Automatically facilitated support for complex electronic services

• US 20040267750A1
• Filed: 06/30/2003
• Published: 12/30/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Aaron, Jeffrey A.
• Granted Patent: US 7,324,986 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3323 using document space presentation or visualization, e.g. category, hierarchy or range presentation and selection
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99935 Query augmenting and refining, e.g. inexact access

Abstract

Systems for an automatically facilitated support for complex electronic services include a plurality of databases having customer records and problem solving information to assist a user with problem resolution and a cycler module configured to access the databases. The cycler module is further configured to search the databases for database pages having keywords that match input provided by the user. Other systems and methods are also provided.

Claims

1. A method for providing users access to information to assist in resolving problems with electronic services, comprising:

detecting a receipt of input of key words associated with a particular symptom;

accessing an index database in to obtain a user'"'"'s records;

accessing a deep database structure configured as hierarchical database pages, each database page including information such as a list of symptoms and associated keywords; and

cycling through the database structure to obtain a database page having a match between the user input and information contained in the database structure.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising incrementing a cycle counter.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising resetting a state accumulator module.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing any intermediate search results in a result accumulator module.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising saving information from data sections of selector sections of identified database pages in a result accumulator module.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing keyword information from database pages matching key words input by the user to a presentation module.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising providing at least one of prompt information, informative text or graphical information to a user'"'"'s processing device utilizing the presentation module.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising filtering keywords input by the user to remove an extraneous input.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising positioning any identified database pages as the current page.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising detecting a receipt of user input by a cycler module as necessary to continue cycling through the deep database structure.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising storing page indexes of database pages that match keywords input by the user in a state accumulator module.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising continuing to cycle through the deep database structure until encountering an indication that no other lines of keywords exist for the key word input under examination.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising continuing to cycle through the deep database structure until receiving a “

quit”

or “

exit input”

from a user.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising continuing to cycle through the deep database structure until encountering a null selector in a database page.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining additional information from the user during each cycling step, and presenting intermediate information to the user during each cycling step wherein the user is guided provide additional information such that the user is guided through a plurality of cycles.

16. A method for providing users access to information to assist with resolving questions on electronic security services, comprising:

detecting a request for information from a user;

accessing a database to obtain the user'"'"'s records;

accessing a database page configured to include a list of symptoms and associated keywords for a plurality of subjects;

detecting a selection by user of keywords associated with a particular symptom;

cycling through the database pages to obtain a database page to access having the key words selected by the user;

presenting results to a user utilizing a presentation module; and

continuing to cycle until receiving notification that the last database page has been reached.

17. The method claim 16, further comprising incrementing a cycler counter.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising providing information on accessed database pages to a result accumulator module.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising filtering of information or key words from user input to remove any extraneous information.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising storing page indexes for database pages that match key words selected by the user in a state accumulator module.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising returning the database and database pages to a startup state.

22. The method of claim 21, further comprising storing accumulated results of the cycling in the database for the user.

23. A computer-readable medium comprising:

logic configured to detect a request for information from a user;

logic configured to access a database structure configured to include a list of symptoms and associated keywords for a plurality of subjects;

logic configured to detect a selection by the user of keywords associated with a particular symptom;

logic configured to cycle through the database structure in search of a match between the user input and information contained in the database structure; and

logic configured to present results to the user.

24. The computer-readable medium of claim 23, further comprising logic configured to access an index database to obtain the user'"'"'s records.

25. A system, comprising:

an index database (IDB) configured to include user records;

a deep database (DDB) structure configured to include database pages having a data section, a selector section, index and links to related database pages, the database pages are further configured to include a list of symptoms and associated keywords; and

a cycler module configured to access the index database in the database structure, the cycler module further configured to search the DDB structure for database pages having keywords and a selector section that match user input.

26. The system of claim 25, further comprising a parser for parsing and filtering the user input.

27. The system of claim 26 further comprising a result accumulator module operatively coupled to the cycler module for storing intermediate results obtained by the cycler module.

28. The system of claim 27, further comprising a presentation module operatively coupled to the parser, result accumulator module and a user'"'"'s processing device, the presentation module configured to format and present results from the result accumulator module to the user'"'"'s processing device.

29. The system of claim 28, further comprising a state accumulator module operatively coupled to the cycler module, the state accumulator module configured to store intermediate status and result information resulting from each search performed by the cycler module.

30. The system of claim 29, further comprising a database interface module operatively coupled between the cycler module and the IDB and DDB structure, the database interface module configured to enable provisioning and access to the IDB and DDB structure by the cycler module.

31. The system of claim 29, wherein the cycler is further configured to further comprising utilize accumulated state information in the state accumulator module to modify the matching and filtering of key words such that a probability of matching and filtering keywords is changed based upon pre-determined success factors.

32. A system for automatically facilitated customer support simplification for complex electronic security service, comprising:

an access filtering parser configured to receive information requests from a processing device, obtain results to the information requests, and to provide the results to the processing device; and

a plurality of databases accessible by the access filtering parser, the plurality of databases providing at least one of an index, user information, or database pages having data for responding to information requests.

33. The system of claim 32, wherein the access filtering parser further comprises:

a cycler module configured to cycle through the plurality of databases in search of data for responding to the information requests;

a state accumulator module operatively coupled to the cycler module, the state accumulator module configured to store intermediate status and result information;

a result accumulator module operatively coupled to the cycler module, the result accumulator module configured to store intermediate results, the result accumulator module including results of each cycle of additional user input and results from accessing the plurality of databases; and

an input parser/filter module operative coupled to the cycler module, the input parser/filter module configured to receive input from the processing device and to convert the input to data usable by the cycler module.