Patents by Inventor Christopher Brian Quirk

Christopher Brian Quirk has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20230325603
    Abstract: A controllable grounded response generation framework includes a machine learning model, a grounding interface, and a control interface. The machine learning model is trained to output computer-generated text based on input text. The grounding interface is useable by the machine learning model to access a grounding source including information related to the input text. The control interface is useable by the machine learning model to recognize a control signal. The machine learning model is configured to include information from the grounding source in the computer-generated text and focus the computer-generated text based on the control signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 13, 2023
    Publication date: October 12, 2023
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Michel GALLEY, Christopher Brian QUIRK, William Brennan DOLAN, Zeqiu WU
  • Patent number: 11741306
    Abstract: A controllable grounded response generation framework includes a machine learning model, a grounding interface, and a control interface. The machine learning model is trained to output computer-generated text based on input text. The grounding interface is useable by the machine learning model to access a grounding source including information related to the input text. The control interface is useable by the machine learning model to recognize a control signal. The machine learning model is configured to include information from the grounding source in the computer-generated text and focus the computer-generated text based on the control signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 12, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Michel Galley, Christopher Brian Quirk, William Brennan Dolan, Zeqiu Wu
  • Patent number: 11720610
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for providing entity relation extraction across sentences in a document using distant supervision are disclosed. A computing device can receive an input, such as a document comprising a plurality of sentences. The computing device can identify syntactic and/or semantic links between words in a sentence and/or between words in different sentences, and extract relationships between entities throughout the document. A knowledge base (e.g., a table, chart, database etc.) of entity relations based on the extracted relationships can be populated. An output of the populated knowledge base can be used by a classifier to identify additional relationships between entities in various documents. Machine learning can be applied to train the classifier to predict relations between entities. The classifier can be trained using known entity relations, syntactic links and/or semantic links.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2021
    Date of Patent: August 8, 2023
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Christopher Brian Quirk, Hoifung Poon
  • Patent number: 11429779
    Abstract: A method and system for providing replacement text segments for a given text segment may include receiving a request to provide the replacement text segment for the text segment in the document, examining a content characteristic of the document, and examining at least one of user-specific information, organization-specific information, or non-linguistic features of the document, before identifying at least one replacement text segment for the text segment, via a machine translation system, based on the content characteristic of the document and at least one of the user-specific information, the organization-specific information, or the non-linguistic features of the document. The method and system may include providing the identified replacement text segment for display to a user, receiving an input indicating a user's selection of the identified replacement text segment, and upon receiving the input, replacing the text segment in the document with the identified replacement text segment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 30, 2022
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Zhang Li, Domenic Joseph Cipollone, Maria Isabel Carpenter, Juhi Amitkumar Naik, Susan Michele Hendrich, Michael Wilson Daniels, William Brennan Dolan, Christopher Brian Quirk, Christopher John Brockett, Alice Yingming Lai
  • Publication number: 20220092093
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for providing entity relation extraction across sentences in a document using distant supervision. In some examples, a computing device can receive an input, such as a document comprising a plurality of sentences. The computing device can identify syntactic and/or semantic links between words in a sentence and/or between words in different sentences, and extract relationships between entities throughout the document. Techniques and technologies described herein populate a knowledge base (e.g., a table, chart, database etc.) of entity relations based on the extracted relationships. An output of the populated knowledge base can be used by a classifier to identify additional relationships between entities in various documents. Example techniques described herein can apply machine learning to train the classifier to predict relations between entities. The classifier can be trained using known entity relations, syntactic links and/or semantic links.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 2, 2021
    Publication date: March 24, 2022
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Christopher Brian Quirk, Hoifung Poon
  • Patent number: 11250331
    Abstract: A technique is described herein for processing documents in a time-efficient and accurate manner. In a training phase, the technique generates a set of initial training examples by associating entity mentions in a text corpus with corresponding entity identifiers. Each entity identifier uniquely identifies an entity in a particular ontology. The technique then removes noisy training examples from the set of initial training examples, to provide a set of filtered training examples. The technique then applies a machine-learning process to generate a linking component based, in part, on the set of filtered training examples. In an application phase, the technique uses the linking component to link input entity mentions with corresponding entity identifiers. Various application systems can leverage the capabilities of the linking component, including a search system, a document-creation system, etc.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2022
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Christopher Brian Quirk, Hoifung Poon, Wen-tau Yih, Hai Wang
  • Patent number: 11210324
    Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable media provide entity relation extraction across sentences in a document using distant supervision. A computing device can receive an input, such as a document comprising a plurality of sentences. The computing device can identify syntactic and/or semantic links between words in a sentence and/or between words in different sentences, and extract relationships between entities throughout the document. A knowledge base (e.g., a table, chart, database etc.) of entity relations based on the extracted relationships can be populated. An output of the populated knowledge base can be used by a classifier to identify additional relationships between entities in various documents. Machine learning can be applied to train the classifier to predict relations between entities. The classifier can be trained using known entity relations, syntactic links and/or semantic links.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 3, 2016
    Date of Patent: December 28, 2021
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Christopher Brian Quirk, Hoifung Poon
  • Patent number: 11126794
    Abstract: A method for providing targeted rewrites can include receiving a selection of text in a file; generating a set of target rewrites of the selection of text, the set of target rewrites comprising: at least one phrase or sentence having semantic similarity to a phrase or sentence of the selection of text; and a style that corresponds to a particular target style, wherein a target style is a representative style for a genre, profession, or environment; and providing for selection one or more of the target rewrites of the set of target rewrites.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 11, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Zhang Li, Christopher John Brockett, William Brennan Dolan, Christopher Brian Quirk, Alice Yingming Lai, Susan Michele Hendrich, Olivier Gauthier, Kaushik Ramaiah Narayanan, Maria Isabel Carpenter, Juhi Amitkumar Naik, Michael Wilson Daniels
  • Publication number: 20210192140
    Abstract: A controllable grounded response generation framework includes a machine learning model, a grounding interface, and a control interface. The machine learning model is trained to output computer-generated text based on input text. The grounding interface is useable by the machine learning model to access a grounding source including information related to the input text. The control interface is useable by the machine learning model to recognize a control signal. The machine learning model is configured to include information from the grounding source in the computer-generated text and focus the computer-generated text based on the control signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 12, 2020
    Publication date: June 24, 2021
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Michel GALLEY, Christopher Brian QUIRK, William Brennan DOLAN, Zeqiu WU
  • Patent number: 11017765
    Abstract: A method for use with a computing device is provided. The method may include executing one or more programs of an intelligent digital assistant system at a processor and presenting a user interface to a user. At the processor, the method may include receiving natural language user input from the user, parsing the user input at an intent handler to determine an intent template with slots, populating the slots in the intent template with information from user input, and performing resolution on the intent template to partially resolve unresolved information. If a slot with missing slot information exists in the partially resolved intent template, a loop may be executed at the processor to fill the slots. The method may include, at the processor, determining that all required information is available and resolved and generating a rule based upon the intent template with all required information being available and resolved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Oz Solomon, Christopher Brian Quirk, Han Yee Mimi Fung, Keith Coleman Herold
  • Patent number: 10957311
    Abstract: Intelligent assistant systems, methods and computing devices are disclosed for training a machine learning-based parser to derive user intents. A method comprises analyzing with a feeder parser a surface form of a user input. A user intent underlying the surface form is derived by the feeder parser. The surface form and the user intent are provided to a machine learning-based parser and used to enhance a training set of the machine learning-based parser.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 23, 2021
    Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Oz Solomon, Erich-Soren Finkelstein, Keith Coleman Herold, Christopher Brian Quirk
  • Publication number: 20210004432
    Abstract: A method and system for providing replacement text segments for a given text segment may include receiving a request to provide the replacement text segment for the text segment in the document, examining a content characteristic of the document, and examining at least one of user-specific information, organization-specific information, or non-linguistic features of the document, before identifying at least one replacement text segment for the text segment, via a machine translation system, based on the content characteristic of the document and at least one of the user-specific information, the organization-specific information, or the non-linguistic features of the document. The method and system may include providing the identified replacement text segment for display to a user, receiving an input indicating a user's selection of the identified replacement text segment, and upon receiving the input, replacing the text segment in the document with the identified replacement text segment.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 1, 2019
    Publication date: January 7, 2021
    Applicant: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Zhang LI, Domenic Joseph CIPOLLONE, Maria Isabel CARPENTER, Juhi Amitkumar NAIK, Susan Michele HENDRICH, Michael Wilson DANIELS, William Brennan DOLAN, Christopher Brian QUIRK, Christopher John BROCKETT, Alice Yingming LAI
  • Publication number: 20200327189
    Abstract: A method for providing targeted rewrites can include receiving a selection of text in a file; generating a set of target rewrites of the selection of text, the set of target rewrites comprising: at least one phrase or sentence having semantic similarity to a phrase or sentence of the selection of text; and a style that corresponds to a particular target style, wherein a target style is a representative style for a genre, profession, or environment; and providing for selection one or more of the target rewrites of the set of target rewrites.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 11, 2019
    Publication date: October 15, 2020
    Inventors: Zhang LI, Christopher John BROCKETT, William Brennan DOLAN, Christopher Brian QUIRK, Alice Yingming LAI, Susan Michele HENDRICH, Olivier GAUTHIER, Kaushik Ramaiah NARAYANAN, Maria Isabel CARPENTER, Juhi Amitkumar NAIK, Michael Wilson DANIELS
  • Publication number: 20200104653
