Shopping assistance method and service system
First Claim
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1. A shopping assistance method, comprising the following steps carried out by a service system:
- receiving a shopping enquiry from a remote enquirer;
obtaining the geographic location of the enquiry;
attributing a significance to the enquiry location through a database lookup;
carrying out a search to find an answer to the shopping enquiry using the enquiry-location significance to control the coverage of the search; and
directly or indirectly returning the search results to the enquirer.
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Abstract
A shopping assistance service system (40) is provided to which mobile enquirers (20) can submit enquiries regarding the availability of specified goods or services from local traders (70). The service system (40) in searching for solutions to the enquiry, takes account of the significance of the location of the enquiry. This significance can be both in terms of the objective significance concerning a function associated with the enquiry location, such as a shop, shopping mall, motorway, etc., and the subjective significance of the location, such as home, workplace, local to home area, remote from home area, etc.
53 Citations
31 Claims
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1. A shopping assistance method, comprising the following steps carried out by a service system:
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receiving a shopping enquiry from a remote enquirer;
obtaining the geographic location of the enquiry;
attributing a significance to the enquiry location through a database lookup;
carrying out a search to find an answer to the shopping enquiry using the enquiry-location significance to control the coverage of the search; and
directly or indirectly returning the search results to the enquirer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. A shopping-assistance service system, comprising:
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an input subsystem for receiving a shopping enquiry from a remote enquirer;
a location subsystem for determining the geographic location of the enquiry;
a database subsystem for attributing a significance to the enquiry location through a database lookup;
a search subsystem for carrying out a search to find an answer to the shopping enquiry using the enquiry-location significance to control the coverage of the search; and
an output subsystem for directly or indirectly returning the search results to the enquirer. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31)
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Specification