WhizID Features

Interactive diagnostic programs accessible through the Web. Using WhizID and without any programming, you can quickly build programs that operate like expert systems, and that run on the world-wide web.
Three Modes for the User: WhizID allows the user to choose whether to
- have the system help with the diagnosis by asking questions,
- enter a description of the situation/problem/specimen by selecting properties herself, or
- directly select from the remaining possibilities and letting WhizID verify the diagnosis
Built-in Efficiency: That means that as the author of a table, you don't have to know how to uniquely identify all possible results. You just describe what you know, and WhizID takes care of the diagnosis! It will ask the right question at the right time, automatically. And, if you want a particular question to be asked, you can specify an optional importance for any question.
Web-based Administration: As a WhizID author, you can login and edit your diagnostic systems on-line. You do this through the on-line "table editor". As an author, you create a table to describe the diagnostic problem. The rows are the possible results to return to the user; the columns are the properties that describe the user's situation. Editing tables is all done on-line; there is no additional software required.
Instant Web Access: Once you have defined a table with at least one result, it is immediately accessable from the world-wide web. On our site, for example, a table called, "species,": would be available at the URL:
http://whizlab.isis.vt.edu/servlet/wid?table=species
Password Protection: The author can define a password to restrict access to a table through the Web. The password page comes up before WhizID launches the table.
Images and Help Links: Multimedia and hyperlinks give the WWW its power and appeal. WhizID allows you to associate images and links with your results, with the questions you define and with the tables you build. You can also embed HTML tags (links, movies, images, tables, ...) within the instructions, banner, and footer.
Descriptions of Possible Results: WhizID lets you describe all possible results through defining "properties". These are characteristics of any given user situation that will help in diagnosing which result is most appropriate or correct for the user's situation. WhizID allows you to define different types of properties:
- Numeric properties (integer or real-valued), like the number of legs an animal has.
- Yes/No properties (e.g., is it bigger than a breadbox?)
- Multiple choice values (either a single choice or multiple choices)
Each property can have its own image, help link, and description. Also, choices in a choice list can have help links and images, as well.
Property Dependencies: WhizID allows you to declare that one property depends on another. For example, you might not want to ask whether there is blue smoke in a car's exhaust if you already know that the car does not start.
Cascading Tables: You can build WhizID tables into a hierarchy. For example, a top- level table could identify animals to general classes (mammals, birds, reptiles, insects), and each of those results could be linked to its own table, e.g., a sub-table that just identifies types of birds.
Customizable Look & Feel: The look and feel of all WhizID applications (tables) are customizable. You may set background images and colors, change the name of buttons, add instructions, banners, and footers. In most cases, you can use HTML tags within these headers, footers, and instructions to add more custom formatting. Or, you can use the default formatting and instructions.
Logging Results: WhizID maintains a log of user accesses, noting which results are returned to the user. The log can be used to provide the users with a ranked list of common results right at the start of a diagnosis. That means when many users have common problems at common times (like right after a new piece of software is implemented in a company), they will immediately see that result.

WhizID v1.1
Developed at ISIS, Virginia Tech
Contact the Developers