TECHNIQUES FOR USING CONTROLLED NATURAL LANGUAGE TO CAPTURE DESIGN INTENT FOR COMPUTER-AIDED DESIGN

• US 20150324492A1
• Filed: 05/08/2015
• Published: 11/12/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/09/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Autodesk, Inc.
• Inventors: IORIO, Francesco, LI, Wei, CHEONG, Hyunmin
• Granted Patent: US 10,657,296 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/22 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24578 using ranking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/00 Computer-aided design [CAD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/10 Requirements analysis; Specification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/425 Lexical analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/427 Parsing

Abstract

A computing device for receiving a design problem statement describing a design problem in a controlled natural language (CNL) that defines permitted lexicons and syntax structures. The design problem statement is processed using the CNL lexicons and syntax structures to produce a job description executable by a design application for generating a design solution for the design problem statement. An improved CNL user interface that assists users to produce valid design problem statements that are CNL-compliant. The CNL user interface receives user-selectable terms that are compliant with the CNL lexicons and generates candidate problem statements that are compliant with CNL syntax structures and receives a selection of a candidate problem statement that is added to the design problem statement. A graphical user interface may display a graphical representation of a design problem statement that can be directly modified. A dialogue-based design process to explore possible design intentions and design solutions.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for generating design problem statements that are compliant with a controlled natural language (CNL), the method comprising:

receiving one or more selectable terms that are compliant with a plurality of lexicons defined by CNL and stored to a lexicon database;

generating one or more candidate problem statements compliant with the plurality of lexicons and a plurality of syntax structures defined by the CNL and stored to a syntax database, the one or more candidate problem statements generated based on the one or more selectable terms and the plurality of syntax structures; and

receiving a selection of a first candidate problem statement included in the set candidate problem statements.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a plurality of selectable terms that are compliant with lexicons of the CNL, wherein the one or more selectable terms are selected from the plurality of selectable terms.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding the first candidate problem statement to a design problem statement; and

repeating the receiving, generating, and receiving steps to identify a second candidate problem statement; and

adding the second candidate problem statement to the design problem statement.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, wherein the design problem statement describes a design problem, and further comprising processing the design problem statement using the lexicons and syntax structures of the CNL to produce an executable job description that, when executed, produces the design solution for the design problem statement.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a probability score for each candidate problem statement that indicates the likelihood that the candidate problem statement is an intended problem statement.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, further comprising:

displaying the candidate problem statements in order based on the probability scores.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein each candidate problem statement specifies a particular aspect of a design problem.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first candidate problem statement comprises a problem statement that is intended by a user inputting the one or more selectable terms.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein generating the set of candidate problem statements comprises comparing the one or more selectable terms with the syntax structures of the CNL to determine matching syntax structures used to generate the set of candidate problem statements.

10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to generate design problem statements that are compliant with a controlled natural language (CNL) by performing the steps of:

receiving one or more selectable terms that are compliant with a plurality of lexicons defined by CNL and stored to a lexicon database;

generating one or more candidate problem statements compliant with the plurality of lexicons and a plurality of syntax structures defined by the CNL and stored to a syntax database, the one or more candidate problem statements generated based on the one or more selectable terms and the plurality of syntax structures; and

receiving a selection of a first candidate problem statement included in the set candidate problem statements.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising the step of:

displaying a plurality of selectable terms that are compliant with lexicons of the CNL, wherein the one or more selectable terms are selected from the plurality of selectable terms.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

adding the first candidate problem statement to a design problem statement; and

repeating the receiving, generating, and receiving steps to identify a second candidate problem statement; and

adding the second candidate problem statement to the design problem statement.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the design problem statement describes a design problem, and further comprising processing the design problem statement using the lexicons and syntax structures of the CNL to produce an executable job description that, when executed, produces the design solution for the design problem statement.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising the step of:

determining a probability score for each candidate problem statement that indicates the likelihood that the candidate problem statement is an intended problem statement.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

before receiving the set of selectable terms, displaying different types of selectable terms and selectable terms for each type that are compliant with lexicons of the CNL, wherein receiving the one or more selectable terms comprises receiving a selection of one or more displayed selectable terms.

16. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein each candidate problem statement comprises a suggestion of a problem statement that is intended by a user inputting the one or more selectable terms.

17. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein:

the one or more selectable terms comprises one or more different types of selectable terms;

each syntax structure specifies one or more types of selectable terms; and

generating the set of candidate problem statements comprises comparing the types of selectable terms of the received set of selectable terms with the types of selectable terms of the syntax structures of the CNL to determine matching syntax structures used to generate the set of candidate problem statements.

18. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein a matching syntax structure provides a syntax structure for a candidate problem statement.

19. A system configured for generating design problem statements that are compliant with a controlled natural language (CNL), comprising:

a memory that includes a CNL user interface (UI) engine; and

a processor coupled to the memory, wherein, upon executing the CNL UI engine, is configured to;

receive one or more selectable terms that are compliant with a plurality of lexicons defined by CNL and stored to a lexicon database;

generate one or more candidate problem statements compliant with the plurality of lexicons and a plurality of syntax structures defined by the CNL and stored to a syntax database, the one or more candidate problem statements generated based on the one or more selectable terms and the plurality of syntax structures; and

receive a selection of a first candidate problem statement included in the set candidate problem statements.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the processor executes the CNL UI engine further for:

displaying a plurality of selectable terms that are compliant with lexicons of the CNL, wherein the one or more selectable terms are selected from the plurality of selectable terms.