Patents Assigned to Inference Corporation
  • Patent number: 5852814
    Abstract: A software agent which performs autonomous learning in a real-world environment, implemented in a case-based reasoning system and coupled to a sensor for gathering information from, and to an effector for manipulating, its environment. A case base which is tuned in response to an evaluation of how well the agent is operating in that environment. A memory of cases, the contents of that memory being determined by a genetic technique, including producing new cases which may never have been encountered in the environment, evaluating cases in response to a history of previous matches and in response to an external stimulus, and selecting a limited set of cases which provides a preferred model of the environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 10, 1996
    Date of Patent: December 22, 1998
    Assignee: Inference Corporation
    Inventor: Bradley P. Allen
  • Patent number: 5701399
    Abstract: A system in which a case-based search engine is integrated into a "help" database. The help database may be organized in a predetermined manner and converted by a computer program into a case-based format. An operator of a "help" program (e.g., a user who desires on-line help) may request a case-based search of the case-base using case-based methods. The case-based search provides a set of likely cases, i.e., help topics, from among which the operator may select the next help topic to view. The system may also present matched objects in response to the query, may respond to iterative refinement of the query (in similar manner to known iterative case-based methods) and may order matched objects by quality of match.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 1996
    Date of Patent: December 23, 1997
    Assignee: Inference Corporation
    Inventors: S. Daniel Lee, Trung D. Nguyen, Mary P. Czerwinski
  • Patent number: 5586218
    Abstract: A software agent which performs autonomous learning in a real-world environment, implemented in a case-based reasoning system and coupled to a sensor for gathering information from, and to an effector for manipulating, its environment. A case base which is tuned in response to an evaluation of how well the agent is operating in that environment. A memory of cases, the contents of that memory being determined by a genetic technique, including producing new cases which may never have been encountered in the environment, evaluating cases in response to a history of previous matches and in response to an external stimulus, and selecting a limited set of cases which provides a preferred model of the environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 24, 1995
    Date of Patent: December 17, 1996
    Assignee: Inference Corporation
    Inventor: Bradley P. Allen
  • Patent number: 5581664
    Abstract: A case-based reasoning system which is smoothly integrated into a rule-based reasoning system, thus coordinating case-based reasoning techniques and rule-based reasoning techniques in a unified automated reasoning system, in which an automated processor may proceed by inferential reasoning on the facts of the problem and the cases by means of rule-based reasoning techniques or based on procedural directives supplied by a human programmer, and may select the case which is the best match for the problem, but may act differently from the precise action prescribed for that case. A technique for dynamically adapting the case base to the problems which the automated reasoning system encounters, in which the processor may create additional cases which may exemplify the problem or which may be useful for future problems, or may remove cases from the case base which it determines from experience are poor or obsolete.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 1994
    Date of Patent: December 3, 1996
    Assignee: Inference Corporation
    Inventors: Bradley P. Allen, S. Daniel Lee