Configurable and portable system for generating narratives

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10657201-B1
Application number	US-201213464675-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	May 4, 2012
Priority date	Jan 7, 2011
Publication date	May 19, 2020
Grant date	May 19, 2020

Abstract

The subject invention functions to use available data and information to automatically create narrative stories that describes domain events, circumstances and/or entities in a comprehensible and compelling and audience customized, manner. Computer executable instructions provide for generating a narrative story using standard and uniform structures and data for receiving domain related data and a story specification, parsing the story specification to provide constituent components, transforming the constituent components into executable code, instantiating content blocks having at least one feature for the domain according to the story specification and rendering the narrative story using the constituent components specified by the content blocks.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer program product for automatically generating a narrative story about a data set, the data set comprising structured data in a plurality of fields and/or categories that describe one or more events, situations, entities, and/or combinations thereof, the computer program product comprising:
a story specification that is resident on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, the story specification configured to organize a narrative structure for the narrative story, the story specification comprising (1) specifications of a plurality of data models, and (2) specifications of a plurality of modular angles, each modular angle corresponding to an interpretation of data, the modular angles comprising a plurality of specified applicability condition parameters for testing to determine whether a corresponding interpretation validly characterizes the one or more events, situations, entities, and/or combinations thereof described by the data set, wherein the applicability condition parameters permit the modular angles to be re-used with respect to a plurality of different story types or content verticals, and wherein the specifications of the data models and the modular angles are not expressed as program code directly executable by a processor and are not expressed in a general purpose programming language; and
a plurality of processor-executable instructions for processing the story specification to (1) generate executable code that defines an analytical framework for performing an analysis on the structured data to determine an interpretation of the data set that validly characterizes the one or more events, situations, entities, and/or combinations thereof described by the data set, and (2) generate executable code that defines a narrative generation framework for producing a narrative story about the data set that expresses the determined interpretation, wherein the instructions are resident on a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium; and
wherein the instructions are configured, upon execution by a processor, to cause the processor to:
receive the data set and the story specification as inputs;
generate the executable code for the analytical framework based on the processed story specification, the analytical framework executable code including (1) code that prepares the data set for the analytical framework and the narrative generation framework based on the specified data models, wherein the prepared data set includes data derived from the structured data, and (2) testing code that implements the testing defined by the modular angles such that the specified applicability condition parameters are tied to data within the prepared data set;
execute the analytical framework executable code to (1) generate the prepared data set, and (2) determine, based on execution of the testing code with respect to the prepared data set, an interpretation corresponding to a modular angle for expression in the narrative story, wherein the determined interpretation is deemed by the testing to validly characterize the one or more events, situations, entities, and/or combinations thereof described by the data set;

generate the executable code for the narrative generation framework based on the processed story specification; and
execute the narrative generation framework executable code with respect to the prepared data set and the determined interpretation to automatically generate the narrative story about the data set in natural language text and in accordance with the organized narrative structure such that the narrative story expresses the determined interpretation.

2. The computer program product of claim 1 , wherein the story specification comprises a content block, the content block configured to define how a section of the narrative story is to be generated, the content block comprising:
one or more specified foci for the section; and
wherein the specified data models comprise specifications a plurality of data models for a plurality of entities, activities, situations, and/or circumstances that the section will be about, the specified data models including a plurality of structured data objects that define (1) raw data for the section and (2) a derived feature for the section.

3. The computer program product of claim 1 , further comprising:
a library comprising a plurality of the story specifications, each of at least a plurality of the story specifications being associated with a different story type for a content vertical; and
wherein the instructions are further configured to receive input to select a story specification from the library to define a story type for the narrative story to be automatically generated.

4. The computer program product of claim 1 , further comprising:
a library comprising a plurality of the story specifications, each of at least a plurality of the story specifications being associated with a different content vertical; and
wherein the instructions are further configured to receive input to select a story specification from the library to define a story type for the narrative story to be automatically generated.

5. The computer program product of claim 4 , wherein the instructions are further configured to provide a user-interactive tool for authoring and/or editing of the story specifications in response to input from a user without the necessity of the user authoring, editing or reviewing computer executable code in a general purpose programming language.

6. The computer program product of claim 3 , wherein the instructions are further configured to provide a user-interactive tool for composing the story specifications in response to input from a user without the necessity of the user authoring or reviewing computer executable code in a general purpose programming language.

7. The computer program product of claim 2 , wherein the story specification comprises a plurality of the content blocks.

8. An apparatus for generating a narrative story about a data set, the data set comprising structured data in a plurality of fields and/or categories that describe one or more events, situations, entities, and/or combinations thereof, the apparatus comprising:
a processor configured as a domain-independent general-purpose narrative generation platform, the platform configured to:
receive the data set;
receive a story specification, the story specification configured to organize a narrative structure for a narrative story, the story specification comprising (1) specifications of a plurality of data models, and (2) specifications of a plurality of modular angles, each modular angle corresponding to an interpretation of data, the modular angles comprising a plurality of specified applicability condition parameters for testing to determine whether a corresponding interpretation validly characterizes the one or more events, situations, entities, and/or combinations thereof described by the data set, wherein the applicability condition parameters permit the modular angles to be re-used with respect to a plurality of different story types or content verticals, and wherein the specifications of the data models and the modular angles are not expressed as program code directly executable by a processor and are not expressed in a general purpose programming language; and
execute a plurality of processor-executable instructions for processing the story specification to (1) generate executable code that defines an analytical framework for performing an analysis on the structured data to determine an interpretation of the data set that validly characterizes the one or more events, situations, entities, and/or combinations thereof described by the data set, and (2) generate executable code that defines a narrative

Assignees

• Nichols Nathan Drew
• Birnbaum Lawrence A
• Hammond Kristian J
• Narrative Science Inc

Inventors

• Nichols Nathan Drew
• Birnbaum Lawrence A
• Hammond Kristian J

Classifications

• G06F40/20 Primary

  Natural language analysis (semantic analysis of natural language G06F40/30) · CPC title

• G06F40/00

  Handling natural language data (speech analysis or synthesis, speech recognition G10L) · CPC title

• G06F17/20

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F17/27 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06F40/205

  Parsing · CPC title