JP2006053856A - User support system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a user support system capable of easily expanding information displayed by a help function and easy and flexible to users. <P>SOLUTION: This user support system comprises a help database storing information on the image forming device and a keyword detection part detecting words or clauses with high identification power in classifying information stored in the help database into specified categories. A user interface control part acquires at least either of information on the image forming device outputted to user interfaces and information utilized for retrieving the information from the help database or the keyword detection part. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a system that provides information about a shared image forming apparatus and supports a user.

  In recent years, shared printers (hereinafter referred to as public printers) having many functions are installed in convenience stores and the like. When these public printer providers have a help function that displays information related to public printers, procedures for operating methods, etc. on public printers in order to allow users to use various functions of public printers There are many (patent document 1).

  FIG. 6 shows an example of an operation panel provided in a public printer. The conventional help function will be described with reference to FIG. Reference numeral 601 denotes a display / input unit of the operation panel, which includes a so-called touch panel. That is, by touching the display / input unit, the same action as that of pressing a physical button according to the display content can be obtained. Reference numeral 602 denotes a reset button, which is irrelevant to the spirit of the present invention and will not be described. Reference numeral 603 denotes a help button. When this button is pressed, a screen for searching for information related to a public printer, which will be described later, is displayed on the display / input unit. Numeral 604 is a numeric keypad for inputting a numerical value, 605 is a start button for starting the operation, and 606 is a stop button for stopping the operation. These buttons are irrelevant to the gist of the present invention and will not be described.

FIG. 7A shows an example of a screen for searching for information related to the public printer displayed on the display / input unit 601 in FIG. 6 when the help button 603 in FIG. 6 is pressed. This screen is displayed as shown in FIG. 7B when a general keyword related to a public printer (in this screen, copy, send / receive, save, confirm use, etc.) is selected. On the left side, a screen for specifying more detailed keywords related to the selected keyword (in this screen, various manuscripts, various copies, various papers, which is convenient, in such a case) is opened. When a keyword is further selected, a plurality of more detailed keywords are displayed, and finally target information is displayed. That is, the internal structure of the help information has a hierarchical structure as shown in FIG. In FIG. 8, the keywords are limited to the right of the page, and information according to the finally selected keyword group is displayed. In FIG. 8, a broken line means that a keyword or information continues.
JP 2002-258682 A

  However, there are some problems with the above help function. The following points are described in bullet points.

  Since the help information is often built into the public printer, when an extension device is installed in the public printer after installation, the help information of the extension device is not displayed by the help function.

  -Even if a user does not display a suitable keyword while searching for information, or if it is displayed, if the user does not understand the keyword, the search ends there and the user reaches the desired information. I can't.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an easy and flexible user support system that can easily extend information displayed by the help function. To do.

  In order to achieve the above object, a user support system according to claim 1 of the present invention includes a wide area network, a shared image forming apparatus, and the shared image forming apparatus displaying information visually. An information display means, or a voice output means for outputting information by voice; a user interface operated by a user for searching for information for a desired operation of the operation method of the image forming apparatus; and the user interface Connected to the wide area network, a user interface control unit for controlling displayed contents, an information providing unit for providing information on a user operation method by the information display unit or the voice output unit according to the operation procedure of the user interface, A first network interface, and the image forming apparatus Is a user support system comprising a help database that stores information related to, and a keyword detection unit that detects words or phrases with high discriminating ability to classify into specific fields from the information stored in the help database. The user interface control unit acquires at least one of the information about the image forming apparatus output to the user interface and the information used for searching for information from the help database or the keyword detection unit. It is characterized by that.

  In the help database, information related to the shared image forming apparatus is stored, and the keyword detection unit is a highly discriminating word that classifies a specific field of information related to the shared image forming apparatus, Or a phrase is extracted. Hereinafter, a highly discriminating word or phrase classified into a specific field of information related to the shared image forming apparatus is abbreviated as a keyword.

