Method and knowledge structures for reasoning about concepts, relations, and rules
First Claim
1. A computer system comprising:
- a computer processor linked to one or more users;
an automated information system which is controlled by the computer processor, wherein the computer processor is adapted to receive the user request for information in one or more information domains supported by the automated information system, wherein the automated information system comprises a semantic network system that uses knowledge-based reasoning of information associated with the one or more information domains to perform an automated task in response to the user request and wherein the computer processor uses the automated information system to generate a response back to each users request in the form of a suggested action for addressing a given need or situation of the user or users,wherein the semantic network system comprises a memory system for storing computer readable program data and computer-executable program code, and the computer processor for processing the computer-readable program data and computer-executable program code to instantiate the semantic network system;
wherein the computer-readable program data comprises;
a semantic network comprising a logical structure that represents information relating to one or more information domains supported by the automated information system, the semantic network comprising at least one of a plurality of nodes from a predetermined set of node types, at least one of a plurality of links from a predetermined set of link types, and rules from a predetermined set of rule types, a subset of the rule types being matching rule types, each node and each link being associated with a of rules; and
a network reasoning data structure comprising a reasoning type database having at least one of a plurality of regular expressions, each of the regular expressions being a class of sequences having at least three node types and two link types, wherein the network reasoning data structure further comprising a context being a set of rules; and
wherein the computer-executable program code comprises a reasoning engine to process the computer-readable data and generate reasoning results to perform the automated task in response to the user request, wherein the reasoning engine comprises;
an activator for activating one or more activated paths in the semantic network, the set of activated paths having a common starting node in the semantic network, a validator for selecting a subset of the activated paths being valid paths, each rule from the set of rule matching types that is associated with one or more path elements on each valid path being matched by one or more rules in the context; and
a legal inferencer for selecting a subset of the set of valid paths being legal and valid paths, the legal and valid paths matching at least one of the regular expressions, wherein the legal and valid paths are processed for output as reasoning results that are used to perform the automated task in response to the user request.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system and method for reasoning about concepts, relations and rules having a semantic network comprising at least one node from a predetermined set of node types, at least one link from a predetermined set of link types, and zero or more rules from a predetermined set of rule types, a subset of the rule types being matching rule types, each node and each link being associated with a set of zero or more rules; a network reasoning data structure having a reasoning type database having at least one regular expression, each of the regular expressions being a class of sequences having at least three node types and two link types, wherein the network reasoning data structure further has a context being a set of rules; and a reasoning engine having an activator for activating one or more activated paths in the semantic network, the set of activated paths having a common starting node in the semantic network, wherein the reasoning engine further has a validator for selecting a subset of the activated paths being valid paths, each rule from the set of rule matching types that is associated with one or more path elements on each valid path being matched by one or more rules in the context and wherein the reasoning engine further has a legal inferencer for selecting a subset of the set of valid paths being legal and valid paths, the legal and valid paths matching at least one of the regular expressions.
