Knowledge based tutor
First Claim
1. A knowledge system comprising a computer having a memory, said memory storing a knowledge base encoding knowledge about a particular subject domain, said computer havinga knowledge base interpreter for interpreting said knowledge base to solve specified problems pertaining to said subject domain and to indicate the methods of solution to a subject system, said memory further storing information about the status of the solution of said problems by said knowledge base interpreter, said knowledge base interpreter including means for changing said information about the status of the solution of said problems during said interpreting of said knowledge base, andan evaluation system communicating with said subject system and accessing the knowledge in said knowledge base, said evaluation system including means for probing said subject system about selected portions of said knowledge about said subject domain to obtain responses from said subject system, and means for comparing said responses from said subject system to said selected portions of said knowledge about said subject domain to evaluate the subject system'"'"'s knowledge and performance with respect to said subject domain, said means for probing and said means for comparing being operative during the operation of said knowledge base interpreter,wherein said knowledge base further encodes knowledge defining a set of interrupt conditions of said status of said solution of said problems, andwherein said computer further includes means for determining whether any of said interrupt conditions occur in said status of the solution of said problems and thereupon interrupting the interpreting of said knowledge base to solve said problems and activating said evaluating system to probe said subject system about the interrupt condition having occurred so that the subject system'"'"'s knowledge and performance are evaluated while the methods of solution to said specified problems are indicated to said subject system.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A knowledge system has a consultation system and also encodes domain-dependent tutoring knowledge as a set of conditions for interrupting the operation of the consultation system in order to evaluate a subject system. During the evaluation, the subject system is probed for its understanding of the status of the consultation system, and its understanding is compared to the actual status to obtain a measure of the subject system'"'"'s knowledge and performance relative to that of the consultation system. The direction of the probing and the source of information for instruction or diagnosis is based upon the condition causing the interruption of the consultation system. Preferably an authoring system scans the domain-dependent knowledge base of the consultation system and determines a set of possible interrupt conditions. From this set a user exercises judgment in selecting a subset of conditions that are appropriate for the subject domain and the needs of the student. The selected conditions and a selected test case dialog are stored in a case file, and a number of different case files may be stored in a case library. The authoring system preferably creates a file or index of tutorial knowledge which correlates the relevant domain knowledge with the interrupt conditions. The tutorial knowledge includes, for example, expressions for causing interrupts after their values are found, rules concluding the expressions, the values concluded by the rules, and the factors in the rules.
117 Citations
45 Claims
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1. A knowledge system comprising a computer having a memory, said memory storing a knowledge base encoding knowledge about a particular subject domain, said computer having
a knowledge base interpreter for interpreting said knowledge base to solve specified problems pertaining to said subject domain and to indicate the methods of solution to a subject system, said memory further storing information about the status of the solution of said problems by said knowledge base interpreter, said knowledge base interpreter including means for changing said information about the status of the solution of said problems during said interpreting of said knowledge base, and an evaluation system communicating with said subject system and accessing the knowledge in said knowledge base, said evaluation system including means for probing said subject system about selected portions of said knowledge about said subject domain to obtain responses from said subject system, and means for comparing said responses from said subject system to said selected portions of said knowledge about said subject domain to evaluate the subject system'"'"'s knowledge and performance with respect to said subject domain, said means for probing and said means for comparing being operative during the operation of said knowledge base interpreter, wherein said knowledge base further encodes knowledge defining a set of interrupt conditions of said status of said solution of said problems, and wherein said computer further includes means for determining whether any of said interrupt conditions occur in said status of the solution of said problems and thereupon interrupting the interpreting of said knowledge base to solve said problems and activating said evaluating system to probe said subject system about the interrupt condition having occurred so that the subject system'"'"'s knowledge and performance are evaluated while the methods of solution to said specified problems are indicated to said subject system.
