Patent Application
20180341870
Today's computer systems employ user dialog sessions to assist a user in performing tasks such as software installation, system configuration, etc. At times, a user may be unsure as to which option to select for a particular question in the user dialog session. In these situations, the user either randomly chooses an option or exits the user dialog session altogether.
When the user randomly chooses an option and later changes his/her mind, the user typically is required to start a new user dialog session because the user is not allowed to “back track” steps in the user dialog session. In a large decision tree, this may require the user to re-enter several answers until the user reaches the point at which the user wishes to enter a different option than what was entered during the first user dialog session. In addition, if the system automatically chooses an option on behalf of the user and the user does not like the system's selection, the user is unable to request the system to select a different option.
According to one embodiment of the present disclosure, an approach is provided in which a system provides a question and a set of options to a user. The question corresponds to a first node in a decision tree and at least a portion of the options correspond to nodes that are directly connected to the first node. The system determines that the user's response corresponds to a second node that is different than one of the directly connected nodes and, in turn, displays a second question to the user corresponding to the second node.
The foregoing is a summary and thus contains, by necessity, simplifications, generalizations, and omissions of detail; consequently, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the summary is illustrative only and is not intended to be in any way limiting. Other aspects, inventive features, and advantages of the present disclosure, as defined solely by the claims, will become apparent in the non-limiting detailed description set forth below.
The present disclosure may be better understood, and its numerous objects, features, and advantages made apparent to those skilled in the art by referencing the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure. As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification, specify the presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof.
The corresponding structures, materials, acts, and equivalents of all means or step plus function elements in the claims below are intended to include any structure, material, or act for performing the function in combination with other claimed elements as specifically claimed. The description of the present disclosure has been presented for purposes of illustration and description, but is not intended to be exhaustive or limited to the disclosure in the form disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the disclosure. The embodiment was chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the disclosure and the practical application, and to enable others of ordinary skill in the art to understand the disclosure for various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.
The present invention may be a system, a method, and/or a computer program product. The computer program product may include a computer readable storage medium (or media) having computer readable program instructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of the present invention.
The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that can retain and store instructions for use by an instruction execution device. The computer readable storage medium may be, for example, but is not limited to, an electronic storage device, a magnetic storage device, an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storage device, a semiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of the computer readable storage medium includes the following: a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), a static random access memory (SRAM), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD), a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanically encoded device such as punch-cards or raised structures in a groove having instructions recorded thereon, and any suitable combination of the foregoing. A computer readable storage medium, as used herein, is not to be construed as being transitory signals per se, such as radio waves or other freely propagating electromagnetic waves, electromagnetic waves propagating through a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g., light pulses passing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signals transmitted through a wire.
Computer readable program instructions described herein can be downloaded to respective computing/processing devices from a computer readable storage medium or to an external computer or external storage device via a network, for example, the Internet, a local area network, a wide area network and/or a wireless network. The network may comprise copper transmission cables, optical transmission fibers, wireless transmission, routers, firewalls, switches, gateway computers and/or edge servers. A network adapter card or network interface in each computing/processing device receives computer readable program instructions from the network and forwards the computer readable program instructions for storage in a computer readable storage medium within the respective computing/processing device.
Computer readable program instructions for carrying out operations of the present invention may be assembler instructions, instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions, machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions, state-setting data, or either source code or object code written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Smalltalk, C++ or the like, and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The computer readable program instructions may execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider). In some embodiments, electronic circuitry including, for example, programmable logic circuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or programmable logic arrays (PLA) may execute the computer readable program instructions by utilizing state information of the computer readable program instructions to personalize the electronic circuitry, in order to perform aspects of the present invention.
Aspects of the present invention are described herein with reference to flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams of methods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according to embodiments of the invention. It will be understood that each block of the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, and combinations of blocks in the flowchart illustrations and/or block diagrams, can be implemented by computer readable program instructions.