  The user interface control unit acquires at least one of the help database or information about the image forming apparatus output from the keyword detection unit to the user interface and information used for searching for information. The acquired information is output to a user interface for a user to search for information, or output as information desired by the user by the information display unit or the voice output unit.

  A user support system according to a second aspect of the present invention is the user support system according to the first aspect, wherein the first voice communication unit in the vicinity of the shared image output apparatus, the image forming apparatus and the remote The support center located on the ground, the support center, a plurality of operators that provide information related to the image forming apparatus to the user by a question and answer with the user regarding the information related to the image forming apparatus, and the operator operates The terminal and the terminal operated by the operator include a second voice communication unit that performs voice communication with the voice communication control unit in the vicinity of the shared image forming apparatus, and is connected to the wide area network. A second network interface, and a user support system configured to be added to the user interface. When a person searches for information, if an appropriate method for searching for information is not found, the first voice communication and the second voice communication unit are used to interact with the support center operator. It is characterized by acquiring necessary information.

  When the user needs some information in the shared image forming apparatus, the user searches the necessary information by operating the user interface. The user interface is controlled by the user interface control unit, and displays a search screen on a screen or the like according to a user's action, or outputs voice guidance by the information display means or voice output means. If sufficient information is found as a result of the user interface operation, the help function ends here. If sufficient information is not found or if the user does not know how to use the help function, the user makes a voice question to the first voice communication unit.

  The voice of the question is transmitted in the order of the first voice communication unit, the first network interface, the wide area network, the second network interface, and the second voice communication unit, and finally the voice is transmitted to the operator. The The operator similarly utters information corresponding to the transmitted voice to the second voice communication unit by voice. The operator's voice is transmitted to the user via the second voice communication unit, the second network interface, the wide area network, the first network interface, and the first voice communication unit. Until the user obtains a satisfactory answer, audio is transmitted between the operator and the user by the above procedure. The voice to be transmitted is usually converted into a digital signal, subsequently encoded, converted into information units called packets, and then output to the wide area network. Here, at least a transfer destination address indicating the transfer destination, a transfer source address indicating the transfer source, and information obtained by encoding the digital signal are added to the packet.

  The user support system according to claim 3 of the present invention is characterized in that in the user support system according to claim 2, the at least one help database is connected by the wide area network according to claim 1. .

  Since the help database is connected to a wide area network, the help database is shared when there are a plurality of shared image forming apparatuses and the image forming apparatus is connected to the network over the wide area.

  The user support system according to claim 4 of the present invention is the user support system according to claim 2 or claim 3, wherein an information registration means for registering information in the help database by an operator of the support center is added. The user support system is characterized in that information about the contents of dialogue with the user is registered in the help database.

  The operator has a conversation with a user and provides information on the shared image forming apparatus. The content of the conversation is registered by the operator in the help database by the information registration means. The help database creates a new keyword from the registered user-operator conversation content by the keyword detection unit according to claim 2, and the user interface control unit according to claim 2 acquires the new keyword Then, it is output to the user interface, or output by the information display means or voice output means.

  According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a user support system in which a wide area network, a shared image forming apparatus, and the shared image forming apparatus are information display means for visually displaying information, or information is voiced. A user interface that is operated to search for information for a user to perform a desired operation on the operation method of the image forming apparatus, and a user that controls contents displayed on the user interface An interface control unit, information providing means for providing information on a user's operation method by the information display means or voice output means according to an operation procedure of the user interface, and a first network interface connected to the wide area network. Help to save information related to the image forming device A user support system comprising a database and a keyword detection unit for detecting a highly discriminating word or phrase that is classified into a specific field from information stored in the help database, and the user interface control unit includes: Since at least one of the information about the image forming apparatus output to the user interface and the information used for searching for information is acquired from the help database or the keyword detection unit, Since information other than that recorded in the image forming apparatus shared in advance can be displayed on the user interface, even when the function is expanded after installation, information on the expanded function is easily displayed on the user interface. be able to.

