CONTEXTUAL SEARCH USING NATURAL LANGUAGE
First Claim
1. A method performed on a device for facilitating a search for content using contextual references, comprising:
- exposing a user interface supporting natural language inputs for the search from a device user;
receiving the natural language inputs from the user through the user interface;
parsing the received natural language inputs for contextual references, the contextual references including one of time, date, event, location, schedule, activity, contact, or device; and
providing results of the search, the search results identifying content matching one or more of the parsed contextual references.
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Abstract
A context aware digital assistant supported on devices such as smartphones, tablet computers, wearable computing devices, personal computers (PCs), game consoles, and the like is configured with a natural language interface that enables a user to launch searches for content using contextual references such as time, date, event, location, schedule, activity, contacts, or device. The user can thus use natural language to express the context that is applicable to the sought-after content rather than having to formulate a query that uses a specific syntax. The digital assistant can comprehensively search for the content across applications (i.e., both first and third party applications), devices, and services.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method performed on a device for facilitating a search for content using contextual references, comprising:
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exposing a user interface supporting natural language inputs for the search from a device user; receiving the natural language inputs from the user through the user interface; parsing the received natural language inputs for contextual references, the contextual references including one of time, date, event, location, schedule, activity, contact, or device; and providing results of the search, the search results identifying content matching one or more of the parsed contextual references. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A device, comprising:
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one or more processors; a user interface (UI) configured to interact with a user of the device using graphics or audio; and a memory device storing computer-readable instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, perform a method to; expose a digital assistant on the device in which the digital assistant is configured for voice interactions with a device user using the UI, receive voice inputs from the device user, trigger a search for content using contextual references that are included in the voice inputs, and handle content that is identified in results from the search using the digital assistant. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. One or more computer-readable memory devices storing instructions which, when executed by one or more processors disposed in a cloud-based computer server, perform a method comprising the steps of:
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receiving registrations from applications and services running on one or more local devices; monitoring user interactions at the one or more local devices with registered applications and services; and tagging content using contextual reference tags responsively to the monitoring, the contextual reference tags including one or more of time, date, event, location, schedule, activity, contact, or device. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
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Specification