These computer readable program instructions may be provided to a processor of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such that the instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer or other programmable data processing apparatus, create means for implementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructions may also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can direct a computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or other devices to function in a particular manner, such that the computer readable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises an article of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects of the function/act specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The computer readable program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer, other programmable data processing apparatus, or other device to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer, other programmable apparatus or other device to produce a computer implemented process, such that the instructions which execute on the computer, other programmable apparatus, or other device implement the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or block diagram block or blocks.
The flowchart and block diagrams in the Figures illustrate the architecture, functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems, methods, and computer program products according to various embodiments of the present invention. In this regard, each block in the flowchart or block diagrams may represent a module, segment, or portion of instructions, which comprises one or more executable instructions for implementing the specified logical function(s). In some alternative implementations, the functions noted in the block may occur out of the order noted in the figures. For example, two blocks shown in succession may, in fact, be executed substantially concurrently, or the blocks may sometimes be executed in the reverse order, depending upon the functionality involved. It will also be noted that each block of the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, and combinations of blocks in the block diagrams and/or flowchart illustration, can be implemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform the specified functions or acts or carry out combinations of special purpose hardware and computer instructions. The following detailed description will generally follow the summary of the disclosure, as set forth above, further explaining and expanding the definitions of the various aspects and embodiments of the disclosure as necessary.
Northbridge 115 and Southbridge 135 connect to each other using bus 119. In one embodiment, the bus is a Direct Media Interface (DMI) bus that transfers data at high speeds in each direction between Northbridge 115 and Southbridge 135. In another embodiment, a PCI bus connects the Northbridge and the Southbridge. Southbridge 135, also known as the Input/Output (I/O) Controller Hub (ICH) is a chip that generally implements capabilities that operate at slower speeds than the capabilities provided by the Northbridge. Southbridge 135 typically provides various busses used to connect various components. These busses include, for example, PCI and PCI Express busses, an ISA bus, a System Management Bus (SMBus or SMB), and/or a Low Pin Count (LPC) bus. The LPC bus often connects low-bandwidth devices, such as boot ROM 196 and “legacy” I/O devices (using a “super I/O” chip). The “legacy” I/O devices (198) can include, for example, serial and parallel ports, keyboard, mouse, and/or a floppy disk controller. Other components often included in Southbridge 135 include a Direct Memory Access (DMA) controller, a Programmable Interrupt Controller (PIC), and a storage device controller, which connects Southbridge 135 to nonvolatile storage device 185, such as a hard disk drive, using bus 184.
ExpressCard 155 is a slot that connects hot-pluggable devices to the information handling system. ExpressCard 155 supports both PCI Express and Universal Serial Bus (USB) connectivity as it connects to Southbridge 135 using both the USB and the PCI Express bus. Southbridge 135 includes USB Controller 140 that provides USB connectivity to devices that connect to the USB. These devices include webcam (camera) 150, infrared (IR) receiver 148, keyboard and trackpad 144, and Bluetooth device 146, which provides for wireless personal area networks (PANs). USB Controller 140 also provides USB connectivity to other miscellaneous USB connected devices 142, such as a mouse, removable nonvolatile storage device 145, modems, network cards, Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) connectors, fax, printers, USB hubs, and many other types of USB connected devices. While removable nonvolatile storage device 145 is shown as a USB-connected device, removable nonvolatile storage device 145 could be connected using a different interface, such as a Firewire interface, etcetera.
Wireless Local Area Network (LAN) device 175 connects to Southbridge 135 via the PCI or PCI Express bus 172. LAN device 175 typically implements one of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards of over-the-air modulation techniques that all use the same protocol to wireless communicate between information handling system 100 and another computer system or device. Optical storage device 190 connects to Southbridge 135 using Serial Analog Telephone Adapter (ATA) (SATA) bus 188. Serial ATA adapters and devices communicate over a high-speed serial link. The Serial ATA bus also connects Southbridge 135 to other forms of storage devices, such as hard disk drives. Audio circuitry 160, such as a sound card, connects to Southbridge 135 via bus 158. Audio circuitry 160 also provides functionality such as audio line-in and optical digital audio in port 162, optical digital output and headphone jack 164, internal speakers 166, and internal microphone 168. Ethernet controller 170 connects to Southbridge 135 using a bus, such as the PCI or PCI Express bus. Ethernet controller 170 connects information handling system 100 to a computer network, such as a Local Area Network (LAN), the Internet, and other public and private computer networks.
