IP Library Granted Patent US 8,620,669
Granted Patent B2
US 8,620,669 · App. 13/470,913 · Granted Dec 31, 2013

Automated sentence planning in a task classification system

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 8,620,669
App. No.
13/470,913
Granted
Dec 31, 2013
Kind
B2
Abstract

Disclosed is a task classification system that interacts with a user. The task classification system may include a recognizer that may recognize symbols in the user's input communication, and a natural language understanding unit that may determine whether the user's input communication can be understood. If the user's input communication can be understood, the natural language understanding unit may generate understanding data. The system may also include a communicative goal generator that may generate communicative goals based on the symbols recognized by the recognizer and understanding data from the natural language understanding unit. The generated communicative goals may be related to information needed to be obtained from the user. The system may further include a sentence planning unit that may automatically plan one or more sentences based on the communicative goals generated by the communicative goal generator with at least one of the sentences plans being output to the user.

Claims (34)

1. A method comprising:

generating, via a processor, a plurality of sentence plans based on a derived communicative goal and a dialog history, wherein each sentence plan of the plurality of sentence plans is a viable and potentially usable prompt in response to a speech input of a user; and

outputting a sentence plan as a best sentence plan for generating a realization for the derived communicative goal from among the plurality of sentence plans.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising generating the realization by applying a set of linguistic rules.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein outputting the sentence plan comprises using a text-to-speech converter.

4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising selecting the sentence plan from the plurality of sentence plans by:

ranking the plurality of sentence plans based on relationship to the derived communicative goal, to yield ranked sentence plans; and

selecting one of the ranked sentence plans as the sentence plan.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the derived communicative goal is derived from an utterance obtained during an interactive speech dialog.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the derived communicative goal is derived from non-verbal communications.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the derived communicative goal is determined from a plurality of communicative goals.

8. A system comprising:

a processor; and

a computer-readable storage device having instructions stored which, when executed on the processor, perform operations comprising:

generating a plurality of sentence plans based on a derived communicative goal and a dialog history, wherein each sentence plan of the plurality of sentence plans is a viable and potentially usable prompt in response to a speech input of a user; and

outputting a sentence plan as a best sentence plan for generating a realization for the derived communicative goal from among the plurality of sentence plans.

9. The system of claim 8 , the computer-readable storage device having additional instructions stored which result in the operations further comprising generating the realization by applying a set of linguistic rules.

10. The system of claim 8 , wherein outputting the sentence plan comprises using a text-to-speech converter.

11. The system of claim 8 , the computer-readable storage device having additional instructions stored which result in the operations further comprising selecting the sentence plan from the plurality of sentence plans by:

ranking the plurality of sentence plans based on relationship to the derived communicative goal, to yield ranked sentence plans; and

selecting one of the ranked sentence plans as the sentence plan.

12. The system of claim 8 , wherein the derived communicative goal is derived from an utterance obtained during an interactive speech dialog.

13. The system of claim 8 , wherein the derived communicative goal is derived from non-verbal communications.

14. The system of claim 8 , wherein the derived communicative goal is determined from a plurality of communicative goals.

15. A computer-readable storage device having instructions stored which, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

generating a plurality of sentence plans based on a derived communicative goal and a dialog history, wherein each sentence plan of the plurality of sentence plans is a viable and potentially usable prompt in response to a speech input of a user; and

outputting a sentence plan as a best sentence plan for generating a realization for the derived communicative goal from among the plurality of sentence plans.

16. The computer readable storage device of claim 15 , the computer-readable storage device having additional instructions stored which result in the operations further comprising generating the realization by applying a set of linguistic rules.

17. The computer readable storage device of claim 15 , wherein outputting the sentence plan comprises using a text-to-speech converter.

18. The computer readable storage device of claim 15 , the computer-readable storage device having additional instructions stored which result in the operations further comprising selecting the sentence plan from the plurality of sentence plans by:

ranking the plurality of sentence plans based on relationship to the derived communicative goal, to yield ranked sentence plans; and

selecting one of the ranked sentence plans as the sentence plan.

19. The computer readable storage device of claim 15 , wherein the derived communicative goal is derived from an utterance obtained during an interactive speech dialog.

20. The computer readable storage device of claim 15 , wherein the derived communicative goal is derived from non-verbal communications.

Assignments (7)
CORRECTIVE ASSIGNMENT TO CORRECT THE REMOVAL OF 7529667, 8095363, 11/169547, US0207236, US0207237, US0207235 AND 11/231452 PREVIOUSLY RECORDED ON REEL 034590 FRAME 0045. ASSIGNOR(S) HEREBY CONFIRMS THE ASSIGNMENT. Recorded Aug 24, 2018
From: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY II, L.P.
To: AT&T ALEX HOLDINGS, LLC
Reel/Frame 046733/0932 →
CORRECTIVE ASSIGNMENT TO CORRECT THE ASSIGNEE/ASSIGNOR NAMES INCORRECT ASSIGNMENT RECORDED PREVIOUSLY RECORDED AT REEL: 034590 FRAME: 0045. ASSIGNOR(S) HEREBY CONFIRMS THE ASSIGNMENT. Recorded Jun 22, 2017
From: AT&T PROPERTIES, LLC
To: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY II, L.P.
Reel/Frame 042950/0965 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jan 26, 2017
From: AT&T ALEX HOLDINGS, LLC
To: NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS, INC.
Reel/Frame 041495/0903 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Dec 10, 2014
From: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY II, L.P.
To: AT&T ALEX HOLDINGS, LLC
Reel/Frame 034590/0045 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Dec 8, 2014
From: AT&T CORP.
To: AT&T PROPERTIES, LLC
Reel/Frame 034429/0378 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Dec 8, 2014
From: AT&T PROPERTIES, LLC
To: AT&T INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY II, L.P.
Reel/Frame 034429/0407 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded May 14, 2012
From: WALKER, MARILYN A.; RAMBOW, OWEN CHRISTOPHER; ROGATI, MONICA
To: AT&T CORP.
Reel/Frame 028204/0139 →