Inferring User Intentions Based on User Conversation Data and Spatio-Temporal Data

A method, comprising steps of:

• temporarily buffering one or more portions of a voice conversation of a user communicating on a mobile computing device of the user;
• performing automatic speech recognition on the buffered portions of the voice conversation to detect an entity named during the voice conversation of the user;
• obtaining spatio-temporal information corresponding to the voice conversation of the user, the spatio-temporal information comprising information regarding (i) one or more locations of the user and (ii) timing of the user's presence at the one or more locations, wherein obtaining the spatio-temporal information comprises:
• determining spatio-temporal contextual information from at least one of (i) one or more keywords and (ii) one or more phrases in the voice conversation of the user which are detected as a result of the automatic speech recognition on the buffered portions of the voice conversation;
• and
• obtaining spatio-temporal information from one or more location services executing on the mobile computing device based on the determined spatio-temporal contextual information;
• and
• utilizing the spatio-temporal information to disambiguate the named entity detected in the conversation of the user;
• wherein the steps are performed by executing program code on the mobile computing device.

An article of manufacture comprising a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the program instructions executable by a processor of a mobile computing device to cause the mobile computing device to perform a method comprising:

• temporarily buffering one or more portions of a voice conversation of a user communicating on a mobile computing device of the user;
• performing automatic speech recognition on the buffered portions of the voice conversation to detect an entity named during the voice conversation of the user;
• obtaining spatio-temporal information corresponding to the voice conversation of the user, the spatio-temporal information comprising information regarding (i) one or more locations of the user and (ii) timing of the user's presence at the one or more locations, wherein obtaining the spatio-temporal information comprises:
• determining spatio-temporal contextual information from at least one of (i) one or more keywords and (ii) one or more phrases in the voice conversation of the user which are detected as a result of the automatic speech recognition on the buffered portions of the voice conversation;
• and
• obtaining spatio-temporal information from one or more location services executing on the mobile computing device based on the determined spatio-temporal contextual information;
• and
• utilizing the spatio-temporal information to disambiguate the named entity detected in the conversation of the user.

A mobile computing device, comprising:

• a memory configured to store program instructions;
• and
• a processor configured to execute the program instructions stored in the memory to implement a method which comprises:
• temporarily buffering one or more portions of a voice conversation of a user communicating on a mobile computing device of the user;
• performing automatic speech recognition on the buffered portions of the voice conversation to detect an entity named during the voice conversation of the user;
• obtaining spatio-temporal information corresponding to the voice conversation of the user, the spatio-temporal information comprising information regarding (i) one or more locations of the user and (ii) timing of the user's presence at the one or more locations, wherein obtaining the spatio-temporal information comprises:
• determining spatio-temporal contextual information from at least one of (i) one or more keywords and (ii) one or more phrases in the voice conversation of the user which are detected as a result of the automatic speech recognition on the buffered portions of the voice conversation;
• and
• obtaining spatio-temporal information from one or more location services executing on the mobile computing device based on the determined spatio-temporal contextual information;
• and
• utilizing the spatio-temporal information to disambiguate the named entity detected in the conversation of the user.