Question and answer architecture for reasoning and clarifying intentions, goals, and needs from contextual clues and content

• US 20070136222A1
• Filed: 12/09/2005
• Published: 06/14/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/09/2005
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Horvitz, Eric
• Application Number:
  US11/298,408
• Publication Number:
  US 20070136222A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 706/45
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models

Abstract

An architecture is presented that facilitates the determination of user context by employing questions and answers, and reasoning about user intentions, goals and/or needs based on contextual clues and content. A context component facilitates capture and analysis of context data and a clarification component initiates human interaction as feedback to validate determination of the user context. The context component can include a number of subsystems that facilitate capture and analysis of context data associated with the user context, for example, a portable communications device (e.g., a cell phone) can employ an image capture subsystem (e.g., a camera) that tales a picture of a context object or structure such as a sign, building, mountain, and so on. The image can then be analyzed for graphical content and text content.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates determination of user context, comprising:

a context component that facilitates capture and analysis of context data to determine the user context; and

a clarification component that initiates human interaction as feedback to validate determination of the user context.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the clarification component prompts for the human interaction via a question-and-answer format.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the human interaction includes perceiving and interacting with displayed text.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the human interaction includes perceiving and interacting with speech signals.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the human interaction includes perceiving and interacting with image data.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the human interaction is via at least one of a user and an indigenous person.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the contextual component includes a geographical location subsystem that processes geographic coordinates associated with a geographic location of the user context.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the coordinates are processed into speech signals that are presented and understood by an indigenous person associated with the user context.

9. The system of claim 7, wherein the coordinates are processed into text that is presented and understood by an indigenous person associated with the user context.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the clarification component facilitates translation of context data into data representative of a language that is foreign to the user context.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a learning and reasoning component that employs a probabilistic and/or statistical-based analysis to prognose or infer an action that a user desires to be automatically performed.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the context component clarification component facilitates translation of context data into data representative of a language that is foreign to the user context.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising a constraint component that constrains the context data to a focused aspect of the user context.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the user context is associated with user intentions, goals and needs, the determination of which is further based on contextual clues and contextual content.

15. The system of claim 1, the context component and the clarification component employed in a portable wireless device.

16. A computer-implemented method of determining user context, comprising:

capturing and analyzing context data of the user context into clue data that represents a clue as to the user context;

processing the clue data to select an output data that represents user understandable information;

outputting the user understandable data to a human; and

requesting feedback from the human to validate the user context.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising an act of outputting the user understandable data as speech data to a human who is indigenous to the user context.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising an act of automatically selecting a language model based on the clue data, the language model facilitates output of at least one of speech and text in a language indigenous to the user context.

19. The method of claim 16, further comprising an act of constraining the context data based on GPS (global positioning system) coordinates that represent the user context.

20. A system that facilitates determination of user context, comprising:

means for capturing and analyzing context data of the user context into clue data that represents a clue as to the user context;

means for processing the clue data to select an output data that represents user understandable information;

means for outputting the user understandable data to a human;

means for presenting a question to the human as to accuracy of the user understandable information; and

means for receiving an answer to the question from the human as to the accuracy of the user context.