System and method of knowledge architecture

• US 6,529,889 B1
• Filed: 07/27/1999
• Issued: 03/04/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/27/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: David Bromberg
• Original Assignee: Acappella Software, Inc.
• Inventors: Roberts, Stephen, Bromberg, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Voeltz, Emanuel Todd
• Assistant Examiner(s): Holmes, Michael B.
• Application Number:
  US09/361,891
• Time in Patent Office: 1,316 Days
• Field of Search: 706/45, 706/59, 706/50, 706/46, 706/47
• US Class Current: 706/45
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/022 Knowledge engineering; Knowledge acquisition

Abstract

The system of knowledge architecture transforms knowledge of an expert by capturing the knowledge as structured content; and using the structured content in a software format. Knowledge is captured by mapping the structured content into topics and questions and/or a structured document, inputting said structured content, and storing said structured content. The structured content is then prepared for use as a specialized software application, next the prepared structured content is presented to a user where interaction with a user in a software format causes the forming of a narrative end-product based upon the data structure that communicates the findings and opinions of the expert knowledge.

Claims

1. An end-product designer and generation system for producing end-products comprising:

A) a means for inputting knowledge information by means of an interface comprising a series of topics and questions in order to define a knowledge base;

B) a means for organizing the information inputted into topics in a hierarchy set to produce a guiding map;

C) a means for combining the hierarchically organized topics and associated questions into structured content and storing the content in a data structure; and

D) a means for forming a narrative end-product basede upon the data structure that communicates findings and opinions of expert knowledge.

2. The end-product designer and generation system of claim 1, wherein said narrative end-product comprises text, graphics and charts.

3. The end-product designer and generation system of claim 1, wherein said narrative end-product is divided into multiple levels of text.

4. The end-product designer and generation system of claim 2, wherein said narrative end-product comprises sections, subsections, paragraphs, sentences, phrases and snippets.

5. The end-product designer and generation system of claim 1, wherein said narrative end-product is formed by a specialized software application that converts the narrative end-product into a presentable format.

6. The end-product designer and generation system of claim 1, wherein said interface comprises first and second display requirements, said first display requirement comprising a second region representing questions of a selected topic.

7. The end-product designer and generation system of claim 1, herein said narrative end-product includes a variety of end-products selectable by the user.

8. The end-product designer and generation system of claim 1, wherein said narrative end-product is editable in an external software application.

9. The system of knowledge architecture providing an open architecture for knowledge, comprising:

A) interactively inputting knowledge of an expert in a particular field of knowledge into a computer

B) transforming the knowledge into structured content, wherein the structured content is composed of a hierarchy of topics and questions or a hierarchically scripted end-product which is used to generate a document; and

C) utilizing the knowledge as structured content.

120. The system according to claim 9, wherein the document is composed of a selection from the group consisting of narratives, charts, graphs and combinations thereof.

10. The system of knowledge architecture providing an open architecture for knowledge, comprising:

A) capturing knowledge as structured content, wherein the structured content is composed of a hierarchy of topics and questions or a hierarchically scripted end-product which is used to generate a document; and

B) using the structured content in software by preparing the structured content for use as software, presenting the structured content to a user in software, interacting the structured content with the user in software, and communicating results of the user interaction with the structured content in the software.

11. The system of knowledge architecture of claim 10 wherein capturing knowledge as structured content includes:

1) mapping the knowledge into structured content;

2) inputting said structured content; and

3) storing said structured content.

12. The system of knowledge architecture of claim 11 wherein the structured content is stored as data in a data structure.

13. The system of knowledge architecture of claim 12 wherein the structured content is stored as data in a data structure and is presented to user as software via a specialized software application shell or interface.

14. The system of knowledge architecture of claim 13 wherein the software does not need to be compiled.

15. The system of knowledge architecture of claim 10 wherein using the structured content in software includes:

1) preparing said structured content for use as software;

2) presenting said structured content to user in software;

3) interacting said structured content with user in software; and

4) communicating results of user interaction with structured content in said software.

