Using intents to analyze and personalize a user's dialog experience with a virtual personal assistant

• US 9,875,494 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2013
• Issued: 01/23/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 04/16/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SRI International, Inc.
• Original Assignee: SRI International, Inc.
• Inventors: Kalns, Edgar T., Mark, William S., Ayan, Necip Fazil
• Primary Examiner(s): Lerner, Martin
• Application Number:
  US13/954,613
• Publication Number:
  US 20140310001A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,638 Days
• Field of Search: 704257, 704270, 707732, 707751, 707759, 707768, 707721
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1822 Parsing for meaning understanding
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/30 Distributed recognition, e.g. in client-server systems, for mobile phones or network applications
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/32 Multiple recognisers used in sequence or in parallel; Score combination systems therefor, e.g. voting systems

Abstract

A virtual personal assistant (VPA) application analyzes intents to, among other things, enhance or personalize a user'"'"'s dialog experience with the VPA application. A set of intents, or multiple sets of intents, are maintained over the course of one or more user-specific dialog sessions with the VPA. Inferences may be derived from the set or sets of intents and incorporated into a current or future dialog session between the VPA and a user of the VPA application. In some embodiments, the inferences are only made available through the systemic understanding of natural language discourse by the VPA.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a computing device, verbal input, wherein the verbal input includes natural language;

determining an input intent associated with the verbal input, wherein the input intent is associated with an action that can be performed by the computing device, wherein the intent is determined using a dialog context, and wherein the dialog context includes a history of a current dialog session;

adding the input intent to a history of intents, wherein the history of intents includes one or more intents from one or more previous dialog sessions, wherein the one or more intents include a transient intent, and wherein a transient intent does not cause the computing device to perform an action;

determining an unstated characteristic associated with the history of intents, wherein determining includes identifying a pattern associated with the one or more intents from the history of intents and associating the pattern with the transient intent;

modifying the action associated with the input intent, wherein the action is modified using the unstated characteristic; and

executing the modified action, wherein the modified action modifies an operation of the computing device, and wherein executing the modified action fulfills the associated input intent.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein identifying the pattern associated with the one or more intents includes determining, among the one or more intents, one or more occurrences of the input intent.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein identifying the pattern associated with the one or more intents includes determining, among the one or more intents, a combination of intents.

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

determining an unstated objective, wherein the unstated objective is determined using the unstated characteristic and the input intent, wherein modifying the action includes modifying the action to include the unstated objected, and where executing the modified action fulfills the unstated objective.

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

determining an objective associated with the current dialog session; and

using the unstated characteristic to determine whether the objective associated with the current dialog session has been fulfilled.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5, wherein the action is modified using a result of determining whether objective associated with the current dialog session has been fulfilled.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the unstated characteristic is associated with a preference.

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

receiving additional verbal input; and

determining a second input intent, wherein the second input intent is associated with the additional verbal input, and wherein determining includes using the unstated characteristic.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the one or more intents from the history of intents include an intent determined using non-verbal input.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the verbal input and the current dialog session are associated with a first user, and wherein the history of intents includes a dialog session associated with a second user.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the verbal input and the current dialog session are associated with a first user, and wherein the unstated characteristic is associated with a second user.

12. A computing device, comprising:

one or more processors; and

a non-transitory computer-readable medium including instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including;

receiving verbal input, wherein the verbal input includes natural language;

determining an input intent associated with the verbal input, wherein the input intent is associated with an action that can be performed by the computing device, wherein the intent is determined using a dialog context, and wherein the dialog context includes a history of a current dialog session;

adding the input intent to a history of intents, wherein the history of intents includes one or more intents from one or more previous dialog sessions, wherein the one or more intents include a transient intent, and wherein a transient intent does not cause the computing device to perform an action;

determining an unstated characteristic associated with the history of intents, wherein determining includes identifying a pattern associated with the one or more intents from the history of intents and associating the pattern with the transient intent;

modifying the action associated with the input intent, wherein the action is modified using the unstated characteristic; and

executing the modified action, wherein the modified action modifies an operation of the computing device, and wherein executing the modified action fulfills the associated input intent.

13. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the instructions for identifying the pattern associated with the one or more intents include instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:

determining, among the one or more intents, one or more occurrences of the input intent.

14. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the instructions for identifying the pattern associated with the one or more intents include instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:

determining, among the one or more intents, a combination of intents.

15. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium further includes instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:

determining an unstated objective, wherein the unstated objective is determined using the unstated characteristic and the input intent, wherein modifying the action includes modifying the action to include the unstated objected, and where executing the modified action fulfills the unstated objective.

16. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium further includes instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:

determining an objective associated with the current dialog session; and

using the unstated characteristic to determine whether the objective associated with the current dialog session has been fulfilled.

17. The computing device of claim 16, wherein the action is modified using a result of determining whether objective associated with the current dialog session has been fulfilled.

18. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the unstated characteristic is associated with a preference.

19. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium further includes instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:

receiving additional verbal input; and

determining a second input intent, wherein the second input intent is associated with the additional verbal input, and wherein determining includes using the unstated characteristic.

20. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the one or more intents from the history of intents include an intent determined using non-verbal input.

21. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the verbal input and the current dialog session are associated with a first user, and wherein the history of intents includes a dialog session associated with a second user.

22. The computing device of claim 12, wherein the verbal input and the current dialog session are associated with a first user, and wherein the unstated characteristic is associated with a second user.

23. A computer-program product tangibly embodied in a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium, including instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

receive, by a computing device, verbal input, wherein the verbal input includes natural language;

determine an input intent associated with the verbal input, wherein the input intent is associated with an action that can be performed by the computing device, wherein the intent is determined using a dialog context, and wherein the dialog context includes a history of a current dialog session;

add the input intent to a history of intents, wherein the history of intents includes one or more intents from one or more previous dialog sessions, wherein the one or more intents include a transient intent, and wherein a transient intent does not cause the computing device to perform an action;

determine an unstated characteristic associated with the history of intents, wherein determining includes identifying a pattern associated with the one or more intents from the history of intents and associating the pattern with the transient intent;

modify the action associated with the input intent, wherein the action is modified using the unstated characteristic; and

execute the modified action, wherein the modified action modifies an operation of the computing device, and wherein executing the modified action fulfills the associated input intent.

24. The computer-program product of claim 23, wherein the instructions for identifying the pattern associated with the one or more intents include instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:

determining, among the one or more intents, one or more occurrences of the input intent.

25. The computer-program product of claim 23, wherein the instructions for identifying the pattern associated with the one or more intents include instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:

determining, among the one or more intents, a combination of intents.

26. The computer-program product of claim 23, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium further includes instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:

determining an unstated objective, wherein the unstated objective is determined using the unstated characteristic and the input intent, wherein modifying the action includes modifying the action to include the unstated objected, and where executing the modified action fulfills the unstated objective.

27. The computer-program product of claim 23, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium further includes instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:

determining an objective associated with the current dialog session; and

using the unstated characteristic to determine whether the objective associated with the current dialog session has been fulfilled.

28. The computer-program product of claim 27, wherein the action is modified using a result of determining whether objective associated with the current dialog session has been fulfilled.

29. The computer-program product of claim 23, wherein the unstated characteristic is associated with a preference.

30. The computer-program product of claim 23, wherein the non-transitory computer-readable medium further includes instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations including:

receiving additional verbal input; and

determining a second input intent, wherein the second input intent is associated with the additional verbal input, and wherein determining includes using the unstated characteristic.

31. The computer-program product of claim 23, wherein the one or more intents from the history of intents include an intent determined using non-verbal input.

32. The computer-program product of claim 23, wherein the verbal input and the current dialog session are associated with a first user, and wherein the history of intents includes a dialog session associated with a second user.

33. The computer-program product of claim 23, wherein the verbal input and the current dialog session are associated with a first user, and wherein the unstated characteristic is associated with a second user.