×

Conversational problem determination based on bipartite graph

  • US 10,635,521 B2
  • Filed: 12/15/2017
  • Issued: 04/28/2020
  • Est. Priority Date: 12/15/2017
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
Patent Images

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

  • harvesting a set of symptoms from a conversation between the computer and a user, where the set of symptoms is related to a reported problem;

    retrieving a bipartite graph data structure that links possible root causes with possible symptoms from a memory of the computer;

    identifying, by the computer, (i) a set of possible root causes of the reported problem based on the set of symptoms and (ii) a probability for each possible root cause in the set of possible root causes, by using the bipartite graph data structure;

    identifying one or more possible symptoms in addition to the set of symptoms for the set of possible root causes;

    upon determining, by the computer, that at least one possible root cause has a probability that is higher than a threshold, presenting, as part of the conversation, an explanation or solution associated with the at least one possible root cause having a probability that is higher than the threshold; and

    upon determining, by the computer, that none of the possible root causes in the set of possible root causes has a probability higher than the threshold, presenting, as part of the conversation, a question based on an information entropy that is computed based on each of the probabilities of the identified possible root causes of the set of root causes,wherein the presented question is selected from a set of candidate questions that are associated with the identified possible symptoms,wherein selecting the question comprises identifying a candidate question among the set of candidate questions that achieves a greatest reduction in the information entropy,wherein the information entropy is computed based on each of the probabilities of the different possible root causes, andwherein the reduction in the information entropy is computed based on probabilities of (i) different possible symptoms associated with the candidate question and (ii) links between the different possible symptoms associated with the candidate question and the possible root causes.

View all claims
  • 1 Assignment
Timeline View
Assignment View
    ×
    ×