Patent ID: 8005853

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for a vehicle diagnostic device to dynamically enhance a user-input query for searching vehicle diagnostic information, the method comprising: a vehicle diagnostic device receiving a first user-input query that (1) identifies a given vehicle and (2) includes a first set of one or more keywords related to a given problem with the given vehicle; the vehicle diagnostic device caching the first user-input query, performing a first search using the first user-input query, and displaying results of the first search, the results of the first search relating to at least one possible cause of the given problem; after displaying the results of the first search, the vehicle diagnostic device receiving a second user-input query that (1) identifies the same given vehicle and (2) includes a second set of one or more keywords related to the same given problem with the same given vehicle, wherein the second set of keywords is different than the first set of keywords; after receiving the second user-input query, the vehicle diagnostic device making a determination that (1) both the first and second user-input queries identify the same given vehicle and (2) both the first and second sets of keywords relate to the same given problem with the same given vehicle; responsive to making the determination, the vehicle diagnostic device altering the second user-input query, wherein altering the second user-input query involves at least one of (1) adding at least one additional keyword to the second set of keywords and (2) removing at least one keyword from the second set of keywords; and after altering the second user-input query, the vehicle diagnostic device performing a second search using the second user-input query, and displaying results of the second search, the results of the second search relating to at least one possible cause of the given problem.