Method and system for creating interactive inquiry and assessment bots

• US 10,635,752 B2
• Filed: 11/14/2016
• Issued: 04/28/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 05/27/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Juji, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Juji, Inc.
• Inventors: Zhou, Michelle Xue, Yang, Huahai
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Paras D
• Application Number:
  US15/350,193
• Publication Number:
  US 20170344532A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,261 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/35 Discourse or dialogue representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/56 Natural language generation

Abstract

The present teaching relates to obtaining information from a user via a bot. In one example, a request is obtained to collect information in connection with a user. A statement is generated to be expressed to the user for facilitating a conversation between the user and the bot based on the request. Information is received in connection with the user and collected during the conversation. The collected information characterizes the user in a plurality of modalities. The collected information is automatically analyzed in the plurality of modalities to obtain an assessment of one or more human traits of the user. A plurality of result summaries are generated based on the assessment. The plurality of result summaries are provided in response to the request.

Claims

1. A method, implemented on a machine having at least one processor, storage, and a communication platform connected to a network for obtaining qualitative information from a user via a bot, comprising:

obtaining a request to collect information in connection with a user;

generating a statement to be expressed to the user for facilitating a conversation between the user and the bot based on the request;

guiding the conversation between the user and the bot by;

receiving qualitative information in connection with the user, collected during the conversation, wherein the collected qualitative information characterizes the user in a plurality of modalities,

automatically analyzing the collected qualitative information in the plurality of modalities to obtain an assessment of one or more human psychological traits of the user,

automatically composing one or more subsequent statements based on the one or more human psychological traits of the user and a quality of the assessment,

evaluating the one or more subsequent statements based on a plurality of criteria, wherein at least one criterion computes a distance between each of the one or more subsequent statements and the assessment of one or more human psychological traits of the user,

ranking the one or more subsequent statements based on the evaluation, and

selecting, based on the ranking, a subsequent statement from the one or more subsequent statements to be expressed to the user;

transforming the collected qualitative information in the plurality of modalities and the assessment into a plurality of result summaries; and

providing, in response to the request, the plurality of result summaries to at least one user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of modalities comprises at least one of:

one or more patterns determined based on activities of the user;

one or more behaviors of the user during interactions between the user and the bot; and

one or more answers of the user in response to the one or more subsequent statements belonging to a specific type.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically composing the one or more subsequent statements further comprises:

determining one or more human psychological traits of the bot; and

automatically translating the one or more subsequent statements into one or more personified statements that reflect the one or more human traits of the bot.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically composing the one or more subsequent statements further comprises:

automatically synthesizing one or more inquiries related to the one or more human psychological traits; and

automatically recommending at least one of the one or more synthesized inquiries based on the assessment of the one or more human psychological traits of the user.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically composing the one or more subsequent statements further comprises:

obtaining one or more pieces of linguistic data related to the one or more human psychological traits; and

automatically synthesizing one or more inquiries based on the one or more pieces of linguistic data and the assessment of the one or more human psychological traits of the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting the subsequent statement further comprises:

presenting the one or more subsequent statements and the result summaries to a human inquirer; and

receiving the subsequent statement selected by the human inquirer.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein automatically composing the one or more subsequent statements further comprises:

presenting the result summaries to a human inquirer; and

automatically synthesizing one or more statements based on an input from the human inquirer.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein transforming the collected qualitative information further comprises:

determining one or more properties of the collected qualitative information based on the assessment of one or more human psychological traits of the user; and

including the one or more properties of the collected qualitative information as at least a part of the result summaries.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein transforming the collected qualitative information further comprises:

generating a conversation meter that dynamically monitors the one or more human psychological traits of the user based on the assessment during the conversation; and

including the conversation meter as at least a part of the result summaries.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein a criterion corresponds to a diversity of the automatically composed one or more statements.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

merging the assessed two or more human psychological traits of the user based on data sources from which each of the traits is inferred.

