Patent ID: 7253817

Claim:
A system for questioning, said system comprising: at least one survey script in a computer readable storage, said survey script comprising first question data, first expression data, and response processing instructions, said first expression data including first mouth expression data and first mouth duration data, said first mouth expression data indicative of a visual appearance of a mouth exhibiting communicative characteristics indicative of at least one portion of one possible response by a user and also indicative of predetermined responsive steps to be performed; a script server configured to store said at least one survey script; and a virtual human interface configured to operate in at least a question state and a sleep state, said virtual human interface configured, while in said sleep state, to actively represent on a display at least a representation of a mouth exhibiting communicative characteristics and to actively and periodically request a user to engage in answering at least a question, said virtual human interface further configured to switch to said question state upon receiving an affirmative response, said virtual human interface configured, while in said question state, to retrieve said at least one survey script from said script server and to process said first question data to present a first question to a user, said virtual human interface configured to process said first expression data to represent on said display said mouth in accordance with said first mouth expression data for a duration in accordance with said first mouth expression duration data, said virtual human interface configured to process said response processing instructions to identify said at least one portion of one possible response by said user to said first question and to associate said predetermined responsive steps with said response, said virtual human interface configured to process input provided by said user to detect said portion of said one possible response and to perform said predetermined responsive steps, said predetermined responsive steps including storing answer data representing said input provided by said user.