Engineering expert system
First Claim
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1. An expert system for aiding engineering personnel in a contact lens manufacturing, comprising:
- a user interface for receiving a query from a user regarding an element of business entity'"'"'s industrial environment in which the user works in a contact lens manufacturing related capacity;
a database containing information describing aspects of elements of the business entity'"'"'s industrial environment;
the inference engine subsystem receives the query via the user interface and obtains solution information from the database by matching keyterms in the query, wherein the user interface outputs the solution information to the user;
an inference engine matches keyterms in the query with keyterms associated with rules to select a rule from the database; and
the inference engine obtains a further question from the database associated with the selected rule;
the user interface prompts the user to answer the further question; and
the inference engine determines if solution information associated with a user'"'"'s answer to the further question is available in the database.
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Abstract
An expert system aids engineering personnel working in a manufacturing or other industrial environment by answering questions relating to machines, processes, systems or other elements of the environment. Users can interact with the system using kiosks in the relevant areas of the plant to enter queries and receive answers. A user can enter a query in a natural language format, which the system parses for keywords or keyterms. The system can use a backward chaining method to reach a solution, based upon the user'"'"'s answer to further questions that the system asks the user.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. An expert system for aiding engineering personnel in a contact lens manufacturing, comprising:
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a user interface for receiving a query from a user regarding an element of business entity'"'"'s industrial environment in which the user works in a contact lens manufacturing related capacity; a database containing information describing aspects of elements of the business entity'"'"'s industrial environment; the inference engine subsystem receives the query via the user interface and obtains solution information from the database by matching keyterms in the query, wherein the user interface outputs the solution information to the user; an inference engine matches keyterms in the query with keyterms associated with rules to select a rule from the database; and the inference engine obtains a further question from the database associated with the selected rule; the user interface prompts the user to answer the further question; and the inference engine determines if solution information associated with a user'"'"'s answer to the further question is available in the database. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A computer readable medium in which is tangibly embodied computer program steps for aiding engineering personnel in a contact lens manufacturing, the computer program steps comprising:
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user interface code for receiving a query from a user regarding an element of a business entity'"'"'s industrial environment in which the user works in a contact lens manufacturing capacity; database code containing information describing aspects of elements of the business entity'"'"'s industrial environment; inference engine code for receiving the query via the user interface and obtaining solution information from the database by matching keyterms in the query, wherein the user interface outputs the solution information to the user; the inference engine code matches keyterms in the query with keyterms associated with rules to select a rule from the database; and the inference engine code obtains a further question from the database associated with the selected rule; the user interface code prompts the user to answer the further question; and the inference engine code determines if solution information associated with a user'"'"'s answer to the further question is available in the database. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification