Kevin A Powell

US Patent:

7315810, Jan 1, 2008

Filed:

Jan 7, 2002

Appl. No.:

10/041516

Inventors:

Saliha Azzam - Redmond WA, US
Michael V. Calcagno - Kirkland WA, US
David N. Weise - Kirkland WA, US
Kevin R. Powell - Kirkland WA, US
Sonja S. Knoll - Redmond WA, US
Pär Jonas Barklund - Kirkland WA, US
Evelyne Viegas - Redmond WA, US

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 17/27

US Classification:

704 9

Abstract:

The present invention is a named entity (NE) interface to a linguistic analysis layer. The interface exposes each input sentence to the NE recognizers of all applications and returns all recognized NEs. Thus, the present invention can accommodate NEs which dynamically change in the applications, because each input string will be handed to the applications for NE recognition. The present invention also includes a data structure which is a normalized form of recognized NEs.

US Patent:

7376551, May 20, 2008

Filed:

Aug 1, 2005

Appl. No.:

11/194873

Inventors:

Kevin R. Powell - Kirkland WA, US
Kevin W. Humphreys - Redmond WA, US
Saliha Azzam - Redmond WA, US

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 17/28

US Classification:

704 4, 704 10, 704 9

Abstract:

A method of identifying definitions in documents includes receiving text units as an input. Which of the text units includes a cue phrase is then identified. For text units identified as including a cue phrase, localized parsing is performed around the cue phrase to determine whether the text unit including the cue phrase contains a definition.

US Patent:

7398210, Jul 8, 2008

Filed:

Mar 19, 2004

Appl. No.:

10/804883

Inventors:

Rene J. Valdes - Kirkland WA, US
Maria del Mar Gines Marin - Kirkland WA, US
Kevin R. Powell - Kirkland WA, US
Andrea Maria Jessee - Redmond WA, US

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 17/27
G10L 15/18
G10L 15/28

US Classification:

704257, 704 9, 704255

Abstract:

A computer-readable medium stores a first lexicon data structure for lexicon words. The first data structure includes a host form variant field containing a host form variant such as a clitic host form variant, a host form field containing the host form of the host form variant (only present if the forms differ) such as a clitic host verbal form, and a verification field indicative of whether the host form variant is a valid word. The first data structure also includes a segment association field containing data or segmentation bits associating the host form variant with certain types of attachment entries in the lexicon, which also contain data or segmentation bits, to define valid combinations between the host form variant and at least one of the attachment entries in the lexicon. A second lexicon data structure for each of the attachment entries in the lexicon is also stored.

US Patent:

7409337, Aug 5, 2008

Filed:

Mar 30, 2004

Appl. No.:

10/813652

Inventors:

Douglas W. Potter - Seattle WA, US
Kevin R. Powell - Kirkland WA, US
Kevin W. Humphreys - Redmond WA, US
Jason S. Hamilton - Bellevue WA, US

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 17/28

US Classification:

704 9

Abstract:

The present invention provides an interface and associated object model that exposes a comprehensive set of natural language processing features to an application developer. In one embodiment, the features include lexicon management services and proofing services.

US Patent:

7421386, Sep 2, 2008

Filed:

Mar 19, 2004

Appl. No.:

10/804998

Inventors:

Kevin R. Powell - Kirkland WA, US
Andrea Jessee - Redmond WA, US
Douglas W. Potter - Seattle WA, US

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 17/21

US Classification:

704 10, 704 4

Abstract:

A lexicon stored on a computer readable medium and used by language processing systems. The lexicon can store word information in a plurality of data fields associated with each entered word. The data fields can include information on spelling and grammar, parts of speech, steps that the entered word can be transformed into another word, a word description, and a segmentation for a compound word. Information that cannot be stored in the lexicon can be stored in an intermediate indexes table. Associated methods of constructing, updating and using the lexicon are introduced.

US Patent:

7447627, Nov 4, 2008

Filed:

Mar 19, 2004

Appl. No.:

10/804930

Inventors:

Andrea Maria Jessee - Redmond WA, US
Miriam R. Eckert - Seattle WA, US
Kevin R. Powell - Kirkland WA, US

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 17/20
G06F 17/21
G06F 17/22
G06F 17/25
G06F 17/26
G06F 17/27

US Classification:

704 10, 704 1, 704 9, 715254, 715255, 715258, 715259

Abstract:

A method of determining the component words of a compound word is disclosed. The method identifies the component words, by comparing the word with a list of words found in a lexicon. If the word is not found in the lexicon the method proceeds to analyze the word on a character-by-character basis. After each character the method identifies any potential matches to the selected characters in the lexicon. If a match is found, it is added to a hypothesis trace in a lattice. Next, the method checks to see whether the remaining characters form a valid entry in the lexicon, and whether the entry is allowed to be a final segment.

US Patent:

7490034, Feb 10, 2009

Filed:

Apr 30, 2002

Appl. No.:

10/137456

Inventors:

James P. Finnigan - Bellevue WA, US
Curtis E. Huttenhower - Bellevue WA, US
Douglas W. Potter - Seattle WA, US
Kevin R. Powell - Kirkland WA, US

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 17/21
G06F 17/27

US Classification:

704 10, 704 1, 704 9

Abstract:

A data structure for a word lexicon includes a plurality of separate data sections for storing information related to word entries. An indices section includes pointers indicating the location of the information. The location of the associated pointers for each word entry is obtained as a function of a list of the word entries.

US Patent:

8027832, Sep 27, 2011

Filed:

Feb 11, 2005

Appl. No.:

11/056707

Inventors:

William D. Ramsey - Redmond WA, US
Patricia M. Schmid - Redmond WA, US
Kevin R. Powell - Kirkland WA, US

Assignee:

Microsoft Corporation - Redmond WA

International Classification:

G06F 17/27

US Classification:

704 9, 715259, 707 6, 707 5, 707100, 706 20, 70 9, 70276, 70256, 70200, 70 2, 700246, 382229, 382187

Abstract:

A system and methods of language identification of natural language text are presented. The system includes stored expected character counts and variances for a list of characters found in a natural language. Expected character counts and variances are stored for multiple languages to be considered during language identification. At run-time, one or more languages are identified for a text sample based on comparing actual and expected character counts. The present methods can be combined with upstream analyzing of Unicode ranges for characters in the text sample to limit the number of languages considered. Further, n-gram methods can be used in downstream processing to select the most probable language from among the languages identified by the present system and methods.