System and method to facilitate user thinking about an arbitrary problem with output and interfaces to external systems, components and resources

• US 7,685,085 B2
• Filed: 02/20/2007
• Issued: 03/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Zxibix Inc.
• Original Assignee: Zxibix Inc.
• Inventors: Heidenreich, James Ralph, Higgins, Linda Shawn
• Primary Examiner(s): Vincent; David R
• Assistant Examiner(s): COUGHLAN, PETER D
• Application Number:
  US11/709,118
• Publication Number:
  US 20070265992A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,127 Days
• Field of Search: 706/45, 706/46, 706/47
• US Class Current: 706/45
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models

Abstract

Preferred embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for facilitating user thinking about an arbitrary problem, as well as providing capabilities to output to and interface with external or additional computer systems, resources, or devices, or any combination thereof. The system includes first logic to facilitate user specification of a problem structure, second logic to facilitate user specification of a conclusion structure, third logic to facilitate specification of a knowledge structure, related to the arbitrary problem. The system further includes output and interface logic to accomplish interfacing with a plurality of external or additional computer systems, information sources, resources, or devices.

Claims

1. A system for facilitating user thinking about an arbitrary problem with interfacing with at least one of an additional resource, computer system or device, comprising:

one or more computer readable media having processor executable instructions for implementing said system, said instructions comprising;

instructions to facilitate user specification of the problem to populate a problem statement structure;

instructions to facilitate user specification of a conclusion, related to the problem specification, to populate a conclusion statement structure;

instructions to facilitate user specification of knowledge, related to at least one of the problem specification and the conclusion specification, to populate a knowledge structure;

Control instructions to persuade user interaction with the facilitation instructions to a sequence of interactions within a predefined set of interaction sequences, wherein the predefined set of interactions define an archetype process for user thinking about the problem;

At least one of instructions to display, instructions to store and instructions to output, at least a subset of the resulting user structure including a linkage view of a knowledge construct for a user selected component of the structure, shown as the component in the center of the representation; and

Interface instructions to generate at least one transmittal to or receive at least one transmittal from at least one of an additional resource, computer system or device.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising control instructions to persuade user interaction additionally with the interface instructions.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to evaluate or validate at least one transmittal to the system for facilitating user thinking about an arbitrary problem.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to evaluate the content of at least one transmittal to the system for facilitating user thinking about an arbitrary problem.

5. The system of claim 4 wherein the instructions to evaluate includes parsing of the content.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the evaluation includes parsing according to predefined parameters.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to provide at least a subset of the user structure or information to at least one of an additional resource, computer system or device.

8. The system of claim 1 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to provide at least one of information from the archetype process or the user interactions, or both, to at least one of an additional resource, computer system or device.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to receive content from at least one of an external resource, computer system or device.

10. The system of claim 9 wherein the content is received to the user structure.

11. The system of claim 9 wherein the content is received to at least one of the interactions of the archetype process or the archetype process, or both.

12. The system of claim 1 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to manage at least one additional source of information for the system for facilitating user thinking about an arbitrary problem.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the instructions to manage an external source of information includes instructions to create a request for information to an additional source of information.

14. The system of claim 1 wherein the system includes instructions to evaluate at least one of the user model structure, user interactions and the archetype process.

15. The system of claim 14 further including instructions to generate an information request related thereto.

16. The system of claim 12 wherein the at least one additional source of information includes at least one search engine.

17. The system of claim 12 wherein the at least one additional source of information includes at least one third party agent.

18. The system of claim 12 wherein the at least one additional source of information includes at least one external data base.

19. The system of claim 12 wherein the at least one additional source of information includes at least one web service.

20. The system of claim 12 wherein the external source of information includes at least one additional computer system.

21. The system of claim 1 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to process a request from an external computer system, resource, or component, related to at least one of the user model structure, user interactions and the archetype process.

22. The system of claim 1 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to receive and process a transmittal from an external source and transmit input to at least one of an interaction within the set of interaction sequences or the archetype process, or both.

23. The system of claim 1 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to activate or otherwise request an action or response from an external resource, computer system or device.

24. The system of claim 1 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to receive and process results of an action or response by an external resource, computer system or device.