  A user support system according to claim 2 of the present invention is the user support system according to claim 1, wherein the first voice communication unit in the vicinity of the shared image output apparatus, the image forming apparatus, A remote support center, a plurality of operators providing information related to the image forming apparatus to the user through a question and answer session with the user regarding the information related to the image forming apparatus, and an operation performed by the operator And a terminal operated by the operator include a second voice communication unit that performs voice communication with the voice communication control unit in the vicinity of the shared image forming apparatus, and is connected to the wide area network. And a second network interface, and a user support system comprising the user interface, wherein the user interface When searching for information, if an appropriate method for searching for information is not found, it is necessary to interact with the operator of the support center using the first voice communication and the second voice communication unit. Therefore, the user can acquire necessary information through conversation with the operator even when an appropriate keyword is not found during the search of the above information.

  A user support system according to claim 3 of the present invention is the user support system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein at least one of the help databases is connected by the wide area network according to claim 1. Since the help information can be shared by the shared image forming apparatuses connected to the wide area network, the help information can be managed in a unified manner.

  The user support system according to claim 4 of the present invention is the user support system according to claim 2 or claim 3, further comprising an information registration means for registering information in the help database by an operator of the support center. Since the user support system is characterized in that information about the contents of dialogue with the user is registered in the help database, the number of times the user asks the same question again is reduced, and the support center Can be saved.

  Hereinafter, the best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described in detail with reference to examples.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1, FIG. 2, and FIG.

  FIG. 1 shows the overall configuration of this embodiment. A public printer 101 is installed in a convenience store, for example. The public printer 101 includes an operation panel (not shown), a microphone 102 that integrates sound, an A / D converter 103 that converts sound into a digital signal, and a network that transmits sound based on the level of the digital signal, that is, the sound level. A level detector 131 that determines whether or not to transfer to a network; an encoder 104 that encodes a digital signal; a packet converter 105 that converts the packet into a packet to be transferred to a network; a speaker 106 that outputs audio; and a digital signal A D / A converter 107 that converts the signal into speech, a decoder 108 that decodes the encoded digital signal, a packet integrator 109 that integrates the divided packets, a reception buffer 110, a network interface 113, Input / output by users installed on the operation panel (not shown) That the touch panel 111, and includes an information acquisition unit 112 for acquiring from the help database 116 to be described later the information displayed on the touch panel, the. An operation panel (not shown) is further provided with a help button. When the user presses the help button, a user interface (to be described later) for searching for information that the user wants to know is displayed.

  Reference numeral 115 denotes a help database having an information selection unit for extracting a search keyword from information on the public printer stored in the help database. The keywords are managed by a plurality of search keyword sets, and the keyword sets have a hierarchical structure described later. Hereinafter, a set of keywords having the above hierarchical structure and information related to the public printer is expressed as help search information.

  Reference numeral 128 denotes a support center. The support center includes a network interface 117, a distributor 118 that allocates packets transmitted from the network to an operator terminal described later, and operator terminals 129 and 129 'operated by the operator. Although only two operator terminals are illustrated, a plurality of operator terminals may be provided.

  The operator terminal includes a reception buffer 119, a packet integrator 120 that integrates the packets, a decoder 121 that decodes the encoded digital signal, a D / A converter 122 that converts the digital signal into audio, and audio. A speaker 123 for output, a packet converter 124 for converting packets to be transferred to the network, an encoder 125 for encoding digital signals, an A / D converter for converting voices into digital signals, and operator voices are integrated. And a help information registration unit 130 for registering the contents of the question and answer with the microphone 127 in the database. The public printer 101, the help database 115, and the support center 128 are connected by a wide area network 114. Although only one public printer is shown in FIG. 1, there are a plurality of similar public printers (not shown), all of which are connected by a wide area network 114.