16. The system of knowledge architecture of claim 10 wherein the software is a specialized software application.

17. The system of knowledge architecture of claim 10 wherein named choice lists are created to represent a set of possible answers to a multiple choice or pick from a list type of question.

18. The system of knowledge architecture of claim 17 wherein each choice list has one or more named translations which indicate text which is used to replace an answer from a choice list during end product generation.

121. The system according to claim 10, wherein the document is composed of a selection from the group consisting of narratives, charts, graphs and combinations thereof.

19. A software system which utilizes knowledge architecture to provide an open architecture for knowledge:

A) by capturing structured content in a designer development environment, wherein the structured content is composed of a hierarchy of topics and questions or a hierarchically scripted end-product which is used to generate a document; and

B) utilizing the structured content via a specialized software application environment, including preparing the structured content for use as software, presenting the structured content to a user in software, interacting the structured content with the user in software, and communicating results of the user interaction with the structured content in the software.

20. The software system of claim 19 wherein the designer development environment of step A) comprises:

1) a designer interface comprising;

a) a dialog designer, and

b) an end-product designer;

2) a designer definition data structure;

3) a designer project data structure; and

4) a specialized software application formulator.

21. The software system of claim 19 wherein the designer development environment includes a designer interface having a dialog designer and an end-product designer.

22. The software system of claim 21 wherein the dialog designer builds a dialog.

23. The software system of claim 22 wherein the dialog designer captures:

a) topics and questions organized in a hierarchy; and

b) questions and potential answers associated with said questions.

24. The software system of claim 22 wherein the dialog designer visually displays topics and questions organized in a hierarchy and questions and potential answers associated with said questions in a hierarchical format.

25. The software system of claim 21 wherein the end-product designer builds an end-product.

26. The software system of claim 25 wherein the end-product designer captures:

a) document infrastructure organized into a hierarchy; and

b) logical and data relationships between end-product and dialog.

27. The software system of claim 26 wherein the end-product designer:

(1) is used to construct a narrative from components necessary to produce such a narrative;

(2) links said narrative back to topics and questions of dialog; and

(3) constructs graphs and tables from the data associated with the use of a specialized software application.

28. The software system of claim 27 wherein every level has formatting properties which determine the display of the text that is assembled into it.

29. The software system of claim 26 wherein the document comprises text, charts, graphs or tables.

30. The software system of claim 26 wherein the document infrastructure comprises levels of sections, subsections, paragraphs, sentences, phrases and snippets.

31. The software system of claim 30 wherein sections, subsections, paragraphs, sentences, and phrases of the document infrastructure are organizing levels.

32. The software system of claim 31 wherein at every organizing level of the end-product designer there is a condition property which determines whether that organizing level and its children are processed.

33. The software system of claim 31 wherein an action container is an organizing level that has no direct parent or subordinate and is used to mimic the grouping capability of the organizing level that is its parent.

34. The software system of claim 30 wherein snippets are used to generate written words.

35. The software system of claim 30 wherein snippets are assembled into phrases and sentences which in turn are then assembled into paragraphs and then further assembled into subsections and sections.

36. The software system of claim 25 wherein an end-product analysis facility processes any selected level of an end-product hierarchy and its children and produces all permutations of any potential resulting narrative.

37. The software system of claim 36 wherein the end-product analysis facility processes through a selected level of the end-product hierarchy and its children to determine the topics and questions which contribute to that selected portion of end-product script and then all possible combination of results for those topics and questions can be used to produce every possible permutation of narrative that the selected portion of end-product script can generate.

38. The software system of claim 36 wherein the end-product analysis facility comprises:

(a) the ability to select a starting level in the end-product hierarchy;

(b) the facility to determine all children of the starting level;

(c) the facility to determine all dialog containers which exist in the starting level and its children;

(d) the facility to determine possible answers for each dialog container;

(e) the ability to display a list of dialog containers;

(f) the ability to allow the user to select and lock down possible answers;

(g) the ability to process through all possible permutations of answers;

(h) the ability to display all resulting narratives for each combination of answers.

