Personalization of queries, conversations, and searches

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9858343-B2
Application number	US-201113077303-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 31, 2011
Priority date	Mar 31, 2011
Publication date	Jan 2, 2018
Grant date	Jan 2, 2018

Abstract

Personalization of user interactions may be provided. Upon receiving a phrase from a user, a plurality of semantic concepts associated with the user may be loaded. If the phrase is determined to comprise at least one of the plurality of semantic concepts associated with the user, a first action may be performed according to the phrase. If the phrase is determined not to comprise at least one of the plurality of semantic concepts associated with the user, a second action may be performed according to the phrase.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-readable data storage device which stores a set of instructions which when executed performs a method for providing a personalized user interaction with a computing device, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:
receiving a phrase from a user, wherein the received phrase is associated with a conversation between the user and at least one second user;
translating the received phrase into an initial agent action by scanning the received phrase to a search domain associated with a search action;
loading, by a spoken dialog system, an ontology associated with the user, wherein the ontology comprises a plurality of semantic concepts associated with at least one of the following: a workplace associated with the user, a contacts database associated with the user, a calendar associated with the user, a previous action associated with the user, a previous communication associated with the user, a context associated with the user, and a profile associated with the user;
selecting at least one pre-defined shared ontology based on a context associated with the user, the at least one pre-defined shared ontology comprising a plurality of semantic concepts and a plurality of semantic connections between the semantic concepts that are usable to determine intents of phrases associated with the context;
merging the ontology associated with the user with the at least one pre-defined shared ontology to generate a merged ontology;
determining whether the phrase comprises at least one of the plurality of semantic concepts associated with the merged ontology;
in response to determining that the phrase comprises the at least one of the plurality of semantic concepts associated with the merged ontology:
modifying the initial agent action according to the merged ontology to generate a modified agent action, the modified agent action being different than the initial agent action,
performing the modified agent action,
displaying at least one result associated with the performed agent action to the user;
receiving a second phrase from the at least one second user;
loading a second ontology associated with the at least one second user;
merging the second ontology with the ontology associated with the user;
determining whether the second phrase comprises a response to the received phrase;
in response to determining that the second phrase comprises the response to the received phrase, determining whether the second phrase comprises at least one second semantic concept associated with the merged ontologies; and
in response to determining that the second phrase comprises the at least one second semantic concept associated with the merged ontologies:
updating the agent action,
performing the updated agent action, and
displaying at least one result associated with the performed updated agent action to the user and the at least one second user.

2. The computer-readable data storage device of claim 1 , wherein the agent action comprises a search query.

3. The computer-readable data storage device of claim 2 , wherein modifying the agent action comprises adding a search term to the search query.

4. The computer-readable data storage device of claim 2 , wherein modifying the action comprises replacing at least one term of the search query with a synonym of the at least one of the plurality of semantic concepts associated with the ontology.

5. The computer-readable data storage device of claim 1 , wherein the agent action comprises performing a task within an application.

6. The computer-readable data storage device of claim 5 , wherein the at least one of the plurality of semantic concepts associated with the ontology comprises a shortcut synonym associated with performing the task within the application.

7. The computer-readable data storage device of claim 1 , wherein the context associated with the user comprises at least one of the following: a location of the user, a time the phrase was received, and a date the phrase was received.

8. A computer-readable data storage device which stores a set of instructions which when executed performs a method for providing a personalized user interaction, the method executed by the set of instructions comprising:
receiving a phrase from a user, wherein the received phrase is associated with a conversation between the user and at least one second user;
translating the received phrase into an agent action;
loading an ontology associated with the user, wherein the ontology comprises a plurality of semantic concepts associated with at least one of the following: a workplace associated with the user, a contacts database associated with the user, a calendar associated with the user, a previous action associated with the user, a previous communication associated with the user, a context associated with the user, and a profile associated with the user;
determining whether the phrase comprises at least one of the plurality of semantic concepts associated with the ontology;
in response to determining that the phrase comprises the at least one of the plurality of semantic concepts associated with the ontology:
modifying the agent action according to the ontology,
performing the modified agent action, and
displaying at least one result associated with the performed agent action to the user;

receiving a second phrase from the at least one second user;
loading a second ontology associated with the at least one second user;
merging the second ontology with the ontology associated with the user;
determining whether the second phrase comprises a response to the received phrase;
in response to determining that the second phrase comprises the response to the received phrase, determining whether the second phrase comprises at least one second semantic concept associated with the merged ontologies; and
in response to determining that the second phrase comprises the at least one second semantic concept associated with the merged ontologies:
updating the agent action,
performing the updated agent action, and
displaying at least one result associated with the performed updated agent action to the user and the at least one second user.

9. The computer-readable data storage device of claim 8 , wherein the agent action comprises a search query.

10. The computer-readable data storage device of claim 9 , wherein modifying the agent action comprises adding a search term to the search query.

11. The computer-readable data storage device of claim 9 , wherein modifying the action comprises replacing at least one term of the search query with a synonym of the at least one of the plurality of semantic concepts associated with the ontology.

12. The computer-readable data storage device of claim 8 , wherein the agent action comprises performing a task within an application.

13. The computer-readable data storage device of claim 12 , wherein the at least one of the plurality of semantic concepts associated with the ontology comprises a shortcut synonym associated with performing the task within the application.

14. The computer-readable data storage device of claim 8 , wherein the context associated with the user comprises at least one of the following: a location of the user, a time the phrase was received, and a date the phrase was received.

15. A system for providing a personalized user interaction with a computing device, the system comprising:
a memory storage; and
a processing unit coupled to the memory storage, wherein the processing unit is operative to:
receive a phrase from a user, wherein the received phrase is associated with a conversation

Assignees

• Heck Larry Paul
• Chinthakunta Madhusudan
• Mitby David
• Stifelman Lisa
• Microsoft Technology Licensing Llc

Inventors

• Heck Larry Paul
• Chinthakunta Madhusudan
• Mitby David
• Stifelman Lisa

Classifications

• G06F16/36

  Creation of semantic tools, e.g. ontology or thesauri · CPC title

• G06F16/3344

  using natural language analysis · CPC title

• G06F40/30

  Semantic analysis · CPC title

• G06F16/367 Primary

  Ontology · CPC title

• G06F16/9535 Primary

  Search customisation based on user profiles and personalisation · CPC title