Patents by Inventor Nathan D. Nichols

Nathan D. Nichols 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: 11954445
    Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) technology can be used in combination with composable communication goal statements to facilitate a user's ability to quickly structure story outlines using “explanation” communication goals in a manner usable by an NLG narrative generation system without any need for the user to directly author computer code. This AI technology permits NLG systems to determine the appropriate content for inclusion in a narrative story about a data set in a manner that will satisfy a desired explanation communication goal such that the narratives will express various ideas that are deemed relevant to a given explanation communication goal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2022
    Date of Patent: April 9, 2024
    Assignee: Narrative Science LLC
    Inventors: Nathan D. Nichols, Andrew R. Paley, Maia Lewis Meza, Santiago Santana
  • Patent number: 11921985
    Abstract: The exemplary embodiments describe, inter alia, an apparatus comprising: a processor configured to (1) generate a plurality of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for interaction with a user to support configuration of a narrative story generator to automatically generate a narrative story based on input data, wherein at least one of the GUIs presents content blocks comprising a story outline in a hierarchical structure, (2) evaluate configuration elements of the narrative story generated using imported sample data, and (3) generate narrative stories based on the configuration of the narrative story generator and the input data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 10, 2023
    Date of Patent: March 5, 2024
    Assignee: Narrative Science LLC
    Inventors: Andrew R. Paley, Nathan D. Nichols, Kristian J. Hammond
  • Patent number: 11816435
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is an NLP system that is able to extract meaning from a natural language message using improved parsing techniques. Such an NLP system can be used in concert with an NLG system to interactively interpret messages and generate response messages in an interactive conversational stream. The parsing can include (1) named entity recognition that contextualizes the meanings of words in a message with reference to a knowledge base of named entities understood by the NLP and NLG systems, (2) syntactically parsing the message to determine a grammatical hierarchy for the named entities within the message, (3) reduction of recognized named entities into aggregations of named entities using the determined grammatical hierarchy and reduction rules to further clarify the message's meaning, and (4) mapping the reduced aggregation of named entities to an intent or meaning, wherein this intent/meaning can be used as control instructions for an NLG process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 14, 2023
    Assignee: Narrative Science Inc.
    Inventors: Maia Lewis Meza, Clayton Nicholas Norris, Michael Justin Smathers, Daniel Joseph Platt, Nathan D. Nichols
  • Publication number: 20230206006
    Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) technology can be used in combination with composable communication goal statements to facilitate a user’s ability to quickly structure story outlines using “explanation” communication goals in a manner usable by an NLG narrative generation system without any need for the user to directly author computer code. This AI technology permits NLG systems to determine the appropriate content for inclusion in a narrative story about a data set in a manner that will satisfy a desired explanation communication goal such that the narratives will express various ideas that are deemed relevant to a given explanation communication goal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 22, 2022
    Publication date: June 29, 2023
    Inventors: Nathan D. Nichols, Andrew R. Paley, Maia Lewis Meza, Santiago Santana
  • Patent number: 11568148
    Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) technology can be used in combination with composable communication goal statements to facilitate a user's ability to quickly structure story outlines using “explanation” communication goals in a manner usable by an NLG narrative generation system without any need for the user to directly author computer code. This AI technology permits NLG systems to determine the appropriate content for inclusion in a narrative story about a data set in a manner that will satisfy a desired explanation communication goal such that the narratives will express various ideas that are deemed relevant to a given explanation communication goal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 7, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 31, 2023
    Assignee: Narrative Science Inc.
    Inventors: Nathan D. Nichols, Andrew R. Paley, Maia Lewis Meza, Santiago Santana
  • Patent number: 11561684
    Abstract: The exemplary embodiments describe, inter alia, an apparatus comprising: a processor configured to (1) generate a plurality of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for interaction with a user to support configuration of a narrative story generator to automatically generate a narrative story based on input data, wherein at least one of the GUIs presents content blocks comprising a story outline in a hierarchical structure, (2) evaluate configuration elements of the narrative story generated using imported sample data, and (3) generate narrative stories based on the configuration of the narrative story generator and the input data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 22, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: Narrative Science Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew R. Paley, Nathan D. Nichols, Kristian J. Hammond
  • Patent number: 11562146
    Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) technology can be used in combination with composable communication goal statements to facilitate a user's ability to quickly structure story outlines in a manner usable by an NLG narrative generation system without any need for the user to directly author computer code. Narrative analytics that are linked to communication goal statements can employ a conditional outcome framework that allows the content and structure of resulting narratives to intelligently adapt as a function of the nature of the data under consideration. This AI technology permits NLG systems to determine the appropriate content for inclusion in a narrative story about a data set in a manner that will satisfy a desired communication goal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: Narrative Science Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew R. Paley, Nathan D. Nichols, Matthew L. Trahan, Maia Lewis Meza, Michael Tien Thinh Pham, Charlie M. Truong
  • Patent number: 11341330
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is computer technology that provides adaptive mechanisms for learning concepts that are expressed by natural language sentences, and then applies this learning to appropriately classify new natural language sentences with the relevant concept that they express. The computer technology can also discover the uniqueness of terms within a training corpus, and sufficiently unique terms can be flagged for the user for possible updates to an ontology for the system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2022
    Assignee: NARRATIVE SCIENCE INC.
