Natural language understanding (NLU) is the ability of a computer program to understand human speech and to extract the meaning of spoken or typed input. Typically, NLU systems are configured using statistical data models. High quality models require machine learning expertise, natural language processing expertise, and a substantial amount of application-specific, labeled data. As a result, large collections of data and models for previous applications may not be easily accessible or configured to use for configuring new models.
It is with respect to these and other general considerations that the aspects disclosed herein have been made. Also, although relatively specific problems may be discussed, it should be understood that the examples should not be limited to solving the specific problems identified in the background or elsewhere in this disclosure.
This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detail Description section. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.
Examples of the present disclosure describe systems and methods of configuring generic language understanding models. In aspects, one or more previously configured schemas for various applications may be identified and collected. A generic schema may be generated using the collected schemas. The collected schemas may be programmatically mapped to the generic schema. The generic schema may be used to train one or more models. An interface may be provided to allow browsing the models. The interface may include a configuration mechanism that provides for selecting one or more of the models. The selected models may be bundled programmatically, such that the information and instructions needed to implement the models are configured programmatically. The bundled models may then be provided to a requestor.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Additional aspects, features, and/or advantages of examples will be set forth in part in the description which follows and, in part, will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the disclosure.
Non-limiting and non-exhaustive examples are described with reference to the following figures.
Various aspects of the disclosure are described more fully below with reference to the accompanying drawings, which form a part hereof, and which show specific exemplary aspects. However, different aspects of the disclosure may be implemented in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the aspects set forth herein; rather, these aspects are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the aspects to those skilled in the art. Aspects may be practiced as methods, systems or devices. Accordingly, aspects may take the form of a hardware implementation, an entirely software implementation or an implementation combining software and hardware aspects. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense.
The present disclosure describe systems and methods of configuring generic language understanding (LU) models. In aspects, a server device may identify and collect one or more previously configured schemas that were used to build one or models for various applications and/or scenarios. One skilled in the art will recognize that any type of processing device may be utilized with examples of the present disclosure. A schema, as used herein, may refer to a framework for specifying a label type, label, domain, intent, slot or the like for one or more portions of the data. A domain, as used herein, may refer to a container and/or a boundary that isolates or defines an application, software functionality, or a set of data. An intent, as used herein, may refer to the goal or intention of user's utterance or other entered input. A slot, as used herein, may refer to the actionable content within the user's utterance or other entered input. One skilled in the art will recognize that input may be in a form such as voice/utterance, text, handwritten input, and touch, among other examples.
In aspects, the server device may use the collected schemas to generate an abstracted or generic schema. A generic schema, as used herein, may refer to a schema that includes broad or generic data (e.g., label types, labels, domains, intents, slots, etc.) for the label data of one or more other schemas. The collected schemas may then be mapped to the generic labels of the generic schema. In examples, the mapping may be performed manually or programmatically using one or more mapping algorithms or tools. In some aspects, the mapped generic schema may be used to train and/or retrain one or more models. A model, as used herein, may refer to a statistical language model that may be used to determine a probability distribution over one or more word and/or character sequences and/or to predict a response value from one or more predictors. In examples, a model may be a rule-based model, a machine-learned regressor, a machine-learned classifier, or the like. Training a model, as used herein, may refer to using, for example, a set of data (e.g., training set data, test data, validation set data, etc.) to teach a model to find and/or describe predictive relationships. For example, the mapped generic schema may be used to train a model including all or substantially all of the data and/or elements of the one or more schemas used to generate the generic schema. An element, as used herein, may refer to a domain, an intent and/or a slot. In another example, the mapped generic schema may be used to train a plurality of models, where each of the models comprises a single targeted element or a subset of elements from the mapped generic schema.
In aspects, the server device may provide or have access to an interface. The interface may be used to provide access to one or more of the trained models, schemas and/or the schema data. For example, the interface may provide for browsing, manipulating, and/or selecting one or more of the trained models. In examples, the selected models may be manually or programmatically bundled. Bundled, as used herein, may refer to combing one or more selected models and instructions and/or other information used to implement the models on one or more computing devices. In some aspects, the bundled data may be provided or otherwise exposed to, for example, a user, service, and/or third party.
