Generating Stimuli for Use in Soliciting Grounded Linguistic Information

• US 20140156259A1
• Filed: 11/30/2012
• Published: 06/05/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 11/30/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Dolan, William B., Quirk, Christopher B., Brockett, Christopher J., Choudhury, Pallavi, Molnar, David, Charla, Christopher I., Sophy, Noelle M., Beaudry, Nicole, Dendi, Vikram Reddy, Laufer, Scott T., Sim, Robert A., Woolsey, Thomas E.
• Granted Patent: US 9,116,880 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/40 Processing or translation of natural language natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30

Abstract

A processing system is described which generates stimulus information (SI) having one or more stimulus components (SCs) selected from an inventory of such components. The processing system then presents the SI to a group of human recipients, inviting those recipients to provide linguistic descriptions of the SI. The linguistic information that is received thereby has an implicit link to the SCs. Further, each linguistic component is associated with at least one feature of a target environment, such as a target computer system. Hence, the linguistic information also maps to the features of the target environment. These relationships allow applications to use the linguistic information to interact with the target environment in different ways. In one case, the processing system uses a challenge-response authentication task presentation to convey the stimulus information to the recipients.

Claims

1. A method for collecting grounded linguistic data, comprising:

generating stimulus information having at least one stimulus component selected from an inventory of available stimulus components;

presenting the stimulus information to a plurality of human recipients;

receiving, from each human recipient, a linguistic description of the stimulus information, a plurality of received linguistic descriptions collectively comprising linguistic information expressed in one or more languages; and

storing the linguistic information in a data store, there being a nexus between the linguistic information and said at least one stimulus component that forms a part of the stimulus information, there being an additional nexus between each stimulus component and a feature of a physical target environment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the stimulus information comprises one or more of:

animated visual stimulus information;

audio stimulus information; and

static image stimulus information.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the target environment corresponds to a target computer system.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein at least one kind of feature associated with the target computer system corresponds to an object.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the object is expressed using image recognition data.

6. The method of claim 3, wherein at least one kind of feature associated with the target computer system corresponds to a state that is achievable by the target computer system.

7. The method of claim 3, wherein at least one kind of feature associated with the target computer system corresponds to a data item.

8. The method of claim 3, wherein at least one kind of feature associated with the target computer system corresponds to a behavior.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the behavior is expressed using skeletal tracking data.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein said generating comprises selecting two or more stimulus components from the inventory, based on a parameterized component table which describes the available stimulus components in the inventory.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein said generating further comprises ensuring that the stimulus components that are selected are compatible with each other.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said presenting comprises conveying the stimulus information as part of a challenge-response authentication task.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising analyzing the linguistic information to determine the nexus between each stimulus component in the stimulus information and a corresponding feature of the target environment.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a linguistically-expressed command;

determining whether the command is associated with an instance of linguistic information, the instance of linguistic information being associated, in turn, with a feature of the target environment; and

performing a control action that is associated with the feature, providing that said determining is answered in the affirmative.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

detecting an event, the event constituting a feature of the target environment;

determining whether the event is associated with an instance of linguistic information; and

performing an operation using the instance of linguistic information, providing that said determining is answered in the affirmative.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein said performing comprises narrating an event that is detected by said detecting.

17. A processing system for generating stimulus information for use in soliciting linguistic descriptions from a group of human recipients, comprising:

a data store that stores a plurality of stimulus components, there being a nexus between each stimulus component and a feature of a target computer system; and

a generation module configured to select two or more stimulus components from the plurality of stimulus components to produce stimulus information, the stimulus components being selected from at least two distinct categories of stimulus components specified in a component table.

18. The processing system of claim 17, wherein the generation module is configured to produce a plurality of instances of stimulus information, to carry out a data collection regimen.

19. The processing system of claim 18, wherein the generation module is configured to adapt the instances of stimulus information that are produced based on linguistic descriptions that are received.

20. A computer readable storage medium for storing computer readable instructions, the computer readable instructions providing a processing system when executed by one or more processing devices, the computer readable instructions comprising:

logic configured to generate animated visual stimulus information having at least one animated visual stimulus component selected from an inventory of available animated visual stimulus components,

for at least some animated visual stimulus components, there being a nexus between each animated visual stimulus component and a movement,

for at least some other animated visual stimulus components, there being a nexus between each other animated visual stimulus component and an object,

the animated visual stimulus information being for use in soliciting linguistic descriptions from a group of human recipients.