12. A system, having at least one processor, storage, and a communication platform connected to a network for obtaining qualitative information from a user via a bot, comprising:

a bot engine manager implemented by the at least one processor and configured for obtaining and managing a request to collect qualitative information in connection with a user;

a trait-based conversation facilitator implemented by the at least one processor and configured for generating a statement to be expressed to the user for facilitating a conversation between the user and the bot based on the request; and

a bot engine implemented by the at least one processor and configured for guiding the conversation between the user and the bot by;

receiving qualitative information in connection with the user, collected during the conversation, wherein the collected qualitative information characterizes the user in a plurality of modalities,

automatically analyzing the collected qualitative information in the plurality of modalities to obtain an assessment of one or more human psychological traits of the user,

automatically composing one or more subsequent statements based on the one or more human psychological traits of the user and a quality of the assessment,

evaluating the one or more subsequent statements based on a plurality of criteria, wherein at least one criterion computes a distance between each of the one or more subsequent statements and the assessment of one or more human psychological traits of the user,

ranking the one or more subsequent statements based on the evaluation, and

selecting, based on the ranking, a subsequent statement from the one or more subsequent statements to be expressed to the user, and

wherein the bot engine manager is further configured for

transforming the collected qualitative information in the plurality of modalities and the assessment into a plurality of result summaries, and

providing, in response to the request, the plurality of result summaries to at least one user.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the plurality of modalities comprises at least one of:

one or more patterns determined based on activities of the user;

one or more behaviors of the user during interactions between the user and the bot; and

one or more answers of the user in response to the one or more subsequent statements belonging to a specific type.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein automatically composing the one or more subsequent statements further comprises:

determining one or more human psychological traits of the bot; and

automatically translating the one or more subsequent statements into one or more personified statements that reflect the one or more human traits of the bot.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein automatically composing the one or more subsequent statements further comprises:

automatically synthesizing one or more inquiries related to the one or more human psychological traits; and

automatically recommending at least one of the one or more synthesized inquiries based on the assessment of the one or more human psychological traits of the user.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein automatically composing the one or more subsequent statements further comprises:

obtaining one or more pieces of linguistic data related to the one or more human psychological traits; and

automatically synthesizing one or more inquiries based on the one or more pieces of linguistic data and the assessment of the one or more human psychological traits of the user.

17. The system of claim 12, wherein selecting the subsequent statement further comprises:

presenting the one or more subsequent statements and the result summaries to a human inquirer; and

receiving the subsequent statement selected by the human inquirer.

18. The system of claim 12, automatically composing the one or more subsequent statements further comprises:

presenting the result summaries to a human inquirer; and

automatically synthesizing one or more statements based on an input from the human inquirer.

19. The system of claim 12, wherein transforming the collected qualitative information further comprises:

determining one or more properties of the collected qualitative information based on the assessment of one or more human psychological traits of the user;

generating a conversation meter that dynamically monitors the one or more human psychological traits of the user based on the assessment during the conversation; and

including, as at least a part of the result summaries, at least one of the conversation meter and the one or more properties of the collected qualitative information.

20. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having information recorded thereon for obtaining qualitative information from a user via a bot, wherein the information, when read by the machine, causes the machine to perform the following:

obtaining a request to collect information in connection with a user;

generating a statement to be expressed to the user for facilitating a conversation between the user and the bot based on the request;

guiding the conversation between the user and the bot by;

receiving qualitative information in connection with the user, collected during the conversation, wherein the collected qualitative information characterizes the user in a plurality of modalities,

automatically analyzing the collected qualitative information in the plurality of modalities to obtain an assessment of one or more human psychological traits of the user,

automatically composing one or more subsequent statements based on the one or more human psychological traits of the user and a quality of the assessment,

evaluating the one or more subsequent statements based on a plurality of criteria, wherein at least one criterion computes a distance between each of the one or more subsequent statements and the assessment of one or more human psychological traits of the user,

ranking the one or more subsequent statements based on the evaluation, and

selecting, based on the ranking, a subsequent statement from the one or more subsequent statements to be expressed to the user;

transforming the collected qualitative information in the plurality of modalities and the assessment into a plurality of result summaries; and

providing, in response to the request, the plurality of result summaries to at least one user.