Conversational Scheduling Assistant Sentiment Analysis

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current computing systems that utilize digital agents or personal digital assistants face challenges in determining user satisfaction, as traditional survey methods are cumbersome and result in limited feedback, making it difficult to improve system features and services.

Innovation Solution

A software agent that performs natural language processing on user communications to identify sentiment, concerns, and actions, generating action signals to measure user satisfaction, and uses this information to generate control signals for improving user experience.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Quantity of substance

If traditional survey methods are used to measure user satisfaction, then the system can obtain feedback from users, but the process becomes cumbersome and time-consuming, limiting the quantity of feedback collected

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvequantity of feedbackVSAvoidease of providing feedback
Core Design Contradiction:
Quantity of substanceVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system automatically analyzes user communications and generates satisfaction metrics without requiring users to manually complete surveys. The digital assistant monitors interactions, identifies satisfaction indicators, and produces feedback reports autonomously, freeing users from the cumbersome survey process while maintaining comprehensive feedback collection.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The patent replaces the mechanical survey process with automated natural language processing and sentiment analysis systems. Instead of manually collecting and processing survey responses, the system uses computational methods to analyze user communications and extract satisfaction metrics, significantly improving both the quantity of feedback and user convenience.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

2Quantity of substance

If the system analyzes all user communications to measure satisfaction, then comprehensive feedback is obtained, but the processing time and computational resources increase

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvecompleteness of feedbackVSAvoidprocessing time
Core Design Contradiction:
Quantity of substanceVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system extracts and focuses on specific satisfaction indicators and key phrases within user communications rather than processing every detail of all communications. By identifying and analyzing only the relevant elements that indicate user satisfaction, the system maintains comprehensive feedback while reducing processing time and computational requirements.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent applies partial analysis by selectively processing communications based on predefined criteria and satisfaction indicators. Rather than uniformly analyzing all communications, the system prioritizes messages containing relevant satisfaction signals, achieving comprehensive feedback measurement with reduced processing overhead.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #16Partial or excessive action

3Measurement precision

If the system processes both interactive and non-interactive communications, then a more comprehensive understanding of user satisfaction is achieved, but the complexity of the analysis increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveprecision of satisfaction measurementVSAvoidcomplexity of analysis
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system uses a unified natural language processing framework that handles both interactive and non-interactive communications through the same analysis pipeline. This multi-functional approach allows the system to process diverse communication types with consistent methodology, achieving comprehensive satisfaction measurement without proportionally increasing analysis complexity.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent adjusts analysis parameters and processing depth based on communication type. The system dynamically modifies processing characteristics for interactive versus non-interactive communications, applying appropriate analysis intensity to each communication type while maintaining overall measurement precision through a coordinated parameter adjustment strategy.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentUS11663416B2Signal analysis in a conversational scheduling assistant computing system
Publication Date: 2023.05.30 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC
  • US11663416B2 patent drawing
  • US11663416B2 patent drawing
  • US11663416B2 patent drawing

AI summary

A software agent, that is used to assist in providing a service, receives communications from a set of users that are attempting to use the software agent. The communications include communications that are interacting with the software agent, and communications that are not interacting with the software agent. The software agent performs natural language processing on all communications to identify such things as user sentiment, user concerns or other items in the content of the messages, and also to identify actions taken by the users in order to obtain a measure of user satisfaction with the software agent. One or more action signals are then generated based upon the identified user satisfaction with the software agent.