Disambiguation Based on Active Input Elicitation by Intelligent Automated Assistant

• US 20130110515A1
• Filed: 12/21/2012
• Published: 05/02/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Guzzoni, Didier Rene, Cheyer, Adam John, Gruber, Thomas Robert, Brigham, Christopher Dean, Saddler, Harry Joseph
• Granted Patent: US 8,799,000 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/270.1
• 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. A user request is received, the user request including at least a speech input received from a user. Two or more alternative interpretations of user intent are obtained based on the received user request. One or more commonalities and one or more differences among the two or more alternative interpretations of user intent are identified. A response is provided to the user, the response presenting at least one of the identified differences and eliciting additional user input to choose among the two or more alternative interpretations of user intent based on the at least one difference.

Claims

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

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

receiving a user request, the user request including at least a speech input received from a user;

obtaining two or more alternative interpretations of user intent based on the received user request;

identifying one or more commonalities and one or more differences among the two or more alternative interpretations of user intent; and

providing a response to the user, the response presenting at least one of the identified differences and eliciting additional user input to choose among the two or more alternative interpretations of user intent based on the at least one difference.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the two or more alternative interpretations of user intent each specify a respective constrained selection task of identifying items of a respective selection domain based on one or more respective selection criteria.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more commonalities include a common constraint for the respective constrained selection tasks.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more differences include two or more alternative constraints for the respective constrained selection tasks.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the response presents the two or more alternative constraints for user selection.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the two or more alternative constraints are based on two or more alternative interpretations of a word derived from the user request.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein two or more alternative interpretations of the word associate the word with a name constraint and a category constraint for a constrained selection task.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more differences include two or more alternative selection domains for the respective constrained selection tasks.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the two or more alternative selection domains includes a movie domain and a restaurant domain.

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

one or more processors; and

memory having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving a user request, the user request including at least a speech input re-ceived from a user;

obtaining two or more alternative interpretations of user intent based on the received user request;

identifying one or more commonalities and one or more differences among the two or more alternative interpretations of user intent; and

providing a response to the user, the response presenting at least one of the identified differences and eliciting additional user input to choose among the two or more alternative interpretations of user intent based on the at least one difference.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the two or more alternative interpretations of user intent each specify a respective constrained selection task of identifying items of a respective selection domain based on one or more respective selection criteria.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more commonalities include a common constraint for the respective constrained selection tasks.

13. The system claim 11, wherein the one or more differences include two or more alternative constraints for the respective constrained selection tasks.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the response presents the two or more alternative constraints for user selection.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the two or more alternative constraints are based on two or more alternative interpretations of a word derived from the user request.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein two or more alternative interpretations of the word associate the word with a name constraint and a category constraint for a constrained selection task.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein the one or more differences include two or more alternative selection domains for the respective constrained selection tasks.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the two or more alternative selection domains includes a movie domain and a restaurant domain.

19. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving a user request, the user request including at least a speech input received from a user;

obtaining two or more alternative interpretations of user intent based on the received user request;

identifying one or more commonalities and one or more differences among the two or more alternative interpretations of user intent; and

providing a response to the user, the response presenting at least one of the identified differences and eliciting additional user input to choose among the two or more alternative interpretations of user intent based on the at least one difference.

20. The computer readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the two or more alternative interpretations of user intent each specify a respective constrained selection task of identifying items of a respective selection domain based on one or more respective selection criteria.

21. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the one or more commonalities include a common constraint for the respective constrained selection tasks.

22. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the one or more differences include two or more alternative constraints for the respective constrained selection tasks.

23. The computer readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the response presents the two or more alternative constraints for user selection.

24. The computer readable storage medium of claim 22, wherein the two or more alternative constraints are based on two or more alternative interpretations of a word derived from the user request.

25. The computer readable storage medium of claim 24, wherein two or more alternative interpretations of the word associate the word with a name constraint and a category constraint for a constrained selection task.

26. The computer readable storage medium of claim 20, wherein the one or more differences include two or more alternative selection domains for the respective constrained selection tasks.

27. The computer readable storage medium of claim 26, wherein the two or more alternative selection domains includes a movie domain and a restaurant domain.