Method and system for generating vehicle service content from metadata representing meaning of vehicle service data

• US 10,013,679 B1
• Filed: 05/22/2017
• Issued: 07/03/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Snap-On Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Snap-On Incorporated
• Inventors: Lewis, Bradley R., Merg, Patrick S., Kelley, Brett A., Foreman, Jacob G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Singh, Satwant
• Application Number:
  US15/602,049
• Time in Patent Office: 407 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/284 Lexical analysis, e.g. tokenisation or collocates
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/40 Processing or translation of natural language natural language analysis G06F40/20; semantic analysis G06F40/30
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/20 Administration of product repair or maintenance

Abstract

Methods and systems for using natural language processing and machine-learning algorithms to process vehicle-service data to generate metadata regarding the vehicle-service data are described herein. A processor can discover vehicle-service data that can be clustered together based on the vehicle-service data having common characteristics. The clustered vehicle-service data can be classified (e.g., categorized) into any one of a plurality of categories. One of the categories can be for clustered vehicle-service data that is tip-worthy (e.g., determined to include data worthy of generating vehicle-service content (e.g., a repair hint). Another category can track instances of vehicle-service data that are considered to be common to an instance of vehicle-service data classified into the tip-worthy category. The vehicle-service data can be collected from repair orders from a plurality of repair shops. The vehicle-service content generated by the systems can be provided to those or other repair shops.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

identifying, by a processor, first vehicle service data represents terms of a natural human language that match one or more taxonomy terms within a defined taxonomy searchable by the processor, wherein a first identifier uniquely identifies the first vehicle service data;

associating, by the processor, a meaning with the first vehicle service data based on the terms of the natural human language represented by the first vehicle service data that match the one or more taxonomy terms;

generating, by the processor, first metadata that represents the meaning associated with the first vehicle service data;

generating vehicle service content based at least in part on the first metadata;

generating, by the processor, second metadata that represents a meaning with at least a portion of second vehicle service data;

aggregating, by the processor, at least the first metadata and the second metadata to produce aggregated metadata;

associating, by the processor, the first identifier with the first metadata;

receiving a request for the vehicle service content, wherein the request includes the first identifier and/or the first metadata, and

in response to the request for the vehicle service content, sending the vehicle service content to be displayed by a service tool.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein the first vehicle service data comprises vehicle data captured from a vehicle or a representation of the vehicle data captured from the vehicle,

wherein the vehicle data is arranged according to a communication protocol used by a first electronic control unit in the vehicle to communicate with a second electronic control unit in the vehicle or a vehicle service tool connectable to the vehicle, and

wherein the vehicle data comprises vehicle data names of the vehicle and vehicle data numeric values.

3. The method of claim 1,

wherein the second vehicle service data comprises vehicle data captured from a vehicle or a representation of the vehicle data captured from the vehicle, and

wherein the vehicle data is arranged according to a communication protocol used by a first electronic control unit in the vehicle to communicate with a second electronic control unit in the vehicle or a vehicle service tool connectable to the vehicle.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the terms of the natural human language that match the one or more taxonomy terms include at least one of (i) a symptom, (ii) a test performed, (iii) a part failure, or (iv) a labor operation.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the symptom includes a diagnostic trouble code identifier.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the terms of the natural human language that match the one or more taxonomy terms further include a part name for a part on a vehicle.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the processor identifies a term of the terms of the natural human language as being a noun, a verb, a pronoun, an adjective, or an adverb.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the processor selects the defined taxonomy term based on the identification of the term being a noun, a verb, a pronoun, an adjective, or an adverb.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the vehicle service content further includes at least one content item selected from the group consisting of (i) a symptom, (ii) a test performed, (iii) a part failure, or (iv) a labor operation.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the meaning associated with the at least a portion of the first vehicle service data includes at least one of the following meanings:

(i) a symptom, (ii) a test performed, (iii) a part failure, or (iv) a labor operation.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the meaning associated with the at least a portion of the first vehicle service data is a likely-meaning of the at least a portion of the first vehicle service data or an actual-meaning of the at least a portion of the first vehicle service data.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

storing, by a computer-readable medium, the one or more defined taxonomies searchable by the processor,

wherein the one or more defined taxonomies includes at least one of the following taxonomies;

(i) a labor operation taxonomy, (ii) a symptom taxonomy, (iii) a test performed taxonomy, or (iv) a part failure taxonomy.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the first metadata that represents the meaning with the at least a portion of the first vehicle service data represents one or more strings of the symbols of the natural human language selected from at least one of the defined taxonomies.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating the vehicle service content based at least in part on the aggregated metadata.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the first identifier includes at least one repair order number.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the first meaning associated with the first vehicle service data pertains to a customer complaint, a test and verification procedure, a vehicle problem, or a repair procedure.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the first vehicle service data includes at least one repair order.

18. A computing device comprising a processor and a computer-readable medium storing program instructions, that when executed by the processor, cause the computing device to perform a set of functions comprising:

identifying first vehicle service data represents terms of a natural human language that match one or more taxonomy terms within a defined taxonomy searchable by the computing device, wherein a first identifier uniquely identifies the first vehicle service data;

associating, by the computing device, a meaning with the first vehicle service data based on the terms of the natural human language represented by the first vehicle service data that match the one or more taxonomy terms;

generating, by the computing device, first metadata that represents the meaning associated with the first vehicle service data;

generating vehicle service content based at least in part on the first metadata;

generating, by the computing device, second metadata that represents a meaning with at least a portion of second vehicle service data;

associating, by the processor, the first identifier with the first metadata;

aggregating, by the computing device, at least the first metadata and the second metadata to produce aggregated metadata;

receiving a request for the vehicle service content, wherein the request includes the first identifier and/or the first metadata, and

in response to the request for the vehicle service content, sending the vehicle service content to be displayed by a service tool.

19. The computing device of claim 18, wherein the terms of the natural human language that match the one or more taxonomy terms include at least one of (i) a symptom, (ii) a test performed, (iii) a part failure, or (iv) a labor operation.

20. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing program instructions, that when executed by a processor of a computing device, cause the computing device to perform a set of functions comprising:

identifying first vehicle service data represents terms of a natural human language that match one or more taxonomy terms within a defined taxonomy searchable by the computing device, wherein a first identifier uniquely identifies the first vehicle service data;

associating a meaning with the first vehicle service data based on the terms of the natural human language represented by the first vehicle service data that match the one or more taxonomy terms;

generating first metadata that represents the meaning associated with the first vehicle service data;

generating vehicle service content based at least in part on the first metadata;

generating second metadata that represents a meaning with at least a portion of second vehicle service data;

aggregating at least the first metadata and the second metadata to produce aggregated metadata;

associating, by the processor, the first identifier with the first metadata;

receiving a request for the vehicle service content, wherein the request includes the first identifier and/or the first metadata, and

in response to the request for the vehicle service content, sending the vehicle service content to be displayed by a service tool.