Identifying the most relevant computer system state information

• US 7,840,451 B2
• Filed: 11/07/2005
• Issued: 11/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/07/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: SAP SE
• Original Assignee: SAP AG (SAP SE)
• Inventors: Kaiser, Matthias
• Primary Examiner(s): Refai; Ramsey
• Application Number:
  US11/269,780
• Publication Number:
  US 20070174706A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,842 Days
• Field of Search: 709223-224, 705/22, 705/28, 705/7
• US Class Current: 705/28
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/451 Execution arrangements for user interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/203 Inventory monitoring

Abstract

Operations to manage statements relating to a computer system state include obtaining, in a computer system and from any of several sources, statements that relate to a current state of the computer system. Each statement comprises several elements. The operations comprise assigning focus values to the elements of each statement, each focus value indicating a relevance of the element to the current state of the computer system. The operations comprise identifying a subset of the statements based on the focus values. The operations comprise making a first output to a user, the first output being selected from several predefined outputs using the subset of the statements. The output may represent the current state to the user or it may present at least one of several predefined goals to the user for selection, the at least one goal being identified as being possible to accomplish based on the current state.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

obtaining, at a computer system, statements that relate to a current state of an inventory and sales tracking system, each statement being stored in a computer-readable storage device, and identifying a respective item that is being tracked by the inventory and sales tracking system and further identifying a past event that has occurred on the respective item;

identifying one or more items or events that occur most frequently in the statements;

identifying goals that are capable of being accomplished on the identified items, based on the identified items or events;

providing information identifying the goals, as recommended goals, for display on the computer system, to a user;

determining, at the computer system, that the user has selected a particular recommended goal;

identifying one or more predefined actions that are associated with the particular recommended goal; and

performing the predefined actions,

wherein obtaining the statements further comprises;

obtaining a first statement based on a current state of an application program;

obtaining a different, second statement based on a current state of a user input; and

obtaining a different, third statement based on a current state of stored information in a data repository.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the statements are expressed in a first-order predicate calculus.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the events comprise two or more of a past sale event, a past returned event, a past inquiry event, and a past meeting event.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising assessing an ontological impact of each of the statements.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

responsive to identifying the items or events that occur most frequently in the statements, generating a natural-language description of the current state of the inventory and sales tracking system; and

providing the natural-language description of the current state to the user.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the goals comprises two or more of validating, authenticating, authorizing, confirming, or verifying the identified items.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising providing a representation of the current state of the inventory and sales tracking system for display to the user.

8. An inventory and sales tracking system comprising:

one or more computers; and

a computer-readable medium coupled to the one or more computers having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

obtaining statements that relate to a current state of the inventory and sales tracking system, each statement identifying a respective item that is being tracked by the inventory and sales tracking system and further identifying a past event that has occurred on the respective item;

identifying one or more items or events that occur most frequently in the statements;

identifying goals that are capable of being accomplished on the identified items, based on the identified items or events;

providing information identifying the goals, as recommended goals, for display to a user;

determining that the user has selected a particular recommended goal;

identifying one or more predefined actions that are associated with the particular recommended goal; and

performing the predefined actions,

wherein obtaining the statements further comprises;

obtaining a first statement based on a current state of an application program;

obtaining a different, second statement based on a current state of a user input; and

obtaining a different, third statement based on a current state of stored information in a data repository.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the statements are expressed in a first-order predicate calculus.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the events comprise two or more of a past sale event, a past returned event, a past inquiry event, and a past meeting event.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise assessing an ontological impact of each of the statements.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the operations further comprise:

responsive to identifying the items or events that occur most frequently in the statements, generating a natural-language description of the current state of the inventory and sales tracking system; and

providing the natural-language description of the current state to the user.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the goals comprises two or more of validating, authenticating, authorizing, confirming, or verifying the identified items.

14. The system of claim 8, further comprising providing a representation of the current state of the inventory and sales tracking system for display to the user.

15. A computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by data processing apparatus cause the data processing apparatus to perform operations comprising:

obtaining statements that relate to a current state of an inventory and sales tracking system, each statement identifying a respective item that is being tracked by the inventory and sales tracking system and further identifying a past event that has occurred on the respective item;

identifying one or more items or events that occur most frequently in the statements;

identifying goals that are capable of being accomplished on the identified items, based on the identified items or events;

providing information identifying the goals, as recommended goals, for display to a user;

determining that the user has selected a particular recommended goal;

identifying one or more predefined actions that are associated with the particular recommended goal; and

performing the predefined actions,

wherein obtaining the statements further comprises;

obtaining a first statement based on a current state of an application program;

obtaining a different, second statement based on a current state of a user input; and

obtaining a different, third statement based on a current state of stored information in a data repository.

16. The computer storage medium of claim 15, wherein the statements are expressed in a first-order predicate calculus.

17. The computer storage medium of claim 15, wherein the events comprise two or more of a past sale event, a past returned event, a past inquiry event, and a past meeting event.