ASYNCHRONOUS PROCESSING OF USER REQUESTS

• US 20170372703A1
• Filed: 06/27/2016
• Published: 12/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/27/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Sung, Sang Soo, Whipp, David P., Qian, Jing
• Granted Patent: US 10,339,934 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/30 Distributed recognition, e.g. in client-server systems, for mobile phones or network applications
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/22 Interactive procedures; Man-machine interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/225 Feedback of the input speech

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs stored on a computer-readable storage medium, for asynchronous execution of client requests. In some implementations, data indicating a user request to a digital assistant is received. An action corresponding to the user request is determined. It is determined that the action is classified as an action to be performed asynchronously to the user request. A confirmation message is sent, for output, and the action is performed asynchronously to the user request.

Claims

1. A method performed by one or more processing devices of a server system, the method comprising:

receiving, by the one or more processing devices of the server system, data from a client device over a network, the data indicating a user request to a digital assistant;

determining, by the one or more processing devices of the server system, an action corresponding to the user request;

accessing, by the one or more processing devices of the server system, assignment data indicating whether synchronous or asynchronous performance is assigned for actions associated with different action types;

based on the assignment data and a particular action type associated with the action corresponding to the user request, selecting, by the one or more processing devices of the server system, between (i) performance of the action synchronously with respect to the user request and (ii) performance of the action asynchronously with respect to the user request

sending, by the one or more processing devices of the server system, a confirmation message to the client device for output by the client device; and

causing, by the one or more processing devices of the server system, the action to be performed synchronously or asynchronously with respect to the user request according to the selection.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein receiving the data indicating user request to the digital assistant comprises receiving audio data comprising a voice command;

wherein the method comprises performing automated speech recognition to determine a transcription for the voice command; and

wherein determining the action corresponding to the user request comprises determining the action based on the transcription.

3. The method of claim 21, wherein the user request is a first user request from a user, and wherein causing the action to be performed asynchronously with respect to the user request comprises receiving one or more other user requests from the user to the digital assistant before performing the action requested by the first user request, wherein the one or more other user requests correspond to actions different from the action requested by the first user request.

4. The method of claim 21, wherein the user request is a first user request, and wherein causing the action to be performed asynchronously with respect to the user request comprises performing actions corresponding to one or more other user requests from the user to the digital assistant before performing the action requested by the first user request, wherein the actions corresponding to one or more other user requests are different from the action requested by the first user request.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the confirmation message for output comprises sending a confirmation message indicating that the action will be performed.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising using a text-to-speech system to generate audio data comprising synthesized speech;

and

wherein sending the confirmation message comprises sending the generated audio data comprising the synthesized speech.

7. The method of claim 1,

wherein the method further comprises determining that the action corresponds to a particular action type;

wherein accessing the assignment data comprises accessing assignment data that indicates, for each of multiple different action types, whether actions of the action type are to be executed synchronously or asynchronously with respect to a request; and

wherein selecting between (i) performance of the action synchronously with respect to the user request and (ii) performance of the action asynchronously with respect to the user request comprises determining whether the assignment data indicates that the actions of the particular action type are assigned to be performed asynchronously.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further comprises:

identifying an application or server configured to perform the action; and

determining the particular action type for the action based on the identified application or server configured to perform the action.

9. The method of claim 21, wherein causing the action to be performed asynchronously with respect to the user request comprises:

storing a record indicating the action that is requested; and

based on the stored record, sending a request to a server system to perform the action.

10. The method of claim 21, wherein causing the action to be performed asynchronously with respect to the user request comprises:

selecting, by the server system and based on the identified action, an area of a data storage system;

sending, by the server system, a write request to store data about the action in the selected area;

in response to the write request, issuing, by the server system, a remote procedure call to execute software corresponding to the selected area of the data storage system; and

generating, by the server system and using the executed software, a request to an application server to perform the action.