  Next, the help search information will be described with reference to FIG.

  The keywords constituting the help search information have a level hierarchy as shown in FIG. 901 is a group of level 1 keywords representing the basic functions of the public printer, 902 level 2 keyword groups representing more detailed functions than level 1, and 903 level 3 keywords. These keyword groups represent functions more detailed than level 2, and the levels of these keywords are determined by the information selection unit 116 of the help database. Hereinafter, level 1 is the highest level, and level 2 and level 3 are expressed as low levels. That is, level 1 is higher than level 2, level 2 is higher than level 3, level 3 is lower than level 2, and level 2 is lower than level 1. A keyword at a lower level than a certain keyword is expressed as a low-level keyword, and a keyword at a higher level than a certain keyword is expressed as a high-level keyword. Reference numeral 904 denotes information about the public printer registered by the operator of the support center, and the information has no concept of level.

  905 to 907 are level 1 keywords. 908 to 919 are level 2 keywords. 920 to 921 are level 3 keywords. Reference numerals 922 to 931 are help information about the public printer.

  Each keyword may have a correlation with at least two keywords at a low level, or may not have a correlation with a low level keyword and may have a correlation with only one help information. For example, the level 1 keyword 905 (copy) has a correlation with the level 2 keywords 908 to 912 (copy several copies, copy at a different size, copy on both sides, copy nicely), 908 to 911 The keywords are correlated with keywords 922 to 925, respectively. Hereinafter, a relationship between a keyword and a keyword having a direct correlation is expressed as a parent-child relationship, a high-level keyword is expressed as a parent, and a low-level keyword is expressed as a child. For example, the keyword 905 and the keyword 908 have a parent-child relationship, 905 is a parent, and 908 is a child. A keyword having no child keyword, that is, having a correlation with the information related to the public printer is expressed as a lowest keyword. For example, 908 and 920 are the lowest keywords.

  On the other hand, as in the relationship between the keywords 912, 915, 920, and 921, the 920 and 921 may have two parent keywords, that is, 912 and 915.

  On the other hand, the lowest keyword has a correlation with only one information, but the information may have a correlation with a plurality of lowest keywords. For example, information 930 has a correlation with keywords 916 and 917.

  Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described based on the flowchart (a) in FIG. 2 and the flowchart (b) in FIG.

  If the user needs any information in the shared image forming apparatus, the user can use a help button on an operation panel provided in the public printer (not shown), for example, the button 603 in FIG. A button corresponding to is pressed to start searching for necessary information (S201). The user interface control unit that detects the pressing of the help button inquires of the help database whether the help search information has been updated (S202). When the help search information has been updated (S203), the user interface control unit obtains updated help information from the help database (S203). Subsequently, the highest level keyword described in the help search information is displayed on the touch panel 111 (S204). If there is a keyword related to the information to be searched, the user operates the touch panel to select the keyword (S205). When the keyword is searched (S207), if the selected keyword has a child, the process returns to S204 to display the child keyword. If the keyword selected in S207 has no children, only one help information having a correlation with the keyword is displayed (S208). When the user obtains necessary information from the help information, the help system ends here. On the other hand, when the displayed help information is not satisfactory, or when other information necessary for the information is displayed, or when the keyword displayed in S205 cannot be selected, the user performs the search again or by voice. Whether to ask a question is selected (S210). When the search is to be performed again, the process returns to S201, and the information search is repeated by the above procedure. When making a question by voice, the question is made to the microphone 102 provided in the public printer.

