INTERACTIVE DIAGNOSTIC SYSTEM AND METHOD DRIVEN BY EXPERT SYSTEM

The present invention discloses a unique interactive diagnostic system and method driven by expert systems. In particular, a system and method for troubleshooting of networked electronic devices, driven by an inference engine which controls both the user interaction and the operation of and collection of data from diagnostic tools, are disclosed. In an exemplary embodiment, the invention includes a knowledge base 200, an inference engine 201, a communications processor 210 for handling requests to and from the inference engine and the other components (except the knowledge base), an interaction management processor 220 for handling interactions with a plurality of end users 230 over a communications network 240, and a plurality of peripheral control units 250 and their associated peripheral units 250, which collectively can gather status information and perform diagnostic tests on the said networked electronic devices.