US 8,412,514 B1Granted

Method and apparatus for compiling and querying a QA database

AssigneeAT&T Intellectual Property II, L.P.

InventorsJunlan Feng, Mazin Gilbert, Dilek Hakkani-Tür, Gokhan Tur

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Abstract

Disclosed is a method and apparatus for responding to an inquiry from a client via a network. The method and apparatus receive the inquiry from a client via a network. Based on the inquiry, question-answer pairs retrieved from the network are analyzed to determine a response to the inquiry. The QA pairs are not predefined. As a result, the QA pairs have to be analyzed in order to determine whether they are responsive to a particular inquiry. Questions of the QA pairs may be repetitive and similar to one another even for very different subjects, and without additional contextual and meta-level information, are not useful in determining whether their corresponding answer responds to an inquiry.

Claims31

Dependent claims

A method for responding to an inquiry comprising:

retrieving a first web page and a second web page, the first web page associated with a first layout and the second web page associated with a second layout;
comparing the first layout and the second layout;
generating stored question-answer pairs based on the comparing the first layout and the second layout;
receiving the inquiry via a network;
based on the inquiry, analyzing the stored question-answer pairs;
determining meta-level features of the stored question-answer pairs to define relationships among question-answer pairs, the meta-level features of a particular stored question-answer pair based at least in part on the meta-level features of a previous related stored question-answer pair and a first related question-answer pair;
clarifying the inquiry based on follow-up procedures including asking follow-up questions;
determining a plurality of responses to the inquiry based on the analysis of the meta-level features, the relationships among the stored question-answer pairs, and the follow-up procedures;
providing the plurality of responses;
receiving a selection of a particular response from among the plurality of responses;
and
storing a measure of the eligibility of the particular response to be a response to the inquiry based on the selection.

9 more elements

A system for responding to an inquiry comprising:

a web miner configured to retrieve a first web page and a second web page, the first web page associated with a first layout and the second web page associated with a second layout and to compare the first layout and the second layout and to generate stored question-answer pairs based on the comparing the first layout and the second layout;
an interface configured to
receive the inquiry via a network;
provide a plurality of responses
receive a selection of a particular response from among the plurality of responses;
a database comprising stored question-answer pairs;
a feature extractor module for extracting features of the stored question-answer pairs from the database and labeling each question-answer pair with meta-level features to define relationships among stored question-answer pairs, the meta-level features of a particular stored question-answer pair based on the meta-level features of a previous related stored question-answer pair and a first related stored question-answer pair;
and
a processor configured to:
clarify the inquiry based on follow-up procedures including asking follow-up questions and analyzing the inquiry to determine the plurality of responses to the inquiry based on the stored question answer pairs, the relationships among the stored question answer pairs, and the follow-up procedures;
and
store a measure of the eligibility of the particular response to be a response to the inquiry based on the selection.

9 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.