51 Citations
95 Claims
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1. A computer system comprising:
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a computer processor linked to one or more users; an automated information system which is controlled by the computer processor, wherein the computer processor is adapted to receive the user request for information in one or more information domains supported by the automated information system, wherein the automated information system comprises a semantic network system that uses knowledge-based reasoning of information associated with the one or more information domains to perform an automated task in response to the user request and wherein the computer processor uses the automated information system to generate a response back to each users request in the form of a suggested action for addressing a given need or situation of the user or users, wherein the semantic network system comprises a memory system for storing computer readable program data and computer-executable program code, and the computer processor for processing the computer-readable program data and computer-executable program code to instantiate the semantic network system; wherein the computer-readable program data comprises; a semantic network comprising a logical structure that represents information relating to one or more information domains supported by the automated information system, the semantic network comprising at least one of a plurality of nodes from a predetermined set of node types, at least one of a plurality of links from a predetermined set of link types, and rules from a predetermined set of rule types, a subset of the rule types being matching rule types, each node and each link being associated with a of rules; and a network reasoning data structure comprising a reasoning type database having at least one of a plurality of regular expressions, each of the regular expressions being a class of sequences having at least three node types and two link types, wherein the network reasoning data structure further comprising a context being a set of rules; and wherein the computer-executable program code comprises a reasoning engine to process the computer-readable data and generate reasoning results to perform the automated task in response to the user request, wherein the reasoning engine comprises; an activator for activating one or more activated paths in the semantic network, the set of activated paths having a common starting node in the semantic network, a validator for selecting a subset of the activated paths being valid paths, each rule from the set of rule matching types that is associated with one or more path elements on each valid path being matched by one or more rules in the context; and a legal inferencer for selecting a subset of the set of valid paths being legal and valid paths, the legal and valid paths matching at least one of the regular expressions, wherein the legal and valid paths are processed for output as reasoning results that are used to perform the automated task in response to the user request. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55)
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56. A computer-implemented method for performing automated reasoning in a semantic network comprising the steps of:
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a user providing a request for information to a computer processor linked to the user; the computer processor receiving the user request for information, wherein the user request for information is information in one or more information domains supported by an automated information system which is controlled by the computer processor; the computer processor causing the automated information system to perform an automated reasoning process based on the user request using a semantic network that encodes information relating to one or more information domains supported by the automated information system, to generate reasoning results, wherein the semantic network is a logical structure that represents information relating to the one or more information domains supported by the automated information system, wherein the semantic network comprises at least one of the plurality of nodes from a predetermined set of node types, at least one of a plurality of links from a predetermined set of link types, and rules from a predetermined set of rules types, a subset of the rule types being matching rule types, each node and each link being associated with a set of rules; and performing the automated task using the reasoning results wherein performing an automated reasoning process comprises; for any node in the semantic network, determining if the formulas defining the node are true in a given context, using a predicate calculus theorem prover, wherein such nodes are labeled starting nodes; for each starting node, determine legal paths that start with that node, wherein a legal path is defined as a path that corresponds to an instance of the regular expressions included in the permitted reasoning methods, and a path comprises a concatenation of alternating nodes and links, beginning and ending with a node; traversing legal paths, wherein for each legal path being traversed, the method further comprises; for each link that has a formula associated with it, checking if the formula is true using theorem prover and continuing traversing if the formula is true, otherwise stop pursuing the path; for each node that has a prerequisite formula associated with it, checking if the formula is true using the theorem prover and continuing traversing if the formula is true, otherwise stop pursuing the path; labeling all surviving paths as valid legal paths, wherein each valid legal path is associated with a regular expression; for each valid legal path, adding a derived link corresponding to the regular expression associated with the path; and the computer processor responds back to the request from the user in the form of a suggested action to the user for addressing a given need or situation of the user based upon the information obtained from the automated information network. - View Dependent Claims (57)
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58. A computer server system comprising;
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a computer server linked to one or more users; an automated recommendation system which runs on the computer server, wherein the computer server is adapted to receive the user request for information, wherein the user request for information is in one or more information domains supported by the automated recommendation system, wherein the automated recommendation system comprises a semantic network system that uses knowledge-based reasoning of information associated with the one or more information domains to formulate a recommendation in response to the user request and wherein the computer server uses the automated recommendation system to generate a response back to each user'"'"'s request in the form of a recommendation for addressing a given need or situation of the user or users, the semantic network system comprising; a memory system for storing machine-readable program data comprising; a reasoning path set comprising one or more reasoning paths, each reasoning path being a sequence of reasoning units; a reasoning type database having one or more regular expressions, each reasoning path corresponding to one of the regular expressions in the reasoning type database; the memory system further storing machine-executable program code to process the machine-readable program data and user data to formulate user recommendations, wherein the machine-executable program code comprises; a content transformer transforming each reasoning path to its corresponding display sequence; and a displayer to process for output one or more display sequences providing user recommendations, each display sequence corresponding to a single reasoning path, each display sequence further comprising a sequence of display units. - View Dependent Claims (59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95)
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Specification