Accordingly, the present disclosure provides a plurality of technical benefits including but not limited to: configuring generic language models and systems; providing an interface for model browsing, manipulation and selection, bundling of specific models (thereby reducing the size of the modeling footprint); improving domain detection, intent detection, and slot tagging; increasing query processing speed; reducing the amount of training data needed to train language understanding models; reducing the time and resource cost required to annotate a domain; reducing the bandwidth and power consumption of the devices within the system and improving efficiency and quality for applications/services utilizing examples of the present disclosure, among other examples.
As one example, the system 100 comprises client device 102A, client device 102B, client device 102C, distributed network 104, and a distributed server environment comprising one or more servers, such as server device 106A, server device 106B and server device 106C. One of skill in the art will appreciate that the scale of systems such as system 100 may vary and may include more or fewer components than those described in
The client device 102A, for example, may be configured to receive user input via a user interface component or other input means. Examples of input may include voice, visual, touch and text input. Client device 102A may be further configured to transmit the input to a server device, such as server device 106A, via distributed network 104. In some examples, client device 102A may receive response data from a server device via the user interface component or a similar interface.
Server device 106A, for example, may be configured to receive and process a data request received from a client device or received directly by the server device. In aspects, processing the data request may include parsing the data request to identify, for example, identifying information for language understanding models and/or schema data corresponding to one or more applications and/or scenarios. Server device 106A may use the identifying information to identify and/or collect schemas and schema data from one or more services, applications and/or data stores. For example, server device 106A may collect schema data from a service on server device 106B, a database on server 106C, and applications on client devices 102B and 102C. In some aspects, the collected schema data may be used to perform schema mapping. For example, the collected schema data may be used to generate a generic schema comprising broad and/or generic slot categories. The collected schema data may then be mapped to the generated generic schema using one or more mapping techniques.
Server device 106A may be further configured to train one or more language understanding models. In aspects, server device 106A may train one or more language understanding models (or cause the models to be trained) using a mapped generic schema as input. For example, server device 106A may train one large model comprising all (or substantially all) of the elements of the generic schema. Alternately, server device 106A may train a plurality of smaller models which respectively comprise a subset of elements of the generic schema. In some aspects, server device 106A may store the trained model(s) in one or more locations accessible to server device 106A.
Server device 106A may be further configured to provide an interface to access the trained models. In aspects, server device 106A may provide a user interface and/or tool to navigate and/or manipulate the trained models. For example, server device 106A may provide an interface tool that allows a user or service to browse and selectively choose models from, for example, a categorized list of models. The selected models may be bundled programmatically into a configuration file or the like. In some aspects, the configuration file may additionally comprise information and instructions that provide for automatically installing and/or implementing the bundled models on a computing device. For example, a user may download a configuration file from server device 106A and the configuration file may automatically install the models, schemas and/or an associated interface on one or more designated computing devices.
Exemplary input processing unit 200 may comprise user interface (UI) component 202, collection engine 204, generalizing engine 206, model training engine 208, each having one or more additional components. The UI component 202 may be configured to receive input from a client device via an interface or directly from a user. In aspects, UI component 202 may parse the received input to identify information associated with language understanding models and/or schema data corresponding to one or more applications and/or scenarios. The identified information may include domain data, intent data and/or slot (or entity) data. In a particular example, UI component 202 may additionally identify client device information and/or user information from a requestor. The client device and/or user information may then be associated with the identified model and/or schema data.
Collection engine 204 may be configured to collect models and/or schema data. In aspects, collection engine 204 may access the identified model and/or schema data to form one or more queries or data requests. In examples, the queries may comprise one or more portions of the identified model and/or schema data, and may be transmitted to one or more data sources. In a particular example, collection engine 204 may periodically poll data sources to compile and store a list of available resources at each data source. Collection engine 204 may analyze the list to determine the number and content of queries to transmit to one or more of the data sources. In such an example, the queries may be structured as to minimize the duplication of received model and schema data. In another example, collection engine 204 may identify the data sources to transmit queries when the identified model and/or schema data is accessed (e.g., on demand). In aspects, collection engine 204 may transmit the queries to (or otherwise access data on) the identified data sources. The models, schemas and/or schema data received from the data sources may be stored in a data store accessible to collection engine 204.