  A question by a user's voice is detected by the microphone 102. At this time, the level detector 131 determines the volume of the sound, and determines whether or not the detected sound is noise. If it is judged as noise, the detected voice is ignored. If it is determined that it is not noise, the A / D converter 103 converts the sound detected by the microphone 102 into a digital signal. Subsequently, encoding is performed by the encoder 104 provided in the shared image forming apparatus, thereby generating code information obtained by encoding the digital signal. Subsequently, the code is divided by the packet converter 105 into transmission units called packets to be transmitted over the network. At this time, information identifying the public printer and information identifying a network interface in the support center are added to the packet. Subsequently, the packet is transmitted from the network interface 113 provided in the public printer to the support center 128 via the wide area network (S302). In the support center, the network interface 117 receives the packet. Subsequently, the distributor 118 checks the packet to check whether the link has already been established (S303). Here, the establishment of the link indicates that the public printer and the operator terminal can talk to each other. Subsequently, when the link is not established (S304), the distributor searches for an operator terminal that is not established, and when an operator terminal that can establish a new link is found (S306), Take steps to establish a new link. If an operator terminal that can establish a new link is not found (S305), a voice message indicating that there is no operator is transferred to the public printer that has transferred the packet by the distributor (S305), and this process is interrupted. When the link is established, the distributor 118 transmits the packet to the operator terminal with which the link has been established (S307). The operator terminal that has received the packet stores the packet in the reception buffer 119. Subsequently, the packet integrator 120 integrates a plurality of packets stored in the reception buffer as necessary, and converts the packets into code information generated by the public printer. Subsequently, the decoder 121 decodes the code information to decode it into a digital signal. Subsequently, the decoded digital signal is converted into sound by the D / A converter 122 and the sound is output by the speaker 123. The operator who has heard the voice utters the voice corresponding to the voice toward the microphone 127. The voice uttered by the operator is converted into a digital signal by the A / D converter 126, the digital signal is converted into code information by the encoder 125, and the packet is converted by the packet converter 124 provided in the terminal. The The packet is transmitted to the network interface 117, and is transmitted to the network interface 113 of the public printer having a link established via the wide area network 114. The packet is stored in the reception buffer 110, converted into code information by the packet integrator 109, the code information is converted into a digital signal by the decoder 108, and the digital signal is converted into voice by the D / A converter 107. And output from the speaker 106. Subsequently, when the information required by the user is received from the operator, the link is released (S310) to prepare for the next user request. If necessary information cannot be obtained, the user performs a question and answer session with the operator by repeating the above procedure. The voice transmission / reception procedure and packet structure are described in H.264, for example. The procedure specified in H.323 is followed. H. H.323 is an international standard recommendation by ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standard Sector). This is a multimedia communication system based on 320 and corresponding to a packet switching network such as a LAN (local area network) or the Internet.

  The contents of the question and answer are recorded by the operator and registered in the help database by the help information registration unit 130 (S312). Information registered in the help database by the operator will be described later.

  The help database that has received the contents of the question and answer prepares for new help search information in accordance with the above-described 116, and prepares for a case in which help information is requested from a public printer.

  Next, the process of registering in the help database by the operator of the help information registration unit 130 and the creation of the help search information in the information selection unit 116 will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 (1), 4 (2), 5 and 9. This will be explained based on.

  401 is an example of a conversation between the operator and the user. In 401, what is written as a user on the left side of the page is a voice uttered by the user near the public printer, and what is written as an operator on the left side of the page is a voice generated by the operator toward the terminal. is there.

  The operator repeats a question and answer session with the user, guesses what information the user wants, and determines. In 401, the operator determines from the user that the user desires how to use the reduced layout function and the duplex printing function. When the information is confirmed, the operator displays information desired by the user on a screen or the like provided in the public printer (part 402). The user refers to the information and operates the public printer to achieve the desired operation.

  The operator memorizes the words spoken by the user during this question-and-answer session. At this time, the conversation may be recorded at the operator terminal and referred to later.

  After the above question and answer, the operator operates the help information registration unit to newly register help information.

  Reference numeral 403 denotes an example of a screen displayed on the help information registration unit.

