Patent ID: 7103585

Claim:
A method of providing interactive responses to a user through an intelligent agent provided by a computer system, comprising: executing a script for providing the intelligent agent to a user at a display, wherein the intelligent agent is an animated character that produces speech in response to user queries and wherein executing the script comprises loading the script into the memory of a computer, parsing the script, and executing the script within a thread on the computer; receiving, from a user input, a query directed to the intelligent agent by the user; querying a knowledge database that is specifically associated with the intelligent agent to determine an appropriate response to the query; should the querying of the knowledge database that is specifically associated with the intelligent agent fail to provide an appropriate response to the query, querying a general knowledge database that is accessible by a plurality of intelligent agents to determine an appropriate response to the query; providing the appropriate response to the query to the user, via the intelligent agent; and displaying a multimedia object on a display for the user.