METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATICALLY INCORPORATING HYPOTHETICAL CONTEXT INFORMATION INTO RECOMMENDATION QUERIES
First Claim
1. A method for automatically incorporating hypothetical context information into recommendations, the method comprising:
- receiving a request from a user for one or more recommendations;
receiving a current context substantially associated with the request;
determining a hypothetical context for the request;
wherein the hypothetical context may be determined from the current context;
wherein the hypothetical context may comprise one or more future times and/or one or more future locations associated with the user; and
wherein a respective hypothetical context may contain a joint distribution over one or more contextual variables which can have discrete values, continuous values, and/or a combination of discrete and continuous values;
determining one or more recommendations for the user based on the hypothetical context; and
returning the one or more recommendations to the user.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system facilitates automatically determining the hypothetical context information or the distribution of hypothetical contexts. During operation, the system receives a request from a user for one or more recommendations. The system also receives a current context substantially associated with the request. The system then determines a hypothetical context for the request, wherein the hypothetical context may be determined by considering several sources of information, including but not limited to the current context, past contexts, and relationships between the current context and past contexts. Next, the system determines one or more recommendations for the user based on the hypothetical context. Finally, the system returns the one or more recommendations to the user.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method for automatically incorporating hypothetical context information into recommendations, the method comprising:
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receiving a request from a user for one or more recommendations; receiving a current context substantially associated with the request; determining a hypothetical context for the request; wherein the hypothetical context may be determined from the current context; wherein the hypothetical context may comprise one or more future times and/or one or more future locations associated with the user; and wherein a respective hypothetical context may contain a joint distribution over one or more contextual variables which can have discrete values, continuous values, and/or a combination of discrete and continuous values; determining one or more recommendations for the user based on the hypothetical context; and returning the one or more recommendations to the user. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method for automatically incorporating hypothetical context information into recommendations, the method comprising:
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receiving a request from a user for one or more recommendations; receiving a current context substantially associated with the request; determining a hypothetical context for the request; wherein the hypothetical context may be determined from the current context; wherein the hypothetical context may comprise one or more future times and/or one or more future locations associated with the user; and wherein a respective hypothetical context may contain a joint distribution over one or more contextual variables which can have discrete values, continuous values, and/or a combination of discrete and continuous values; determining one or more recommendations for the user based on the hypothetical context; and returning the one or more recommendations to the user. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. An apparatus for automatically incorporating hypothetical context information into recommendations, the apparatus comprising:
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a request receiving mechanism configured to receive a request from a user for one or more recommendations; a context receiving mechanism configured to receive a current context substantially associated with the request; a first determination mechanism configured to determine a hypothetical context for the request; wherein the hypothetical context may be determined from the current context; wherein the hypothetical context may comprise one or more future times and/or one or more future locations associated with the user; and wherein a respective hypothetical context may contain a joint distribution over one or more contextual variables which can have discrete values, continuous values, and/or a combination of discrete and continuous values; a second determination mechanism configured to determine one or more recommendations for the user based on the hypothetical context; and a display mechanism configured to return the one or more recommendations to the user.
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Specification