Menu-based natural language understanding system
AssigneeTexas Instruments Incorporated
InventorsHarry R. Tennant, Kenneth M. Ross, Richard M. Saenz
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A natural language interface for a computer system restricts inputs from a user to those which generate valid input sentences. The user selects a next input word from a menu showing which words are valid. When an input is selected, a parser uses a predefined grammar to determine which words are valid continuations after the selected word, and whether a complete sentence has been entered. Valid next words are presented to the user in menu form so that a next selection can be made. If an ambiguous complete sentence is entered, the interface allows the user to select the desired meaning therefor. The grammer can be context free grammar, and can use an associated lexicon to define elements therein.
Claims54
An interface system for providing formally constrained outputs to a computing system in accordance with natural language inputs in a predefined natural language subset, which has a predefined correspondence to said formally constrained outputs, received from an unskilled user, comprising:
- output means, for indicating to said user a set of permissible items;
- designating means, for designating, under control of said user, a particular item from among those indicated by said output means;
- parsing means coupled to said output means and to said designating means, for cumulatively parsing natural language inputs in a form of sequences of items successively designated by said user through said designating means, and for repeatedly generating and indicating on said output means all permissible items which could immediately follow the currently received sequence of items in accordance with said predefined natural language subset;
- and
- means coupled to said parsing means for translating the completed input into an executable machine command, in accordance with said predefined correspondence.
An interface system, for interactively, extracting natural language inputs from an unskilled user, said system comprising:
- output means, for indicating to said user a set of permissible items;
- designating means, for designating, under control of said user, a particular item from among those indicated by said output means;
- parsing means coupled to said output means and to said designating means, for cumulatively parsing natural language inputs in a form of sequences of items successively designated by said user through said designating means, and for repeatedly generating and indicating on said output means all permissible items which could immediately follow a currently received sequence of items in accordance with a predefined natural language subset;
- and
- means coupled to said parsing means for translating the completed input into an executable machine command.
A method for providing executable machine commands to a computer system in accordance with natural language inputs in a predefined natural language subset which has a predefined correspondence to a set of executable machine commands, received from an unskilled user, comprising the steps of:
- presenting to the user the set of permissible next inputs, which can provide a next word in a permissible natural-language input;
- repeatedly, as soon as the user designates one of the permissible next inputs presented, cumulatively parsing all words in a current sequence which have been entered by said user, and displaying to said user the set of all possible next words which could form a continuation of a legal input, in accordance with said predefined natural language subset, whereby said unskilled user's choices are constrained to include selection of only legal successive sentence elements, until said user has entered a completed sentence;
- and then translating said completed sentence into executable machine commands, in accordance with said correspondence therebetween.
A user interface for a computer system, comprising:
- an input device operable by a user;
- a display readable by the user;
- a processor coupled to said input device and to said display for accepting input from said input device and providing output to said display, wherein the user is constrained to enter only sentence elements which, when combined with any previous entries, generate valid substrings of a preselected language.
An interface for a computer system, comprising:
- an input operable by a user;
- a display readable by the user;
- a grammar defining a language of allowable input strings;
- a processor coupled to said input, display, and grammar, wherein said processor determines, based on any current partial input strings, all valid next entries according to said grammar, and allows the user to enter in said input only entries which are valid next entries.
A method for accepting input entered into a computer system by a user, comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a language defining valid input sentences;
- (b) constraining inputs which can be entered by the user to those which are valid next entries according to the language;
- (c) accepting an input from the user;
- (d) repeating steps (b) through (c) until a final valid sentence has been entered.
A method for accepting input entered into a computer system by a user, comprising the steps of:
- (a) providing a grammar which defines a language;
- (b) predicting a set of valid next inputs, based on any current partial sentences, according to the language;
- (c) displaying the set of valid next inputs to the user;
- (d) accepting a selection of a valid next input from the user and adding it to a current partial sentence;
- (e) repeating steps (a) through (c) until a sentence within the language is generated.
An interface system for providing constrained outputs to a computing system in accordance with inputs received from a user in a language, the inputs having a predefined correspondence to the outputs, comprising:
- an output for indicating to the user a set of permissible items;
- designating means for allowing the user to designate a particular item from among those indicated by said output;
- a recognizer, coupled to said output and to said designating means, for cumulatively parsing inputs as sequences of items successively entered, and for repeatedly generating all permissible items which could immediately follow a currently received sequence of items in accordance with the language.
A method for providing commands to a computer system in accordance with an input language having a predetermined correspondence to the comands, comprising the steps of:
- (a) presenting to a user a set of permissible next inputs according to the input language;
- (b) repeatedly, as soon as the user selects one of the permissible inputs, incrementally parsing such selected input based on any previously entered words in a current sequence, and presenting to the user a set of all possible next words which could form a continuation of a legal input according to the input language, whereby choices of the user are constrained to include selection of only legal successive sentence elements, until the user has entered a complete sentence.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.