11. The method of claim 21, wherein causing the action to be performed asynchronously with respect to the user request comprises:

sending a request to a server system to perform the action;

setting a timeout period for completion of the action;

determining that the action is completed before of the timeout period ends; and

storing data indicating execution of the action.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving data indicating a second user request to the digital assistant;

determining a second action corresponding to the second user request;

determining that the second action is not classified as an action to be performed asynchronously to the second user request; and

based on determining that the second action is not classified as an action to be performed asynchronously to the second user request, causing the second action to be performed synchronously with respect to the user request.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving data indicating a second user request to the digital assistant;

determining a second action corresponding to the second user request;

determining that the second action is classified as an action to be performed asynchronously to the second user request;

based on determining that the second action is classified as an action to be performed asynchronously to the second user request, initiating performance of the second action;

determining that the second action is not performed within a timeout period; and

providing, for output, a message indicating that performance of the second action has failed.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting between (i) performance of the action synchronously with respect to the user request and (ii) performance of the action asynchronously with respect to the user request comprises selecting performance of the action asynchronously with respect to the user request;

and

wherein causing the action to be performed synchronously or asynchronously with respect to the user request according to the selection comprises causing the action to be performed asynchronously with respect to the user request.

14. A system comprising:

one or more processing devices of a server system and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more processing devices, to cause the one or more processing devices to perform operations comprising;

receiving, by the one or more processing devices of the server system, data from a client device over a network, the data indicating a user request to a digital assistant;

determining, by the one or more processing devices of the server system, an action corresponding to the user request;

accessing, by the one or more processing devices of the server system, assignment data indicating whether synchronous or asynchronous performance is assigned for actions associated with different action types;

based on the assignment data and a particular action type associated with the action corresponding to the user request, selecting, by the one or more processing devices of the server system, between (i) performance of the action synchronously with respect to the user request and (ii) performance of the action asynchronously with respect to the user request;

sending, by the one or more processing devices of the server system, a confirmation message to the client device for output by the client device; and

causing, by the one or more processing devices of the server system, the action to be performed synchronously or asynchronously with respect to the user request according to the selection.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein receiving the data indicating user request to the digital assistant comprises receiving audio data comprising a voice command;

wherein the operations comprise performing automated speech recognition to determine a transcription for the voice command; and

wherein determining the action corresponding to the user request comprises determining the action based on the transcription.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the user request is a first user request from a user, and wherein causing the action to be performed comprises cause the action to be performed asynchronously with respect to the user request by receiving one or more other user requests from the user to the digital assistant before performing the action requested by the first user request, wherein the one or more other user requests correspond to actions different from the action requested by the first user request.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise using a text-to-speech system to generate audio data comprising synthesized speech;

and

wherein sending the confirmation message comprises sending the generated audio data comprising the synthesized speech.

18. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer program instructions that, when executed by one or more processing devices of a server system, cause the one or more processing devices to perform operations comprising:

receiving, by the one or more processing devices of the server system, data from a client device over a network, the data indicating a user request to a digital assistant;

determining, by the one or more processing devices of the server system, an action corresponding to the user request;

accessing, by the one or more processing devices of the server system, assignment data indicating whether synchronous or asynchronous performance is assigned for actions associated with different action types;

based on the assignment data and a particular action type associated with the action corresponding to the user request, selecting, by the one or more processing devices of the server system, between (i) performance of the action synchronously with respect to the user request and (ii) performance of the action asynchronously with respect to the user request;

sending, by the one or more processing devices of the server system, a confirmation message to the client device for output by the client device; and

causing, by the one or more processing devices of the server system, the action to be performed synchronously or asynchronously with respect to the user request according to the selection.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media of claim 18, wherein receiving the data indicating user request to the digital assistant comprises receiving audio data comprising a voice command;

wherein the operations comprise performing automated speech recognition to determine a transcription for the voice command; and

wherein determining the action corresponding to the user request comprises determining the action based on the transcription.

20. (canceled)