Generalizing engine 206 may be configured to generate one or more generic schemas. In aspects, generalizing engine 206 may access and process the stored models, schemas and/or schema data. In examples, processing the model, schema and/or schema data may include, for example, aggregating the data into a single list or table, sorting the data, identifying and removing duplicate entries, and/or grouping the data by one or more schema elements. In some aspects, the processed data may be used to generate one or more generic schemas. For example, the processed data may be converted into low-dimensional vector representations using an algorithm, such as a canonical correlation analysis (CCA) algorithm. CCA, as used herein, is a method of determining relationships between a plurality of multivariate sets of variables (vectors). The vector representations may be clustered into coarse or generic schema elements or element categories using calculations or algorithms, such as the k-means clustering algorithm. k-means clustering, as used herein, may refer to an operation of vector quantization that is used in cluster analysis to partition n observations into k clusters in which each observation belongs to the cluster with the nearest mean. Generalizing engine 206 may then map the generic schema to the stored models, schemas and/or schema data used to generate the generic schema. Generalizing engine 206 may be further configured to provide the mapped generic schema to one or more language understanding model generation components, such as model training engine 208.
Model training engine 208 may be configured to generate and/or train one or more language understanding models. In aspects, model training engine 208 may access and use a mapped generic schema and/or information associated with the mapped generic schema to train one or more language understanding models. In some aspects, a mapped generic schema may be used to train a language understanding model on all (or substantially all) of the elements of the generic schema and related information. For example, the model may include domain classification information (e.g., domain model results, domain confidence data, etc.), intent classification information, slot-tagged output (e.g., features assigned to slots of a query or statement), slot-tag resolution information, etc. for one or more of the collected models and/or schema data. In other aspects, one or more portions of the mapped generic schema may be used to train a plurality of smaller models. For example, a generic schema comprising the domains alarm, calendar and communication may be used to train three separate models (e.g., a domain model, a calendar model and a communication model). The three models may include all, substantially all, or only a subset elements of the generic schema and related information for the respective domains.
Exemplary input processing unit 200 may further include a model navigation utility. In aspects, the model navigation utility may be a separate component of input processing unit 200 or may be part of the functionality of one or more of components 202, 204, 206 and 208. For example, the model navigation utility may be located in or accessible by UI component 202. In some aspects, the model navigation utility may be configured to provide a user with an interface to navigate one or more models, such as models trained by model training engine 208. The interface may be used to select one or more models from a list of models. In examples, the model navigation utility may bundle the selected models into a configuration file, an executable file or the like. The bundled models may additionally comprise information and instructions that provide for installing and/or implementing the bundled models on a computing device. In a particular example, the bundling process may occur programmatically upon confirmation of the selected models. In some aspects, the bundled model data may be made accessible to one or more users and/or computing devices.