    Abstract: A method for use with a computing device is provided. The method may include executing one or more programs of an intelligent digital assistant system at a processor and presenting a user interface to a user. At the processor, the method may include receiving natural language user input from the user, parsing the user input at an intent handler to determine an intent template with slots, populating the slots in the intent template with information from user input, and performing resolution on the intent template to partially resolve unresolved information. If a slot with missing slot information exists in the partially resolved intent template, a loop may be executed at the processor to fill the slots. The method may include, at the processor, determining that all required information is available and resolved and generating a rule based upon the intent template with all required information being available and resolved.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 2, 2019
    Publication date: April 2, 2020
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Oz SOLOMON, Christopher Brian QUIRK, Han Yee Mimi FUNG, Keith Coleman HEROLD
  • Patent number: 10496905
    Abstract: A method for use with a computing device is provided. The method may include executing one or more programs of an intelligent digital assistant system at a processor and presenting a user interface to a user. At the processor, the method may include receiving natural language user input from the user, parsing the user input at an intent handler to determine an intent template with slots, populating the slots in the intent template with information from user input, and performing resolution on the intent template to partially resolve unresolved information. If a slot with missing slot information exists in the partially resolved intent template, a loop may be executed at the processor to fill the slots. The method may include, at the processor, determining that all required information is available and resolved and generating a rule based upon the intent template with all required information being available and resolved.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 21, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 3, 2019
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Oz Solomon, Christopher Brian Quirk, Han Yee Mimi Fung, Keith Coleman Herold
  • Patent number: 10446142
    Abstract: Examples described herein dynamically personalize a digital assistant for a specific user, creating a personal connection between the digital assistant and the user. The digital assistant accesses user activity and generates queries based on the user activity. The digital assistant facilitates natural language conversations as machine learning sessions between the digital assistant and the user using the one or more queries to learn the user's preferences and receives user input from the user during the learning session in response to the queries. The digital assistant dynamically updates a personalized profile for the user based on the user input during the natural language conversations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 15, 2019
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Melissa Nicole Lim, Margaret Ann Mitchell, Christopher Brian Quirk
  • Publication number: 20190130282
    Abstract: A technique is described herein for processing documents in a time-efficient and accurate manner. In a training phase, the technique generates a set of initial training examples by associating entity mentions in a text corpus with corresponding entity identifiers. Each entity identifier uniquely identifies an entity in a particular ontology. The technique then removes noisy training examples from the set of initial training examples, to provide a set of filtered training examples. The technique then applies a machine-learning process to generate a linking component based, in part, on the set of filtered training examples. In an application phase, the technique uses the linking component to link input entity mentions with corresponding entity identifiers. Various application systems can leverage the capabilities of the linking component, including a search system, a document-creation system, etc.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 31, 2017
    Publication date: May 2, 2019
    Inventors: Christopher Brian QUIRK, Hoifung POON, Wen-tau YIH, Hai WANG
  • Patent number: 10255269
    Abstract: Long short term memory units that accept a non-predefined number of inputs are used to provide natural language relation extraction over a user-specified range on content. Content written for human consumption is parsed with distant supervision in segments (e.g., sentences, paragraphs, chapters) to determine relationships between various words within and between those segments.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 30, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2019
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Christopher Brian Quirk, Kristina Nikolova Toutanova, Wen-tau Yih, Hoifung Poon, Nanyun Peng
  • Patent number: 10176168
    Abstract: Statistical Machine Translation (SMT) based search query spelling correction techniques are described herein. In one or more implementations, search data regarding searches performed by clients may be logged. The logged data includes query correction pairs that may be used to ascertain error patterns indicating how misspelled substrings may be translated to corrected substrings. The error patterns may be used to determine suggestions for an input query and to develop query correction models used to translate the input query to a corrected query. In one or more implementations, probabilistic features from multiple query correction models are combined to score different correction candidates. One or more top scoring correction candidates may then be exposed as suggestions for selection by a user and/or provided to a search engine to conduct a corresponding search using the corrected query version(s).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 15, 2011
    Date of Patent: January 8, 2019
    Assignee: MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING, LLC
    Inventors: Jianfeng Gao, Mei-Yuh Hwang, Xuedong D. Huang, Christopher Brian Quirk, Zhenghao Wang
  • Publication number: 20180293221
    Abstract: A method to execute computer-actionable directives conveyed in human speech comprises: receiving audio data recording speech from one or more speakers; converting the audio data into a linguistic representation of the recorded speech; detecting a target corresponding to the linguistic representation; committing to the data structure language data associated with the detected target and based on the linguistic representation; parsing the data structure to identify one or more of the computer-actionable directives; and submitting the one or more of the computer-actionable directives to the computer for processing.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 11, 2018
    Publication date: October 11, 2018
    Applicant: Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC
    Inventors: Erich-Soren FINKELSTEIN, Han Yee Mimi FUNG, Aleksandar UZELAC, Oz SOLOMON, Keith Coleman HEROLD, Vivek PRADEEP, Zongyi LIU, Kazuhito KOISHIDA, Haithem ALBADAWI, Steven Nabil BATHICHE, Christopher Lance NUESMEYER, Michelle Lynn HOLTMANN, Christopher Brian QUIRK, Pablo Luis SALA