Patent ID: 9361637
Filing Date: 2016-06-07
CPC Classification: G06Q

Claim Text:
1. A non-transitory computer-readable media embodied on a physical device having computer-executable instructions for providing appliance-related, diagnostic services, the instructions performing steps comprising: receiving a free-form text request from a user interface to diagnose a problem with an appliance, the request including information indicative of the problem with the appliance; interpreting the information indicative of the problem with the appliance to normalize the information indicative of the problem with the appliance, wherein the interpretation of the information includes replacing a word in the request with a second word and then normalizing the information including the second word into predefined domain attributes; using the normalized information to select from a knowledge base in which is maintained a plurality of solutions, each solution having associated tags that function to identify concepts and values from a domain model so that the normalized information can be matched to a set of possible solutions for the problem with the appliance, wherein the tags identify at least a symptom of the problem and how the problem manifests itself; using information within the set of possible solutions for the problem with the appliance to generate additional questions to obtain further information indicative of the problem with the appliance, wherein the additional questions are posed such that the user provides an answer that has a domain value that corresponds to a tag that is associated with a subset of solutions within an initial set of possible solutions; using the further information to identify a subset of possible solutions for the problem with the appliance from within the initial set of possible solutions; and presenting the subset of possible solutions for the problem with the appliance and the tags associated with the subset to a user.