Theoretical consideration of goal recognition aspects for understanding information in business letters

Abstract

Businesses are drowning in information - paper forms, e-mail, phone-calls and other media do struggle the speed of managers in handling and processing information. Traditional computer systems do not support business flow because of their inflexibility and their lack in understanding information. A sophisticated understanding of the meaning of a business letter requires an understanding of why the sender wrote it. This paper describes some ideas to use goal recognition techniques as one possibility, or method to initiate information understanding. It brings together two areas of cognition: goal recognition and document understanding. To do so, it gives an overview of the application of goal recognition techniques to the discovery of the overall purpose of a letter and a coherent explanation of how the individual sentences are meant to achieve that purpose.