System and method for supporting natural language queries and requests against a user's personal data cloud

摘要

A machine-implemented method for supporting a natural language user request against a user's personal data cloud can include a machine receiving the natural language user request from the user, determining a semantic interpretation of the natural language user request, querying a semantically-indexed, integrated knowledge store based on the semantic interpretation, and responding to the natural language user request by displaying results of the querying, wherein the results correspond to an item within the user's personal data cloud.

主权项

1. A machine-implemented method for supporting a natural language user request against a user's personal data cloud, the method comprising:
a machine extracting personal textual data identifying names, locations, and/or contact information for persons and places from electronic mail (email) messages, contact data, or calendar data stored on different network sources in the user's personal data cloud; the machine constructing a semantically-indexed integrated knowledge store for storage and future retrieval of the personal textual data; the machine extracting additional information from other network sources; the machine correlating the additional information from the other network sources with the previously stored personal textual data and generating additional personal textual data for the semantically-indexed integrated knowledge store identifying additional names, locations, and/or contact information for the persons and places; the machine receiving the natural language user request from the user; the machine determining a semantic interpretation of the natural language user request, wherein determining the semantic interpretation comprises referencing a stored ontology that defines a semantic relationship among a set of personal data terminology; the machine querying the semantically-indexed integrated knowledge store based at least in part on the semantic interpretation; and the machine responding to the natural language user request by displaying one or more results of the querying, wherein the one or more results include at least some of the names, locations, and/or contact information identified by the semantically-indexed integrated knowledge store; the machine displaying a suggestions panel based on the semantically-indexed integrated knowledge store offering refinements for types of personal textual data available responsive to the natural language user request; and the machine querying the semantically-indexed integrated knowledge store based on selected ones of the refinements.