39. The software system of claim 21 wherein each level of a dialog or an end-product have associated properties which control features of display, determine aspects of behavior, and control processing into a specialized software application.

40. The software system of claim 21 wherein raw structured content of the dialog designer and the end-product designer comprises levels, which in conjunction with properties associated therewith make up containers.

41. The software system of claim 19 wherein the designer development environment includes a designer definition data structure.

42. The software system of claim 41 wherein the designer development environment includes a designer definition data structure having the definitions, properties, and rules for levels in dialogs and end-products.

43. The software system of claim 42 wherein the designer definition data structure comprises:

(a) a table that uniquely defines each level of dialog or end-product as a collection of properties and default values for those properties; and

(b) a hierarchical rules data table which determines relationships between levels within dialogs and within end-products.

44. The software system of claim 19 wherein the designer development environment includes a designer project data structure.

45. The software system of claim 44 wherein a designer project data structure contains unprocessed structured content.

46. The software system of claim 45 wherein the designer project data structure comprises:

(a) a container table comprising name, unique identifying number, and other properties that are common to each container added via the designer project data structure;

(b) a container properties table containing properties that are unique to each container level added via the designer project data structure and the corresponding value for the property as provided by an expert; and

(c) a container hierarchy table that holds information about relationships between each container level in a dialog designer tree.

47. The software system of claim 19 wherein the designer development environment includes a formulator.

48. The software system of claim 47 wherein a formulator prepares structured content for presentation and use through an interface.

49. The software system of claim 48 wherein the formulator:

(a) combines data from a designer definition data structure and designer project data structure and prepares dialog and end-product structured content from a designer project data structure, placing resulting data in a specialized software application definition data structure;

(b) initializes a specialized software application interaction data structure and establishes a data infrastructure for dialog topics and questions.

50. The software system of claim 48 wherein the formulator prepares dialog and end-product structured content for utilization by:

(a) offering a selection of which dialogs and end-products within a raw specialized software application are to constitute a finished specialized software application;

(b) determining which containers are active and therefore constitute a specialized software application;

(c) using a topic hierarchy from dialogs to populate a hierarchical topic table in a specialized software application definition data structure;

(d) determining display properties of questions and populating a form definition table in a specialized software application definition data structure;

(e) copying choice list tables from a designer project data structure to the specialized software application definition data structure;

(f) copying container properties from the designer project data structure into the specialized software application definition data structure;

(g) passing scripting logic for end-products from the designer project data structure into the specialized software application definition data structure;

(h) initializing a specialized software application interaction data structure; and

(i) establishing data infrastructure from dialog topics and questions.

51. The software system of claim 19 wherein the specialized software application environment comprises:

1) at least one specialized software application definition data structure;

2) at least one specialized software application interaction data structure;

3) a specialized software application interface for presentation and interaction with structured content which comprises;

a) a dialog manager;

b) an end-product manager; and

c) an administrative manager;

and produces an end-product.

52. The software system of claim 19 wherein the specialized software application environment includes at least one specialized software application definition data structure.

53. The software system of claim 52 wherein the specialized software application definition data structure comprises:

a) a topic hierarchy table;

b) a form table containing display properties of questions;

c) a container properties table containing all container properties;

d) an end-product scripting table; and

e) a choice list and translation table.

54. The software system of claim 19 wherein the specialized software application environment includes a specialized application interaction data structure used to store answers to questions and information from use of a specialized software application.

55. The software system of claim 19 wherein the specialized software application environment includes a specialized software application interface having a dialog manager.

56. The software system of claim 55 wherein the dialog manager comprises:

a) an assessment selection component; and

b) a content interaction component.

57. The software system of claim 55 wherein the dialog manager comprises:

a) an assessment selection component which comprises;

i. an option to create a new assessment and new subject;

ii. an option to reassess a subject, using information from an existing assessment for that subject;

or

iii. an option to continue work on an existing assessment;

b) a content interaction component which comprises;

i. a topic initiation sequence;

ii. answering of questions by a specialized software application user;

iii. a choice of methods for moving to another topic in a topic hierarchy; and

iv. a topic closure sequence of events.

