Patent ID: 7124142

Claim:
A method for processing input entered by a user and providing at least one response in a system for autonomously processing the input, comprising the steps of: providing rules, receiving the input entered by the user; processing the input after the input is entered by the user, wherein the step of processing the input includes the step of standardizing the input by using (a) a remove punctuation process, (b) a spell check process, (c) an expand contractions process, and (d) a standardize case process, and for each rule: determining if the input is recognized, and if the input is recognized, sending an appropriate response to the user, wherein the step of determining if the input is recognized, includes the steps of: attempting to match the input to at least one pattern, if no match is found, not recognizing the input and continuing to the next rule, and if a match is found, either: recognizing the input and continuing to the step of sending the appropriate response, or conditionally recognizing the input and executing at least one statement validator to determine if the input is appropriately matched by the rule, the statement validator including the steps of: querying structured data to determine if a logic statement evaluates to true, depending upon whether the statement evaluates to true or false, either: recognizing the input and continuing to the step of sending the appropriate response, repeating the step of querying the structured data for the next statement validator, if available, or not recognizing the input and continuing to the next rule.