System and method for delivering targeted advertisements and/or providing natural language processing based on advertisements

• US 9,269,097 B2
• Filed: 11/10/2014
• Issued: 02/23/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 02/06/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: VB Assets, LLC
• Original Assignee: VoiceBox Technologies Corporation (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Kennewick, Mike, Freeman, Tom
• Primary Examiner(s): ALBERTALLI, BRIAN LOUIS
• Application Number:
  US14/537,598
• Publication Number:
  US 20150066627A1
• Time in Patent Office: 470 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/263 Language identification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0242 Determining effectiveness of advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0251 Targeted advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/18 using natural language modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence

Abstract

The system and method described herein may use various natural language models to deliver targeted advertisements and/or provide natural language processing based on advertisements. In one implementation, an advertisement associated with a product or service may be provided for presentation to a user. A natural language utterance of the user may be received. The natural language utterance may be interpreted based on the advertisement and, responsive to the existence of a pronoun in the natural language utterance, a determination of whether the pronoun refers to one or more of the product or service or a provider of the product or service may be effectuated.

Claims

1. A method for providing natural language processing based on advertisements, the method being implemented on a computer system having one or more physical processors executing computer program instructions which, when executed, perform the method, the method comprising:

providing, by the computer system, an advertisement associated with a product or service for presentation to a user;

receiving, at the computer system, a natural language utterance of the user; and

interpreting, by the computer system, the natural language utterance based on the advertisement and, responsive to the existence of a pronoun in the natural language utterance, determining whether the pronoun refers to one or more of the product or service or a provider of the product or service.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating, by the computer system, a request related to the product or service responsive to determining that the pronoun refers to the product or service.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating, by the computer system, a request related to the provider of the product or service responsive to determining that the pronoun refers to the provider.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the natural language utterance includes a specified action and the pronoun, the method further comprising:

generating, by the computer system, a request to take the specified action with respect to the product or service responsive to determining that the pronoun refers to the product or service.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the natural language utterance includes a specified action and the pronoun, the method further comprising:

generating, by the computer system, a request to take the specified action with respect to the provider of the product or service responsive to determining that the pronoun refers to the provider.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the advertisement includes one or more of a call to action, a purchase opportunity, or a trial opportunity.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the computer system, another natural language utterance of the user prior to the advertisement being provided for presentation to the user; and

performing, by the computer system, speech recognition to recognize one or more words of the other natural language utterance,

wherein providing the advertisement includes providing the advertisement based on the one or more recognized words.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the computer system, another natural language utterance of the user prior to the advertisement being provided for presentation to the user;

interpreting, by the computer system, the other natural language utterance; and

reinterpreting and/or confirming the interpretation of the other natural language utterance based on an interaction of the user with the advertisement.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the computer system, another natural language utterance prior to the advertisement being provided for presentation to the user; and

determining, by the computer system, one or more requests associated with the other natural language utterance, and

wherein providing the advertisement includes providing the advertisement based on the one or more requests.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more requests include a first request to be processed by a first device associated with the user and a second request to be processed by a second device associated with the user, and

wherein providing the advertisement includes providing the advertisement based on one or more of the first request or the second request.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein a first device type of the first device includes one or more of a mobile phone, a navigation device, or a medial player device, and wherein the second device is of a second device type different than the first device type.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the one or more requests include a first request associated with a first application and a second request associated with a second application different than the first application, and

wherein providing the advertisement includes providing the advertisement based on one or more of the first request or the second request.

14. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

obtaining, by the computer system, user profile information associated with the user, wherein the user profile information specifies prior user interactions with items;

determining by the computer system, one or more applications for processing the one or more requests, and

determining, by the computer system, categories of items based on the prior user interactions specified by the user profile information, wherein the categories relate to the one or more applications, and

wherein providing the advertisement includes providing the advertisement based on one of more of the categories.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining, by the computer system, user profile information associated with the user, wherein the user profile information specifies prior user interactions with items; and

identifying, by the computer system, categories of items based on the prior user interactions specified by the user profile information, and

wherein providing the advertisement includes providing the advertisement based on one or more of the categories.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, at the computer system, a first natural language utterance during an interactive session between the user and the computer system;

interpreting, by the computer system, the first natural language utterance;

receiving, at the computer system, a second natural language utterance during the interactive session; and

reinterpreting, by the computer system, the first natural language utterance based on the second natural language utterance,

wherein providing the advertisement includes providing the advertisement based on one or more of the interpretation or the reinterpretation of the first natural language utterance.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein providing the advertisement comprises providing the advertisement based on the reinterpretation of the first natural language utterance.

18. The method of claim 16, further comprising:

performing, by the computer system, speech recognition to recognize one or more words of the first natural language user utterance,

wherein interpreting the first natural language utterance includes processing, based on the first natural language utterance, the one or more recognized words to determine the interpretation of the first natural language utterance, and

wherein reinterpreting the first natural language utterance comprises processing, based on the second natural language utterance, the one or more recognized words to determine the reinterpretation of the first natural language utterance.

19. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

facilitating, by the computer system, delivery of the product or service responsive to determining that the pronoun refers to one or more of the product or service or the provider of the product or service.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein facilitating delivery of the product or service includes performing a purchase transaction for the product or service.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the product or service comprises a particular product, and wherein facilitating delivery of the product or service includes providing the particular product to a user device of the user.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the product or service includes one or more of an application, a ringtone, a song, a video, a coupon, or a product related to a scheduled event.

13. The method of 12, wherein a first application type of the first application includes one or more of a navigation application, a music application, a commerce application, or a calling application, and wherein the second application is of an application type different than the first application type.

23. A system providing natural language processing based on advertisements, the system comprising:

one or more physical processors programmed with computer program instructions which, when executed, cause the one or more physical processors to;

provide an advertisement associated with a product or service for presentation to a user;

receive a natural language utterance of the user; and

interpret the natural language utterance based on the advertisement and, responsive to the existence of a pronoun in the natural language utterance, determine whether the pronoun refers to one or more of the product or service or a provider of the product or service.