While
Dialog manager 310 receives an initial question from a user through browser 300, such as “How do I install software X on my computer?” Dialog manager 310 analyzes the question, such as by using natural language processing techniques, and selects a decision tree that matches the initial question. As discussed herein, dialog manager 310 uses local conversation stacks and a global conversation stack to manage states of local conversation states and global conversation states, respectively. Local conversation stacks track the current states within individual decision trees (e.g., node location), whereas the global conversation stack tracks the states of the decision trees (e.g., active decision trees, suspended decision trees, etc.), stored in global conversation state store 320.
Dialog manager 310 identifies a node within the selected decision tree corresponding to the questions, such as its root node, and presents a question and possible options to the user. The question corresponds to the identified node and the options correspond to branches from the node. Referring to
Dialog manager 310 receives a response from the user and, if the user selects an answer corresponding to a branch to a child node, dialog manager 310 uses thread maintenance module 330 and question selection module 350 to update the local conversation state in local conversation state store 340 and provide a next question corresponding to the next node based on question selection policy 360. Thread maintenance module 330 maintains a stack of visited nodes and active nodes, and question selection module 350 selects the next best question to ask such that the number of turns to arrive at end solution is minimum. Referring to
Question selection module 350 is responsible for selecting the next best question to ask such that the number of steps to arrive at an end solution is minimum. For example, a user may input “I am having problem installing sw1 on Ubuntu,” which matches two nodes in the decision tree, id=5 and id=7. This means that both the left subtree and the right subtree following the root node id=1 are active and require disambiguation. Question selection module 350 determines the next question to ask in order to resolve the disambiguation such that that number of turns to arrive at an end solution is minimum. Question selection module 350 determines that the best question to ask in this scenario is the version of sw1, id=1 to resolve the disambiguation. The system asks “Which version of sw1 are you using?” and the user response will be either v1 or v2, resulting in either the left subtree or right subtree becoming active. If user responds with v1, then question selection module 350 needs to determine the next best question, which in this case is question association with id=10 because the user already specified that the user is using Ubuntu. And, if the user responds with v2, then question selection module 350 determines that the next best question is id=12 because the user already specified that the user is using Ubuntu.
At this point, the user realizes that the user is traveling down the wrong decision tree branch and provides indecisive response 520, which is “take me back one level.” As such, dialog manager 310 moves back up the decision tree, displays position indicator 545, and re-asks question 525.
Next, the user chooses option 4 (response 520) and dialog manager 310 interprets the input=4 as go back one step. Dialog manager 310 removes an entry from the stack (state 580); evaluates the item from the top of the stack, and extracts the first node id from the comma delimited list (ID=1). The extracted node id is used to identify the node and next question to be posed to the user (question 525).
Dialog manager 310 initiates a dialog with a user that starts with question 600; displays position indicator 602; and adds an entry to the local conversation stack (state 640). The user selects option “1” (response 603) and dialog manager 310 provides question 605; displays position indicator 607; and adds an entry to the local conversation stack (state 650).
The user provides response 609. In turn, dialog manager 310 displays question 610 and corresponding position indicator 620, and adds an entry to the local conversation stack (state 660) indicating that the user is at a node with ID=4 (see
The user determines that dialog manager 310 is on a wrong path and provides response 710, which is “Take me somewhere else.” Dialog manager 310, in turn, selects a different answer to question 700, displays question 715 and corresponding position indicator 715, and updates the local conversation stack by removing specific entries (state 760) back to the entry that has a “TRUE” entry.
