INTELLIGENT CONTEXTUALLY AWARE DIGITAL ASSISTANTS

• US 20170092273A1
• Filed: 12/13/2016
• Published: 03/30/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Palo Alto Research Center, Inc. (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Roberts, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 10,043,514 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90332 Natural language query formulation or dialogue systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/35 Discourse or dialogue representation
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/02 Knowledge representation; Symbolic representation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/1815 Semantic context, e.g. disambiguation of the recognition hypotheses based on word meaning
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/226 using non-speech characteristics

Abstract

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for providing context-based web services to a user. During operation, the system may receive a sentence as input from a user. The system may determine a sentence structure of the sentence, and determine whether there is an entry in a database corresponding to the sentence structure. Responsive to determining that there is no entry in the database corresponding to the sentence structure, the system may engage in a dialogue with the user. The system may extract one or more parameters of the sentence based on information from the dialogue. The system may obtain contextual and background information associated with the parameters. The system may then determine a set of arguments based on the parameters and the contextual and background information, and interact with web services to perform an action and provide a response to the user.

Claims

1. A computer-executable method for providing context-based web services to a user, comprising:

receiving a sentence as input from a user;

determining a sentence structure of the sentence;

determining whether there is an entry in a database corresponding to the sentence structure;

responsive to determining that there is no entry in the database corresponding to the sentence structure, engaging in a dialogue with the user;

extracting one or more parameters of the sentence based on information from the dialogue;

obtaining contextual data associated with the user and background information associated with the parameters;

determining a set of arguments based on the parameters, the contextual data, and the background information associated with the parameters; and

using the set of arguments to interact with web services to perform an action for the user and provide a response to the user.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the action for the user further comprises completing an online sales transaction.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving a second sentence as input from the user;

determining a second sentence structure of the second sentence;

determining whether there is an entry in the database corresponding to the second sentence structure;

responsive to determining that there is an entry in the database corresponding to the second sentence structure, retrieving information from the entry in the database; and

extracting a second set of parameters from the second sentence based on the information retrieved from the database entry.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein obtaining contextual data associated with the user and background information associated with the parameters from one or more information sources further comprises:

determining a mapping of the parameters to properties of an object in a knowledge graph which is one of a foreground knowledge graph and a background knowledge graph, wherein the foreground knowledge graph includes contextual data associated with the user and the background knowledge graph includes background information associated with the parameters; and

storing information that includes the mapping and the parameters in a predetermined database.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein changes in one or more contextual data of a foreground knowledge graph triggers performing an action based on the user'"'"'s context.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

adding contextual data to a foreground knowledge graph based on detected user activity and/or user communications;

disambiguating another input sentence that requires information from a background knowledge graph based on the contextual data from the foreground knowledge graph; and

performing another action for the user based at least on a portion of the contextual data added to the foreground knowledge graph and the information from the background knowledge graph.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein one or more modules perform parameterized queries and modifications on a foreground knowledge graph and a background knowledge graph.

8. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method for providing context-based web services to a user, the method comprising:

receiving a sentence as input from a user;

determining a sentence structure of the sentence;

determining whether there is an entry in a database corresponding to the sentence structure;

responsive to determining that there is no entry in the database corresponding to the sentence structure, engaging in a dialogue with the user;

extracting one or more parameters of the sentence based on information from the dialogue;

obtaining contextual data associated with the user and background information associated with the parameters;

determining a set of arguments based on the parameters, the contextual data, and the background information associated with the parameters; and

using the set of arguments to interact with web services to perform an action for the user and provide a response to the user.

9. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein performing the action for the user further comprises completing an online sales transaction.

10. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a second sentence as input from the user;

determining a second sentence structure of the second sentence;

determining whether there is an entry in the database corresponding to the second sentence structure;

responsive to determining that there is an entry in the database corresponding to the second sentence structure, retrieving information from the entry in the database; and

extracting a second set of parameters from the second sentence based on the information retrieved from the database entry.

11. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein obtaining contextual data associated with the user and background information associated with the parameters from one or more information sources further comprises further comprises:

determining a mapping of the parameters to properties of an object in a knowledge graph which is one of a foreground knowledge graph and a background knowledge graph, wherein the foreground knowledge graph includes contextual data associated with the user and the background knowledge graph includes background information associated with the parameters; and

storing information that includes the mapping and the parameters in a predetermined database.

12. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein changes in one or more contextual data of a foreground knowledge graph triggers performing an action based on the user'"'"'s context.

13. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein the method further comprises:

adding contextual data to a foreground knowledge graph based on detected user activity and/or user communications;

disambiguating another input sentence that requires information from a background knowledge graph based on the contextual data from the foreground knowledge graph; and

performing another action for the user based at least on a portion of the contextual data added to the foreground knowledge graph and the information from the background knowledge graph.

14. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 8, wherein one or more modules perform parameterized queries and modifications on a foreground knowledge graph and a background knowledge graph.

15. A computing system for providing context-based web services to a user, the system comprising:

one or more processors,

a non-transitory computer-readable medium coupled to the one or more processors having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising;

receiving a sentence as input from a user;

determining a sentence structure of the sentence;

determining whether there is an entry in a database corresponding to the sentence structure;

responsive to determining that there is no entry in the database corresponding to the sentence structure, engaging in a dialogue with the user;

extracting one or more parameters of the sentence based on information from the dialogue;

obtaining contextual data associated with the user and background information associated with the parameters;

determining a set of arguments based on the parameters, the contextual data, and the background information associated with the parameters; and

using the set of arguments to interact with web services to perform an action for the user and provide a response to the user.

16. The computing system of claim 15, wherein performing the action for the user further comprises completing an online sales transaction.

17. The computing system of claim 15, wherein the method further comprises:

receiving a second sentence as input from the user;

determining a second sentence structure of the second sentence;

determining whether there is an entry in the database corresponding to the second sentence structure;

responsive to determining that there is an entry in the database corresponding to the second sentence structure, retrieving information from the entry in the database; and

extracting a second set of parameters from the second sentence based on the information retrieved from the database entry.

18. The computing system of claim 15, wherein obtaining contextual data associated with the user and background information associated with the parameters from one or more information sources further comprises:

determining a mapping of the parameters to properties of an object in a knowledge graph which is one of a foreground knowledge graph and a background knowledge graph, wherein the foreground knowledge graph includes contextual data associated with the user and the background knowledge graph includes background information associated with the parameters; and

storing information that includes the mapping and the parameters in a predetermined database.

19. The computing system claim 15, wherein changes in one or more contextual data of a foreground knowledge graph triggers performing an action based on the user'"'"'s context.

20. The computing system of claim 15, wherein one or more modules perform parameterized queries and modifications on a foreground knowledge graph and a background knowledge graph.