Intelligent user assistance facility for a software program

• US 6,260,035 B1
• Filed: 11/20/1998
• Issued: 07/10/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 07/19/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Horvitz, Eric, Heckerman, David E., Hovel, David O., Klein, Adrian C., Breese, John S., Shaw, Gregory L., Hobson, Samuel D., Rommelse, Jacobus A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Powell, Mark R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): KHATRI, ANIL
• Application Number:
  US09/197,159
• Time in Patent Office: 963 Days
• Field of Search: 706/11, 706/45-47, 706/50, 706/52, 706/59-61, 707/1, 707/100, 707/104, 707/200, 707/2, 707/16, 707/201, 707/501
• US Class Current: 706/60
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/453 Help systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/00 Computing arrangements using knowledge-based models
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99943 Generating database or data structure, e.g. via user interface

Abstract

A general event composing and monitoring system that allows high-level events to be created from combinations of low-level events. An event specification tool allows for rapid development of a general event processor that creates high-level events from combinations of user actions. The event system, in combination with a reasoning system, is able to monitor and perform inference about several classes of events for a variety of purposes. The various classes of events include the current context, the state of key data structures in a program, general sequences of user inputs, including actions with a mouse-controlled cursor while interacting with a graphical user interface, words typed in free-text queries for assistance, visual information about users, such as gaze and gesture information, and speech information. Additionally, a method is provided for building an intelligent user interface system by constructing a reasoning model to compute the probability of alternative user'"'"'s intentions, goals, or informational needs through analysis of information about a user'"'"'s actions, program state, and words. The intelligent user interface system monitors user interaction with a software application and applies probabilistic reasoning to sense that the user may need assistance in using a particular feature or to accomplish a specific task. The intelligent user interface also accepts a free-text query from the user asking for help and combines the inference analysis of user actions and program state with an inference analysis of the free-text query. The inference system accesses a rich, updatable user profile system to continually check for competencies and changes assistance that is given based on user competence.

Claims

1. An event processor in a computing device having an event source comprising:

a local store for temporarily storing low-level events;

a composer for generating high-level modeled events from at least one or more of the low-level events, according to event composition rules defined in an event specification; and

a database for storing the high-level modeled events generated.

2. The event processor of claim 1, wherein the events stored in the local store are assigned a horizon.

3. The event processor of claim 1, wherein the modeled events generated have an assigned horizon.

4. The event processor of claim 1, wherein the events are user-interface actions.

5. The event processor of claim 1, wherein the source of events is chosen from the group consisting of a software program, a software library or an instantiated object.

6. The event processor of claim 1, wherein the events are atomic events and the composer generates modeled events from one or more atomic events.

7. The event processor of claim 1 wherein the events are atomic events and the composer generates modeled events from one or more atomic events and from one or more modeled events.

8. The event processor of claim 1 wherein the composer generates modeled events from one or more modeled events.

9. The event processor of claim 1 wherein the local store is a circular queue.

10. The event processor of claim 1 wherein the local store is a database.

11. The event processor of claim 1 wherein the database for storing the modeled events is in system cache.

12. The event processor of claim 1, wherein there is a single record for every modeled event for that database.

13. The event processor of claim 1 wherein the database contains records that include a set of counters of the number of times a modeled event has occurred.

14. The event processor of claim 1 wherein a record of the database contains horizon and probability dynamics information.

15. The event processor of claim 1 wherein a record of the database is marked for persistent storage.

16. The event processor of claim 1, wherein the modeled events generated are logical events.

17. The event processor of claim 1, wherein there is a separate database for each source of events that stores the modeled events generated.

18. The event processor of claim 1, wherein there is a separate database for each source of events that stores the modeled events generated and a general database that stores common system or application events.

19. A computer readable medium having computer executable components of claim 1.

20. An event system specification tool for a computing device comprising:

an event language for specifying construction of high-level modeled events from at least one or more low-level events by statements indicating operations on at least the one or more low-level events; and

an event language interpreter for translating the statements of the event language into a target code language.

21. The event system specification tool of claim 20, wherein the event language interpreter is used for translating statements of the event language into modeled database definitions.

22. The event system specification tool of claim 20, wherein the event language includes temporal operators.

23. The event system specification tool of claim 20, wherein the event language includes Boolean operators.

24. The event system specification tool of claim 20, wherein the event language includes set-theoretic operators.

25. The event system specification tool of claim 20, wherein the modeled events are some of the variables of a reasoning model and the event language includes temporal functions that define the persistence of probabilistic relationships between one or more modeled events, the temporal functions decaying probabilities associated with the one or more modeled events as the one or more modeled events are increasingly distant from a present time.

26. The event system specification tool of claim 20, wherein the modeled events are some of the variables of a reasoning model and the event language includes temporal functions that define the persistent of probabilistic relationships between one or more modeled events and one or more other variables in the reasoning model, the temporal functions decaying probabilities associated with the one or more modeled events as the one or more modeled events are increasingly distant from a present time.

27. The event system specification tool of claim 26, wherein the reasoning model is a Bayesian network.

28. The event system specification tool of claim 26, wherein the reasoning model is rule-based.

29. A computer readable medium having computer executable components of claim 20.

30. The event system specification tool of claim 22, wherein a temporal operator is chosen from the group consisting of rate, sequence and dwell.