CONVERSATION BASED SEARCH SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20150134337A1
• Filed: 11/11/2014
• Published: 05/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/13/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Naver Corporation
• Original Assignee: Naver Corporation
• Inventors: Lee, Injae, Kim, Taeil, Seo, Hee-Cheol, Na, Youngho
• Granted Patent: US 10,067,975 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/254
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/243 Natural language query formulation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3338 Query expansion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue

Abstract

A conversation based search method includes the steps of: proposing an utterance phrase corresponding to a query input by a user; and reforming the query by means of an answer from the user and offering a search result corresponding to the reformed query.

Claims

1. A method for searching a computer network from a user terminal through a search system in communication with the computer network, comprising:

proposing, by the search system, at least one predetermined utterance phrase corresponding to an initial query input by a user through the user terminal; and

reforming, by the search system, the initial query based on an answer from the user to the utterance phrase; and

offering, by the search system, a search result corresponding to the reformed query to the user terminal.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the utterance phrase is an inquiry asking a condition corresponding to the initial query.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein proposing the utterance phrase offers the utterance phrase along with a search result corresponding to the initial query, and

wherein offering the search result updates the search result corresponding to the initial query into the search result corresponding to the reformed query.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein when a plurality of the utterance phrases corresponding to the query are proposed, the plurality of the utterance phrases are offered to the user terminal one by one in sequence.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein when a plurality of the utterance phrases corresponding to the query are proposed, the plurality of the utterance phrases are offered to the user terminal in at one time.

6. The method according to claim 4, wherein proposing the utterance phrase comprises:

displaying a conversation window containing the utterance phrase; and

switching the utterance phrase, which is displayed in the conversation window, according the user'"'"'s input to the conversation window.

7. The method according to claim 4, wherein proposing the utterance phrase comprises:

displaying a conversation window containing the utterance phrase; and

skipping a current utterance phrase, which is displayed in the conversation window, according an answer input through the conversation window and switching the current utterance phrase to a next utterance phrase.

8. The method according to claim 4, wherein proposing the utterance phrase comprises:

displaying a conversation window containing the utterance phrase; and

according an answer input through the conversation window and connectivity of the utterance phrase, skipping a current utterance phrase, which is displayed in the conversation window, and switching the current utterance phrase to a next utterance phrase or re-displays the current utterance phrase.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the reformed query is made from the answer from the user to the utterance phrase in combination with at least one of keywords contained in the initial query.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein, when a plurality of the utterance phrases are proposed, the initial query is reformed to update the search result whenever there is an input of an answer to each utterance phrase.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein, when a plurality of the utterance phrases are proposed, the initial query is reformed at once to offer the search result after there is an input of an answer to the last one of the plurality of utterance phrases.

12. The method according to claim 1, wherein, when a plurality of the utterance phrases are proposed, the initial query is reformed to update the search result whenever there is an input of an answer to at least a part of the plurality of utterance phrases.

13. A conversation based search system for searching a computer network from a user terminal, comprising:

an utterance section configured to propose at least one predetermined utterance phrase involved in an initial query input by a user through the user terminal; and

a search section configured to reform the initial query based on an answer of the user to the utterance phrase and offer a search result corresponding to the reformed query to the user terminal.

14. The system according to claim 13, wherein the utterance phrase is an inquiry for requiring a search condition corresponding to the initial query.

15. The system according to claim 13, wherein, when a plurality of the utterance phrases are proposed, the utterance section proposes the utterance phrases one by one in sequence.

16. The system according to claim 15, wherein the utterance section is configured to:

display a conversation window including the utterance phrase; and

switch the utterance phrase displayed in the conversation window in accordance with the user'"'"'s input to the conversation window.

17. The system according to claim 15, wherein the utterance section is configured to:

display a conversation window including the utterance phrase; and

skip a current utterance phrase displayed in the conversation window in accordance with contents of an answer input through the conversation window and switch the current utterance phrase to a next utterance phrase.

18. The system according to claim 15, wherein the utterance section is configured to:

display a conversation window including the utterance phrase; and

according to an answer input through the conversation window and connectivity of the utterance phrase, skip a current utterance phrase displayed in the conversation window and switch the current utterance phrase to the next utterance phrase, or re-display the current utterance phrase.

19. The system according to claim 13, wherein the search section is configure to combine the answer with at least one of keywords included in the initial query and reform the query.

20. The system according to claim 13, wherein, when a plurality of the utterance phrases are proposed, the search section is configured to reform the query whenever there is an input of an answer to each utterance phrase and update the search result.

21. The system according to claim 13, wherein, when a plurality of the utterance phrases are proposed, the search section is configured to reform the initial query at once after there is an input of an answer to the last one of the utterance phrases and offer the search result.

22. The system according to claim 13, wherein, when a plurality of the utterance phrases are proposed, the search section is configured to intermediately reform the initial query whenever there is an input of an answer to at least a part of the utterance phrases and update the search result.

23. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions to control a computer system in communication with a computer network for a document search in the computer network, the instructions controlling the computer system to execute the functions comprising:

proposing an utterance phrase corresponding to an initial query input by a user; and

reforming the initial query based on an answer from the user to the utterance phrase; and

offering a search result corresponding to the reformed query.