Automatically facilitated support for complex electronic services

• US 7,324,986 B2
• Filed: 06/30/2003
• Issued: 01/29/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Bellsouth Intellectual Property Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: At&T Delaware Intellectual Property, Inc. (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Aaron, Jeffrey A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Mofiz, Apu
• Assistant Examiner(s): Stace, Brent S
• Application Number:
  US10/610,807
• Publication Number:
  US 20040267750A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,674 Days
• Field of Search: 707/5, 707/3
• 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:

receiving input regarding a particular symptom;

determining a first keyword based on the received input;

accessing an index database to obtain information associated with a user;

accessing a deep database structure configured as hierarchical database pages, at least a portion of the database pages including information regarding symptoms and associated keywords;

cycling through the deep database structure to obtain a first database page having at least one keyword that matches the first keyword, the first database page including a plurality of page indexes associated with a second database page of the deep database structure and including at least one prompt for additional information, wherein the second database page is different from the first database page;

providing information regarding symptoms associated with the first database page;

providing the at least one prompt from the first database page;

determining a second keyword based on an association between the at least one prompt and the additional information received in response to the at least one prompt, wherein the second keyword is different from the first keyword;

accessing the second database page of the deep database structure that corresponds to at least one page index of the plurality of page indexes included in the first database page and that is associated with the second keyword; and

providing information regarding symptoms associated with the second database page.

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 the information regarding symptoms from data sections of the first database page and from the second database page in a result accumulator module.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing keyword information from database pages matching keywords determined from input 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 the input to remove extraneous input.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the information regarding symptoms associated with the second database page includes more detailed information in comparison to the information regarding symptoms associated with the first database page.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving 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 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 keyword under examination.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising continuing to cycle through the deep database structure until receiving an exit command 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 cycle through the deep database structure, and presenting intermediate information to the user during each cycle through the deep database structure, wherein the user is guided to 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 information associated with the user;

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

detecting a selection of a first keyword associated with a particular symptom;

cycling through database pages configured as a hierarchy to obtain a second database page including at least one keyword that matches the first keyword, the second database page including a plurality of page indexes associated with further database pages and including at least one prompt for additional information, wherein the second database page is different from the first database page;

providing results associated with the second database page to the user utilizing a presentation module;

providing the at least one prompt from the second database page;

determining a second keyword based on an association between the at least one prompt and the additional information received in response to the at least one prompt, wherein the second keyword is different from the first keyword;

accessing at least one of the further database pages that corresponds to at least one of the plurality of page indexes included in the second database page and that is associated with the second keyword;

providing results associated with the at least one of the further database pages to the user utilizing the presentation module; and

continuing to cycle through the database pages until receiving notification that a 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 information provided along with the selection of the first keyword to remove any extraneous information.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising storing page indexes for database pages that match keywords 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 storage medium comprising:

logic configured to receive input regarding a particular symptom;

logic configured to determine a first keyword based on the received input;

logic configured to access a database structure including database pages, at least a portion of the database pages including information regarding symptoms and associated keywords;

logic configured to cycle through the database structure configured as a hierarchy to obtain a first database page having at least one keyword that matches the first keyword, the first database page including a plurality of page indexes associated with a second database page of the database structure and including at least one prompt for additional information, wherein the second database page is different from the first database page;

logic configured to provide information regarding symptoms associated with the first database page;

logic configured to provide the at least one prompt from the first database page;

logic configured to determine a second keyword based on an association between the at least one prompt and the additional information received in response to the at least one prompt, wherein the second keyword is different from the first keyword;

logic configured to access the second database page of the database structure that corresponds to at least one page index of the plurality of page indexes included in the first database page and that is associated with the second keyword; and

logic configured to provide information regarding symptoms associated with the second database page.

24. The computer-readable storage medium of claim 23, further comprising logic configured to access an index database to obtain information associated with a user.

25. A computer readable storage medium, comprising:

an index database (IDB) configured to include information associated with a user;

a deep database (DDB) structure configured to include database pages, at least a portion of the database pages having a data section including information regarding symptoms and a selector section including associated keywords;

a cycler module configured to;

access the index database to obtain the information associated with the user,

cycle through the deep database structure configured as a hierarchy to obtain a first database page having at least one keyword that matches a first keyword associated with input provided by a user, the first database page including a plurality of page indexes associated with a second database page of the deep database structure and including at least one prompt for additional information, wherein the second database page is different from the first database page,

provide the at least one prompt from the first database page,

determine a second keyword based on an association between the at least one prompt and the additional information received in response to the at least one prompt, wherein the second keyword is different from the first keyword, and

access the second database page of the deep database structure that corresponds to at least one page index of the plurality of page indexes included in the first database page and that is associated with the second keyword; and

a presentation module configured to provide information regarding symptoms associated with the first database page, and the second database page.

26. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25, further comprising a parser for parsing and filtering the user input.

27. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25 further comprising a result accumulator module operatively coupled to the cycler module for storing intermediate results obtained by the cycler module.

28. The computer readable storage medium of claim 27, wherein the presentation module is operatively coupled to the parser, the result accumulator module and a user'"'"'s processing device, the presentation module further configured to format and present results from the result accumulator module to the user'"'"'s processing device.

29. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25, 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 computer readable storage medium of claim 29, wherein the cycler module is further configured to utilize accumulated state information in the state accumulator module to modify the matching and filtering of keywords such that a probability of matching and filtering keywords is changed based upon pre-determined success factors.

31. The computer readable storage medium of claim 25, further comprising a database interface module operatively coupled between the cycler module and the IDB and the DDB structure, the database interface module configured to enable provisioning and access to the IDB and the DDB structure by the cycler module.