JP2755585B2 - Question processing system - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Purpose of the Invention] (Industrial application field) The present invention relates to a question processing system for estimating the content of a question composed of a plurality of configuration items input by a user.

(Prior Art) In recent years, many information processing devices such as personal computers and word processors have been introduced in various places, but not only specialized operators but also ordinary people are increasingly using these devices.

By the way, with the development of information processing technology, the processing functions of these information processing devices have been diversified, and the processing operations tend to be complicated.

For this reason, even a general person or even a person skilled in the operation to some extent may not be able to understand the processing operation for the processing function that is used less frequently.

Also, if an error occurs during the use of information processing equipment, it is often not immediately understood how to deal with it, and the information processed up to that point, for example, in a word processor, the entered document information will be damaged, In some cases, the processing has to be interrupted.

In general, in such a case, it is performed to ask a service person or the like who is quite skilled in the processing operation to deal with the problem, or to check a handling manual of the information processing device, but there is no service person or the like, If the volume of manuals is enormous, it will not be possible to find the intended solution.

Under such circumstances, a system is conceived in which a user inputs information that the user wants to know, such as an operation method, in a question format, and the system responds to the input.

However, this system has a problem in operability because it is necessary to input items in a format that the device can understand. For example, the user understands the question input format,
The questions must be entered in the order determined.

Therefore, when operating this system, it is necessary to determine in advance which question item to input when inputting a question.

For example, when entering a question in natural language, a complete sentence must be constructed before entering.

Also, in the case of a method of selecting words from a list of words used for a question indicated by the system, it is not allowed to select words in order from found words, and words must be selected in a predetermined order.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, the conventional system cannot understand the question unless the order in which the items constituting the question are input does not conform to the predetermined rule. There was a problem that the answer to the question could not be derived.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a question processing system in which items constituting a question can be input in an arbitrary order.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve this object, the question processing system of the present invention stores input means for inputting item information relating to a question, and stores a plurality of input item information. Storage means, and knowledge indicating a predetermined attribute for each configuration item of the question, and a rule for estimating the content of the input question based on the knowledge to create a question sentence, and linking them. And executing the inference by inputting the respective item information stored in the storage unit in an arbitrary order, and providing a question sentence creating unit for creating a question sentence regardless of the order of the item information. is there.

(Operation) In the question processing system of the present invention, the position of the word used for the input configuration item in the correct question is described as knowledge, and the input question is formed. Since the corresponding process is described as a rule when an item is entered at various positions in the question, the intended question sentence is accurately formed even if the order in which the components of the question are entered is changed can do.

(Example) Hereinafter, details of an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of an embodiment when the present invention is applied to a Japanese word processor.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an input device for inputting characters, voices, coordinate values, assistance requests, and the like, such as a keyboard, a microphone, and a tablet mouse. Reference numeral 2 denotes a control device that controls the entire system. And 3 is knowledge,
An external storage device that stores various rules, guide data, and the like, and indicates a magnetic disk, a memory card, a ROM, and the like. Further, 4 is “correction”, “insertion”,... As shown in FIG.
It is a display device that displays a question item table summarizing items such as items and various guide texts, and shows a CRT display, a liquid crystal display, a plasma display, and the like.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a specific configuration of the control device 2. As shown in FIG.

The control device 2 includes an input unit 201, a control unit 202, an application processing function unit
203, a status information analysis unit 204, a display unit 205, an inference unit 206, a rule storage unit 207, a temporary storage unit 208, a knowledge storage unit 209, a guide data storage unit 210, and the like.

Then, the input unit 201 reads the data input by the input device 1 and stores the data in the temporary storage unit 208 as necessary.

The application processing function unit 203 performs an application processing function of a device in which the assistance is incorporated, and indicates a document creation and editing function in a word processor.

The display unit 205 reads necessary data from the temporary storage unit 208 and displays the data on the display device 4.

The inference unit 206 is controlled by the control unit 202, reads out the rules stored in the rule storage unit 207 corresponding to each process of the assistance, and outputs the knowledge stored in the knowledge storage unit 209 and the situation information analysis unit 204. The application processing function unit 203 is evaluated using the status information obtained by analyzing the result, and the result is stored in the temporary storage unit 208.

The guide data storage unit 210 stores guide data necessary for assistance, and the inference unit 206 reads the guide data according to the rule evaluation result.

The data stored in the rule storage unit 207, the knowledge storage unit 209, and the guide data storage unit 210 are initially stored in the external storage device 3 and are read at the time of starting the assistance.

Hereinafter, the operation of FIG. 3 will be described with reference to the flowchart of the processing shown in FIG.

Usually, keys, commands, various data, and the like input to the input unit 201 are passed to the application processing function unit 203 via the control unit 202 and used for various processes (steps 401 to 403).

At this time, when an assistance request is input from the user, the control unit 202 activates the status information analysis unit 204 to analyze the operation status of the application processing function unit 203, and outputs a status information buffer 2081.
(Step 404).

The operation status of the application processing function unit 203 indicates which operation is executed in the apparatus and at what stage of the operation, and in the case of a word processor, for example, in the operation of changing the character size to double size, the designation of double size Medium ”etc.

After that, the control unit 202 sets an inference unit, an item setting unit 2061 in the 206.
Activate Assistance by activating.

The item setting unit 2061 evaluates the item setting rules stored in the item setting rule storage unit 2071, determines the items to be displayed in the question item table and their order, and stores them in the display item buffer 2082 (step 405).

When evaluating the rules, the knowledge storage 20
9 and the contents of the situation information buffer 2081 are referred to. Hereinafter, the knowledge storage unit 20 is also used when each rule is evaluated.
9 and the contents of the situation information buffer 2081 are referred to.

