US 11,790,182 B2
Identifying intent in visual analytical conversations
Melanie K. Tory, Palo Alto, CA (US); and Vidya R. Setlur, Portola Valley, CA (US)
Assigned to Tableau Software, Inc., Seattle, WA (US)
Filed by Tableau Software, Inc., Seattle, WA (US)
Filed on Jan. 19, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/152,762.
Application 17/152,762 is a continuation of application No. 16/219,406, filed on Dec. 13, 2018, granted, now 10,896,297, issued on Jan. 19, 2021.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/598,399, filed on Dec. 13, 2017.
Prior Publication US 2021/0256224 A1, Aug. 19, 2021
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. G06F 40/35 (2020.01); G06F 40/289 (2020.01); G06F 16/332 (2019.01); G06F 40/20 (2020.01); G06F 40/30 (2020.01); G06F 40/40 (2020.01); G06F 40/00 (2020.01); G06F 3/0484 (2022.01)
CPC G06F 40/35 (2020.01) [G06F 16/3329 (2019.01); G06F 40/00 (2020.01); G06F 40/20 (2020.01); G06F 40/289 (2020.01); G06F 40/30 (2020.01); G06F 40/40 (2020.01); G06F 3/0484 (2013.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of using natural language for visual analysis of a dataset, comprising:
at a computer having a display, one or more processors, and memory storing one or more programs configured for execution by the one or more processors:
displaying a data visualization based on a first dataset retrieved from a database using a first set of one or more queries;
computing an initial visualization state that includes a plurality of elements corresponding to data attributes of the data visualization;
receiving a user input to specify a natural language command related to the data visualization;
extracting a first set of one or more cue phrases from the natural language command;
determining that a first data attribute is a categorical attribute having a number of categories less than a threshold value;
determining a transitional goal, to transform the data visualization to compare the categories, based on the first set of one or more cue phrases and the determination that the first data attribute is a categorical attribute having a number of distinct categories less than the threshold value;
deriving an updated visualization state based on the transitional goal, by applying one or more transitional rules to each element of the initial visualization state;
computing a set of one or more analytical functions associated with the updated visualization state, thereby creating a set of one or more functional phrases; and
updating the data visualization based on the set of one or more functional phrases.