Natural Language Understanding Cache

• US 20160154783A1
• Filed: 12/01/2014
• Published: 06/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/01/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Hebert, Matthieu, Gillet, Andre
• Granted Patent: US 9,898,455 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0875 with dedicated cache, e.g. instruction or stack
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/907 Retrieval characterised by using metadata, e.g. metadata not derived from the content or metadata generated manually
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/452 Instruction code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing

Abstract

Disclosed methods and systems are directed to natural language understanding cache usage. The methods and systems may include receiving a first natural language input comprising a set of one or more terms, and parsing the first natural language input to determine a first pretag result comprising a first string comprising at least one term from the set of one or more terms. The methods and systems may also determine that if the first pretag result corresponds to a key stored in a cache, then retrieve one or more cached NLU results corresponding to the at least one key. The methods and systems may also determine that if the first pretag result does not correspond to a key stored in the cache, then determine, based on the set of one or more terms, a first NLU result corresponding to the first natural language input.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

receiving, by a device, a first natural language input comprising a set of one or more terms;

parsing the first natural language input to determine a first pretag result, the first pretag result comprising at least a first string comprising at least one term from the set of one or more terms;

determining whether the first pretag result corresponds to at least one key stored in a cache;

if the first pretag result corresponds to at least one key stored in the cache, retrieving, from the cache, one or more cached NLU results corresponding to the at least one key; and

if the first pretag result does not correspond to at least one key stored in the cache;

determining, based on the set of one or more terms, a first NLU result corresponding to the first natural language input, the first NLU result comprising an intent associated with the first natural language input;

storing, in the cache, the first NLU result; and

storing, in the cache, a first key comprising the first pretag result, the first key corresponding to the first NLU result.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first pretag result corresponds to at least one key stored in the cache, the method further comprising determining, for the first natural language input, a final NLU result based on the first pretag result and the one or more cached NLU results.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first pretag result does not correspond to at least one key stored in the cache, and wherein the cache stores the first NLU result and the first key comprising the first pretag result, the method further comprising:

receiving a second natural language input comprising one or more terms;

parsing the second natural language input to determine a second pretag result;

determining that the second pretag result corresponds to the first key stored in the cache; and

retrieving from the cache the first NLU result.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein parsing the first natural language input to determine the first pretag result comprises determining a named entity based on one or more terms comprised in the natural language input, the named entity comprising at least one of the one or more terms comprised in the natural language input.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first string comprising at least one term of the set of one or more terms further comprises device or user associated metadata.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one key comprises one or more of the following:

a named entity identified from the one or more terms comprised in the natural language input; and

a string of words comprising at least one of the one or more terms comprised in the natural language input.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the cache comprises one or more keys, the method further comprising determining the one or more keys by:

determining, based on device or user associated metadata, a preceding pretag result for each of at least one preceding natural language inputs, each preceding pretag result comprising at least one string of one or more terms;

determining a tentative NLU result for each of the at least one preceding natural language inputs, each tentative NLU result comprising an intent associated with the corresponding natural language input, a string of terms, or a named entity; and

storing, in the cache, one or more keys, each key comprising one of the preceding pretag results and a corresponding tentative NLU result.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein parsing the first natural language input to determine the first pretag result comprises parsing the first natural language input based on device or user associated metadata to determine the first pretag result.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the device or user associated metadata comprises metadata associated with a contacts list or a geolocation.

10. A system, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the system to perform;

receiving, by a device, a first natural language input comprising a set of one or more terms;

parsing the first natural language input to determine a first pretag result, the first pretag result comprising at least a first string comprising at least one term from the set of one or more terms;

determining whether the first pretag result corresponds to at least one key stored in a cache;

if the first pretag result corresponds to at least one key stored in the cache, retrieving, from the cache, one or more cached NLU results corresponding to the at least one key; and

if the first pretag result does not correspond to at least one key stored in the cache;

determining, based on the set of one or more terms, a first NLU result corresponding to the first natural language input, the first NLU result comprising an intent associated with the first natural language input;

storing, in the cache, the first NLU result; and

storing, in the cache, a first key comprising the first pretag result, the first key corresponding to the first NLU result.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the first pretag result corresponds to at least one key stored in the cache the instructions further cause the system to perform determining, for the first natural language input, a final NLU result based on the first pretag result and the one or more cached NLU results.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein the first pretag result does not correspond to at least one key stored in the cache, and wherein the cache stores the first NLU result and the first key comprising the first pretag result, the instructions further cause the system to perform:

receiving a second natural language input comprising one or more terms;

parsing the second natural language input to determine a second pretag result;

determining that the second pretag result corresponds to the first key stored in the cache; and

retrieving from the cache the first NLU result.

13. The system of claim 10, wherein parsing the first natural language input to determine the first pretag result comprises determining a named entity based on one or more terms comprised in the natural language input, the named entity comprising at least one of the one or more terms comprised in the natural language input.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the at least one key comprises one or more of the following:

a named entity identified from the one or more terms comprised in the natural language input; and

a string of words comprising at least one of the one or more terms comprised in the natural language input.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the cache comprises one or more keys, the instructions further cause the system to perform:

determining, based on device or user associated metadata, a preceding pretag result for each of at least one preceding natural language inputs, each preceding pretag result comprising at least one string of one or more terms;

determining a tentative NLU result for each of the at least one preceding natural language inputs, each tentative NLU result comprising an intent associated with the corresponding natural language input, a string of terms, or a named entity; and

storing, in the cache, one or more keys, each key comprising one of the preceding pretag results and a corresponding tentative NLU result.

16. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media having instructions stored thereon, that when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform:

receiving, by a device, a first natural language input comprising a set of one or more terms;

parsing the first natural language input to determine a first pretag result, the first pretag result comprising at least a first string comprising at least one term from the set of one or more terms;

determining whether the first pretag result corresponds to at least one key stored in a cache;

if the first pretag result corresponds to at least one key stored in the cache, retrieving, from the cache, one or more cached NLU results corresponding to the at least one key; and

if the first pretag result does not correspond to at least one key stored in the cache;

determining, based on the set of one or more terms, a first NLU result corresponding to the first natural language input, the first NLU result comprising an intent associated with the first natural language input;

storing, in the cache, the first NLU result; and

storing, in the cache, a first key comprising the first pretag result, the first key corresponding to the first NLU result.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 16, wherein the first pretag result corresponds to at least one key stored in the cache, the instructions further cause the one or more processors to perform determining, for the first natural language input, a final NLU result based on the first pretag result and the one or more cached NLU results.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 16, wherein the first pretag result does not correspond to at least one key stored in the cache, and wherein the cache stores the first NLU result and the first key comprising the first pretag result, the instructions further cause the one or more processors to perform:

receiving a second natural language input comprising one or more terms;

parsing the second natural language input to determine a second pretag result;

determining that the second pretag result corresponds to the first key stored in the cache; and

retrieving from the cache the first NLU result.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 16, wherein parsing the first natural language input to determine the first pretag result comprises determining a named entity based on one or more terms comprised in the natural language input, the named entity comprising at least one of the one or more terms comprised in the natural language input.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 16, wherein the at least one key comprises one or more of the following:

a named entity identified from the one or more terms comprised in the natural language input; and

a string of words comprising at least one of the one or more terms comprised in the natural language input.