58. The software system of claim 57 wherein the topic initiation sequence comprises:

a) retrieval of display properties for a topic from a form definition table in a specialized software application definition data structure;

b) dynamic generation of the topic from the display properties;

c) setting of default values for each question of the topic;

d) setting of previously answered questions from a specialized software application interaction data structure;

e) accessing external data structures to retrieve values for questions on the topic;

f) execution of any additional user programs;

g) retrieval of a tip for the topic; and

h) indication of the current topic to the specialized software application user.

59. The software system of claim 57 wherein the topic closure sequence comprises:

a) execution of external programs;

b) saving answers to questions back to a specialized software application interaction data structure or to an external data structure;

c) rollup processing; and

d) fast key processing.

60. The software system of claim 59 wherein the rollup processing includes an inverse propagation event which occurs that carries information from the questions up through a hierarchical layout of topics and sets all parent containers to true if an answer exists within any child container.

61. The software system of claim 60 wherein the rollup processing comprises:

a) each container in a dialog carrying information regarding activity within subordinate containers;

b) for every question that is answered, a parent data element is set to true;

c) corresponding parent containers having a data element set to true when a child container is set to true; and

d) continued processing of parents in a topic hierarchy setting subsequent parent data elements to true if necessary.

62. The software system of claim 60 wherein rollup processing is controlled by a rollup property associated with each container and set when building a dialog using the dialog designer.

63. The software system of claim 60 where true flags are supplemented by weighted scores which carry numeric propagation up through a topic and question hierarchy during rollup processing.

64. The software system of claim 57 wherein during the fast key processing stop points on a dialog tree have been set by an expert within a dialog using the dialog designer, and a user utilizing the fast key processing is automatically jumped to all set stop points in a dialog tree.

65. The software system of claim 19 wherein the specialized software application environment includes a specialized software application interface having an end-product manager.

66. The software system of claim 65 wherein the end-product manager comprises:

a) selection of any number of end-products from a list of end-products;

b) selection of sections of end-products to be generated; and

c) generation of end-product by an end-product generation component.

67. The software system of claim 66 wherein the end-product generation component includes a wrap list function which formats text that is assembled into a container by positioning, the use of commas or other text delimiters, and the placement of conjunctions between incoming snippets and phrases.

68. The software system of claim 66 wherein the end-product generation component determines capitalization, spacing and positioning of blank lines.

69. The software system of claim 66 wherein a wrap list function is controlled by a wrap list property set when building an end-product using the end-product manager.

70. The software system of claim 66 wherein the end-product generation component moves through an end-product hierarchical script as developed by an end-product designer, moving deeper into the script as each condition for a script is determined to be true, the end-product generation component gathering snippets and phrases into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, and paragraphs into subsections and sections to produce a written narrative.

71. The software system of claim 66 wherein the end-product generation component comprises:

a) a script hierarchy;

b) a target container as a starting point in the script hierarchy;

c) using answers to specialized software application questions to determine if a condition for the target container resolves to true;

d) initial formatting of text belonging to the target container;

e) analysis of conditions for child containers of a target container to determine if that child container conditions are found to be true;

f) continued analysis of child containers of containers whose condition are true until snippets containers are reached;

g) gathering of text provided by snippets into phrases or sentences;

h) phrases gathered into sentences;

i) sentences gathered into paragraphs;

j) paragraphs gathered into subsections or sections;

k) subsections gathered into sections; and

l) formatting at each level as gathering is completed.

72. The software system of claim 66 wherein the end-product generation component can randomly select between alternative versions of sections, subsections, paragraphs, sentences, phrases, and snippets.

73. The software system of claim 66 wherein the end-product is placed in a file.

74. The software system of claim 66 wherein the end-product is placed in an external application.

75. The software system of claim 74 wherein the external application is a word processor.

76. The software system of claim 19, wherein the specialized software application environment includes a designer interface having an administrative manager.

