Natural language query system for accessing an information system

• US 7,653,604 B2
• Filed: 04/06/2006
• Issued: 01/26/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Smartvql
• Original Assignee: Voice-Insight
• Inventors: Kemper, Charles, Den Ouden, Aart, Leger, Francois
• Primary Examiner(s): Vincent, David R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bharadwaj, Kalpana
• Application Number:
  US11/399,053
• Publication Number:
  US 20060184476A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,391 Days
• Field of Search: 706/20, 704/246, 715/503, 382/187, 382/115
• US Class Current: 706/20
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24522 Translation of natural language queries to structured queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90332 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/193 Formal grammars, e.g. finite state automata, context free grammars or word networks
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context

Abstract

An interaction system for enabling a user of information systems to interact with the information systems and a method of transmitting user queries from a speech, image or handwriting recognition system to the information systems. The interaction system is connectable to at least one recognition system and at least one information system and comprises at least one domain module for containing phrase setups constructed based on object classes, attribute classes and action classes that are common to all information systems of a given application domain and are provided to be tailored to a specific information system of the application domain by applying object, action and attribute types proper to the information system and specific object, action and attribute instantiations, obtained from the specific information system, in order to define a grammar essentially consisting in a set of term elements comprising specific object, attribute and action instantiations of those object, action and attribute types and a set of rules governing the use of these term elements in a set of valid user query phrases for interaction between the user and the specific information system through the recognition and interaction systems. The interaction system can also comprise at least one generic module, connectable to a recognition system, and/or at least one adapter module, connectable to an information system. The transmission method comprises the steps of defining the grammar and converting user queries into valid user query phrases according to the grammar and/or sets of term elements and rules of the grammar.

Claims

1. An interaction system for enabling interaction with at least one of several information systems belonging to a single application domain, the at least one information system configured to execute a set of actions on a set of objects characterized by a set of attributes;

wherein the interaction system comprises;

at least one adapter module configured to access said actions, objects and attributes classifiable in action types, object types and attribute categories specific to each one of said at least one information system, and in action classes, object classes and attribute classes common to said several information systems of said application domain;

at least one domain module for containing the object classes, attribute classes and action classes common to said several information systems of a single application domain, and phrase setups;

each phrase setup having a structure comprising a selection of said object classes, attribute classes and action classes and being provided to be tailored to said at least one information system by applying in the phrase setup;

a) the specific object types, action types and attribute categories of said at least one information system corresponding to, respectively, the object, action and attribute classes in said phrase setup, and

b) object, action and attribute instantiations obtained from said at least one information system corresponding to, respectively, the object, action and attribute classes in said phrase setup,

in order to define a grammar essentially consisting of a set of term elements comprising the object, attribute and action instantiations obtained from said at least one information system and a set of rules governing the use of these term elements in a set of valid user query phrases for interaction between the user and said at least one information system through said recognition and interaction systems;

at least one generic module, connected to the at least one domain module and connectable to said at least one recognition system, for converting said sets of term elements and rules and/or a set of valid user query phrases generated using said sets of term elements and rules into a digital form suitable for being processed by the recognition system for the recognition of user queries and for converting a digital form of a used query, produced by said recognition system in response to said user query and suitable for being processed by a computer, into a phrase according to said grammar and/or into term elements and rules from said sets of term elements and rules;

wherein the interaction system is connectable to said at least one information system and to a user interface comprising at least one recognition system, so as to enable the user to interact with the at least one information system by means of user queries processed by said at least one recognition system.

2. The interaction system according to claim 1, wherein said generic module comprises an element containing recognition system configuration information.

3. The interaction system according to claim 1, also comprising:

the at least one adapter module connected to the at least one domain module for receiving object types, attribute categories and action types of said specific information system as well as object, attribute and action instantiations from said at least one information system and pass them to the at least one domain module and for driving said at least one information system to execute a demand for action contained in a user query.

4. The interaction system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one domain module comprises an element containing information about general notions of objects and attributes common to several application domains.

5. The interaction system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one domain module is connectable to a system analyst and linguist for defining the object classes, attribute classes, action classes and phrase set-ups to be contained within said at least one domain module.