A user asks an initial question and dialog manager 310 proceeds through a dialog on a selected decision tree as discussed earlier. Position indicators 800 correspond to decision tree A 400. Referring to
At some point, the user is uncertain of how to answer a question (question 805), and enters an indecisive response accordingly (response 810). Dialog manager 310 first attempts to match response 810 to nodes of the current decision tree. If no nodes match, dialog manager 310 then matches response 810 to a different decision tree (decision tree B).
Dialog manager 310 informs the user that dialog manager 310 is initiating a new process (notice 815). Dialog manager 310 also suspends the current decision tree and displays position indicator 820 in manner that indicates the decision tree is in a suspended state (e.g., dashed lines). In addition, referring to
Dialog manager 310 then provides information and a question (825) from the new decision tree (decision tree B) while also providing decision tree position indicators 830 for the different decision tree (840). Dialog manager 310 then asks question 845 based on the user's response 835 and displays position indicator 855 accordingly.
The user provides response 850, indicating to dialog manager 310 that the user is now informed to answer question 805 from the first decision tree. As such, dialog manager 310 evaluates global conversation stack 900 to determine to reactivate decision tree A and modify global conversation stack 900's state accordingly (state 930). In turn, dialog manager 310 displays position indicator 870, informs the user that dialog manager 310 is reactivating the first decision tree (860), and asks a question (865) based on decision tree A's local conversation stack.
At step 1030, the process displays a system question from the selected decision tree and, at step 1040, the process receives a user response. A determination is made as to whether the response corresponds to a branch to a child node (decision 1045). Referring to
On the other hand, if the user response dies not correspond to a branch to a child node from the current node, then decision 1045 branches to the “No” branch. A determination is made as to whether the user response corresponds to a node in the currently selected decision tree, such as “Jump to anchor node” or “Take me back one level” (decision 1060). If the user response corresponds to a node in the currently selected decision tree, then decision 1060 branches to the “Yes” branch whereupon the process modifies the decision tree's local conversation stack and displays the next system question corresponding to the targeted node (step 1050).
On the other hand, if the user response does not correspond to a node in the currently selected decision tree, then decision 1060 branches to the “No” branch whereupon a determination is made as to whether the user response corresponds to a different decision tree (decision 1065). If the user response corresponds to a different decision tree, then decision 1065 branches to the “Yes” branch whereupon the process suspends current the current decision tree while keeping its state in its local conversation stack, selects a different decision tree, and modifies the global conversation stack accordingly as described herein.
On the other hand, if the user response does not correspond to a different screen, such as “Exit the dialog,” then decision 1065 branches to the “No” branch whereupon the process notifies the user that the dialog is ending for the current decision tree (step 1080). A decision Is made as to whether the global conversation stack includes entries of suspended dialogs from other decision trees (decision 1085). If the global conversation stack includes the entries, then decision 1085 branches to the “Yes” branch whereupon the process loops back to re-invoke the suspended decision tree and removes the entry from the global conversation stack at 1090. This process continues until there are no more entries in the global conversation stack that correspond to suspended decision trees, at which point decision 1085 branches to the “No” branch whereupon processing thereafter ends at 1095.
While particular embodiments of the present disclosure have been shown and described, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that, based upon the teachings herein, that changes and modifications may be made without departing from this disclosure and its broader aspects. Therefore, the appended claims are to encompass within their scope all such changes and modifications as are within the true spirit and scope of this disclosure. Furthermore, it is to be understood that the disclosure is solely defined by the appended claims. It will be understood by those with skill in the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim element is intended, such intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such limitation is present. For non-limiting example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims contain usage of the introductory phrases “at least one” and “one or more” to introduce claim elements. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim element by the indefinite articles “a” or “an” limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim element to disclosures containing only one such element, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases “one or more” or “at least one” and indefinite articles such as “a” or “an”; the same holds true for the use in the claims of definite articles.
