Text conversion

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10360250-B2
Application number	US-201715480590-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 6, 2017
Priority date	Sep 19, 2008
Publication date	Jul 23, 2019
Grant date	Jul 23, 2019

Abstract

Methods and system for text conversion are described. In one embodiment, free-form text associated with an item may be received. The item may be identified based on the free-form text. The item may be compatible with a parent item. The parent item may be identified based on the free-form text. An item descriptor may be identified in the free-form text. The item descriptor may be a particular term of the free-form text. Compatibility-based text may be constructed for the item based on identification of the parent item and the item descriptor. The compatibility-based text may be capable of being used to identify a plurality of matching items. Additional methods and systems are disclosed.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
receiving, at a machine comprising a least one processor and a memory, free-form text associated with an item;
identifying the item based on the free-form text, the item being compatible with a parent item, wherein the item comprises a component part of the parent item;
constructing, using the at least one processor, compatibility-based text for the item based on the parent item and an item descriptor derived from the free-form text; and
processing the compatibility-based text to identify a plurality of matching items associated with the parent item; and
verifying, by a compatibility verification module, that each matching item of the plurality of matching items are compatible with the parent item, the verifying comprising:
identifying a type of functionality associated with the identified item: and
determining, based on compatibility data of each of the plurality of matching items, that each of the plurality of matching items is associated with the identified type of functionality.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
extracting a plurality of terms from the free-form text, wherein the identifying of the item and the identifying of the item descriptor is based on the extracting of the plurality of terms.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the identifying of the item comprises:
identifying an item name of the item, the item name being another term of the plurality of terms.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
identifying the plurality of matching items based on the compatibility-based text; and
providing a result based on the identifying of the plurality of matching items.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
determining availability of the plurality of matching items, wherein the providing of the result is based on the availability of the plurality of matching items.

6. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
selecting a plurality of item identifiers based on the compatibility-based text, wherein the identifying of the plurality of matching items is based on selection of the plurality of item identifiers.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the result includes the plurality of matching items or a particular matching item of the plurality of matching items.

8. The method of claim 4 , wherein the plurality of matching items comprise a plurality of compatible parts for the parent item.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
providing the compatibility-based text for the item to a compatibility search engine; and
receiving identification of the plurality of matching items from the compatibility search engine based on the providing of the compatibility-based text.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether compatibility data is available for the item based on the identifying of the item, wherein the constructing of the particular compatibility-based text is based on availability of the compatibility data for the item.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
providing a compatibility-based notification of availability of the compatibility-based text for the item based on availability of the compatibility-based information.

12. The method of claim 1 further comprising requesting approval from a user to construct compatibility-based text for the item in response to identifying the item, wherein the compatibility-based text is constructed in response to receiving approval from the user.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
identifying the parent item based on the free-form text; and
identifying the item descriptor in the free-form text, the item descriptor being a particular term of the free-form text.

14. A system comprising:
one or more processors; and
a memory storing instructions that, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, cause the system to perform operations comprising:
receiving free-form text associated with an item, the item comprising product goods;
identifying the item based on the free-form text, the item being compatible with a parent item, wherein the item comprises a part of the parent item;
constructing compatibility-based text for the item based on the parent item and an item descriptor derived from the free-form text;
processing the compatibility-based text to identify a plurality of matching items associated with the parent item; and
verifying that each matching item of the plurality of matching items are compatible with the parent item, the verifying comprising:
identifying a type of functionality associated with the identified item; and
determining, based on compatibility data of each of the plurality of matching items, that each of the plurality of matching items is associated with the identified type of functionality.

15. The system of claim 14 , wherein the operations further comprise:
requesting identification of the parent item based on the identifying of the item;
receiving the identification of the parent item in response to the requesting of the identification;
identifying the item descriptor in the free-form text, the item descriptor being a particular term of the free-form text;
extracting a plurality of terms from the free-form text, wherein the identifying of the item and the derivation of the item descriptor are based on the extracting of the plurality of terms; and
wherein verifying that each matching item of the plurality of matching items are compatible with the parent item comprises verifying that each matching item will fit and work with the parent item.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the parent item is a particular car and wherein each matching item of the plurality of matching items comprise car parts that can be used with the particular car, and wherein the item descriptor is a make, a model year, an engine type, or a part number.

17. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising non-transitory instructions, which when executed by one or more processors, results in the one or more processors performing the following operations:
receiving free-form text associated with an item;
identifying the item based on the free-form text, the item being compatible with a parent item;
constructing compatibility-based text for the item based on the parent item and an item descriptor derived from the free-form text;
processing the compatibility-based text to identify a plurality of matching items associated with the parent item; and
verifying, by a compatibility verification module, that each matching item of the plurality of matching items are compatible with the parent item, the verifying comprising:
identifying a type of functionality associated with the identified item; and
determining, based on compatibility data of each of the plurality of matching items, that each of the plurality of matching items is associated with the identified type of functionality.

18. The storage medium of claim 17 , further comprising operations for:
identifying the parent item based on the free-form text; and
identifying the item descriptor in the free-form text the item descriptor being a particular term of the free-form text.

19. The method of claim 1 further comprising removing a given item from the plurality of matching items in response to determining that the given item is incompatible with the parent item.

20. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
identifying a given item in an electronic shopping basket;
identifying a set of companion items associated with a

Assignees

• Ebay Inc

Inventors

• Shivaswamy Gurudatta Horantur
• Arora Aditya
• Johnson Brian M

Classifications

• G06F16/3344

  using natural language analysis · CPC title

• G06F16/243 Primary

  Natural language query formulation · CPC title

• G06F16/338 Primary

  Presentation of query results · CPC title

• G06F16/334

  Query execution (filtering based on additional data G06F16/335) · CPC title

• G06F16/35

  Clustering; Classification · CPC title