(19)Fresh off Patent
(45) Week of Oct 5, 2026 No. 5 3,852 lapsed 197 picks
Software & AI · lapsed Aug 28, 2026

Interactive troubleshooting tree that skips questions answered in device logs

A system that asks diagnostic questions from a stored decision tree to identify a device defect or countermeasure, but first checks device operation history and omits any questions already answered by those logs. The device steps through the tree from root to leaf, receives user responses for unanswered nodes, and outputs a specified cause or remedy. Typical users are appliance manufacturers, service centers, or field diagnostics agents integrating device telemetry with guided troubleshooting.

Sheet 1 of the patent drawingsSheet 2 of the patent drawingsSheet 3 of the patent drawings

(57) What the patent covered

The main claim covered a processor that walks a question tree from root to leaf to specify a defect cause or countermeasure, receives responses, accepts operation-history information from the device, and, based on that history, skips (prohibits) outputting any question for which the operation history already includes an answer, otherwise outputs the question and uses the collected responses to specify the cause or countermeasure.

The distinctive part: The tree-walk for troubleshooting that dynamically suppresses questions when equivalent answers can be obtained from device operation history rather than from the user.

Novelty 3/5. Decision-tree questionaires and log-based diagnostics were common, but combining a question-tree traversal that programmatically excludes nodes based on device operation history was a practical improvement rather than a radical new category.

Building it

A small team would store the troubleshooting tree as JSON (nodes with question, expected answer keys, child pointers), stream or poll device telemetry into a service that maps telemetry fields to question answers, and implement a traversal service that, for each node, checks the mapped answers and either skips the question or presents it to the user; final leaf logic returns the fault cause or recommended action.

Components: Decision-tree question store (database or JSON/YAML), Telemetry/operation-history ingestion (API or message queue), Questioning UI (web, mobile or call-center console), Decision engine that traverses tree and merges answers

Buildability 5/5. Technically straightforward: the main work is mapping telemetry schemas to question semantics and keeping the tree updated for new failure modes.

Is anyone buying?

Comparable products exist; none doing exactly this was found. Several vendors offer tree-structured diagnostic flows and log-aware troubleshooting approaches; interest is evident in field-service and industrial domains, with related research and commercial tools highlighting decision-tree and fault-tree techniques for log-driven diagnosis.

This demand check was run with a web search in the week of Oct 5, 2026. Listings change often, so treat it as a starting point for your own research.

Who buys it: appliance OEMs, field service teams, call centers

Before you make it

We didn't find any related continuation or divisional patents still in force, although that doesn't rule out design patents, trademarks or unrelated patents covering the same product.

Practical risk is the effort of maintaining mappings between diverse telemetry formats and question semantics; related patents in diagnostic decision trees and automated troubleshooting may exist.

Owners occasionally revive lapsed patents (about 1.5% are), and this page is a research lead rather than legal advice, so get a freedom-to-operate opinion before you manufacture anything.

Claim 1, as granted

1. An information processing device, comprising: a storage that stores questions in a tree form, a memory that stores instructions; and a processor that, when executing the instructions stored in the memory, performs operations comprising: outputting the questions from a root of the tree form to a leaf of the tree form, for specifying a cause of a defect of a device or a countermeasure for the cause of the defect; receiving responses to the output questions; specifying the cause of the defect of the device or the countermeasure for the cause of the defect on the basis of the received responses; and receiving operation history information of the device, wherein in the outputting the questions from the root of the tree form to the leaf of the tree form, the questions that are to be output are varied, on the basis of the received operation history information, by performing operations including: determining whether or not the received operation history information includes an answer to a question of the questions stored in the tree form; prohibiting the question from being output, in response to a determination that the operation history information includes an answer to the question; and outputting the question, in response to a determination that the operation history information does not include an answer to the question of the questions.