Recognition of patterns in data

• US 20050015376A1
• Filed: 03/17/2004
• Published: 01/20/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Customiser Limited
• Original Assignee: Customiser Limited
• Inventors: Fraser, Andrew, Downing, Oliver James, Stanton, Edward Christopher
• Granted Patent: US 7,827,183 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A system is disclosed for recognition of patterns in data. It has particular application to a data management system for managing data relating to customers and transactions, the aim being to derive predictive information relating to the future behaviour of customers. The system comprises an analysis engine for analysing relationships between responses made by a user to questions relating to a service or products, in which the analysis is of responses made by a customer to one or more constructs. The system operates by subjecting data relating to the opinions of customers to a process of fuzzy entailment such that meaningful conclusions can be drawn when data is an imprecise match with a set of conditions.

Claims

1. A data management system for identifying patterns in data, the system comprising an analysis engine for analysing relationships between responses made by a user to questions relating to a service or products, in which the analysis engine analyses responses made by a user to one or more constructs.

2. A data management system according to claim 1 in which analysis of the analysis engine involves a process of fuzzy entailment.

3. A data management system according to claim 1 in which each construct includes two distinct descriptive terms relating to things provided to users by operators of the system.

4. A data management system according to claim 3 in which the descriptive terms of each construct represent contrasting opinions of the thing.

5. A data management system according to claim 4 which obtains data from a user that represents a user'"'"'s opinion of the thing in a range defined by the descriptive terms.

6. A data management system according to claim 5 in which there is defined a number of discrete selectable steps within the range, that number being referred to as a “

mesh”

.

7. A data management system according to claim 6 in which the mesh is adjusted in reaction to inputs made by users.

8. A data management system according to claim 7 in which the mesh is iteratively reduced until a minimum mesh value that yields a meaningful result is identified.

9. A data management system according to claim 1 in which the construct is represented by visual control displayed in a graphical user interface on a computer screen.

10. A data management system according to claim 9 in which the user can input a value representative of their opinion by adjustment of the position of the control.

11. A data management system according to claim 1 in which the results of the analysis are used to deduce which items of information will be of interest to a particular user.

12. A data management system according to claim 1 in which the system executes on a server that communicates with a user over a network link.

13. A data management system according to claim 1 that includes a user data input component that executes in on a remote host system.

14. A data management system according to claim 13 in which the data input component is represented in the display generated by a web browser.

15. A data management system according to claim 13 in which the data input component is generated by an applet that is downloaded to the remote host from the server.

16. A data management system according to claim 1 in which the data is obtained by through use of a repertory grid.

17. A data management system according to claim 1 in which incomplete data is processed by matching those parts of the data that are present with characteristics of existing data.

18. A data management system according to claim 17 in which the incomplete data is subject to discriminant analysis.

19. A data management system according to claim 1 in which data is subject to a process of linearisation prior to its being analysed.

20. A data management system according to claim 19 in which the process of linearisation includes conversion of non-numeric data to a numeric form.

21. A data management system according to claim 1 in which users are the customers of a business and the output includes predictive information as to the future purchasing behaviour of the customers.

23. A computer software product that implements a data management system according to claim 1.

24. A network server system operative to serve web pages to remote clients comprising a web server for generating HTML code to be rendered on a remote browser and an analysis server that implements a data management system according to claim 1, the data management system deriving input data from analysis of a user'"'"'s interaction with one or more rendered web pages.

22. A data management system implemented as a computer software system.