  Reference numeral 404 denotes an item for inputting information provided to the user through a conversation between the operator and the user, or an ID for uniquely identifying information already registered. Reference numeral 405 denotes a keyword registered in the help database. An item to be selected, 406 is an item for inputting a similar word of the keyword selected in 405, and 407 is a button for registering the keyword and similar word input in 405 and 406 in the database. Reference numeral 409 denotes an item for inputting a new keyword, and reference numeral 410 denotes a button to be pressed after the input of the item is completed.

  The operator inputs information given to the user in 402. At this time, if similar information is already registered in the help database, an ID for uniquely identifying the information is input. In this example, it is assumed that the information provided to the user has already been registered in the help database, and an ID for uniquely identifying the information (hereinafter referred to as a help information identification ID) is entered in 402. Furthermore, when the operator expresses the keyword registered in the database in another word in the above question and answer, the user selects the registered keyword in 404 and substitutes the word expressed by the user in 405. Then, registration is performed by pressing a button 506. In this example, since the user expresses the keyword “reduction” as “small”, “small” is registered as a similar word to the keyword “reduction”. Further, when the operator finds a keyword related to the contents of the question and answer in the question and answer, the keyword is input in 408. In this example, since the user's purpose is “convenient to carry”, “convenient to carry” is entered in 408 as a keyword. After inputting the above items, the operator presses the button 409.

  The help database reorganizes the help search information according to the procedure described later, and displays the result on a screen as illustrated in 410. 411 is a keyword of the highest level of the information, 412 is a keyword of a level lower than 411, and 413 is a keyword of a level lower than 412. Reference numeral 414 denotes a help information identification ID, and reference numeral 415 denotes document information corresponding to the help ID. Reference numeral 416 denotes a button when a plurality of help search information is created, and a page display unit. Reference numeral 417 denotes a button for registering the above contents in the help database. In this example, the keyword “copy” is selected as the highest level keyword, “small number” is selected as the next highest level keyword, and “decrease” is selected as the last keyword. Furthermore, “1/2” of 416 clearly indicates that two help search information items have been created, and indicates that the currently displayed information is the first of the two help search information items. The operator confirms this item and presses a button 417 to register it in the help database.

  410 'is a screen displayed when the right arrow of the button 416 is pressed. This screen displays the second information of the help search information created by the operator's input, and shows that “Other” is selected as the level 1 keyword and “Convenient to carry” is selected as the level 2 keyword. Show.

  The help search information registered as described above is transmitted to the public printer in response to a help search information acquisition request from the public printer. The public printer that has received the help search information displays a screen like 418 when the help button is pressed. Here, 419 is the help search information updated this time, and when the user selects 419, the information displayed in 415 is displayed.

  Next, the creation of the help search information will be described based on the flowchart of FIG.

  After the help information registration unit input (S501), the information selection unit 116 provided in the help database selects one keyword from a group of a plurality of keywords created in advance (S502). Subsequently, the frequency of appearance of the selected keyword is counted from the answer input in 404 of FIG. 4 or information corresponding to the answer ID (S503). Subsequently, it is investigated whether there is a similar word of the keyword. Similar words are the words registered in 403 in FIG. 4, and these similar words are words stored in the help database. When there is a similar word (S505), the appearance frequency of the similar word is counted in the same manner as described above and added to the appearance frequency. The number of appearances is counted until there is no similar word for the selected keyword (S506). When all the appearance counts have been counted, the next keyword is selected again from the plurality of previously created keyword groups in S507, and the frequency of appearance of keywords including similar words is counted for all keywords. After counting the appearance frequency of all keywords, the keyword with the highest frequency of appearance is set to level 1 (S508), the keyword with the next highest appearance frequency is set to level 2 (S509), and the keyword with the next highest appearance frequency is set to level. 3 (S510), help search information is further created using the answer ID 414 in FIG. Here, if there are three or less keywords whose number of occurrences of the keyword is not 0, the level 2 and level 3 keywords are not selected. Furthermore, in this example, when entry is made in 408 of FIG. 4, the level 1 keyword is set to “other”, the level 2 keyword is set to the word input to 408, and the answer ID 414 in FIG. Help search information is created again as information.

