Using Event Alert Text as Input to an Automated Assistant

• US 20130110505A1
• Filed: 12/21/2012
• Published: 05/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Gruber, Thomas Robert, Cheyer, Adam John, Guzzoni, Didier Rene
• Granted Patent: US 9,117,447 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: B60K 35/00 Instruments specially adapted for vehicles; Arrangement of instruments in or on vehicles
• 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 16/9537 Spatial or temporal dependent retrieval, e.g. spatiotemporal queries
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/279 Recognition of textual entities
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/40 Processing or translation of natural language natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/006 based on simulated virtual individual or collective life forms, e.g. social simulations or particle swarm optimisation [PSO]
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/022 Knowledge engineering; Knowledge acquisition
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/041 Abduction
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/00 Speech synthesis; Text to speech systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/02 Methods for producing synthetic speech; Speech synthesisers
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 13/08 Text analysis or generation of parameters for speech synthesis out of text, e.g. grapheme to phoneme translation, prosody generation or stress or intonation determination
• 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: G10L 15/183 using context dependencies, e.g. language models
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/30 : Distributed recognition, e.g. in client-server systems, for mobile phones or network applications
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/06 : Transformation of speech into a non-audible representation, e.g. speech visualisation or speech processing for tactile aids G10L15/26 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6091 : including a wireless interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/7243 : with interactive means for internal management of messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72448 : with means for adapting the functionality of the device according to specific conditions
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/72484 : wherein functions are triggered by incoming communication events

Abstract

Methods, systems, and computer readable storage medium related to operating an intelligent digital assistant are disclosed. An event alert is detected, where the event alert includes context data. A representation of an intent is derived based at least in part on the context data. At least one domain, at least one task, and at least one parameter for the task are identified based at least in part on the representation of the intent. The identified task is performed using the at least one parameter. An output is provided to the user, where the output is related to the performance of the first task.

Claims

1. A method for operating an automated assistant, comprising:

at an electronic device comprising a processor and memory storing instructions for execution by the processor;

detecting an event alert, wherein the event alert comprises context data;

deriving a representation of an intent based at least in part on the context data;

identifying at least one domain, at least one task, and at least one parameter for the task, based at least in part on the representation of the intent;

performing the identified task using the at least one parameter; and

providing an output to the user, wherein the output is related to the performance of the first task.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the context data is a text string associated with a calendar event.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the context data includes a name of a person associated with the calendar event.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising selecting the name of the person as one of the at least one parameters for the task.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

after detecting the event alert, obtaining a text string from a speech input received from a user, wherein the text string includes a second name; and

disambiguating the text string to determine that the second name corresponds to the name of the person.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the name of the person includes a first name and a last name, and wherein the second name is one of a first name or a pronoun.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the relevance of the event alert and the additional event alert is based at least in part on short-term personal memory associated with the user.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the relevance of the event alert and the additional event alert is based at least in part on long-term personal memory associated with the user.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the event alert is a calendar event alert.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting a second event alert;

determining a relevance for the event alert and the second event alert; and

presenting the event alert and the second event alert to the user in order based on the determined relevance.

11. A system for operating an intelligent automated assistant, comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the processors to perform operations comprising;

detecting an event alert, wherein the event alert comprises context data;

deriving a representation of an intent based at least in part on the context data;

identifying at least one domain, at least one task, and at least one parameter for the task, based at least in part on the representation of the intent;

performing the identified task using the at least one parameter; and

providing an output to the user, wherein the output is related to the performance of the first task.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the context data is a text string associated with a calendar event.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the context data includes a name of a person associated with the calendar event.

14. The system of claim 13, the operations further comprising selecting the name of the person as one of the at least one parameters for the task.

15. The system of claim 13, the operations further comprising:

after detecting the event alert, obtaining a text string from a speech input received from a user, wherein the text string includes a second name; and

disambiguating the text string to determine that the second name corresponds to the name of the person.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the name of the person includes a first name and a last name, and wherein the second name is one of a first name or a pronoun.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the relevance of the event alert and the additional event alert is based at least in part on short-term personal memory associated with the user.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the relevance of the event alert and the additional event alert is based at least in part on long-term personal memory associated with the user.

19. The system of claim 11, wherein the event alert is a calendar event alert.

20. The system of claim 11, the operations further comprising:

detecting a second event alert;

determining a relevance for the event alert and the second event alert; and

presenting the event alert and the second event alert to the user in order based on the determined relevance.

21. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions that, when executed by an electronic device with one or more processors, cause the processors to perform operations comprising:

detecting an event alert, wherein the event alert comprises context data;

deriving a representation of an intent based at least in part on the context data;

identifying at least one domain, at least one task, and at least one parameter for the task, based at least in part on the representation of the intent;

performing the identified task using the at least one parameter; and

providing an output to the user, wherein the output is related to the performance of the first task.

22. The computer readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the context data is a text string associated with a calendar event.

23. The computer readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the context data includes a name of a person associated with the calendar event.

24. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23, the operations further comprising selecting the name of the person as one of the at least one parameters for the task.

25. The computer readable storage medium of claim 23, the operations further comprising:

after detecting the event alert, obtaining a text string from a speech input received from a user, wherein the text string includes a second name; and

disambiguating the text string to determine that the second name corresponds to the name of the person.

26. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25, wherein the name of the person includes a first name and a last name, and wherein the second name is one of a first name or a pronoun.

27. The computer readable storage medium of claim 26, wherein the relevance of the event alert and the additional event alert is based at least in part on short-term personal memory associated with the user.

28. The computer readable storage medium of claim 26, wherein the relevance of the event alert and the additional event alert is based at least in part on long-term personal memory associated with the user.

29. The computer readable storage medium of claim 21, wherein the event alert is a calendar event alert.

30. The computer readable storage medium of claim 21, the operations further comprising:

detecting a second event alert;

determining a relevance for the event alert and the second event alert; and

presenting the event alert and the second event alert to the user in order based on the determined relevance.