    Inventors: Michael Justin Smathers, Daniel Joseph Platt, Nathan D. Nichols, Jared Lorince
  • Patent number: 11334726
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is computer technology that applies natural language processing (NLP) techniques to training data to generate information used to train a natural language generation (NLG) system to produce output that stylistically resembles the training data. In this fashion, the NLG system can be readily trained with training data supplied by a user so that the NLG system is adapted to produce output that stylistically resembles such training data. In an example, an NLP system detects a plurality of linguistic features in the training data. These detected linguistic features are then aggregated into a specification data structure that is arranged for training the NLG system to produce natural language output that stylistically resembles the training data. Parameters in the specification data structure can be linked to objects in an ontology used by the NLG system to facilitate the training of the NLG system based on the detected linguistic features.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 17, 2022
    Assignee: NARRATIVE SCIENCE INC.
    Inventors: Daniel Joseph Platt, Nathan D. Nichols, Michael Justin Smathers, Jared Lorince
  • Patent number: 11232270
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is computer technology that applies natural language processing (NLP) techniques to training data to generate information used to train a natural language generation (NLG) system to produce output that stylistically resembles the training data. In this fashion, the NLG system can be readily trained with training data supplied by a user so that the NLG system is adapted to produce output that stylistically resembles such training data. In an example, an NLP system detects a plurality of linguistic features in the training data. These detected linguistic features are then aggregated into a specification data structure that is arranged for training the NLG system to produce natural language output that stylistically resembles the training data. Parameters in the specification data structure can be linked to objects in an ontology used by the NLG system to facilitate the training of the NLG system based on the detected linguistic features.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: January 25, 2022
    Assignee: NARRATIVE SCIENCE INC.
    Inventors: Daniel Joseph Platt, Nathan D. Nichols, Michael Justin Smathers, Jared Lorince
  • Patent number: 11182556
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is an NLP system that is able to extract meaning from a natural language message using improved parsing techniques. Such an NLP system can be used in concert with an NLG system to interactively interpret messages and generate response messages in an interactive conversational stream. The parsing can include (1) named entity recognition that contextualizes the meanings of words in a message with reference to a knowledge base of named entities understood by the NLP and NLG systems, (2) syntactically parsing the message to determine a grammatical hierarchy for the named entities within the message, (3) reduction of recognized named entities into aggregations of named entities using the determined grammatical hierarchy and reduction rules to further clarify the message's meaning, and (4) mapping the reduced aggregation of named entities to an intent or meaning, wherein this intent/meaning can be used as control instructions for an NLG process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2021
    Assignee: NARRATIVE SCIENCE INC.
    Inventors: Maia Lewis Meza, Clayton Nicholas Norris, Michael Justin Smathers, Daniel Joseph Platt, Nathan D. Nichols
  • Patent number: 11126798
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is an NLP system that is able to extract meaning from a natural language message using improved parsing techniques. Such an NLP system can be used in concert with an NLG system to interactively interpret messages and generate response messages in an interactive conversational stream. The parsing can include (1) named entity recognition that contextualizes the meanings of words in a message with reference to a knowledge base of named entities understood by the NLP and NLG systems, (2) syntactically parsing the message to determine a grammatical hierarchy for the named entities within the message, (3) reduction of recognized named entities into aggregations of named entities using the determined grammatical hierarchy and reduction rules to further clarify the message's meaning, and (4) mapping the reduced aggregation of named entities to an intent or meaning, wherein this intent/meaning can be used as control instructions for an NLG process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: NARRATIVE SCIENCE INC.
    Inventors: Maia Lewis Meza, Clayton Nicholas Norris, Michael Justin Smathers, Daniel Joseph Platt, Nathan D. Nichols
  • Patent number: 11068661
    Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) technology can be used in combination with composable communication goal statements to facilitate a user's ability to quickly structure story outlines in a manner usable by an NLG narrative generation system without any need for the user to directly author computer code. This AI technology permits attribute structures within an ontology can include an explicit model for the subject attribute, regardless of whether that model is used to compute the value of the subject attribute itself. This explicit model can then be leveraged to support an investigation of drivers of the value for the subject attribute. Narrative analytics that perform driver analysis can then be used to support narrative generation for communication goals relating to explanations, predictions, recommendations, and the like.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 7, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 20, 2021
    Assignee: NARRATIVE SCIENCE INC.
