Systems and methods for phonetic-based natural language understanding

1. A method comprising:

accessing metadata of a media item available to be played at a first time, the metadata comprising a text term;

generating a first phonetic representation of the text term pronounced as a word;

generating a second phonetic representation of the text term by concatenating a phonetic representation of each letter in the text term;

accessing a database that comprises a plurality of phonetic representations ofa plurality of recently received queries;

querying the data base to determine a first use frequency of the first phonetic representation and a second use frequency of the second phonetic representation;

selecting one of the first phonetic representation and the second phonetic representation based on a comparison of the first use frequency and the second use frequency; and

modifying a phonetic search index by including in the phonetic search index an entry for the selected one of the first phonetic representation and the second phonetic representation;

receiving a voice query related to the media item; and

generating for output a reply to the voice query, wherein the reply is generated by performing a lookup in the modified phonetic search index, and wherein generating for output the reply to the voice query further comprises:

determining a phonetic representation of a term of the voice query;

identifying a plurality of sets of one or more phenomes of the phonetic representation of the term of the voice query;

determining, based on the phonetic representation of the term of the voice query, a phonetic representation of a term that is a variant of the term of the voice query by:

expanding a set of the one or more phonemes of the plurality of identified sets to identify one or more candidate variants; and

performing a lookup in the phonetic search index to verify a candidate variant of the one or more identified candidate variants as the phonetic representation of a term that is a variant of the term of the voice query; and

causing the reply to comprise an indication of a media item matching the verified candidate variant.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the text term of the metadata comprises a title of the media item.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the text term of the metadata comprises a description of the media item.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first phonetic representation, the second phonetic representation, and the plurality of phonetic representations of the plurality of queries of the database comprise a plurality of phonemes.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein generating for output the reply to the voice query comprises:

generating a phonetic representation of the voice query;

determining the phonetic representation of the voice query matches the first phonetic representation and the second phonetic representation; and

generating for output the reply based on the selected one of the first phonetic representation and the second phonetic representation of the modified phonetic search index.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the variant is a phonetic or lexical variant of the term of the voice query.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

generating a hash value for the term of the voice query; and

determining the variant of the term of the voice query by comparing the hash value to a hash value of the variant of the term of the voice query.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining, based on the phonetic representation of the term of the voice query, the phonetic representation of a term that is the variant of the term of the voice query is performed by traversing a knowledge graph.

9. A system comprising:

a database;

control circuitry configured to:

access metadata of a media item available to be played at a first time, the metadata comprising a text term;

generate a first phonetic representation of the text term pronounced as a word;

generate a second phonetic representation of the text term by concatenating a phonetic representation of each letter in the text term;

access the database that comprises a plurality of phonetic representations of a plurality of queries received within a predefined period of time before the first time;

query the database to determine a first use frequency of the first phonetic representation and a second use frequency of the second phonetic representation;

select one of the first phonetic representation and the second phonetic representation based on a comparison of the first use frequency and the second use frequency;

modify a phonetic search index by including in the phonetic search index an entry for the selected one of the first phonetic representation and the second phonetic representation;

receive a voice query related to the media item; and

generate for output a reply to the voice query, wherein the reply is generated by performing a lookup in the modified phonetic search index, and wherein the control circuitry is further configured to generate for output the reply to the voice query by:

determining a phonetic representation of a term of the voice query;

identifying a plurality of sets of one or more phenomes of the phonetic representation of the term of the voice query;

determining, based on the phonetic representation of the term of the voice query, a phonetic representation of a term that is a variant of the term of the voice query by:

expanding a set of the one or more phonemes of the plurality of identified sets to identify one or more candidate variants; and

performing a lookup in the phonetic search index to verify a candidate variant of the one or more identified candidate variants as the phonetic representation of a term that is a variant of the term of the voice query; and

causing the reply to comprise an indication of a media item matching the verified candidate variant.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the text term of the metadata comprises a title of the media item.

11. The system of claim 9 , wherein the text term of the metadata comprises a description of the media item.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein the first phonetic representation, the second phonetic representation, and the plurality of phonetic representations of the plurality of queries of the database comprise a plurality of phonemes.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the control circuitry is configured to generate for output the reply to the voice query by:

generating a phonetic representation of the voice query;

determining the phonetic representation of the voice query matches the first phonetic representation and the second phonetic representation; and

generating for output the reply based on the selected one of the first phonetic representation and the second phonetic representation of the modified phonetic search index.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein the variant is a phonetic or lexical variant of the term of the voice query.

15. The system of claim 9 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

generate a hash value for the term of the voice query; and

determine the variant of the term of the voice query by comparing the hash value to a hash value of the variant of the term of the voice query.

16. The system of claim 9 , wherein the control circuitry is further configured to:

determine, based on the phonetic representation of the term of the voice query, the phonetic representation of a term that is the variant of the term of the voice query by traversing a knowledge graph.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the voice query related to the media item is received from a user associated with a profile;

identifying the media item that will be available to be played at the first time is further based on determining, based on the profile, that the user is likely to be interested in the media item; and

each of the accessing of the metadata, the generating of the first phonetic representation and the second phonetic representation, the accessing of the database, the querying of the database, the selecting, and the modifying is performed in response to determining that the first time is within a predetermined period of time from a current time and further in response to determining, based on the profile, that the user is likely to be interested in the media item.

18. The system method of claim 9 , wherein:

the voice query related to the media item is received from a user associated with a profile;

identifying the media item that will be available to be played at the first time is further based on determining, based on the profile, that the user is likely to be interested in the media item; and

the control circuitry is configured to perform each of the accessing of the metadata, the generating of the first phonetic representation and the second phonetic representation, the accessing of the database, the querying of the database, the selecting, and the modifying in response to determining that the first time is within a predetermined period of time from a current time and further in response to determining, based on the profile, that the user is likely to be interested in the media item.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reply to the voice query further comprises an indication of a media item matching the selected one of the first phonetic representation and the second phonetic representation.

20. The system of claim 9 , wherein the reply to the voice query further comprises an indication of a media item matching the selected one of the first phonetic representation and the second phonetic representation.