Exemplary method 300 begins at operation 302 where input may be received by a server device. In aspects, the input may be received from a remote computing device or directly from a user. For example, the input may be received from a client device via an API or the input may be received directly via a user interface provided by the server device, such as user interface 202. In examples, the input may be parsed to identify information associated with language understanding models, schema data and/or other information corresponding to one or more applications and/or scenarios. The identified information may include model data, schema data, domain data, intent data, slot (or entity) data, client data and/or user data. For example, the server device may receive input including the query “Find intents for scheduling a ride.” The server device may parse this query to identify a request for vehicular transportation models and/or schema data. The parsed data may be configured into a data request
At operation 304, schema data may be collected by the server device. In aspects, one or more components of the server device, such as collection engine 204 may use the parsed query data to generate one or more data requests and collect schema data. For example, the above query (e.g., “Find intents for scheduling a ride.”) may be used to generate data requests for models and/or schema data in and/or related the transportation domain. In a particular example, the data requests may include model and/or schema requests for scheduling a ride (e.g., taxi, private car, bus, train, flight, etc.), planning a route, identifying a location, identifying a weather report, purchasing a ticket, scheduling a reminder, etc. In some aspects, the data requests may be used to query or identify one or more data sources comprising one or more portions of the model and/or schema data. For example, the data requests may be transmitted to one or more data sources known to the server device. In another example, the data requests may be broadcasted to a plurality of data sources accessible by the server device. In yet another example, the server device may store or have access to mapping information that indicates a relationship between a data source and data known to be accessible to the data source. The server device may use the data requests to identify in the mapping information one or more data sources. The server device may then transmit specific data requests to only those data sources known (or identified) to have access to the requested data. In such aspects, the server device may receive/collect from the data sources the requested data (e.g., a model for scheduling a taxi, a schema for purchasing a ticket, intent data for booking a taxi, domain data for a ‘places’ domain, etc.), an indication that such data is available to the server device, and/or information associated with the requested models/schemas (e.g., previous results for queries of the requested models, data related to the generation of those previous results, domain confidence scores, etc.).
At operation 306, a generic schema may be generated. In aspects, the server device may access and process the data collected from the data sources using, for example, generalizing engine 206. Processing the collected data may include inserting/retrieving the collected data to/from a data store (e.g., a data file, table, memory, etc.), sorting and/or grouping the collected data by one or more category elements, and/or converting the collected data into low-dimensional representations. In at least one example, the low-dimensional representations are generated using an algorithm, such as a CCA algorithm. In some aspects, the low-dimensional representations may be clustered into coarse or generic schema elements or element categories using calculations or algorithms, such as the k-means clustering algorithm. For example, the schema data from a first data source may include the elements “sports player,” “coach” and “team rating,” and the schema data from a second data source may include the elements “artist,” “producer,” “song rating” and “album rating.” The data from the first and second sources may be converted into vector representations and clustered such that the elements “sports player,” “coach,” “artist” and “producer” are clustered into a more generic “people” category, and the elements “team rating,” “song rating” and “album rating” are clustered into a more generic “ratings” category. The “people” and “ratings” categories may then be used to generate a generic schema comprising the schema elements “people” and “ratings.” In some aspects, the generic schema may be mapped to the collected data used to generate the generic schema. For example, “sports player,” “coach,” “artist” and “producer” may be mapped to the “people” category of the generic schema. Such a mapping may simplify and expedite the process of clustering additional schema data into the generic schema or generating additional generic schemas.
At operation 308, one or more language understanding (LU) models may be trained. In aspects, the server device may use the generated generic schema and/or information associated with the generic schema data to train an LU model using, for example, model training engine 208. For instance, the LU model(s) may receive as input a generic schema comprising the coarse schema elements “people” and “ratings;” corresponding mappings to the fine schema elements “sports player,” “coach,” “artist,” “producer,” “team rating,” “song rating” and “album rating;” and/or previous results and data generated for queries processed by the first and second data sources. In some aspects, the generic schema may be used to train an LU model on all (or substantially all) of the elements of the generic schema and related information. For example, an LU model may be trained using the coarse schema elements “people” and “ratings” and the associated fine schema elements and data. In other aspects, one or more portions of the generic schema may be used to train a plurality of smaller (e.g., comprising fewer elements) models. For example, a first LU model may be trained using the coarse schema element “people” and the associated fine schema elements and data, and a second LU model may be trained using the coarse schema element “people” and the associated fine schema elements and data. In another example, a first LU model may be trained using the intent “book taxi,” a second LU model may be trained using the intent “book bus,” a third LU model may be trained using the intent “book train,” etc.