    Inventors: Nathan D. Nichols, Andrew R. Paley, Maia Lewis Meza, Santiago Santana
  • Publication number: 20210192144
    Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) technology can be used in combination with composable communication goal statements to facilitate a user's ability to quickly structure story outlines in a manner usable by an NLG narrative generation system without any need for the user to directly author computer code. Narrative analytics that are linked to communication goal statements can employ a conditional outcome framework that allows the content and structure of resulting narratives to intelligently adapt as a function of the nature of the data under consideration. This AI technology permits NLG systems to determine the appropriate content for inclusion in a narrative story about a data set in a manner that will satisfy a desired communication goal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 3, 2021
    Publication date: June 24, 2021
    Inventors: Andrew R. Paley, Nathan D. Nichols, Matthew L. Trahan, Maia Lewis Meza, Michael Tien Thinh Pham, Charlie M. Truong
  • Patent number: 11042713
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is computer technology that applies natural language processing (NLP) techniques to training data to generate information used to train a natural language generation (NLG) system to produce output that stylistically resembles the training data. In this fashion, the NLG system can be readily trained with training data supplied by a user so that the NLG system is adapted to produce output that stylistically resembles such training data. In an example, an NLP system detects a plurality of linguistic features in the training data. These detected linguistic features are then aggregated into a specification data structure that is arranged for training the NLG system to produce natural language output that stylistically resembles the training data. Parameters in the specification data structure can be linked to objects in an ontology used by the NLG system to facilitate the training of the NLG system based on the detected linguistic features.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 18, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2021
    Assignee: NARRATIVE SCIENC INC.
    Inventors: Daniel Joseph Platt, Nathan D. Nichols, Michael Justin Smathers, Jared Lorince
  • Patent number: 11030408
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is an NLP system that is able to extract meaning from a natural language message using improved parsing techniques. Such an NLP system can be used in concert with an NLG system to interactively interpret messages and generate response messages in an interactive conversational stream. The parsing can include (1) named entity recognition that contextualizes the meanings of words in a message with reference to a knowledge base of named entities understood by the NLP and NLG systems, (2) syntactically parsing the message to determine a grammatical hierarchy for the named entities within the message, (3) reduction of recognized named entities into aggregations of named entities using the determined grammatical hierarchy and reduction rules to further clarify the message's meaning, and (4) mapping the reduced aggregation of named entities to an intent or meaning, wherein this intent/meaning can be used as control instructions for an NLG process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2021
    Assignee: NARRATIVE SCIENCE INC.
    Inventors: Maia Lewis Meza, Clayton Nicholas Norris, Michael Justin Smathers, Daniel Joseph Platt, Nathan D. Nichols
  • Patent number: 10990767
    Abstract: Applied Artificial Intelligence Technology for Adaptive Natural Language Understanding Disclosed herein is computer technology that provides adaptive mechanisms for learning concepts that are expressed by natural language sentences, and then applies this learning to appropriately classify new natural language sentences with the relevant concept that they express.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2021
    Assignee: NARRATIVE SCIENCE INC.
    Inventors: Michael Justin Smathers, Daniel Joseph Platt, Nathan D. Nichols, Jared Lorince
  • Patent number: 10943069
    Abstract: Artificial intelligence (AI) technology can be used in combination with composable communication goal statements to facilitate a user's ability to quickly structure story outlines in a manner usable by an NLG narrative generation system without any need for the user to directly author computer code. Narrative analytics that are linked to communication goal statements can employ a conditional outcome framework that allows the content and structure of resulting narratives to intelligently adapt as a function of the nature of the data under consideration. This AI technology permits NLG systems to determine the appropriate content for inclusion in a narrative story about a data set in a manner that will satisfy a desired communication goal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 9, 2021
    Assignee: NARRATIVE SCIENCE INC.
    Inventors: Andrew R. Paley, Nathan D. Nichols, Matthew L. Trahan, Maia Lewis Meza, Michael Tien Thinh Pham, Charlie M. Truong
  • Publication number: 20200334418
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is computer technology that applies natural language processing (NLP) techniques to training data to generate information used to train a natural language generation (NLG) system to produce output that stylistically resembles the training data. In this fashion, the NLG system can be readily trained with training data supplied by a user so that the NLG system is adapted to produce output that stylistically resembles such training data. In an example, an NLP system detects a plurality of linguistic features in the training data. These detected linguistic features are then aggregated into a specification data structure that is arranged for training the NLG system to produce natural language output that stylistically resembles the training data. Parameters in the specification data structure can be linked to objects in an ontology used by the NLG system to facilitate the training of the NLG system based on the detected linguistic features.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 30, 2020
    Publication date: October 22, 2020
    Inventors: Daniel Joseph Platt, Nathan D. Nichols, Michael Justin Smathers, Jared Lorince
  • Patent number: 10755046
    Abstract: Disclosed herein is an NLP system that is able to extract meaning from a natural language message using improved parsing techniques. Such an NLP system can be used in concert with an NLG system to interactively interpret messages and generate response messages in an interactive conversational stream. The parsing can include (1) named entity recognition that contextualizes the meanings of words in a message with reference to a knowledge base of named entities understood by the NLP and NLG systems, (2) syntactically parsing the message to determine a grammatical hierarchy for the named entities within the message, (3) reduction of recognized named entities into aggregations of named entities using the determined grammatical hierarchy and reduction rules to further clarify the message's meaning, and (4) mapping the reduced aggregation of named entities to an intent or meaning, wherein this intent/meaning can be used as control instructions for an NLG process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 25, 2020
    Assignee: NARRATIVE SCIENCE INC.
    Inventors: Maia Lewis Meza, Clayton Nicholas Norris, Michael Justin Smathers, Daniel Joseph Platt, Nathan D. Nichols