Creating a calendar event using context

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11030403-B2
Application number	US-201615152380-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 11, 2016
Priority date	Apr 1, 2014
Publication date	Jun 8, 2021
Grant date	Jun 8, 2021

Abstract

Methods and systems are provided for creating a calendar event using context. A natural language expression including at least one of words, terms, and phrases of text may be received at a calendar event creation module from an application. The calendar event creation module may identify one or more slots in the text of the natural language expression related to the calendar event using a first grammar module and a second grammar module. The one or more slots identified by the first grammar module and the second grammar module that indicate a calendar event may be compared to determine whether there is a match between the one or more identified slots. If a match is found, at least one calendar event using the one or more slots identified by the first grammar module and the second grammar module may be created.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method, executed by at least one processor, for creating a calendar event, comprising:
receiving a natural language expression;
executing a first grammar module, comprising a first set of executable instructions, to identify a phrase in the natural language expression corresponding to a slot having a slot type;
tagging the identified phrase with the slot type;
executing a second grammar module, comprising a second set of executable instructions, to analyze context of the natural language expression surrounding the identified phrase;
based on the analyzed context by the second grammar module, confirming the slot type for the identified phrase; and
upon confirming the slot type for the identified phrase, creating a calendar event based on the identified phrase and the slot type.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the slot type is at least one of a date, time, subject, duration, and location type slot.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first grammar module and the second grammar module are context-independent grammar modules, wherein the first grammar module is an intent grammar module, and wherein the second grammar module is a slot grammar module.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the slot in the phrase in the natural language expression comprises executing a parsing algorithm.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first grammar module and the second grammar module have defined rules associated with one or more types of slots.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the defined rules associated with the one or more types of slots include rules for context surrounding ambiguous words, terms, and phrases in the a natural language expression.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the defined rules associated with the one or more types of slots include rules for context surrounding identified slots indicating a calendar event that negates the slots indicating a calendar event.

8. A computer-implemented method, executed by at least one processor, for creating a calendar event, comprising:
receiving a natural language expression;
executing a grammar module, comprising a set of executable instructions, to identify a first slot in the natural language expression;
generating inferred information about the first slot based on context surrounding the first slot in the natural language expression;
executing the grammar module to identify a second slot in the natural language expression, wherein the first slot and the second slot have the same slot type;
linking the first slot and the second slot; and
creating a first calendar event including the linked first slot and the generated inferred information and creating a second calendar event including the second slot and the inferred information.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the first slot type and the second slot type are at least one of a date, time, subject, duration, and location type slot.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the grammar module is one of an intent grammar module and a slot grammar module.

11. The method of claim 8 , wherein the grammar module has a set of defined rules associated with one or more types of slots.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein the set of defined rules associated with the one or more types of slots include rules for context surrounding ambiguous words, terms, and phrases in the a natural language expression.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the defined rules associated with the one or more types of slots include rules for context surrounding identified slots indicating a calendar event that negates the slots indicating a calendar event.

14. The method of claim 8 , wherein identifying the first slot and the second slot in the natural language expression comprises executing a parsing algorithm.

15. A system for creating a calendar event, the system comprising:
at least one processor; and
memory storing instructions that when executed by the at least one processor perform a set of operations comprising:
receiving a natural language expression;
executing a first grammar module, comprising a first set of executable instructions, to identify a phrase in the natural language expression corresponding to a slot having a slot type;
tagging the identified phrase with the slot type;
executing a second grammar module, comprising a second set of executable instructions, to analyze context of the natural language expression surrounding the identified phrase;
based on the analyzed context by the second grammar module, confirming the slot type for the identified phrase; and
upon confirming the slot type for the identified phrase, creating a calendar event based on the identified phrase and the slot type.

16. The system of claim 15 , wherein the slot type is at least one of a date, time, subject, duration, and location type slot.

17. The system of claim 15 , wherein the first grammar module and the second grammar module are context-independent grammar modules, wherein the first grammar module is an intent grammar module, and wherein the second grammar module is a slot grammar module.

18. The system of claim 15 , wherein the first grammar module and the second grammar module have defined rules associated with one or more types of slots.

19. The system of claim 18 , wherein the defined rules associated with the one or more types of slots include rules for context surrounding ambiguous words, terms, and phrases in the a natural language expression.

20. The system of claim 18 , wherein the defined rules associated with the one or more types of slots include rules for context surrounding identified slots indicating a calendar event that negates the slots indicating a calendar event.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Hazen Timothy J
• Bishop Diamond
• Duta Nicolae
• Babaeizadeh Mohammad
• Longo Peter

Classifications

• G06F40/40

  Processing or translation of natural language (natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30) · CPC title

• G06F40/174

  Form filling; Merging · CPC title

• G06Q10/1093 Primary

  Calendar-based scheduling for persons or groups · CPC title

• G06F40/279 Primary

  Recognition of textual entities · CPC title

• G06F40/205

  Parsing · CPC title