77. The software system of claim 76 wherein the administrative manager passes information between the specialized software application interface and the specialized software application interaction data structure.

78. The software system of claim 76 wherein the administrative manager stores information that the specialized software application provides to a user during interaction.

79. The software system of claim 76 wherein the administrative manager establishes and tracks the status of assessments.

80. The software system of claim 19 wherein the specialized software application environment permits a user to navigate topics.

81. The software system of claim 80 wherein the specialized software application environment includes a dialog tree from which a user may select a topic.

82. The software system of claim 80 wherein the specialized software application environment includes at least one navigation button.

83. The software system of claim 80 wherein the specialized software application environment includes a find facility.

84. The software system of claim 80 wherein the specialized software application environment includes a fast key system.

85. The software system of claim 19 wherein the designer development environment and a software application interface are accessed via personal computers as a software application.

86. The software system of claim 19 wherein the designer development environment and a software application interface are accessed via the World Wide Web as a web page.

87. The software system of claim 19 wherein the designer development environment and a software application interface are accessed on a personal digital assistant.

88. The software system of claim 19 wherein the structured content includes containers, and every container that has been copied or otherwise duplicated within a hierarchy of topics and questions has been instanced and given multiple contexts;

and upon use of a corresponding specialized software application, answers provided for containers associated with a given container instance are immediately reflected in all other container instances.

89. The software system of claim 88 wherein an instanced container can be uninstanced causing an instanced container to be treated as a unique container thereby breaking all linkages between a container and its instances.

122. The software system according to claim 19, wherein the document is composed of a selection from the group consisting of narratives, charts, graphs and combinations thereof.

90. A dialog designer which builds dialog for use by an end-product designer within a software system utilizing knowledge architecture by capturing structured content in a designer development environment and utilizing said structured content via a specialized software application environment, the dialog designer comprising:

a) means for capturing topics and questions organized into a hierarchy;

b) means for building a dialog of structured content based upon the captured topics and questions organized into a hierarchy.

91. The dialog designer of claim 90 further including means for capturing questions and potential answers associated with said questions.

92. The dialog designer of claim 90 wherein the hierarchy of topics is organized into increasingly detailed levels of organization.

93. The dialog designer of claim 92 wherein the detailed levels of organization include sections, subsections, topic groups, topics and question groups.

94. The dialog designer of claim 92 including a dialog designer tree which displays levels in a hierarchical relationship.

95. The dialog designer of claim 92 wherein each level has its own set of properties and the level with its associated set of properties makes up a container.

96. The dialog designer of claim 95 wherein the container is displayed on a dialog designer tree in a manner showing the hierarchy of containers.

97. The dialog designer of claim 95 wherein each container includes level types including dialog, section, subsection, topic group, topic, question group and question.

98. The dialog designer of claim 97 wherein the container may be added, modified, copied or moved.

99. The dialog designer of claim 90 wherein the questions take the form of true/false, yes/no, multiple-choice, date, time, text, or numeric response.

100. The dialog designer of claim 90 further including means for visually displaying topics and questions organized into a hierarchy and questions and potential answers associated with said questions in a hierarchical format.

101. The end-product designer which designs a document within a software system utilizing knowledge architecture by capturing structured content as a hierarchically scripted end-product, in a designer development environment and utilizing said structured content via a specialized software application, the end-product designer comprising:

a) means for designing document infrastructure organized as a hierarchically scripted end-product;

b) means for capturing logical and data relationships between hierarchically scripted end-product and dialog; and

c) means for applying the document infrastructure and the relationships to create a document generated from a hierarchically scripted end-product.

102. The end-product designer of claim 101 wherein the means for applying includes:

(1) means for constructing a narrative from components necessary to produce such a narrative;

(2) means for linking said narrative back to topics and questions of dialog; and

(3) means for constructing graphs and tables from the data associated with the use of a specialized software application.

