# US 2008/0187121 A1 · Method and an apparatus to disambiguate requests

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- Number: US 2008/0187121 A1
- Document ID: US20080187121A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 11/701,811
- Filed: 2007-02-02
- Published: 2008-08-07
- Earliest claimed: 2007-02-02
- Assignees: Nuance Communications, Inc.
- Inventors: Rajeev Agarwal; David Ardman; Muneeb Master; David Andrew Mauro; Vijay R. Raman; Amy E. Ulug; Zulfikar Valli
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20080187121A1

## CPC

- H04M 3/4931: {Directory assistance systems}
- G06F 16/33: Querying
- H04M 2201/10: Logic circuits
- H04M 2201/39: using speech synthesis
- H04M 2201/40: using speech recognition
- H04M: TELEPHONIC COMMUNICATION (circuits for controlling other apparatus via a telephone cable and not involving telephone switching apparatus G08)
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)

## Abstract

A method and an apparatus to disambiguate requests are presented. In one embodiment, the method includes receiving a request for information from a user. Then data is retrieved from a back-end database in response to the request. Based on a predetermined configuration of a disambiguation system and the data retrieved, the ambiguity within the request is dynamically resolved.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A computer-implemented method comprising:
receiving a request for information from a user;
retrieving data from a database within a system in response to the request; and
dynamically resolving ambiguity within the request based on a predetermined configuration of the system and the data retrieved.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration comprises a rule and resolving ambiguity within the request comprises:
generating a prompt based on the data retrieved and the rule at runtime; and
rendering the prompt to the user.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The method of claim 2, further comprising:
generating the prompt using a first predefined template.

### Claim 4 (depends on 2)

The method of claim 2, wherein resolving ambiguity within the request further comprises:
receiving a response to the prompt from the user;
generating a grammar using a second predefined template;
recognizing the response using the grammar;
selecting a portion of the data retrieved based on the response; and
generating a second prompt based on at least one of the portion of the data retrieved, the response, and a second rule within the configuration if the ambiguity remains.

### Claim 5 (depends on 2)

The method of claim 2, wherein the prompt is an open-ended question if the data retrieved includes a number of entries exceeding a predefined threshold.

### Claim 6 (depends on 2)

The method of claim 2, wherein the prompt is a close-ended question if the data retrieved includes a number of entries below a predefined threshold.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration comprises a policy and resolving ambiguity within the request comprises:
applying the policy to the retrieved data.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7, wherein the policy includes a data filter policy and applying the policy to the retrieved data comprises filtering the retrieved data using a criterion specified in the data filter policy.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1, further comprising:
rendering an error message if the ambiguity is not resolved under a predefined condition according to the configuration of the system.

### Claim 10

An apparatus comprising:
a user interface to allow an integrator of a directory assistance system to define a configuration of the directory assistance system; and
a disambiguation engine operatively coupled to the user interface to dynamically resolve ambiguity within a user request for information according to the configuration of the directory assistance system.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:
a configuration database operatively coupled to the disambiguation engine to store the configuration.

### Claim 12 (depends on 10)

The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:
a database operatively coupled to the disambiguation engine to store the information.

### Claim 13 (depends on 10)

The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the configuration includes a data filter policy and the disambiguation engine is operable to filter data retrieved in response to the user request based on the policy.

### Claim 14 (depends on 10)

The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the configuration includes a rule and the disambiguation engine is operable to generate a prompt based on the data retrieved and the rule.

### Claim 15 (depends on 14)

The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the disambiguation engine comprises:
a prompt template processor to generate the prompt using a first predefined template.

### Claim 16 (depends on 15)

The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising:
a voice browser to aurally present the prompt to a user.

### Claim 17 (depends on 16)

The apparatus of claim 16, further comprising:
a second user interface to receive a response from the user; and
a grammar template processor to generate a grammar using a second predefined template used by the disambiguation engine to recognize the response.

### Claim 18 (depends on 10)

The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the user interface comprises a first user interface control to allow the integrator to select a policy out of a plurality of predefined policies.

### Claim 19 (depends on 10)

The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the user interface comprises a second user interface control to allow the integrator to modify the configuration.

### Claim 20

A system comprising:
a database; and
a directory assistance system operatively coupled to the database, the directory assistance system comprising:
an input module to receive a request for information from a user;
a database access module to retrieve data from the database in response to the request; and
a configurable disambiguation engine to dynamically resolve ambiguity within the request based on a predetermined configuration of the directory assistance system and the data retrieved.

### Claim 21 (depends on 20)

The directory assistance system of claim 20, wherein the configuration comprises a policy and the disambiguation engine is operable to filter the data retrieved according to the policy.

### Claim 22 (depends on 20)

The directory assistance system of claim 20, wherein the configuration comprises a rule and the disambiguation engine is operable to generate a first prompt based on the data retrieved and the rule.

### Claim 23 (depends on 22)

The directory assistance system of claim 22, wherein the disambiguation engine is operable to select a portion of the data retrieved based on a response to the first prompt from the user.

### Claim 24 (depends on 22)

The directory assistance system of claim 22, wherein the disambiguation engine is operable to generate a second prompt based on at least one of the response to the first prompt, the portion of the data retrieved, and a second rule within the configuration if the ambiguity remains.

### Claim 25 (depends on 22)

The directory assistance system of claim 22, further comprising:
a voice browser to aurally present the first prompt to the user.

### Claim 26

A machine-accessible medium that stores instructions which, if executed by a processor, will cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
creating a first user interface to allow an integrator of a directory assistance system to define a configuration of the directory assistance system, wherein ambiguity within a request for information submitted to the directory assistance system is dynamically resolved based on the configuration and data retrieved in response to the request; and
storing the configuration in a configuration database.

### Claim 27 (depends on 26)

The machine-accessible medium of claim 26, wherein the operations further comprise:
creating a second user interface to allow the integrator to modify the configuration.

### Claim 28 (depends on 26)

The machine-accessible medium of claim 26, wherein the configuration comprises at least one of a policy and a rule.

### Claim 29 (depends on 26)

The machine-accessible medium of claim 26, wherein the first user interface comprises:
creating a user interface control to allow the integrator to select a policy out of a plurality of predefined policies.