Task state tracking in systems and services

• US 10,338,959 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2015
• Issued: 07/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Khan, Omar Zia, Crook, Paul Anthony, Marin, Marius Alexandru, Sarikaya, Ruhi, Robichaud, Jean-Philippe
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, James J
• Assistant Examiner(s): Huaracha, Willy W
• Application Number:
  US14/797,444
• Publication Number:
  US 20170017519A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,450 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4843 by program, e.g. task dispatcher, supervisor, operating system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5083 Techniques for rebalancing the load in a distributed system
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services

Abstract

Non-limiting examples of the present disclosure describe decoupling task state tracking that is managed by a shared task completion platform from execution of tasks by a task resource owner. Task registration data is received at a shared task state platform for a task that is executable by a task owner resource. Task registration data comprises parameters to be collected for execution of the task and ancillary information, such as the name of the task and whether to confirm the values of the parameters after collection. During interaction with a user, the shared task completion platform receives an input and determines the task is associated with the received input. During the interaction, parameters of the received task registration data are utilized to collect data for execution of the task. The collected data is transmitted to the task owner resource for execution of the task.

Claims

1. A computer-readable memory device including computer executable instructions that, when executed by at least one processor, causes the at least one processor to perform a method for decoupling task state tracking from an execution of a task, comprising:

receiving, at a task-agnostic shared task completion platform, task registration data for a plurality of tasks from a plurality of task owner resources, wherein each task in the plurality of tasks is executable by a particular task owner resource and wherein the task registration data for each task in the plurality of tasks comprises at least one mandatory parameter that is necessary to be collected for execution of each task in the plurality of tasks;

storing, in a storage device associated with the task-agnostic shared task completion platform, the task registration data for the plurality of tasks;

receiving an input from a user of the task-agnostic shared task completion platform;

determining, based at least in part, on the received input and the task registration data for the plurality of tasks, whether the received input is associated with at least one task in the plurality of tasks;

when it is determined that the received input is associated with the at least one task, updating, by the task-agnostic shared task completion platform, a task state tracker that manages the state of the at least one task based, at least in part, on the received input and determines a subsequent action associated with processing the received input;

determining whether the at least one mandatory parameter for the at least one task has been collected; and

when it is determined that the at least one mandatory parameter has been collected, transmitting, over a communication network, the at least one mandatory parameter data to a particular task owner resource for execution of the at least one task.

2. The computer-readable memory device of claim 1, further comprising instructions for generating a response that comprises a request for the mandatory parameter data based on the task registration data.

3. The computer-readable memory device of claim 1, further comprising instructions for generating a prompt using at least one parameter.

4. The computer-readable memory device of claim 3, wherein the prompt is provided to the user to solicit additional information about the at least one task.

5. The computer-readable memory device of claim 1, wherein the task registration data also comprises optional parameter data.

6. The computer-readable memory device of claim 5, further comprising transmitting the optional parameter data over the communication network to the particular task owner resource when it is determined that the optional parameter data has been collected.

7. A system for decoupling task state tracking from an execution of a task, comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory coupled to the at least one processor and storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, perform a method, comprising;

receiving, at a task-agnostic shared task completion platform, task registration data for a plurality of tasks from a plurality of task owner resources, wherein each task in the plurality of tasks is executable by a particular task owner resource and wherein the task registration data for each task in the plurality of tasks comprises at least one mandatory parameter that is necessary to be collected for execution of each task in the plurality of tasks;

storing, in a storage device associated with a task-agnostic shared task state platform, the task registration data for the plurality of tasks

receiving an input to the task-agnostic shared task state platform;

determining, based at least in part, on the received input and the task registration data from the plurality of tasks, whether the received input is associated with at least one task in the plurality of tasks;

when it is determined that the received input is associated with the at least one task, updating, by the task-agnostic shared task completion platform, a task state tracker that manages the state of the at least one task based, at least in part, on the received input and determines a subsequent action associated with processing the received input;

determining whether the at least one mandatory parameter for the at least one task has been collected; and

when it is determined that the at least one mandatory parameter has been collected, transmitting a request over a network, that comprises the at least one mandatory parameter data to a particular task owner resource for execution of the at least one task.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the task registration data also comprises optional parameter data.

9. The system of claim 8, further comprising instructions for generating the task state tracker by the task-agnostic shared task state platform, wherein the task state tracker tracks collection of data associated with the at least one task that comprises at least one of the mandatory parameter data and the optional parameter data.

10. The system of claim 9, further comprising instructions for generating a response action based, at least in part, on a status of the task state tracker, wherein the status is determined based on collection of parameter data.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the generated response action is an output that comprises at least one of:

disambiguating multiple values associated with a parameter of the task registration data, confirming a value associated with the parameters, requesting receipt of at least one portion of the mandatory parameter data, and cancelling the task.

12. The system of claim 8, further comprising instructions for determining based, at least in part, on received input, whether to obtain the optional parameter data.

13. The system of claim 7, further comprising instructions for:

retaining data associated with processing of the received input;

evaluating a state of the determined task based on a received subsequent input; and

updating the state of the determined task based on application of the retained data and evaluation of the received subsequent input.

14. A computer-implemented method for decoupling task state tracking from an execution of a task, comprising:

receiving, at a task-agnostic shared task completion platform, task registration data for a plurality of tasks from a plurality of task owner resources, wherein each task in the plurality of tasks is executable by a particular task owner resource and wherein the task registration data for each task in the plurality of tasks comprises at least one mandatory parameter that is necessary to be collected for execution of each task in the plurality of tasks and at least one optional parameter;

storing, in a storage device associated with the task-agnostic shared task state platform, the task registration data;

receiving an input from a user of the shared task state platform;

determining, based at least in part, on the received input and the task registration data, whether the received input is associated with at least one task;

when it is determined that the received input is associated with the at least one task, updating, by the task-agnostic shared task completion platform, a task state tracker that manages the state of the at least one task based, at least in part, on the received input and determines a subsequent action associated with processing the received input;

determining whether at least the at least one mandatory parameter for the at least one task has been collected; and

when it is determined that at least the at least one mandatory parameter data has been collected, transmitting the at least one mandatory parameter data, over a network, to at least one of the plurality of task owner resources that is determined to be responsible for executing the at least one task.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising generating the task state tracker by the task-agnostic shared task state platform.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising generating a response action based on a status of the task state tracker, wherein the status is determined based on collection of parameter data including at least one of the mandatory parameter data and the optional parameter data.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 16, wherein the generated response action is an output that comprises at least one of:

disambiguating multiple values associated with a parameter of the task registration data, confirming a value associated with the parameters, requesting receipt of at least one portion of the mandatory parameter data, and cancelling the task.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising:

executing input recognition processing on the received input; and

executing input understanding processing on the received input; and

wherein the determining of the at least one task further comprises;

utilizing results from the input understanding processing to determining potential domains for execution of the task; and

selecting at least one domain for execution of the at least one task.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising:

retaining data associated with processing of the received input;

evaluating a state of the at least one task based on a received subsequent input; and

updating the state of the at least one task based on application of the retained data and evaluation of the received subsequent input.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising transmitting the optional parameter data over the network to the at least one of the plurality of task owner resources when it is determined that the optional parameter data has been collected.