Determining phrases related to other phrases

• US 8,768,852 B2
• Filed: 01/13/2009
• Issued: 07/01/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Huynh, Steve, Oates, Isaac, Jesensky, James, Vaidya, Vinay
• Primary Examiner(s): ROBERTS, SHAUN A
• Application Number:
  US12/353,155
• Publication Number:
  US 20100179801A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,995 Days
• Field of Search: 704/1, 704/9, 705/74, 705/44, 705/67, 726/6
• US Class Current: 705/74
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/56 Natural language generation

Abstract

Techniques for generating and providing phrases are described herein. These techniques may include analyzing one or more sources to generate a statistically improbable phrase, determining words that compose the statistically improbable phrase, inputting the words into an index, and determine phrases associated with the words. The determined phrases may then be presented to a user.

Claims

1. A method implemented at least in part by a computing device, the method comprising:

determining one or more statistically improbable phrases recognizable by and associated with the user, wherein individual statistically improbable phrases comprise at least two contiguous words that occur in a corpus of text more than a threshold number of times;

determining the words that compose the one or more statistically improbable phrases that are associated with the user;

inputting, into an index as keywords, the determined words that compose the one or more statistically improbable phrases;

determining phrases that are associated with the determined words that compose the one or more statistically improbable phrases; and

selecting at least one of the phrases as an identifier for the user.

2. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, perform acts comprising:

determining common characteristics of one or more phrases related to information known about a user, the phrases comprising one or more grammatically-correct words;

determining words that compose the one or more phrases that share the common characteristic;

determining phrases that are associated with at least one of the determined words;

providing at least a portion of the determined phrases for selection by a user; and

responsive to receiving a selection of a phrase by the user, associating the selected phrase with a payment instrument of the user.

3. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 2, wherein the determining of the phrases that are associated with at least one of the determined words comprises analyzing an index that maps multiple words to one or more phrases.

4. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 2, wherein the payment instrument is a credit card number.

5. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, perform acts comprising:

determining a statistically improbable phrase that appears in a source, the statistically improbable phrase appearing in the source more than a threshold number of times;

determining words that compose the statistically improbable phrase;

determining phrases that are associated with at least one of the determined words; and

providing at least a portion of the determined phrases for selection by a user for association with an aspect of an account of the user.

6. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, wherein the source comprises a book, a magazine, online content, audio content or video content.

7. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, wherein the determining of the phrases comprises analyzing an index that maps multiple words to one or more phrases.

8. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, perform acts comprising:

receiving a selection of a phrase from the user; and

wherein the association is responsive to the receiving of the selection.

9. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, wherein the aspect of the account is a payment instrument of the user.

10. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 5, further storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, perform acts comprising:

determining that the source includes multiple statistically improbable phrases;

determining words that compose the multiple statistically improbable phrases; and

determining phrases that are associated with at least one of the determined words that compose the multiple statistically improbable phrases.

11. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 10, wherein the multiple statistically improbable phrases comprise statistically improbable phrase that appears in the source.

12. A method implemented at least in part by a computing device, the method comprising:

determining words that compose a first set of phrases;

determining a second set of phrases, the second set of phrases including at least one phrase not present in the first set of phrases;

the phrases of the second set of phrases being associated with at least one of the determined words that compose the phrases of the first set of phrases;

suggesting at least a portion of the determined second set of phrases to a user; and

responsive to receiving a selection of a phrase from the user, associating the selected phrase with a payment instrument associated with an account related to the user.

13. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein the first set of phrases comprise phrases that share a common characteristic.

14. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein at least a portion of the first set of phrases comprise statistically improbable phrases.

15. A method as recited in claim 12, wherein the determining of the second set of phrases comprises:

inputting, into an index that maps keywords to phrases, the determined words of the first set of phrases as keywords to the index; and

determining phrases that are associated with one or more of the inputted keywords.

16. A method as recited in claim 12, further comprising determining a degree of relation between the first set of phrases and the phrases of the second set of phrases that are determined to be associated with the first set of phrases.

17. A method as recited in claim 12, further comprising determining a degree of relation between the first set of phrases and the phrases of the second set of phrases that are determined to be associated with first set of phrases, and wherein the suggesting of the portion of determined phrases comprises suggesting phrases having a relatively higher degree of relation to the first set of phrases.

18. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing the computer-executable instructions as recited in claim 12.

19. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, perform acts comprising:

determining that a phrase is associated with information known about a user;

determining words that compose the phrase;

analyzing an index with use of the determined words to determine one or more other phrases related to the determined words;

providing at least a portion of the determined one or more other phrases for selection by the user;

Receiving a selection of a phrase; and

associating the selected phrase with a payment instrument associated with an account related to the user.

20. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 19, wherein the phrase comprises a statistically improbable phrase, and wherein the determining of the statistically improbable phrase that is associated with the user comprises:

determining a keyword that is associated with the user; and

determining a statistically improbable phrase that is associated with the keyword.

21. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 20, wherein the keyword is manually inputted by the user.

22. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 20, wherein the keyword is based on a name of the user, an address of the user, a purchase history of the user, or items recommended for the user.

23. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 20, wherein the statistically improbable phrase is determined to be associated with the keyword by analyzing the index.

24. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

the one or more non-transitory computer-readable media storing the computer-executable instructions as recited in claim 19.

25. A method implemented at least in part by a computing device, the method comprising:

determining that a statistically-improbable phrase is associated with information known about a user or a user'"'"'s account;

determining other phrases that are associated with the statistically-improbable phrase; and

associating a phrase of the determined phrases with an aspect of an account related to the user.

26. A method as recited in claim 25, wherein the statistically improbable phrase is determined to be associated with information known about the user or the user'"'"'s account based on known information about the user or prior behavior of the user.

27. A method as recited in claim 25, wherein the statistically improbable phrase is determined to be associated with information known about the user or the user'"'"'s account based at least in part on prior purchases made by the user.

28. A method as recited in claim 25, wherein the determining phrases that are associated with the statistically improbable phrase comprises:

determining one or more words that compose the statistically improbable phrase;

inputting, into an index that maps keywords to phrases, the determined one or more words of the statistically improbable phrase as keywords to the index; and

determining phrases that are associated with one or more of the inputted keywords.

29. A method as recited in claim 25, wherein the associating of the phrase to the user comprises suggesting a phrase that is more highly related to the statistically improbable phrase than another, non-suggested phrase that is also associated with the statistically improbable phrase.

30. A method as recited in claim 25, wherein the aspect of the account is a payment instrument.

31. A system comprising:

one or more processors;

memory;

a Pseudo-SIP module, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors to determine phrases that are associated with a statistically improbable phrase, the statistically improbable phrase appearing in a text of a source more than a threshold number of times; and

a phrase-suggestion module, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors to output the determined phrases for use as identifiers and receive a user selection of the determined phrases to associate with an aspect of a user account.

32. A system as recited in claim 31, wherein the Pseudo-SIP module is further executable on the one or more processors to:

determine one or more words that compose the statistically improbable phrase;

input, into an index that maps keywords to phrases, the determined one or more words of the statistically improbable phrase as keywords to the index; and

determine phrases that are associated with one or more of the inputted keywords.

33. A system as recited in claim 31, wherein a portion of the determined phrases outputted by phrase-suggestion module comprises phrases that are more highly-related to the statistically improbable phrase than other phrases that are also associated with the statistically improbable phrase.