US010276170B2 (12 ) United States Patent ( 10 ) Patent No. : US 10 ,276 , 170 B2 Gruber et al. (45 ) Date of Patent: Apr. 30 , 2019 ( 54 ) INTELLIGENT AUTOMATED ASSISTANT GIOL 15 / 22 ( 2013. 01 ) ; GIOL 15 / 1815 ( 2013 .01 ) ; GIOL 2015 / 226 (2013 .01 ) (71 ) Applicant : Apple Inc ., Cupertino , CA (US ) (58 ) Field of Classification Search None (72 ) Inventors : Thomas R . Gruber, Emerald Hills , CA See application file for complete search history . ( US ) ; Adam J . Cheyer , Oakland , CA (US ) ; Daniel Keen , San Jose , CA (US ) (56 ) References Cited ( 73 ) Assignee : Apple Inc. , Cupertino , CA (US ) U . S . PATENT DOCUMENTS 1 ,559 ,320 A 10 / 1925 Hirsh ( * ) Notice : Subject to any disclaimer , the term of this 2 , 180 ,522 A 11/ 1939 Henne patent is extended or adjusted under 35 3 ,704 ,345 A 11 / 1972 Coker et al. U . S . C . 154 (b ) by 1114 days . 3 ,710 , 321 A 1 / 1973 Rubenstein ( 21 ) Appl. No. : 13 /913 , 336 ( Continued ) FOREIGN PATENT DOCUMENTS ( 22 ) Filed : Jun . 7 , 2013 CA 2666438 C 6 / 2013 (65 ) Prior Publication Data CH 681573 A5 4 / 1993 US 2013 / 0275164 A1 Oct. 17 , 2013 (Continued ) Related U . S . Application Data OTHER PUBLICATIONS (63 ) Continuation - in -part of application No . 12 / 987, 982 , JABRA , “ Bluetooth Introduction ” , 2004 , 15 pages . filed on Jan . 10 , 2011 , now Pat . No. 9 ,318 , 108 . (Continued ) (60 ) Provisional application No . 61/ 295 ,774 , filed on Jan . Primary Examiner — Tonya Joseph 18 , 2010 , provisional application No. 61 /657 ,736 , ( 74 ) Attorney , Agent, or Firm — Dentons US LLP filed on Jun . 8 , 2012 . ( 57 ) ABSTRACT ( 51 ) Int . Cl. The intelligent automated assistant system engages with the G060 10 / 00 ( 2012 .01 ) user in an integrated , conversational manner using natural GIOL 17 / 22 ( 2013 . 01 ) language dialog , and invokes external services when appro G060 10 / 02 ( 2012 .01 ) priate to obtain information or perform various actions . The G06F 3 / 16 ( 2006 .01 ) system can be implemented using any of a number of G06F 1730 ( 2006 .01 ) different platforms, such as the web , email , smartphone , and GIOL 15 /22 ( 2006 .01 ) the like , or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, the GIOL 15 / 18 ( 2013 .01 ) system is based on sets of interrelated domains and tasks , ( 52 ) U .S . CI. and employs additional functionally powered by external CPC G10L 17 / 22 (2013 .01 ) ; G06F 3 / 167 services with which the system can interact . (2013 .01 ) ; G06F 173087 (2013 .01 ) ; G06F 17/ 30522 (2013 .01 ) ; G06Q 10 /02 ( 2013 .01 ) ; 35 Claims, 52 Drawing Sheets - 1002 Intelligent Automated Assistant Active Input Short Term Long Term Elicitation Personal Personal 1094 Memory 1052 Memory 1054 Domain Models Task Flow 1056 Models Output to User Input 1086 User 1004 Vocabulary Active 1008 1058 Ontology Dialog Flow 1050 Models Language 1087 Pattern Recognizers Service 1060 Models Other 1088 Other Events/ Facts Dlalog Flow Actions 1010 1006 Domain Processor Entity 1080 Databases Output 1072 Processor Services 1090 Orchestration Language 1982 Interpreter 1070 Services 1084 US 10 , 276 , 170 B2 Page 2 (56 ) References Cited 4 , 833 ,718 A 5 / 1989 Sprague 4 ,837 , 798 A 6 / 1989 Cohen et al. U . S . 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