Natural Language Interface for Image Forming Device Settings
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users face difficulties in finding and setting device settings on remote UIs for image forming apparatuses due to their large number and complex tree structure, especially when performing non-standard settings for the first time.
Innovation Solution
An information processing apparatus connected to user and image forming devices that receives natural language messages, determines relevant device settings, and transmits these settings in a data format interpretable by the image forming apparatus, facilitating setting changes through a chat server.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a remote UI with a tree structure is used for device settings, then the number and variety of setting items can be provided, but the depth and complexity of the interface increases making it difficult to find setting items
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a chat application as an intermediary between the user and the complex remote UI. The chat application receives natural language input from the user, processes it to identify the desired setting item, and automatically navigates to the correct location in the tree-structured remote UI. This mediator translates user intent into precise navigation actions, eliminating the need for users to manually search through deep hierarchical menus.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the mechanical interaction of manually navigating through tree-structured menus with automated natural language processing. Instead of requiring users to click through multiple hierarchical levels to reach setting items, the system uses NLP to interpret user intent and automatically performs the navigation, substituting the manual mechanical navigation process with an intelligent automated system.
2Device complexity
If a deep tree structure is used for organizing setting items, then settings can be categorized by functional area, but the location depth increases making navigation more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The chat application serves as an intermediary that understands the tree structure's organization and can navigate it efficiently. When a user expresses intent in natural language, the chat application parses the request, maps it to the appropriate location in the functional area hierarchy, and automatically navigates to that location, maintaining the beneficial categorization while eliminating navigation difficulty.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary navigation actions automatically based on user intent. Instead of requiring users to perform the navigation sequence themselves, the chat application pre-calculates the navigation path through the tree structure and executes it automatically before the user even completes their input, preparing the interface state in advance of the user's explicit navigation commands.
Data Source
AI summary
An information processing apparatus communicatively connected to a user terminal and an image forming apparatus, the information processing apparatus includes one or more controllers having one or more processors and one or more memories, the one or more controllers being configured: to receive a message of a text described in a natural language from the user terminal, to determine information about a device setting of the image forming apparatus from a word included in the message, and to transmit the information about the determined device setting to the image forming apparatus.