Method, artificially intelligent system and networked complex for facilitating group interactions

• US 7,769,705 B1
• Filed: 03/02/2008
• Issued: 08/03/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 05/21/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ray Anthony Luechtefeld
• Original Assignee: Ray Anthony Luechtefeld
• Inventors: Luechtefeld, Ray Anthony
• Primary Examiner(s): Sparks; Donald
• Assistant Examiner(s): Brown, Jr.; Nathan H
• Application Number:
  US12/074,356
• Time in Patent Office: 884 Days
• Field of Search: 706/47
• US Class Current: 706/47
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

An artificially intelligent or rule-based system to assist teams or groups become more effective by improving the communication process between members of the team or group. The system helps members share information, negotiate more effectively and make better group decisions.

Claims

1. An artificially intelligent system for continuously facilitating a decision making process between at least two participants charged with a specific charter, said charter having an effect upon at least one process, product, apparatus, structure, organization, non-participant and combinations thereof, wherein said artificially intelligent system focuses on selected words in said decision making process, said artificially intelligent system applying rules of intervention known from organizational development, organizational behavior and group intervention/facilitation based upon said selected words, said artificially intelligent system returning inquiries to said decision making process based upon said selected words to guide participants in the decision making process to pursue all threads of said decision making process until all threads are fully considered wherein said inquiries from said artificially intelligent system are transmitted in the same communication format as received.

2. An artificially intelligent system as in claim 1 wherein said inquiries are transmitted to all participants in said decision making process.

3. An artificially intelligent system comprises at least one database containing a plurality of rules, artificial neural network, genetic algorithm, or other form of artificial intelligence, said artificially intelligent system continuously monitoring patterns of interaction indicating repeated occurrence of a particular behavior, comparative words or phrases in an exchange of information between at least two communicators charged with at least one specific charter, said charter having an effect upon at least one process, product, apparatus, structure, organization, another person and combinations thereof, to ferret out obstacles in proper decision making, said obstacles known from the fields of organizational behavior and team facilitation and wherein said artificially intelligent system is continuously active and unconstrained by human facilitator intervention throughout said exchange of information, said means for monitoring patterns of interaction triggers statements of intervention based upon certain of said patterns of communication, certain of said words and certain of said phrases, said artificially intelligent system acting in real-time relying upon guidance gleaned from a knowledge base from the fields of organizational behavior, organization, team management and team function, said knowledge base housed in said database and wherein said patterns of interactions are selected from the group consisting of groupthink, domination of discussion by one or a few members, absence of discussion by at least one member, agreement without discussion or data, ignoring suggestions from one or more members, conformance to management directives or combinations thereof.

4. An artificially intelligent system as in claim 3 wherein said phrases are selected from the group containing at least one of the words clear, definite, absolute, can'"'"'t, impossible, unable, none, should, must, expect, encourage, need and have and cannot or combinations thereof.

5. An artificially intelligent system as in claim 4 wherein said artificially intelligent system generates and communicates a response through said output device requesting clarification of particular obstacles preventing completion as stated.

6. An artificially intelligent system as in claim 3 wherein said means for monitoring patterns of interaction triggers statements of intervention based upon facial expressions or body temperature change.

7. An artificially intelligent system as in claim 6 wherein said artificially intelligent system generates and communicates a response through said output device requesting clarification of definitive words.

8. An artificially intelligent system comprises at least one database containing a plurality of rules, artificial neural network, genetic algorithm, or other form of artificial intelligence, said artificially intelligent system continuously monitoring patterns of interaction indicating repeated occurrence of a particular behavior, comparative words or phrases in an exchange of information between at least two communicators charged with at least one specific charter, said charter having an effect upon at least one process, product, apparatus, structure, organization, another person and combinations thereof, to ferret out obstacles in proper decision making, said obstacles known from the fields of organizational behavior and team facilitation and wherein said artificially intelligent system is continuously active and unconstrained by human facilitator intervention throughout said exchange of information, wherein said means for monitoring patterns of interaction triggers statements of intervention based upon certain of said patterns of communication, certain of said words and certain of said phrases and wherein said words are selected from the group consisting of words ending in -ly, -er or -est or combinations thereof.

9. An artificially intelligent system as in claim 8 wherein said artificially intelligent system generates and communicates a response through said output device requesting specific examples to justify a communicator'"'"'s statement.

10. An artificially intelligent system as in claim 8 wherein said artificially intelligent system generates and communicates a response through said output device requesting clarification of the communicator'"'"'s statement.

11. An artificially intelligent system comprises at least one database containing a plurality of rules, artificial neural network, genetic algorithm, or other form of artificial intelligence, said artificially intelligent system continuously monitoring patterns of interaction indicating repeated occurrence of a particular behavior, comparative words or phrases in an exchange of information between at least two communicators charged with at least one specific charter, said charter having an effect upon at least one process, product, apparatus, structure, organization, another person and combinations thereof, to ferret out obstacles in proper decision making, said obstacles known from the fields of organizational behavior and team facilitation and wherein said artificially intelligent system is continuously active and unconstrained by human facilitator intervention throughout said exchange of information, wherein said means for monitoring patterns of interaction triggers statements of intervention based upon certain of said patterns of communication, certain of said words and certain of said phrases and wherein said comparative words are selected from the group consisting of the words more, less, least, most, greater, lesser, better, faster, worse, slower or combinations thereof.

12. An artificially intelligent system as in claim 11 wherein said artificially intelligent system generates and communicates a response through said output device requesting specificity with regard to said comparative word.

13. A method of facilitating consensus building in team proceedings charged with a specific charger, said method comprising the step of providing a networked complex comprising a plurality of user interfaces, at least one output device, an operating system and an artificially intelligent system, said artificially intelligent system comprising at least one database containing a plurality of rules, a state analyzer, a state history recording device and a scheduling processor, said artificially intelligent system focusing on selected words, comparative words and phrases in exchanges of information between a plurality of communicators to ferret out obstacles in said consensus building, said rules and said obstacles known from the fields of organizational behavior and team facilitation, the next step of allowing said plurality of communicators conversing in said team proceedings to log onto said networked complex through at least one of said plurality of user interfaces, the step of identifying individual communicators of said plurality of communicators, the step of identifying said user interface and said output device of said individual communicators, the step of monitoring and recording communications between said plurality of communicators, the step of instantly communicating said communications to said communicators through said output device, the step of focusing on said selected words, said comparative words and said selected phrases by said artificially intelligent system of said operating system, the step of automatically triggering statements of intervention based upon said selected words, comparative words and phrases to ensure that all threads of said consensus building are fully considered, the step of automatically communicating said statements of intervention to said communicators of said consensus building process based upon certain of said obstacles in said consensus building process, the step of allowing an individual communicator of said plurality of communicators conversing in said team proceedings to log off said networked complex through said at least one user interface upon completion of communications by said individual communicator and the final step of repeating said next through said final steps throughout said team proceedings until a last one of said individual communicators logs off said networked complex.

14. A method as in claim 13 wherein said interfaces are selected from the group comprising hard wired telephones, voice over internet technology, wireless devices, video devices, written text input devices including electronic tablets, microphones or combinations of the above.

15. The method as in claim 13 wherein said output device is selected from the group comprising hard wired telephones, wireless devices, video devices, written text output devices, audio speakers or combinations of the above.

16. A method as in claim 13 wherein said user interface accepts input from multiple, simultaneous users.