Data processing: artificial intelligence – Fuzzy logic hardware – Fuzzy inference processing
Reexamination Certificate
1999-09-02
2004-10-26
Patel, Ramesh (Department: 2121)
Data processing: artificial intelligence
Fuzzy logic hardware
Fuzzy inference processing
C706S016000, C706S045000, C706S050000, C706S060000, C706S924000, C128S904000, C128S924000, C600S300000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06810391
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for calculating and providing analytical data as an output, particularly medical analytical data.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Lay persons, particularly lay persons who are medical patients, require information from experts such as doctors for concrete problems such as health. Such a consultation usually takes place in person; i.e., the person desiring information must visit the expert, for instance the doctor. It is possible to discuss the current problem and the individual situation concretely in the context of such a personal interview. The course of the consultation or the informational interview can be dictated by the participants themselves. Uncertain statements can be followed up and taken into account in the final result, so that it is possible to make and discuss alternative statements. Such a consultation must proceed openly, in the sense that it does not necessarily result in a final decision.
It is not always possible, however, to consult with experts in case of need, and such consultation is relatively costly.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a system of the type initially described which is capable of conveying a specific item of information to the information seeker with respect to a concrete problem, which makes it possible to generate the given information in the form of analytical data, such as occur on the part of the expert in the context of a personal consultation.
This object is achieved in accordance with the invention in a system having a computer with an evaluation unit for analyzing information that can be entered by the system user and for generating analytical data, and an output medium at the user side, the evaluation unit being configured for interrogating and accepting information entered at the user side, both for allowing information to be entered autonomously by the user based on a number of inquiries which are predefined at the system side, and which are selectable with respect to the response, and which can be omitted via the output medium. The evaluation unit also is configured for controlling an interactive information capture so that specific inquiries can be formulated and made available as an output depending on the previous information. The evaluation unit is configured for processing information that is random in content and for evaluating the analytical data with a continuous value measure, so that it is possible for the user to retrieve and output, at any time, the analytical data that can be generated on the basis of previous information.
The inventive system enables the system user to obtain the necessary information by exchanging information with the evaluation unit, or with the system itself. To collect the information required for the generation of the analytical data, the evaluation unit can be operated in various modes of operation. In one mode, questions which are defined at the evaluation unit side are given to the user, who can answer them with “yes” or “no,” for example, or, in the case of a system configured for medical problems, by indicating body temperature or the like. In this way, information can be collected which the user himself can recognize and acquire. Compared to a personal consultation, information thus can be captured which the expert collects, for instance the doctor may ask the question “Which symptoms of disease do you have?” to which the patient responds, “skin rash”.
In addition, the inventive evaluation system is also capable of formulating questions autonomously, based on the existing information, in order to intentionally solicit information it requires for purposes of generating the analytical data. To this end, the evaluation unit can be an expert system such as a neural network or a Bayes network, for example, the system being configured for generating and formulating corresponding questions that influence the analytical data in some way. Information thus can be collected which are obtained in personal consultation by means of purposeful questioning by the expert, who takes into account his or her expertise, as well as the information already given. The evaluation unit is thus capable of processing information with an arbitrary content; i.e., not only absolute items of information such as “yes” and “no” are processed, but also it is possible to process uncertain statements of information by the user such as “I don't know” or the like. The system is completely open; there are no limitations of any kind relating to the enterable information content, or the type of enterable information.
Another particular advantage of the inventive system is that the evaluation unit is configured to evaluate the analytical data with a value measure. This value measure can be a measure of possibility, for instance, of the type that indicates the likelihood percentage that given analytical data are correct and enables the user to advantageously detect “the weight” of the outputted analytical output data, in order possibly to be able to reach a further decision based thereon. The user thus receives a statement of possibility as to whether, and with what probability, one disease or another may be present, as in a personal consultation. A decision, i.e. stipulating a specific alternative which can be the only one, does not occur. The user can stop the analysis mode at any time and receive the result of the analysis as an output. That is, the system is flexible to the extent that it does not require a specific amount of information to corresponding inquiries. Rather, the analysis can be brought to an end at any time. In sum, the inventive system enables the user to be able to collect a problem-specific consultation result autonomously, with different information being taken into consideration in the consultation result, and the analytical result is open, as is the case in a personal consultation.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5357427 (1994-10-01), Langen et al.
patent: 5471382 (1995-11-01), Tallman et al.
patent: 5574828 (1996-11-01), Hayward et al.
patent: 5664066 (1997-09-01), Sun et al.
patent: 5720007 (1998-02-01), Hekmatpour
patent: 5769074 (1998-06-01), Barnhill et al.
patent: 5810747 (1998-09-01), Brudny et al.
patent: 5839438 (1998-11-01), Graettinger et al.
patent: 5922079 (1999-07-01), Booth et al.
patent: 6007491 (1999-12-01), Ling et al.
patent: 6083173 (2000-07-01), Grant et al.
patent: 6248063 (2001-06-01), Barnhill et al.
patent: 6267722 (2001-07-01), Anderson et al.
patent: 6334192 (2001-12-01), Karpf
patent: 6394952 (2002-05-01), Anderson et al.
patent: 6496816 (2002-12-01), Thiesson et al.
patent: 6529891 (2003-03-01), Heckerman
patent: 2001/0012913 (2001-08-01), Iliff
patent: 2002/0107824 (2002-08-01), Ahmed
patent: 2003/0036686 (2003-02-01), Iliff
patent: OS 44 30 164 (1996-02-01), None
Gauch et al., “Search Improvement via Automatic Query Reformulation”, ACM Transactions on Information Systems, Jul. 1991 vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 249-280.*
Doyle et al., “Strategic Directions in Artificial Intelligence”, ACM Computing Surveys, Dec. 1996, vol. 28, No. 4, pp. 653 670.*
Ramil et al., “Fuzzy Dynamics in Software Project Simulation and Support”, European Workshop on Software Process Technology, 1998, pp. 122-126.*
Herrmann, C.S., “A Hybrid Fuzzy-Neural Expert System for Diagnosis”, Proceedings of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 1995.*
Hudson et al., “Human-Computer Interaction in a Medical Decision Support System”, Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Jan. 1989, vol. 2, pp. 429-435.*
Armstrong et al., “An Object-Oriented Medical Decision Support System”, IEE Colloquium on Applications and Experience of Object-Oriented Design, Jan. 1991, pp. 1/1-1/3.*
Krause et al., “Can We Formally Specify a Medical Decision Support System?”, IEEE Expert, Jun. 1993, vol. 8, Iss 3, pp. 56 61.*
Becker et al., “Fuzzy Logic Approaches to Intelligent Alarms”, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology, Nov. 1994,
Birkhoelzer Thomas
Horn Joachim
Pellegrino Marco
Booker Kelvin
Patel Ramesh
Schiff Hardin
Siemens Aktiengesellschaft
LandOfFree
System for calculating analytical data and making... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with System for calculating analytical data and making..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and System for calculating analytical data and making... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3264349