User adaptable expert system

Claim 2

An expert system for use as a decision support system, said system comprising: a general knowledge base including a set of system rules; a first data base of case specific data including industry specific data for arriving at a decision; an interface for receiving a plurality of externally stored user-defined rules and selectively changing by said user ones of said user-defined rules at any time, wherein said plurality of user-defined rules comprise logical expressions stored as a string of pseudovariables in an interpretive language; means for specifying, by presenting to said user a table of said plurality of user-defined rules and marking by said user a subset of said plurality of user-defined rules, which of the plurality of user-defined rules to apply for arriving at said decision; and an inference engine cooperatively utilizing a subset of said set of system rules in connection with said subset of said plurality of user-defined rules to process a particular portion of said first data base of case specific data.

Claim 3

The system set forth in claim 1 wherein said interface includes means for receiving said user-defined rules as either a data file or a second data base.

Claim 4

The system set forth in claim 1 further comprising: means for selecting a subset of said set of system rules based upon a received user input.

Claim 5

The system set forth in claim 1 further comprising: means for accessing an external third data base by said inference engine.

Claim 6

The system set forth in claim 1 further comprising: an interpret operator for parsing and executing a given string of said pseudovariables according to a program state.

Claim 7

The system set forth in claim 1 further including: means for chaining forward and backward so that said subset of said plurality of user-defined rules and said subset of said set of system rules interact through each other.

Claim 10

The method set forth in claim 7 further comprising the step of: accessing an external data base with said inference engine

Claim 11

The method set forth in claim 7 further comprising the step of: parsing and executing a given pseudovariable string according to a program state using an interpret operator.

Claim 12

The method set forth in claim 7 further comprising the step of: chaining forward and backward so that said plurality of user-defined rules interact through each other.

Claim 13

An expert system for evaluating loan applications in a banking environment where loan applicants answer a set of evaluation questions on an application, said system comprising: a general knowledge base containing a set of system rules; a first data base of case specific data including banking underwriting criteria; an interface for receiving a plurality of user-defined rules for evaluating answers to said evaluation questions in accordance with said underwriting criteria and selectively changing by said user ones of said user-defined rules at any time, wherein said plurality of user-defined rules comprise logical expressions stored as a string of pseudovariables in an interpretive language; means for specifying, by presenting to said user a table of said plurality of user-defined rules and marking by said user a subset of said plurality of user-defined rules, which of the plurality of user-defined rules to apply for given sets of evaluations; and an inference engine cooperatively utilizing a subset of said set of system rules in connection with a subset of said user-defined rules to process a particular portion of said first data base.

Claim 14

An expert system for evaluating loan applications in a banking environment where loan applicants answer a set of evaluation questions on an application, said system comprising: a general knowledge base containing a set of system rules; a first data base of case specific data including banking underwriting criteria; an interface for receiving a plurality of user-defined rules for evaluating answers to said evaluation questions in accordance with said underwriting criteria and selectively changing by said user ones of said user-defined rules at any time, wherein said plurality of user-defined rules comprise logical expressions stored as a string of pseudovariables in an interpretive language; means for specifying, by presenting to said user a table of said plurality of user-defined rules and marking by said user a subset of said plurality of user-defined rules, which of the plurality of user-defined rules to apply for given sets of evaluations; and an inference engine cooperatively utilizing a subset of said set of system rules in connection with a subset of said user-defined rules to process a particular portion of said first data base.

Claim 15

The system set forth in claim 11 wherein said interface includes means for receiving said user-defined rules as either a data file or a second data base.

Claim 16

The system set forth in claim 11 further including: means for evaluating any evaluation question for a single loan applicant, a pair of applicants or for all the applicants on a particular application, or for applicants on multiple applications.

Claim 17

The system set forth in claim 11 further comprising: means for selecting a subset of said set of system rules based upon a received user input.

Claim 18

The system set forth in claim 11 further comprising: means for storing said user-defined rules in a third external data base.