103. The end-product designer of claim 102 wherein every level has formatting properties which determine the display of the text that is assembled into it.

104. The end-product designer of claim 101 wherein the document comprises text, charts, graphs or tables.

105. The end-product designer of claim 101 wherein the document infrastructure comprises levels of sections, subsections, paragraphs, sentences, phrases and snippets.

106. The end-product designer of claim 105 wherein sections, subsections, paragraphs, sentences, and phrases of the document infrastructure are organizing levels.

107. The end-product designer of claim 106 wherein at every organizing level of the end-product designer there is a condition property which determines whether that organizing level and its children are processed.

108. The end-product designer of claim 106 wherein an action container is an organizing level that has no direct parent or subordinate and is used to mimic the grouping capability of the organizing level that is its parent.

109. The end-product designer of claim 105 wherein snippets are used to generate a written word.

110. The end-product designer of claim 105 wherein snippets are assembled into phrases and sentences which in turn are then assembled into paragraphs and then further assembled into subsections and sections.

111. The end-product designer of claim 101 wherein an end-product analysis facility processes any selected level of the end-product hierarchy and its children and produces all permutations of any potential resulting narrative.

112. The end-product designer of claim 111 wherein the end-product analysis facility processes through a selected level of the end-product hierarchy and its children to determine the topics and questions which contribute to that selected portion of end-product script and then all possible combination of results for those topics and questions can be used to produce every possible permutation of narrative that the selected portion of end-product script can generate.

113. The end-product designer of claim 111 wherein the end-product analysis facility comprises:

(a) means for selecting a starting level in the end-product hierarchy;

(b) means for determining all children of the starting level;

(c) means for determining all dialog containers which exist in the starting level and its children;

(d) means for determining the possible answers for each dialog container;

(e) means for displaying a list of dialog containers;

(f) means for allowing the user to select and lock down possible answers;

(g) means for processing through all possible permutations of answers; and

(h) means for displaying all resulting narratives for each combination of answers.

123. The end-product designer according to claim 101, wherein the document is composed of a selection from the group consisting of narratives, charts, graphs and combinations thereof.

114. A method for providing a user community with expert knowledge, comprising the following steps:

1) building a specialized software application capable of making expert knowledge available to the user community, building the specialized software application includes the steps of capturing structured content in a designer development environment, wherein the structured content is composed of a hierarchy of topics and questions or a hierarchically scripted end-product, and utilizing the structured content via a specialized software application, the step of utilizing including preparing the structured content for use as software, presenting the structured content to a user in software, interacting the structured content with the user in software, and communicating results of the user interaction with the structured content in the software as a document generated from the hierarchically scripted end-product;

2) receiving a request from a user for expert knowledge; and

3) providing expert knowledge to the user via the specialized software application.

115. The method according to claim 114, wherein the end-product is a narrative which communicates findings and opinions based upon the expert knowledge provided via the specialized software application.

116. The method according to claim 114, wherein the document is composed of a selection from the group consisting of narratives, charts, graphs and combinations thereof.

117. The method according to claim 114, wherein the end-product includes charts and graphs.

118. The method according to claim 114, wherein the step of providing expert knowledge includes communicating resulting expert knowledge to the user in a narrative.

119. The method according to claim 114, wherein an expert directly builds the specialized software application.

124. A software system having an open knowledge architecture comprising:

A. a designer development environment that captures structured content and prepares the structured content for subsequent use, the structured content comprising (i) a hierarchy of topics and questions related to a specific subject matter, and (ii) an end-product script, wherein the structured content has been developed and organized by an expert having expertise in the specific subject matter, and wherein properties of the structured content are determined by the expert and used by the software system to capture and prepare the structured content; and

B. a software application environment that utilizes the structured content by (i) dynamically presenting a dialog of the topics and questions to a user having information related to the specific subject matter of the topics and questions, (ii) providing for navigation by the user within the topics and questions to provide answers to the questions, and (iii) processing the answers through the end-product script to generate an end-product selected from the group consisting of;

narratives charts, graphs, and combinations thereof.