When a question item is set in the display item buffer 2082, the display unit 205 reads it out and displays it on the display device (step 406), and causes the user to set any item (step 407).

The item selected by the user is stored in the selection item buffer 2083 by the input unit 201 (step 408), and the auxiliary item setting unit 2062 is subsequently activated.

The item setting unit 2062 evaluates the auxiliary item setting rules stored in the auxiliary item setting rule storage unit 2072 based on the contents of the selection item buffer 2083, and determines the order with the auxiliary items to be displayed in the question item table. It is stored in the display auxiliary item buffer 2084 (step 409).

Here, the display unit 205 is activated again, and this time, the contents of the display auxiliary item buffer 2084 are read out and displayed on the display device 4 (step 410), and the user is allowed to select any auxiliary item (step 411).

The auxiliary item selected by the user is stored in the selected auxiliary item buffer 2085 by the input unit 201 (step 412).

Next, the question sentence creation unit 2063 is activated, and the selection item buffer 20
Evaluate the question sentence creation rule stored in the question sentence creation rule storage unit 2073 based on the contents stored in the selection auxiliary item buffer 2085 and 83, and create a question sentence from the item and the auxiliary item selected by the user. Then, it is stored in the question sentence buffer 2086 (step 413).

Subsequently, the answer planning unit 2064 is activated, evaluates the answer planning rules stored in the answer planning rule storage unit 2074 based on the contents of the question sentence buffer 2086, and stores the answer planning rules in the guide data storage unit 210 based on the evaluation result. The read guide data is read and stored in the guide sentence buffer 2087 (step 414).

Finally, the display unit 205 is started again, and the guide sentence stored in the guide sentence buffer 2087 is read and displayed on the display device 4 (step 415).

The inference unit 206 (2061 to 2064) and the input unit 2
01 and the movements of the display unit 205 and the like are all controlled by the control unit 202.

In the system of this embodiment, for example, when the user inputs a question "I want to" delete "the" ruled line ", in the display as shown in FIG. How to select "Delete" in the item,
In the display as shown in FIG.
Is selected, and "ruled line" is selected as an auxiliary item. In order to make both of these inputs into a question sentence “I want to“ delete ”the“ ruled line ””, the knowledge storage unit 209 stores “ruled line”, “underline”,
Prepare a table showing the attributes of words such as "Delete" and "Move"
As shown in FIG. 8, a so-called "if to then" format rule for creating a question sentence is prepared in the question sentence creation rule storage unit 2073.

When the control of the assistance is transferred to the question sentence creating unit 2063, the question sentence creating unit 2063 uses the contents of the selection item buffer 2083 and the selection item buffer 2085, and the knowledge stored in the knowledge storage unit 209, and creates a question sentence creation rule. The question sentence creation rules stored in the storage unit 2073 are sequentially read out, and evaluation of the condition part is started. Then, the rule for which the condition part does not hold is rejected, and the next rule is read and evaluated.

In the question input from the state shown in FIG. 5, it is known from the contents of the auxiliary item buffer 2083 and the selected auxiliary item buffer 2085 that the selected item is “ruled line” and the auxiliary item is “delete”, and the respective attributes are From the knowledge (shown in FIG. 7) stored in the knowledge storage unit 209, it can be seen that the object and the operation are “object” and “action”.

Therefore, in the question sentence creation rule, the question sentence creation rule m shown in FIG. 8 is satisfied, a question sentence “I want to“ delete the ruled line ”” is created, and stored in the question sentence buffer 2086.

Similarly, in the question input from the state in FIG. 6, the selected item is "delete", its attribute is "operation", and the selected auxiliary item is "ruled line". Is an "object". In this case, the question sentence creation rule m + 1 shown in FIG.
Is created and stored in the question message buffer 2086.

As described above, in the system of this embodiment, the same question is created internally regardless of the order of the items and the auxiliary items in FIG. 5 and FIG. Question items and auxiliary items can be input in order.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the present embodiment. For example, a question may be input by voice or a method of directly inputting keywords such as "ruled line" and "delete".

Also, the format of the rule is not limited to the “if to then” format,
The form of expressing knowledge is not limited to the present embodiment.

[Effect of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, when a user inputs a question, it is not necessary to assemble in advance what kind of question to ask before inputting the question in any order. Can be entered.

Therefore, when trying to obtain information during operation of the system, there is no need to think about the question again, and a great effect in practical use can be expected such that a question for obtaining information can be easily input.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a question item table in the embodiment, and FIG.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a control device in the embodiment, FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a processing flow in the embodiment, and FIGS. 5 and 6 show examples of question input using a question item table. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of knowledge concerning words constituting a question, and FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a question sentence creation rule. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Input device, 2 ... Control device, 3 ... External storage device, 4 ... Display device, 201 ... Input unit, 202 ... Control unit,
203: Applied processing function unit, 204: Situation information analysis unit, 205
...... Display unit, 206 ... Inference unit, 207 ... Rule storage unit, 20
8 temporary storage unit, 209 knowledge storage unit, 210 guide data storage unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-61-243517 (JP, A) JP-A-62-276632 (JP, A) Hiroyuki Kinukawa, "Natural Language Interface for Computers", Hitachi Review vol 67. No.3, PP225-229, 1987 (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) G06F 17/30

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An input unit for inputting item information relating to a question; a storage unit for storing a plurality of input item information; knowledge indicating an attribute predetermined for each of constituent items of the question;
And holding rules for estimating the contents of the input question based on the knowledge and creating a question sentence, and performing inference by linking them, thereby allowing each item information stored in the storage means to be arbitrary. And a question sentence creating means for creating a question sentence regardless of the order of the item information.