The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 17, 2001
Filed:
Nov. 20, 1998
Eric Horvitz, Kirkland, WA (US);
John S. Breese, Mercer Island, WA (US);
David E. Heckerman, Bellevue, WA (US);
Samuel D. Hobson, Seattle, WA (US);
David O. Hovel, Redmond, WA (US);
Adrian C. Klein, Seattle, WA (US);
Jacobus A. Rommelse, Westerhoven, NL;
Gregory L. Shaw, Kirkland, WA (US);
Microsoft Corp, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
An intelligent user assistance system is disclosed. The system is constructed using a reasoning model to determine the probability of a user's intentions, goals, or informational needs in the context of a software program. This is accomplished through analysis of information about the user's actions, the program state, and spoken words. The system monitors user interaction with the software program and applies probabilistic reasoning to sense that the user may need assistance in using a particular feature or to accomplish a specific task. The inference system accesses a thorough and updateable user profile system to continually check for competencies and changes assistance that is given based on the competencies.