1 is an overall block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. It is the first half of the flowchart of an Example. It is the second half of the flowchart of an Example. It is an example of a conversation between an operator and a user. This is a screen for registering information in the help database. It is an example of the help search information determined by the help database and an information search screen displayed on the image forming apparatus. It is a flowchart which creates help search information. 3 is an example of an operation panel provided in the image forming apparatus. It is an example of a help screen. It is an example of a help data structure. It is the figure which illustrated the structure of the help search information of an Example.

Explanation of symbols

101 Public printer 102 Microphone 103 A / D converter 104 Encoder 105 Packet converter 106 Speaker 107 D / A converter 108 Decoder 109 Packet integrator 110 Reception buffer 111 Touch panel 112 Information acquisition unit 113 Network I / F
114 Wide Area Network 115 Help Database 116 Information Selection Unit 117 Network I / F
118 Distributor 119 Reception buffer 120 Packet integrator 121 Decoder 122 D / A converter 123 Speaker 124 Packet converter 125 Encoder 126 A / D converter 127 Microphone 128 Support center 129 Operator terminal 130 Help information registration unit 131 Level detection Device 401 User-operator conversation 402 Timing for displaying information 403 Help information registration screen 404 Answer or answer ID
405 Keyword selection unit 406 Similar word input unit 407 Registration button 408 Keyword input unit 409 Confirmation button 410 Registration confirmation screen 411 Level 1 keyword 412 Level 2 keyword 413 Level 3 keyword 414 Reply ID
415 Information 416 Screen switching button 417 Registration button 418 Screen displayed on user interface 419 Newly created keyword 601 Touch panel 602 Reset button 603 Guide button 604 Numeric keypad 605 Start button 606 Stop button 901 Level 1 keyword group 902 Level 1 Keyword group 903 level 1 keyword group 904 information group 905-907 level 1 keyword 908-919 level 2 keyword 920-921 level 3 keyword 922-931 information

Claims (4)

A wide area network,
A shared image forming apparatus;
The shared image forming apparatus is:
Information display means for visually displaying information, or voice output means for outputting information by voice;
A user interface operated by a user to search for information for performing a desired operation for the operation method of the image forming apparatus;
A user interface control unit for controlling contents displayed on the user interface;
Information providing means for providing information related to a user's operation method by the information display means or voice output means according to the operation procedure of the user interface;
A first network interface connected to the wide area network;
Having
A help database storing information related to the image forming apparatus;
A keyword detection unit for detecting a highly discriminating word or phrase classified into a specific field from the information stored in the help database;
A user support system consisting of
The user interface control unit obtains at least one of information about the image forming apparatus output to the user interface and information used for searching for information from the help database or the keyword detection unit. User support system characterized by The user support system according to claim 1,
A first audio communication unit in the vicinity of the shared image output device;
A support center at a remote location with the image forming apparatus;
The above support center
A plurality of operators for providing information related to the image forming apparatus to the user by question and answer with the user regarding the information related to the image forming apparatus;
A terminal operated by the operator;
The terminal operated by the operator is
A voice communication control unit in the vicinity of the shared image forming apparatus and a second voice communication unit that performs voice communication with each other;
A second network interface connected to the wide area network;
Having
Is a configured user support system,
When a user searches for information on the user interface, if an appropriate method for searching for information is not found, the support center operator uses the first voice communication and the second voice communication unit. A user support system characterized by acquiring necessary information by interacting with the user. In the user support system according to claim 1 or 2,
The user support system according to claim 1, wherein the at least one help database is connected by the wide area network according to claim 1. In the user support system according to claim 2 or claim 3,
A user support system to which an information registration means for registering information in the help database is added by an operator of the support center, characterized in that information on the contents of dialogue with the user is registered in the help database. User support system.

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