At operation 310, an interface for browsing the LU model(s) may be provided. In aspects, the server device may provide (or cause to be provided) an interface for navigating one or more trained LU models. For example, the interface may provide a list of three models that are accessible via the server device. The three models may include a first model trained using the coarse schema elements “people” and “ratings,” a second model trained using the coarse schema element “people,” and a third model trained using the coarse schema element “ratings.” In one particular aspect, highlighting or selecting for viewing the second model may provide a view of the domain(s), user intent(s), and/or slot(s) associated with the second model. For example, the interface may provide the domains “contacts” and “movies” from the second model. The “contacts” domain may comprise the intents “call” and “send message.” The “send message” intent may comprise the slots “contact_name,” “message_type,” and “message_content.” In some aspects, the interface may additionally provide for testing an input against the one or more models. For example, for a selected model and an input utterance, the interface may provide the domains and intents implicated, the slots tagged and/or the slots resolved.
At operation 312, the LU model(s) may be bundled. In aspects, the interface provided by the server device may additionally or alternately provide for selecting one or more LU models for bundling. The selected LU models may be manually or programmatically bundled into a configuration file, an executable file or the like. The bundled models may additionally comprise information and instructions that provide for automatically installing and/or implementing the bundled models on a computing device. For example, a model trained using the coarse schema elements “people” and “ratings” may be selected for bundling via the interface. The corresponding mappings to the fine schema elements, previously generated results and data associated with the model, and/or other installation/implementation instructions may also be added to the bundle. In some aspects, the bundled data may be provided (or otherwise made accessible) to a user or computing device. For example, the interface may additionally provide for executing and installing the bundled data on one or more remote servers. In such an example, the server device may install the same models on each remote server, but may configure one or more of the models to be used differently or to be used with different applications.
As stated above, a number of program modules and data files may be stored in the system memory 504. While executing on the processing unit 502, the program modules 506 (e.g., unified messaging application 520) may perform processes including, but not limited to, the aspects, as described herein. Other program modules that may be used in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure, and in particular for providing a unified messaging platform, may include context component 511, extract component 513, transform component 515, or present component 517, etc.
Furthermore, embodiments of the disclosure may be practiced in an electrical circuit comprising discrete electronic elements, packaged or integrated electronic chips containing logic gates, a circuit utilizing a microprocessor, or on a single chip containing electronic elements or microprocessors. For example, embodiments of the disclosure may be practiced via a system-on-a-chip (SOC) where each or many of the components illustrated in
The computing device 500 may also have one or more input device(s) 512 such as a keyboard, a mouse, a pen, a sound or voice input device, a touch or swipe input device, etc. The output device(s) 514 such as a display, speakers, a printer, etc. may also be included. The aforementioned devices are examples and others may be used. The computing device 500 may include one or more communication connections 516 allowing communications with other computing devices 550. Examples of suitable communication connections 516 include, but are not limited to, radio frequency (RF) transmitter, receiver, and/or transceiver circuitry; universal serial bus (USB), parallel, and/or serial ports.
The term computer readable media as used herein may include computer storage media. Computer storage media may include volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information, such as computer readable instructions, data structures, or program modules. The system memory 504, the removable storage device 509, and the non-removable storage device 510 are all computer storage media examples (e.g., memory storage). Computer storage media may include RAM, ROM, electrically erasable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other article of manufacture which can be used to store information and which can be accessed by the computing device 500. Any such computer storage media may be part of the computing device 500. Computer storage media does not include a carrier wave or other propagated or modulated data signal.
Communication media may be embodied by computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules, or other data in a modulated data signal, such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism, and includes any information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” may describe a signal that has one or more characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media may include wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, radio frequency (RF), infrared, and other wireless media.
One or more application programs 666 may be loaded into the memory 662 and run on or in association with the operating system 664. Examples of the application programs include phone dialer programs, e-mail programs, personal information management (PIM) programs, word processing programs, spreadsheet programs, Internet browser programs, messaging programs, and so forth. The system 602 also includes a non-volatile storage area 668 within the memory 662. The non-volatile storage area 668 may be used to store persistent information that should not be lost if the system 602 is powered down. The application programs 666 may use and store information in the non-volatile storage area 668, such as e-mail or other messages used by an e-mail application, and the like. A synchronization application (not shown) also resides on the system 602 and is programmed to interact with a corresponding synchronization application resident on a host computer to keep the information stored in the non-volatile storage area 668 synchronized with corresponding information stored at the host computer. As should be appreciated, other applications may be loaded into the memory 662 and run on the mobile computing device 600, including the instructions for providing a unified messaging platform as described herein (e.g., search engine, extractor module, relevancy ranking module, answer scoring module, etc.).
