Computer speech recognition and semantic understanding from activity patterns

Abstract

A user activity pattern may be ascertained using signal data from a set of computing devices. The activity pattern may be used to infer user intent with regards to a user interaction with a computing device or to predict a likely future action by the user. In one implementation, a set of computing devices is monitored to detect user activities using sensors associated with the computing devices. Activity features associated with the detected user activities are determined and used to identify an activity pattern based on a plurality of user activities having similar features. Examples of user activity patterns may include patterns based on time, location, content, or other context. The inferred user intent or predicted future actions may be used to facilitate understanding user speech or determining a semantic understanding of the user.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A computerized system comprising:
 one or more processors; and   computer storage memory having computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the processor, implement a method of disambiguating an indication of a user interaction, the method comprising:   a) receiving a set of words forming an indication of a user interaction;   b) logging user activity in a pipeline;   c) disambiguating the meaning of a subset of the set of words forming the indication of the user interaction based on a sequence of events in the pipeline; and   d) performing a computerized action based on the disambiguated meaning.   
     
     
         2 . The computerized system of  claim 1 , wherein the indication of the user interaction is formed from sensor data containing a user utterance. 
     
     
         3 . The computerized system of  claim 1 , wherein the sequence of events comprises events with similar time period. 
     
     
         4 . The computerized system of  claim 3 , wherein the sequence of events comprises events with similar location. 
     
     
         5 . The computerized system of  claim 3 , wherein the sequence of events comprises events that involve similar content. 
     
     
         6 . The computerized system of  claim 1 , wherein the subset of words are determined to be consistent with a determined activity event. 
     
     
         7 . The computerized system of  claim 6 , wherein the determined activity event comprises one or more of browsing to a website, launching an application, initiating a communication, performing a search query, setting a reminder, or scheduling an event on a calendar. 
     
     
         8 . The computerized system of  claim 1 , wherein the user is provided an indication of the determined subset of words. 
     
     
         9 . A computer-implemented method of disambiguating an indication of a user interaction, the method comprising:
 a) receiving a set of words forming an indication of a user interaction;   b) logging user activity in a data store;   c) determining a user intent for a subset of the words forming the user indication based on a sequence of events in the data store; and   d) performing a computerized action based on the the user intent.   
     
     
         10 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the indication of the user interaction is formed from sensor data containing a user utterance. 
     
     
         11 . The computerized of  claim 9 , wherein the sequence of events comprises events with similar time period. 
     
     
         12 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the sequence of events comprises events with similar location. 
     
     
         13 . The method of  claim 11 , wherein the sequence of events comprises events that involve similar content. 
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 9 , wherein the subset of words are determined to be consistent with a determined activity event. 
     
     
         15 . A computerized system comprising:
 one or more sensors configured to provide sensor data, each sensor associated with a user device in a set of user devices associated with a user, at least one of the one or more sensors comprising an acoustic sensor configured to convert speech into acoustic information;   one or more processors; and   computer storage memory having computer-executable instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the processor, implement a method of disambiguating an indication of a user interaction, the method comprising:   a) receiving a set of words forming an indication of a user interaction, from sensor data corresponding to a user utterance;   b) logging user activity in a data store;   c) disambiguating the meaning of a subset of the set of words forming the indication of the user interaction based on a plurality of events in the data store; and   d) performing a computerized action based on the disambiguated meaning.   
     
     
         16 . The computerized system of  claim 15 , wherein the plurality of events comprises events with similar time period. 
     
     
         17 . The computerized system of  claim 16 , wherein the plurality of events comprises events with similar location. 
     
     
         18 . The computerized system of  claim 16 , wherein the plurality of events comprises events that involve similar content. 
     
     
         19 . The computerized system of  claim 15 , wherein the subset of words are determined to be consistent with a determined activity event. 
     
     
         20 . The computerized system of  claim 15 , wherein the user is provided an indication of the determined subset of words.