Apparatus and method for forming search engine queries based on spoken utterances

• US 8,751,240 B2
• Filed: 05/13/2005
• Issued: 06/10/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Lewis, Steven Hart, Rosen, Kenneth H.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Paras D
• Application Number:
  US11/128,564
• Publication Number:
  US 20060259302A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,315 Days
• Field of Search: 704/275, 704/270, 704/235, 704/8, 704/9, 704/231, 704/251, 704/246, 707/3, 707/4, 707/1, 379/88.01, 379/88.04
• US Class Current: 704/275
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/24522 Translation of natural language queries to structured queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3329 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3344 using natural language analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/289 Phrasal analysis, e.g. finite state techniques or chunking
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1815 Semantic context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word meaning
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1822 Parsing for meaning understanding
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/493 Interactive information services, e.g. directory enquiries ; Arrangements therefor, e.g. interactive voice response [IVR] systems or voice portals

Abstract

A combination and a method are provided. Automatic speech recognition is performed on a received utterance. A meaning of the utterance is determined based, at least in part, on the recognized speech. At least one query is formed based, at least in part, on the determined meaning of the utterance. The at least one query is sent to at least one searching mechanism to search for an address of at least one web page that satisfies the at least one query.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

performing, via a server processor, automatic speech recognition on an utterance received from a first party in a conversation, to yield recognized speech;

determining, via the server processor, a meaning of the utterance based, on the recognized speech;

forming a query, by the server processor, indicating the meaning of the utterance and based on a plurality of searching resources;

sending the query, by the server processor, based on the meaning of the query, to a plurality of relevant searching resources, in order to obtain first address links associated with search results of the plurality of relevant searching resources in response to the query, wherein the plurality of searching resources comprises a web-based search engine, local databases, and remote databases;

sending the query to a device associated with a second party in the conversation for forwarding to at least one other relevant searching resource in order to obtain second address links;

sending the first and second address links to the device;

displaying the first and second address links on the device;

selecting, by the second party, at least one address link from the first and second address links displayed relevant to the conversation and query;

logging, the search results, a time and date of the query, the relevant searching resources searched during the conversation in response to the query, and the searching resources selected by the second party from the selected at least one address link to create a log; and

presenting the log for analysis.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the utterance is from an ongoing call.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the performing of automatic speech recognition further comprises:

creating text corresponding to the utterance.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining the meaning of the utterance further comprises:

performing a spoken language understanding analysis based, at least in part, on the text to determine the meaning, and

creating an indication of the meaning.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

sending the query to another web-based search engine configured to search a remote data resource.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the web-based search engine comprises a knowledge base of web pages.

7. A system comprising:

a processor;

a computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising;

performing automatic speech recognition on an utterance received from a first party in a conversation, to yield recognized speech;

determining, a meaning of the utterance based, on the recognized speech;

forming a query indicating the meaning of the utterance and based on a plurality of searching resources;

sending the query based on the meaning of the query, to a plurality of relevant searching resources, in order to obtain first address links associated with search results of the plurality of relevant searching resources in response to the query, wherein the plurality of searching resources comprises a web-based search engine, local databases, and remote databases;

sending the query to a device associated with a second party in the conversation for forwarding to at least one other relevant searching resource in order to second obtain address links;

sending the first and second address links to the device;

displaying the first and second address links on the device;

selecting, by the second party, at least one address link from the first and second address links displayed relevant to the conversation and query;

logging, the search results, a time and date of the query, the relevant searching resources searched during the conversation in response to the query, and the searching resources selected by the second party from the selected at least one address link to create a log; and

presenting the log for analysis.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the utterance is from an ongoing call.

9. The system of claim 7, the computer readable storage medium having additional instructions stored which result in the operations further comprising sending the query to an additional web-based search engine configured to search a remote data resource.

10. The system of claim 7, wherein the address comprises a link to a web page that satisfies the query.

11. The system of claim 7, wherein the address comprises comprise a description of a web page that satisfies the query.

12. A computer-readable storage device instructions stored which, when executed by a server processor, cause the server processor to perform operations comprising:

performing automatic speech recognition on an utterance received from a first party in a conversation, to yield recognized speech;

determining a meaning of the utterance based, on the recognized speech;

forming a query indicating the meaning of the utterance and based on a plurality of searching resources;

sending the query based on the meaning of the query, to a plurality of relevant searching resources, in order to obtain first address links associated with search results of the plurality of relevant searching resources in response to the query, wherein the plurality of searching resources comprises a web-based search engine, local databases, and remote databases;

sending the query to a device associated with a second party in the conversation for forwarding to at least one other relevant searching resource in order to second obtain address links;

sending the first and second address links to the device;

displaying the first and second address links on the device;

selecting, by the second party, at least one address link from the first and second address links displayed relevant to the conversation and query;

logging, the search results, a time and date of the query, the relevant searching resources searched during the conversation in response to the query, and the searching resources selected by the second party from the selected at least one address link to create a log; and

presenting the log for analysis.

13. The computer-readable storage device of claim 12, wherein the performing of automatic speech recognition further comprises creating text corresponding to the utterance.

14. The computer-readable storage device of claim 12, wherein the determining of the meaning of the utterance further comprises:

performing a spoken language understanding analysis based on the utterance to determine the meaning; and

creating an indication of the meaning.

15. The computer-readable storage device of claim 12, wherein the web-based search engine comprises a knowledge base of web pages.

16. The computer-readable storage device of claim 12 having additional instructions stored which result in the operations further comprising:

forming a second query based on the indication of the meaning; and

sending the second query to a second web-based search engine to search remote data resource for information that satisfies the second query.