The system 602 has a power supply 670, which may be implemented as one or more batteries. The power supply 670 might further include an external power source, such as an AC adapter or a powered docking cradle that supplements or recharges the batteries.
The system 602 may also include a radio interface layer 672 that performs the function of transmitting and receiving radio frequency communications. The radio interface layer 672 facilitates wireless connectivity between the system 602 and the “outside world,” via a communications carrier or service provider. Transmissions to and from the radio interface layer 672 are conducted under control of the operating system 664. In other words, communications received by the radio interface layer 672 may be disseminated to the application programs 666 via the operating system 664, and vice versa.
The visual indicator 620 may be used to provide visual notifications, and/or an audio interface 674 may be used for producing audible notifications via the audio transducer 625. In the illustrated embodiment, the visual indicator 620 is a light emitting diode (LED) and the audio transducer 625 is a speaker. These devices may be directly coupled to the power supply 670 so that when activated, they remain on for a duration dictated by the notification mechanism even though the processor 660 and other components might shut down for conserving battery power. The LED may be programmed to remain on indefinitely until the user takes action to indicate the powered-on status of the device. The audio interface 674 is used to provide audible signals to and receive audible signals from the user. For example, in addition to being coupled to the audio transducer 625, the audio interface 674 may also be coupled to a microphone to receive audible input, such as to facilitate a telephone conversation. In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, the microphone may also serve as an audio sensor to facilitate control of notifications, as will be described below. The system 602 may further include a video interface 676 that enables an operation of an on-board camera 630 to record still images, video stream, and the like.
A mobile computing device 600 implementing the system 602 may have additional features or functionality. For example, the mobile computing device 600 may also include additional data storage devices (removable and/or non-removable) such as, magnetic disks, optical disks, or tape. Such additional storage is illustrated in
Data/information generated or captured by the mobile computing device 600 and stored via the system 602 may be stored locally on the mobile computing device 600, as described above, or the data may be stored on any number of storage media that may be accessed by the device via the radio interface layer 672 or via a wired connection between the mobile computing device 600 and a separate computing device associated with the mobile computing device 600, for example, a server computer in a distributed computing network, such as the Internet. As should be appreciated such data/information may be accessed via the mobile computing device 600 via the radio interface layer 672 or via a distributed computing network. Similarly, such data/information may be readily transferred between computing devices for storage and use according to well-known data/information transfer and storage means, including electronic mail and collaborative data/information sharing systems.
Aspects of the present disclosure, for example, are described above with reference to block diagrams and/or operational illustrations of methods, systems, and computer program products according to aspects of the disclosure. The functions/acts noted in the blocks may occur out of the order as shown in any flowchart. For example, two blocks shown in succession may in fact be executed substantially concurrently or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality/acts involved.
The description and illustration of one or more aspects provided in this application are not intended to limit or restrict the scope of the disclosure as claimed in any way. The aspects, examples, and details provided in this application are considered sufficient to convey possession and enable others to make and use the best mode of claimed disclosure. The claimed disclosure should not be construed as being limited to any aspect, example, or detail provided in this application. Regardless of whether shown and described in combination or separately, the various features (both structural and methodological) are intended to be selectively included or omitted to produce an embodiment with a particular set of features. Having been provided with the description and illustration of the present application, one skilled in the art may envision variations, modifications, and alternate aspects falling within the spirit of the broader aspects of the general inventive concept embodied in this application that do not depart from the broader scope of the claimed disclosure.
This application is a continuation application from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/004,324, filed Jan. 22, 2016. The entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 15004324 | Jan 2016 | US |
Child | 17549966 | US |