25. The system of claim 23 wherein the external resource is a web service.

26. The system of claim 25 wherein the request is accomplished through the use of a SOAP protocol.

27. The system of claim 23 wherein the request for an action or response is generated from at least one of an interaction of the set of interaction sequences of the archetype process, the user structure, or the archetype process.

28. The system of claim 1 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to provide output to at least one of an external resource, computer system or device, from at least one interaction of the set of interaction sequences of the archetype process or the archetype process, or both.

29. The system of claim 28 wherein the output is related to at least one of the user model structure or the archetype process.

30. The system of claim 1 wherein the archetype process is a dynamic process that changes in response to the user structure.

31. The system of claim 1 wherein the archetype process includes multiple or alternative starting points.

32. The system of claim 1 wherein the archetype process includes multiple or alternative paths of interactions.

33. A system for facilitating user thinking about an arbitrary problem with interfacing with at least one of an additional resource, computer system or device, comprising:

one or more computer readable media having processor executable instructions for implementing said system, said instructions comprising;

instructions to facilitate user specification of the problem to populate a problem statement structure;

instructions to facilitate user specification of a conclusion statement, related to the problem statement, to populate a conclusion statement structure;

instructions to facilitate user specification of knowledge, related to at least one of the problem statement and the conclusion statement, to populate a knowledge structure;

Model instructions to construct a resulting user model structure;

Structure analysis instructions to analyze the user model structure relative to an archetype model structure;

At least one of instructions to display, instructions to store and instructions to output, at least a subset of the resulting user structure including a linkage view of a knowledge construct for a user selected component of the structure, shown as the component in the center of the representation; and

Interface instructions to generate at least one transmittal to or receive at least one transmittal from at least one of an additional resource, computer system or device.

34. The system of claim 33 further comprising model instructions to track user interaction additionally with the interface instructions.

35. The system of claim 33 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to evaluate or validate at least one transmittal to the system for facilitating user thinking about an arbitrary problem.

36. The system of claim 33 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to evaluate the content of at least one transmittal to the system for facilitating user thinking about an arbitrary problem.

37. The system of claim 36 wherein the instructions to evaluate includes parsing of the content.

38. The system of claim 37 wherein the evaluation includes parsing according to predefined parameters.

39. The system of claim 33 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to provide at least a subset of the user model structure or the archetype model structure, or both, to at least one of an additional resource, computer system or device.

40. The system of claim 33 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to receive content from at least one of an additional resource, computer system or device.

41. The system of claim 40 wherein the content is received to at least one of the user structure or the archetype model structure, or both.

42. The system of claim 33 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to manage an external source of information for the system for facilitating user thinking about an arbitrary problem.

43. The system of claim 42 wherein the instructions to manage an external source of information includes instructions to create a request for information to an external source of information.

44. The system of claim 33 wherein the system includes instructions to evaluate at least one of the user model structure and the archetype model structure, or both, and includes instructions to generate a request of an additional computer system, resource, or device, related thereto.

45. The system of claim 42 wherein the instructions to manage an external source of information includes instructions to receive information from an external source of information.

46. The system of claim 42 wherein the external source of information includes at least one search engine.

47. The system of claim 42 wherein the external source of information includes at least one third party agent.

48. The system of claim 42 wherein the external source of information includes at least one external data base.

49. The system of claim 42 wherein the external source of information includes at least one additional computer system.

50. The system of claim 33 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to process a request from an external computer system, resource, or device.

51. The system of claim 33 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to receive and process a transmittal from an external source and transmit input to at least one instructions portion of the system.

52. The system of claim 33 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to activate or otherwise request an action or response from an external resource, computer system or device.

53. The system of claim 33 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to receive and process results of an action or response by an external resource, computer system or device.

54. The system of claim 52 wherein the external resource is a web service.

55. The system of claim 54 wherein the request is accomplished through the use of the SOAP protocol.

56. The system of claim 52 wherein the request for an action or response is generated from at least one of an interaction within the system, the user model structure and the archetype structure.

57. The system of claim 33 wherein the interface instructions includes instructions to create output to at least one of an external resource, computer system or device.

58. The system of claim 57 wherein the output is information related to at least one of the user model structure or the archetype model structure, or both.

59. The system of claim 33 wherein the archetype model structure is a dynamic structure that changes in response to the user structure.

60. The system of claim 33 wherein the archetype model structure is specified in a set of rules specifying relationships among at least a subset of the problem structure, conclusion structure, and knowledge structure.