US Patent 11036774 Knowledge-based question answering system for the DIY domain

DIY (Do-It-Yourself) is challenging for many novices, requiring extensive knowledge such as the usage of particular tools and the properties of the required materials. Many DIYers use web searches to find relevant information and instructions, but web search is time-consuming and the results often do not fit the DIYers' specific needs. To address these problems, we present a Question Answering (QA) system that can assist DIYers through the whole cycle of a DIY project. Given a natural language question about a DIY project, the QA system described herein provides an answer along with the explanations that are tailored to the DIYers' specific needs.