Translation of verbal directions into a list of maneuvers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11175154-B2
Application number	US-201816196612-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Nov 20, 2018
Priority date	Sep 6, 2016
Publication date	Nov 16, 2021
Grant date	Nov 16, 2021

Abstract

Natural language directions are received and a set of maneuver/context pairs are generated based upon the natural language directions. The set of maneuver/context pairs are provided to a routing engine to obtain route information based upon the set of maneuver/context pairs. The route information is provided to an output system for surfacing to a user.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method performed by a computing system, the method comprising:
receiving a natural language instruction indicative of a navigation maneuver to be performed along a route;
identifying a pre-defined navigation maneuver based on the natural language instruction;
identifying context information indicative of a location corresponding to performance of the pre-defined navigation maneuver;
generating a trigger that comprises the pre-defined navigation maneuver and the corresponding context information;
identifying a start point based on location information associated with a user;
generating route information that identifies a portion of the route from the start point to the trigger; and
rendering the route information to the user.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the location information identifies a current location of the user.

3. The method of claim 1 , and further comprising:
identifying a geographic limiter in the natural language instruction; and
generating the trigger to include the geographic limiter, along with the pre-defined navigation maneuver and the corresponding context information.

4. The method of claim 3 , and further comprising:
performing disambiguation of the context information and the geographic limiter to identify a geographic location corresponding to the context information and the geographic limiter.

5. The method of claim 1 , and further comprising:
receiving a plurality of natural language instructions, each indicative of a different navigation maneuver to be performed along the route;
matching each of the plurality of natural language instructions with a pre-defined navigation maneuver;
identifying context information corresponding to each of the pre-defined navigation maneuvers;
generating, as a set of ordered triggers, a set of pairs of the pre-defined navigation maneuvers and corresponding context information; and
generating route information that identifies a portion of the route between successive pairs of triggers in the set of ordered triggers.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein rendering comprises:
rendering the route information as a set of turn-by-turn navigation instructions.

7. The method of claim 6 , and further comprising:
receiving a natural language user input; and
generating the natural language instruction by identifying linguistic units in the natural language user input and performing natural language processing on the linguistic units to identify semantic meaning of the linguistic units.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein then natural language user input comprises a textual input.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein then natural language user input comprises a speech input.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein rendering comprises:
rendering a portion of the speech input in association with the turn-by-turn navigation instructions.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein rendering a portion of the speech input comprises:
obtaining a snippet from the speech input; and
audibly rendering the snippet to the user in association with a corresponding navigation instruction in the set of turn-by-turn navigation instructions.

12. A computing system, comprising:
a processor; and
memory storing instructions executable the processor, wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to provide:
a maneuver identification component configured to:
receive natural language instructions indicative of navigation maneuvers to be performed along a route; and
based on the natural language instructions, generate a set of triggers comprising:
a first trigger that identifies:
 a first navigation maneuver to be performed along the route, and
 a first location corresponding to performance of the first navigation maneuver; and
a second trigger that identifies:
 a first navigation maneuver to be performed along the route, and
 a second location corresponding to performance of the second navigation maneuver;

a routing engine configured to:
generate route information representing a portion of the route between the first and second triggers; and

an output system configured to:
render an indication of the route based on the route information.

13. The computing system of claim 12 , wherein the routing engine is configured to:
identify a start point based on location information associated with a user; and
generate first route information that represents a first portion of the route from the start point to the first trigger, wherein second route information represents a second portion the route between the first and second triggers,
wherein the output system is configured to render the first and second route information.

14. The computing system of claim 13 , wherein the location information identifies a current location of the user.

15. The computing system of claim 12 , wherein the instructions configure the computing system to provide:
limiter identifier logic configured to:
identify a geographic limiter in the natural language instruction; and
generate the first trigger to include the geographic limiter.

16. The computing system of claim 15 , wherein the instructions configure the computing system to provide:
a disambiguation system configured to:
perform disambiguation of the geographic limiter to identify a geographic location corresponding to the geographic limiter.

17. The computing system of claim 12 , wherein
the maneuver identification logic is configured to:
receive a plurality of natural language instructions; and
match each natural language instruction with a pre-defined navigation maneuver,

the instructions configure the computing system to provide:
context identifier logic configured to:
identify context information corresponding to each of the pre-defined navigation maneuvers; and

trigger output logic configured to:
output, as a set of ordered triggers, a set of pre-defined navigation maneuvers and corresponding context information provided by the maneuver identification logic and the context identifier logic.

18. A computing system, comprising:
a processor; and
memory storing instructions executable the processor, wherein the instructions, when executed, configure the computing system to:
receive a natural language instruction indicative of a navigation maneuver to be performed along a route and a geographic limiter associated with the navigation maneuver;
match the natural language instruction with a pre-defined navigation maneuver;
identify context information that corresponds to the pre-defined navigation maneuver and is indicative of a location at which the pre-defined navigation maneuver is to be performed;
generate a trigger that includes:
the pre-defined navigation maneuver,
the context information indicative of the location, and
the geographic limiter;

render an indication of the route based on the trigger.

19. The computing system of claim 18 , wherein the instructions configure the computing system to:
disambiguate the geographic limiter to identify a geographic location corresponding to the geographic limiter.

20. The computing system of claim 19 , wherein the rendered indication of the route identifies the geographic location that corresponds to the geographic limiter.

Assignees

• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Salowitz Elizabeth P
• Grochocki Jr David
• West Jeff

Classifications

• G01C21/3608 Primary

  using speech input, e.g. using speech recognition · CPC title

• G06F40/30

  Semantic analysis · CPC title