6. The interaction system according to claim 1, wherein said at least one recognition system comprises a speech recognition system and the user queries can be voiced by said user.

7. The interaction system according to claim 1, wherein said at least one recognition system comprises an image recognition system.

8. The according to claim 1, wherein said recognition system comprises a handwriting recognition system.

9. The interaction system according to claim 1, wherein said interaction system is also connectable to at least one output generation module for transmitting to said at least one output generation module a digital form, suitable for being processed by said at least one output generation module, of an output of said at least one information system in the form of an output phrase also according to said grammar or of its component term elements and at least one rule from said grammar governing the use of said term elements in an output phrase.

10. A method of enabling interaction via an interaction system with at least one of several information systems belonging to a single application domain so that the at least one information system executes a set of actions on a set of objects characterized by a set of attributes;

wherein said actions, objects and attributes are classifiable in, respectively, action types, object types and attribute categories, wherein said method comprises the steps of;

receiving at a domain module of the interaction system defined object, attribute and action classes common to said several information systems of a single application domain;

receiving at the domain module constructed phrase setups, each phrase setup having a structure comprising a selection of said object, attribute and action classes;

receiving at the domain module defined relationships between the specific object types, attribute categories and action types and object, attribute and action instantiations in each one of the at least one information system and, respectively, the common object, attribute and action classes;

defining at the domain module a grammar including a set of term elements comprising object, attribute and action instantiations obtained from said at least one information system and a set of rules governing the use of these term elements in a set of valid user query phrases for interaction between a user and said specific information system, by applying in the phrase set-ups object types, attribute categories and action types of said at least one information system and their respective instantiations obtained from said at least one information system, according to the relationships between the object, attribute and action types and instantiations of said specific information system and the object, attribute and action classes contained in the structures of said phrase set-ups; and

converting via a generic module of the interaction system a digital form of a user query processed by at least one recognition system into a valid phrase according to said grammar and/or a set of term elements and rules from said grammar from the domain module; and

converting said valid phrase and/or set of term elements and rules into an action description with its related parameters for said specific information system.

11. The method according to claim 10, also comprising the step of transmitting said grammar and/or a set of valid phrases according to said grammar to the at least one recognition system for facilitating the recognition of user queries.

12. The method according to claim 10, wherein the at least one recognition system is a speech, image or handwriting recognition system.

13. A method of enabling interaction via an interaction system with at least one of several information systems belonging to a single application domain so that the at least one information system executes a set of actions on a set of objects characterized by a set of attributes;

wherein said actions, objects and attributes are classifiable in, respectively, action types, object types and attribute categories, said method comprises the steps of;

receiving at a domain module of the interaction system defined object, attribute and action classes common to said several information systems of said application domain;

receiving at the domain module constructed phrase setups, each phrase setup having a structure comprising a selection of said object, attribute and action classes;

receiving at the domain module defined relationships between the specific object types, attribute categories and action types and object, attribute and action instantiations in each one of the at least one information system and, respectively, the previously defined common object, attribute and action classes;

defining at the domain module a grammar including a set of term elements comprising object, attribute and action instantiations obtained from said at least one information system and a set of rules governing the use of these term elements in a set of valid user query phrases for interaction between a user and said specific information system, by applying in the phrase set-ups object types, attribute categories and action types of said at least one information system and their respective instantiations obtained from said at least one information system, according to the relationships between the object, attribute and action types and instantiations of said specific information system and the object, attribute and action classes contained in the structures of said phrase set-ups;

converting via a generic module of the interaction system a digital form of a user query processed by at least one recognition system into a valid phrase according to said grammar and/or a set of term elements and rules from said grammar from the domain module;

converting said valid phrase and/or set of term elements and rules into an action description with its related parameters for said specific information system;

converting an output of said information system into an output phrase according to said grammar and/or an output set of term elements and rules according to said grammar; and

transmitting a digital form, suitable for being processed by at least one output module, of said output phrase and/or output set of term elements and rules to said at least one output module.

14. The method according to claim 13, also comprising the step of transmitting said grammar and/or a set of valid phrases according to said grammar to said at least one recognition system for facilitating the recognition of user queries.

15. The method according to claim 13, wherein said at least one recognition system is a speech, image or handwriting recognition system.