions may be tolerated, and conversational course may be corrected based on subsequent utterances and/or responses.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of facilitating natural language system responses, the method being implemented by a computer system that includes one or more physical processors executing one or more computer program instructions which, when executed, perform the method, the method comprising:

accumulating, by the computer system, short-term knowledge, wherein the short-term knowledge is accumulated based on one or more natural language utterances received during a predetermined time period;

receiving, at the computer system, a first natural language utterance from an input device;

determining, by the computer system, based on the short-term knowledge, a first context for the first natural language utterance;

determining, by the computer system, based on the first context, an interpretation of the first natural language utterance; and

generating, by the computer system, based on the interpretation of the first natural language utterance, a first response to the first natural language utterance.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more natural language utterances received during the predetermined time period are related to a conversation between a user and the computer system.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the computer system, a second natural language utterance from the input device;

determining, by the computer system, based on the short-term knowledge, whether the second natural language utterance corresponds to the first context;

determining, by the computer system, responsive to the second natural language utterance not corresponding to the first context, a second context for the second natural language utterance based on the short-term knowledge;

determining, by the computer system, based on the second context, an interpretation of the second natural language utterance; and

generating, by the computer system, based on the interpretation of the second natural language utterance, a second response to the second natural language utterance.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

tracking, by the computer system, contexts identified for multiple consecutive natural language user utterances to generate a context stack, the context stack including the contexts identified for the multiple consecutive natural language user utterances;

receiving, at the computer system, a third natural language utterance from the input device;

determining, by the computer system, based on the short-term knowledge, whether the third natural language utterance corresponds to one or more individual ones of the contexts included in the context stack.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein determining whether the third natural language utterance corresponds to one or more individual ones of the contexts included in the context stack includes:

determining whether the third natural language utterance corresponds to a most recent context included in the context stack; and

responsive to the third natural language utterance not corresponding to the most recent context, determining whether the third natural language utterance corresponds to a second most recent context included in the context stack.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining, by the computer system, responsive to the third natural language utterance not corresponding to one or more individual ones of the contexts included in the context stack, a third context for the third natural language utterance based on the short-term knowledge; and

determining, by the computer system, based on the third context, an interpretation of the third natural language utterance.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the interpretation of the first natural language utterance comprises determining, based on the first context, an interpretation of one or more recognized words of the first natural language utterance.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

expiring, by the computer system, one or more items of short-term knowledge that are based on one or more natural language utterances received prior to the predetermined time period.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

accumulating, by the computer system, long-term knowledge based on the one or more items of short-term knowledge that are expired.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

accumulating, by the computer system, long-term knowledge, wherein the long-term knowledge is accumulated based on one or more natural language utterances received prior to the predetermined time period;

wherein the first context is determined based on the short-term knowledge and the long-term knowledge.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the computer system, based on the short-term knowledge, a manner in which the first natural language utterance is spoken,

wherein the first response is generated based on the determined manner and the interpretation of the first natural language utterance.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the manner in which the first natural language utterance is spoken includes at least one of a tone, a pace, an inflection, or a timing.

13. A system for facilitating natural language system responses, the system comprising:

one or more physical processors programmed with one or more computer program instructions which, when executed, cause the one or more physical processors to;

accumulate short-term knowledge, wherein the short-term knowledge is accumulated based on one or more natural language utterances received during a predetermined time period;

receive a first natural language utterance from an input device;

determine, based on the short-term knowledge, a first context for the first natural language utterance;

determine, based on the first context, an interpretation of the first natural language utterance; and

generate, based on the interpretation of the first natural language utterance, a first response to the first natural language utterance.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more natural language utterances received during the predetermined time period are related to a conversation between a user and the system.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more physical processors are caused to:

receive a second natural language utterance from the input device;

determine, based on the short-term knowledge, whether the second natural language utterance corresponds to the first context;

determine, responsive to the second natural language utterance not corresponding to the first context, a second context for the second natural language utterance based on the short-term knowledge;

determine, based on the second context, an interpretation of the second natural language utterance; and

generate, based on the interpretation of the second natural language utterance, a second response to the second natural language utterance.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more physical processors are caused to:

track contexts identified for multiple consecutive natural language user utterances to generate a context stack, the context stack including the contexts identified for the multiple consecutive natural language user utterances;

receive a third natural language utterance from the input device;

determine, based on the short-term knowledge, whether the third natural language utterance corresponds to one or more individual ones of the contexts included in the context stack.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein determining whether the third natural language utterance corresponds to one or more individual ones of the contexts included in the context stack includes:

determining whether the third natural language utterance corresponds to a most recent context included in the context stack; and

responsive to the third natural language utterance not corresponding to the most recent context, determining whether the third natural language utterance corresponds to a second most recent context included in the context stack.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the one or more physical processors are caused to:

determine, responsive to the third natural language utterance not corresponding to one or more individual ones of the contexts included in the context stack, a third context for the third natural language utterance based on the short-term knowledge; and

determine, based on the third context, an interpretation of the third natural language utterance.

19. The system of claim 13, wherein determining the interpretation of the first natural language utterance comprises determining, based on the first context, an interpretation of one or more recognized words of the first natural language utterance.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the one or more physical processors are caused to:

expire one or more items of accumulated short-term knowledge that are based on one or more natural language utterances received prior to the predetermined time period; and

accumulate long-term knowledge based on the one or more items of accumulated short-term knowledge that are expired,

wherein the first context is determined based on the short-term knowledge and the long-term knowledge.