CONVERSATIONAL LIST MANAGEMENT

• US 20170242845A1
• Filed: 02/19/2016
• Published: 08/24/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/2016
• Status: Active Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Clark, Adam T., Huebert, Jeffrey K., Payton, Aspen L., Petri, John E.
• Granted Patent: US 10,282,417 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/337 Profile generation, learning or modification
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/284 Lexical analysis, e.g. tokenisation or collocates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/35 Discourse or dialogue representation

Abstract

Software that generates list items from user conversations by performing the following operations: (i) capturing natural language statement(s) spoken by a first user; (ii) converting the natural language statement(s) to text; (iii) performing a natural language processing (NLP) analysis of the text to identify a first list item, wherein the first list item includes one or more words in the text that are likely to be included in a list associated with the first user; and/or performing a first list action utilizing the first list item based, at least in part, on the performed NLP analysis, wherein the first list action includes modifying a first list associated with the first user.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

capturing natural language statement(s) spoken by a first user;

converting the natural language statement(s) to text;

performing a natural language processing (NLP) analysis of the text to identify a first list item, wherein the first list item includes one or more words in the text that are likely to be included in a list associated with the first user; and

performing a first list action utilizing the first list item based, at least in part, on the performed NLP analysis, wherein the first list action includes modifying a first list associated with the first user.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the first list action includes adding the first list item to the first list.

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

scoring the first list item against a plurality of lists associated with the first user; and

selecting the first list from the plurality of lists based, at least in part, on the scoring.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising determining a location in the first list for the first list item, based, at least in part, on the performed NLP analysis of the text and an NLP analysis of the first list.

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

scoring the first list item against a plurality of lists associated with the first user;

responsive to determining that the first list item does not meet a score threshold for any of the lists of the plurality of lists, creating the first list.

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

identifying a second list item based, at least in part, on the performed NLP analysis, wherein the second list item includes one or more words in the text that are likely to be included in a list associated with the first user;

scoring the second list item against a plurality of lists associated with the first user;

selecting the first list from the plurality of lists based, at least in part, on the scoring; and

performing a second list action utilizing the second list item based, at least in part, on the performed NLP analysis and the selection of the first list, wherein the second list action includes modifying the first list.

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

identifying a second list item based, at least in part, on the performed NLP analysis, wherein the second list item includes one or more words in the text that are likely to be included in a list associated with the first user;

scoring the second list item against a plurality of lists associated with the first user;

responsive to determining that the second list item does not meet a score threshold for any of the lists of the plurality of lists, creating a second list; and

performing a second list action utilizing the second list item based, at least in part, on the performed NLP analysis and the creation of the second list, wherein the second list action includes modifying the second list.

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

capturing natural language statement(s) spoken by a second user;

converting the natural language statement(s) to text;

performing a natural language processing (NLP) analysis of the text to identify a second list item, wherein the second list item includes one or more words in the text that are likely to be included in a list associated with the first user; and

responsive to determining list modification permissions for the second user, performing a second list action utilizing the second list item based, at least in part, on the performed NLP analysis and the determined list modification permissions, wherein the second list action includes modifying the first list associated with the first user.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the performing of the NLP analysis of the text to identify the first list item includes utilizing a question answering system that has been trained to identify list items.

10. A computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having stored thereon:

program instructions to capture natural language statement(s) spoken by a first user;

program instructions to convert the natural language statement(s) to text;

program instructions to perform a natural language processing (NLP) analysis of the text to identify a first list item, wherein the first list item includes one or more words in the text that are likely to be included in a list associated with the first user; and

program instructions to perform a first list action utilizing the first list item based, at least in part, on the performed NLP analysis, wherein the first list action includes modifying a first list associated with the first user.

11. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the first list action includes adding the first list item to the first list.

12. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

program instructions to score the first list item against a plurality of lists associated with the first user; and

program instructions to select the first list from the plurality of lists based, at least in part, on the scoring.

13. The computer program product of claim 12, further comprising program instructions to determine a location in the first list for the first list item, based, at least in part, on the performed NLP analysis of the text and an NLP analysis of the first list.

14. The computer program product of claim 11, further comprising:

program instructions to score the first list item against a plurality of lists associated with the first user; and

program instructions to, responsive to determining that the first list item does not meet a score threshold for any of the lists of the plurality of lists, create the first list.

15. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein the performing of the NLP analysis of the text to identify the first list item includes utilizing a question answering system that has been trained to identify list items.

16. A computer system comprising:

a processor(s) set; and

a computer readable storage medium;

wherein;

the processor set is structured, located, connected and/or programmed to run program instructions stored on the computer readable storage medium; and

the program instructions include;

program instructions to capture natural language statement(s) spoken by a first user;

program instructions to convert the natural language statement(s) to text;

program instructions to perform a natural language processing (NLP) analysis of the text to identify a first list item, wherein the first list item includes one or more words in the text that are likely to be included in a list associated with the first user; and

program instructions to perform a first list action utilizing the first list item based, at least in part, on the performed NLP analysis, wherein the first list action includes modifying a first list associated with the first user.

17. The computer system of claim 16, wherein the first list action includes adding the first list item to the first list.

18. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the program instructions further include:

program instructions to score the first list item against a plurality of lists associated with the first user; and

program instructions to select the first list from the plurality of lists based, at least in part, on the scoring.

19. The computer system of claim 18, wherein the program instructions further include program instructions to determine a location in the first list for the first list item, based, at least in part, on the performed NLP analysis of the text and an NLP analysis of the first list.

20. The computer system of claim 17, wherein the program instructions further include:

program instructions to score the first list item against a plurality of lists associated with the first user; and

program instructions to, responsive to determining that the first list item does not meet a score threshold for any of the lists of the plurality of lists, create the first list.