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16. A knowledge system comprising a computer having a memory, said memory storing a knowledge base including rules of inference encoding knowledge about a particular subject domain, said computer including an interference engine for executing an inference procedure to apply said rules of inference to solve specified problems pertaining to said subject domain, wherein
said computer includes an evaluation system for accessing said knowledge base and evaluating the status of the application of said rules of inference in the context of a specified one of a set of predetermined conditions, said memory stores said set of predetermined conditions for specifying when said evaluation system is to evaluate said status, and said inference procedure includes a step for testing whether said predetermined conditions currently hold for said status, and when one of said conditions is found to hold, thereupon interrupting the operation of said inference engine, and initiating operation of said evaluation system to evaluate said status in the context of the condition found to hold.
- 20. A knowledge system comprising a computer having a memory, said memory storing a knowledge base capable of being interpreted by a knowledge base interpreter to solve specified problems pertaining to a subject domain, said computer further comprising an authoring system for designing an evaluation procedure, said authoring system comprising means for analyzing the content of said knowledge base to determine a set of interrupt conditions for interrupting said interpreting of said knowledge base when said conditions occur to thereupon initiate said evaluation procedure, and means for designing said evaluation procedure for comparing knowledge about a subset of said interrupt conditions to knowledge obtained from a subject system.
- 31. A knowledge system comprising a computer having a memory, said memory storing a knowledge base capable of being interpreted by a knowledge base interpreter to solve specified problems pertaining to a subject domain, said computer comprising an authoring system for designing a domain dependent evaluation procedure, said authoring system includign means for analyzing the content of said knowledge base to determine interrupt conditions defined at locations in said knowledge base for interrupting said interpreting of said knowledge base when said conditions occur to thereupon initiate said evaluation procedure, and means for generating an index of said conditions, said index including pointers to the locations of said conditions in said knowledge base.
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33. The knowledge system as claimed in 32, wherein said means for analyzing includes means for analyzing entries added to the knowledge base by said means for adding.
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36. A knowledge system comprising a computer having a memory, said memory storing a knowledge base encoding knowledge about a particular subject domain, said computer having a knowledge base interpreter for interpreting said knowledge base to solve specified problems pertaining to said subject domain and indicating the methods of solution to a subject system,
wherein said computer further comprises an authoring system and an evaluation system, said authoring system including: -
means for analyzing said knowledge base to identify conditions of interest suitable for interrupting the interpreting of said knowledge base while solving specified problems pertaining to said subject domain, means for presenting said conditions of interest to a human user for selection of a subset of said conditions suitable for comparing the performance of a subject system to the performance of said knowledge base interpreter for solving said problems, and means for receiving an indication of said subset of said conditions, and said evaluation system including; means for interrupting the operation of said knowledge base interpreter upon the occurrence of a condition included in said subset of said conditions, and means operative upon said interrupting for probing said subject system to obtain a response about the status of the solution of said problem by said knowledge base interpreter, and means for comparing said response to the actual status of the solution of said problem by said knowledge base interpreter. - View Dependent Claims (37, 38, 39, 40)
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41. A method of comparing the performance of a subject system to the performance of a knowledge system, said knowledge system comprising a computer having a memory, said memory storing a knowledge base encoding knowledge about a particular subject domain, said computer having a knowledge base interpreter for interpreting said knowledge base to solve specified problems pertaining to said subject domain and indicating the methods of solution to a subject system, said method comprising the steps of:
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(a) operating said computer to scan the knowledge base and determine a set of conditions of interest suitable for interrupting the interpretation of said knowledge base while solving specified problems pertaining to said subject domain, (b) operating said computer to transmit to a human user an indication of said set of conditions of interest, (c) operating said computer to receive from said human user an indication of a subset of said set of conditions, (d) operating said knowledge base interpreter to solve a specified problem pertaining to said subject domain, and while operating said knowledge base interpreter, operating said computer to test for the occurrence of said conditions included in said subset of conditions, and upon the occurrence of a condition included in said subset of conditions, to interrupt the operation of said knowledge base interpreter and to (e) probe the subject system to obtain a response about the status of the solution of said problem by said knowledge base interpreter, and (f) compare said response to the actual status of the solution of said problem by said knowledge base interpreter. - View Dependent Claims (42, 43, 44, 45)
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Specification