Natural language help interface
First Claim
1. A computer program product for use with a computer system having a user interface and a memory, the computer program product comprising:
- a computer useable medium having program code embodied in the medium for enabling a user to obtain information from the computer system with user-defined queries, the medium further comprising;
program code, responsive to a user-defined query, for identifying a selected portion of the query;
program code for storing, in the memory, global location data representing a location in the computer system last selected by the user at the time the user-defined query was submitted;
program code for comparing selected portions of the user-defined query with a plurality of predefined location data and for modifying the global location data if one of the predefined location data is found within the selected portion of the user-defined query;
program code, responsive to the selected portion of the user-defined query, for comparing the selected portion of the user-defined query with a plurality of predefined information segments;
program code, responsive to the program code for comparing, for selecting one of the plurality of information segments which best corresponds to the user-defined query in accordance with a predetermined criteria; and
program code, responsive to the selected information segment, for presenting at least a portion of the selected information segment to the user through the user interface.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A help interface capable of receiving user-defined queries in a natural language and selecting the most appropriate answer from a plurality of potential answers, includes facilities for parsing and storing the character string content of the query in a buffer. Lists of punctuation characters as well as single and multiple word character strings are successively compared with the content of the buffer to eliminate punctuation, superfluous words, location reference words, and to identify synonyms to base words meaningful in the selection of an appropriate answer. The identified base words are used as references into a predefined rule set which inherently matches the base word with a potential answer and assigns a value based on the relationship of the potential answer to the base word. The cumulative values of all potential answers are computed and ranked with the highest ranking value presented to the user as a response to the query.
100 Citations
29 Claims
-
1. A computer program product for use with a computer system having a user interface and a memory, the computer program product comprising:
-
a computer useable medium having program code embodied in the medium for enabling a user to obtain information from the computer system with user-defined queries, the medium further comprising; program code, responsive to a user-defined query, for identifying a selected portion of the query; program code for storing, in the memory, global location data representing a location in the computer system last selected by the user at the time the user-defined query was submitted; program code for comparing selected portions of the user-defined query with a plurality of predefined location data and for modifying the global location data if one of the predefined location data is found within the selected portion of the user-defined query; program code, responsive to the selected portion of the user-defined query, for comparing the selected portion of the user-defined query with a plurality of predefined information segments; program code, responsive to the program code for comparing, for selecting one of the plurality of information segments which best corresponds to the user-defined query in accordance with a predetermined criteria; and program code, responsive to the selected information segment, for presenting at least a portion of the selected information segment to the user through the user interface. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
-
-
11. An apparatus for use with a computer system comprising:
-
a user interface for receiving a user-defined query; a memory for storing a plurality of predefined information segments and global location data representing a location in the computer system last selected by the user at the time the user-defined query was submitted; program logic configured to compare selected portions of the user-defined query with a plurality of predefined location data and further configured to modify the global location data if one of the predefined location data is found within the selected portion of the user-defined query; program logic responsive to a selected portion of the user-defined query and configured to compare the selected portion of the user-defined query with a plurality of predefined information segments; program logic responsive to the program logic for comparing and configured to select one of the plurality of information segments which best corresponds to the user-defined query in accordance with a predetermined criteria; and program logic configured to present at least a portion of the selected information segment to the user. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. In a computer system having a user interface and a memory, a method of providing information to the user, the method comprising the steps of:
-
A. receiving a query through the user interface, the query being defined by the user in a natural language; B. storing, in the memory, global location data representing a location last selected by the user in the computer system at the time the user-defined query was submitted; C. comparing selected portions of the user-defined guery with a plurality of predefined location data and modifying the global location data if one of the predefined location data is found within the selected portion of the user-defined query; D. selecting from the memory one of a plurality of predefined information segments which corresponds to the query in accordance with a predetermined criteria; and E. presenting at least a portion of the selected information segment to the user through the user interface, as a response to the query. - View Dependent Claims (19)
-
-
20. A computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave comprising:
-
program code, responsive to a user-defined query, for identifying a selected portion of the query; program code for storing, in a memory, global location data representing a location in the computer system last selected by the user at the time the user-defined query was submitted; program code for comparing selected portions of the user-defined query with a plurality of predefined location data and for modifying the global location data if one of the predefined location data is found within the selected portion of the user-defined query; program code, responsive to the selected portion of the user-defined query, for comparing the selected portion of the user-defined query with a plurality of predefined information segments; program code, responsive to the program code for comparing, for selecting one of the plurality of information segments which best corresponds to the user-defined query in accordance with a predetermined criteria; and program code, responsive to the selected information segment, for presenting at least a portion of the selected information segment to the user through the user interface. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29)
-
Specification