Patents by Inventor Daniel Mark Coffman

Daniel Mark Coffman 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).

  • Patent number: 7533025
    Abstract: A method and system for dynamically assigning weights to the subset of commands in a natural language dialog system based on prior context of the user's interaction with the system. The search space of the translation process may be reduced when some context information is available. A user presents input to the natural language understanding system. The system translates the user input into a formal command and calculates a weight value for a next set of formal commands based on the formal command. The command weights may then be dynamically boosted for the next set of formal commands before executing the formal command. The exemplary aspects of the present invention reduce the time needed to complete a task since the search space of the translation process may be reduced if context information is available and improve the accuracy of the process by using knowledge that users regularly use repeating patterns for repeating tasks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2007
    Date of Patent: May 12, 2009
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel Mark Coffman, Jan Kleindienst, Ganesh N. Ramaswamy
  • Patent number: 7349845
    Abstract: A method and system for dynamically assigning weights to the subset of commands in a natural language dialog system based on prior context of the user's interaction with the system. The search space of the translation process may be reduced when some context information is available. A user presents input to the natural language understanding system. The system translates the user input into a formal command and calculates a weight value for a next set of formal commands based on the formal command. The command weights may then be dynamically boosted for the next set of formal commands before executing the formal command. The exemplary aspects of the present invention reduce the time needed to complete a task since the search space of the translation process may be reduced if context information is available and improve the accuracy of the process by using knowledge that users regularly use repeating patterns for repeating tasks.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 3, 2003
    Date of Patent: March 25, 2008
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Daniel Mark Coffman, Jan Kleindienst, Ganesh N. Ramaswamy