Modifying Existing Recipes to Incorporate Additional or Replace Existing Ingredients

• US 20170139902A1
• Filed: 11/12/2015
• Published: 05/18/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/12/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Byron, Donna K., Pinel, Florian, Winkler, Timothy P., DiMascio, Carmine M.
• Granted Patent: US 9,870,550 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Mechanisms are provided for implementing a recipe modification system. The recipe modification system receives a request to modify an existing recipe from a requestor. The request identifies the existing recipe and an ingredient to be added to the existing recipe. The recipe modification system identifies a cluster of recipe elements associated with the ingredient to be added to the existing recipe and selects a representative member recipe element of the cluster. The recipe modification system modifies the existing recipe based on the selected representative member recipe element and generates a natural language text for the modified recipe based on the existing recipe and the selected representative member recipe element. The recipe modification system outputs the natural language text for the modified recipe to the requestor.

Claims

1. A method, in a data processing system comprising a processor and a memory comprising instructions which are executed by the processor to cause the processor to implement a recipe modification system, the method comprising:

receiving, by the recipe modification system, a request to modify an existing recipe from a requestor, wherein the request identifies the existing recipe and an ingredient to be added to the existing recipe;

identifying, by the recipe modification system, a cluster of recipe elements associated with the ingredient to be added to the existing recipe;

selecting, by the recipe modification system, a representative member recipe element of the cluster;

modifying, by the recipe modification system, the existing recipe based on the selected representative member recipe element;

generating, by the recipe modification system, a natural language text for the modified recipe based on the existing recipe and the selected representative member recipe element; and

outputting, by the recipe modification system, the natural language text for the modified recipe to the requestor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the recipe elements comprise reusable branches of existing recipes in a corpus of existing recipes.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the recipe elements comprise reusable branches of existing recipes in the corpus of existing recipes which have the same or a similar ingredient to the ingredient to be added to the existing recipe.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the reusable branches comprise a sub-portion of a recipe, and wherein the reusable branches comprise recipe instructions for performing preparation of a portion of a recipe which are reusable in a plurality of recipes.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

analyzing a corpus of existing recipes to extract reusable branches of the existing recipes; and

clustering the extracted reusable branches into a plurality of clusters, wherein reusable branches in a same cluster have similar characteristics, and wherein identifying a cluster of recipe elements associated with the ingredient to be added to the existing recipe comprises selecting a cluster from the plurality of clusters that comprises at least one reusable branch having the ingredient to be added to the existing recipe.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein analyzing the corpus of existing recipes comprises, for each existing recipe in the corpus:

performing natural language processing on the existing recipe to generate an acyclic graph for the existing recipe, wherein nodes represent at least one of ingredients of the existing recipe and actions to be performed with regard to ingredients in the existing recipe; and

identifying reusable branches of nodes and connections between nodes in the acyclic graph based on a predetermined relationship with a root node of the acyclic graph.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying a cluster of recipe elements associated with the ingredient to be added to the existing recipe comprises:

identifying more than one cluster of recipe elements associated with the ingredient to be added to the existing recipe;

filtering the more than one cluster of recipe elements based on recipe elements in the existing recipe to which the ingredient is to be added; and

selecting the cluster of recipe elements from remaining clusters of recipe elements after filtering.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein filtering the more than one cluster of recipe elements comprises filtering the more than one clusters to remove clusters of recipe elements that match or are incompatible with the recipe elements in the existing recipe to which the ingredient is to be added.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein filtering the more than one cluster of recipe elements comprises filtering the more than one clusters to remove clusters of recipe elements that are not compatible with a dish type of the existing recipe to which the ingredient is to be added as determined based on one or more predetermined association rules.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the recipe is a set of constituent elements and instructions for preparing or combining the constituent elements to generate a work product, and wherein the ingredient to be added to the existing recipe is a constituent element for generating a modified form of the work product.

11. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having a computer readable program stored therein, wherein the computer readable program, when executed on a computing device, causes the computing device to implement a recipe modification system that operates to:

receive a request to modify an existing recipe from a requestor, wherein the request identifies the existing recipe and an ingredient to be added to the existing recipe;

identify a cluster of recipe elements associated with the ingredient to be added to the existing recipe;

select a representative member recipe element of the cluster;

modify the existing recipe based on the selected representative member recipe element;

generate a natural language text for the modified recipe based on the existing recipe and the selected representative member recipe element; and

output the natural language text for the modified recipe to the requestor.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the recipe elements comprise reusable branches of existing recipes in a corpus of existing recipes.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the recipe elements comprise reusable branches of existing recipes in the corpus of existing recipes which have the same or a similar ingredient to the ingredient to be added to the existing recipe.

14. The computer program product of claim 12, wherein the reusable branches comprise a sub-portion of a recipe, and wherein the reusable branches comprise recipe instructions for performing preparation of a portion of a recipe which are reusable in a plurality of recipes.

15. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the recipe modification system further operates to:

analyze a corpus of existing recipes to extract reusable branches of the existing recipes; and

cluster the extracted reusable branches into a plurality of clusters, wherein reusable branches in a same cluster have similar characteristics, and wherein identifying a cluster of recipe elements associated with the ingredient to be added to the existing recipe comprises selecting a cluster from the plurality of clusters that comprises at least one reusable branch having the ingredient to be added to the existing recipe.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein analyzing the corpus of existing recipes comprises, for each existing recipe in the corpus:

performing natural language processing on the existing recipe to generate an acyclic graph for the existing recipe, wherein nodes represent at least one of ingredients of the existing recipe and actions to be performed with regard to ingredients in the existing recipe; and

identifying reusable branches of nodes and connections between nodes in the acyclic graph based on a predetermined relationship with a root node of the acyclic graph.

17. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein identifying a cluster of recipe elements associated with the ingredient to be added to the existing recipe comprises:

identifying more than one cluster of recipe elements associated with the ingredient to be added to the existing recipe;

filtering the more than one cluster of recipe elements based on recipe elements in the existing recipe to which the ingredient is to be added; and

selecting the cluster of recipe elements from remaining clusters of recipe elements after filtering.

18. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein filtering the more than one cluster of recipe elements comprises filtering the more than one clusters to remove clusters of recipe elements that match or are incompatible with the recipe elements in the existing recipe to which the ingredient is to be added.

19. The computer program product of claim 17, wherein filtering the more than one cluster of recipe elements comprises filtering the more than one clusters to remove clusters of recipe elements that are not compatible with a dish type of the existing recipe to which the ingredient is to be added as determined based on one or more predetermined association rules.

20. An apparatus comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to implement a recipe modification system that operates to;

receive a request to modify an existing recipe from a requestor, wherein the request identifies the existing recipe and an ingredient to be added to the existing recipe;

identify a cluster of recipe elements associated with the ingredient to be added to the existing recipe;

select a representative member recipe element of the cluster;

modify the existing recipe based on the selected representative member recipe element;

generate a natural language text for the modified recipe based on the existing recipe and the selected representative member recipe element; and

output the natural language text for the modified recipe to the requestor.