Voice commands for online social networking systems

• US 9,043,703 B2
• Filed: 10/16/2012
• Issued: 05/26/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 10/16/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Inventors: Yuen, Jenny, Garcia, David Harry
• Primary Examiner(s): Kim, Matt
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRAPANESE, WILLIAM C
• Application Number:
  US13/652,767
• Publication Number:
  US 20140108935A1
• Time in Patent Office: 952 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 715/728
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9024 Graphs; Linked lists G06F16/9027 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/048 Interaction techniques based on graphical user interfaces [GUI]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/167 Audio in a user interface, e.g. using voice commands for navigating, audio feedback
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/403 Arrangements for multi-party communication, e.g. for conferences data switching systems for conference H04L12/18; arrangements for connecting several subscribers to a common circuit, i.e. affording conference facilities H04M3/56; television conferencing systems H04N7/15
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/52 specially adapted for the location of the user terminal

Abstract

In one embodiment, a method includes accessing a social graph that includes a plurality of nodes and edges, receiving from a first user a voice message comprising one or more commands, receiving location information associated with the first user, identifying edges and nodes in the social graph based on the location information, where each of the identified edges and nodes corresponds to at least one of the commands of the voice message, and generating new nodes or edges in the social graph based on the identified nodes or identified edges.

Claims

1. A method comprising, by a computing device:

accessing a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of the nodes representing a single degree of separation between them, the nodes comprising;

a first-user node corresponding to a first user associated with an online social network; and

a plurality of second nodes that each correspond to a concept or a second user associated with the online social network, each second node being of a particular node-type;

receiving from the first user a voice message comprising one or more commands;

receiving location information associated with the first user;

determining one or more edge-types and one or more node-types, each edge-type and node-type being determined based on at least one of the commands of the voice message;

identifying one or more second nodes based on the location information associated with the first user and further based on at least one of the commands of the voice message, each of the identified second nodes being one of the determined node-types; and

generating one or more new edges in the social graph connecting the first-user node to one or more of the identified second nodes based on the location information and the voice message, each of the new edges being one of the determined edge-types.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the voice message is received via an audio input of a mobile computing device of associated with the first user.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the location information comprises the geographic location of a mobile client system associated with the first user.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the location information comprises information indicating that the first user is at a particular event.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the location information comprises information indicating that the first user is at a particular venue.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the location information comprises information indicating that the first user is proximate to a particular second user.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating one or more new nodes in the social graph based on the location information and the voice message, each of the new nodes being one of the determined node-types, the generated new edges connecting the generated new nodes to the first-user node.

8. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

receiving one or more content files associated with the first user, wherein the one or more new nodes correspond to one or more of the content files, respectively.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:

identifying a privacy setting corresponding to at least one of the commands of the voice message, the privacy setting indicating which second users of the online social network may access content files respectively corresponding to the new nodes; and

applying the privacy setting to one or more of the new nodes.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more second nodes comprises:

determining a score for each command of the voice message that the command corresponds to a second node; and

identifying one or more second nodes having a score greater than a threshold score, each of the identified second nodes corresponding to at least one of the commands, and each of the identified second nodes being one of the determined node-types.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein determining a score comprises determining a probability, for each command of the voice message, that the command corresponds to a second node, and wherein the probability is determined based on a probabilistic language model.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the voice message comprises one or more commands for creating one or more relationships in the social graph, wherein the relationships are represented by one or more edges of particular edge-types.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more second nodes is further based on a social relevance of the particular second nodes.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more second nodes is further based on the degree of separation between the first-user node and the identified second nodes.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein identifying one or more second nodes is further based on the search history associated with the first user.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the identified second nodes is within a threshold degree of separation from the first-user node.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the threshold degree of separation is one, two, three, or all.

18. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media embodying software that is operable when executed to:

access a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of the nodes representing a single degree of separation between them, the nodes comprising;

a first-user node corresponding to a first user associated with an online social network; and

a plurality of second nodes that each correspond to a concept or a second user associated with the online social network, each second node being of a particular node-type;

receive from the first user a voice message comprising one or more commands;

receive location information associated with the first user;

determine one or more edge-types and one or more node-types, each edge-type and node-type being determined based on at least one of the commands of the voice message;

identify one or more second nodes based on the location information associated with the first user and further based on at least one of the commands of the voice message, each of the identified second nodes being one of the determined node-types; and

generate one or more new edges in the social graph connecting the first-user node to one or more of the identified second nodes based on the location information and the voice message, each of the new edges being one of the determined edge-types.

19. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

a memory coupled to the processors comprising instructions executable by the processors, the processors operable when executing the instructions to;

access a social graph comprising a plurality of nodes and a plurality of edges connecting the nodes, each of the edges between two of the nodes representing a single degree of separation between them, the nodes comprising;

a first-user node corresponding to a first user associated with an online social network; and

a plurality of second nodes that each correspond to a concept or a second user associated with the online social network, each second node being of a particular node-type;

receive from the first user a voice message comprising one or more commands;

receive location information associated with the first user;

determine one or more edge-types and one or more node-types, each edge-type and node-type being determined based on at least one of the commands of the voice message;

identify one or more second nodes based on the location information associated with the first user and further based on at least one of the commands of the voice message, each of the identified second nodes being one of the determined node-types; and

generate one or more new edges in the social graph connecting the first-user node to one or more of the identified second nodes based on the location information and the voice message, each of the new edges being one of the determined edge-types.