Integrated Gourmet Item Data Collection, Recommender and Vending System and Method

• US 20110288919A1
• Filed: 07/29/2011
• Published: 11/24/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: John N. Gross
• Original Assignee: John N. Gross
• Inventors: Gross, John Nicholas
• Granted Patent: US 8,620,736 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.19
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0203 Market surveys; Market polls
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0217 involving input on products or services in exchange for incentives or rewards
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0278 Product appraisal
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0281 Customer communication at a business location, e.g. providing product or service information, consulting
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants

Abstract

Items—including gourmet products—are evaluated and rated by participants in a controlled event, which can be coordinated by software locally or at a dedicated website. Event data, including item scores and participant scores can be shared with vendors, merchants and other commercial entities associated with the products. Promotional incentives from such entities for the products (and related products) can then be directly targeted and provided to participants and other members of the public. The participant'"'"'s activities can also be collected and disseminated to affiliates/friends of the participants through social networking sites, personalized web pages, etc.

Claims

1. A method of identifying a set of recommended items to a user, comprising:

correlating a first item to one or more potential second items using a computing system and a data repository associated with the computing system, the data repository containing at least one rating for the first item from the user to identify a set of candidate items predicted to be of interest to the user;

identifying a user physical location based on location data for the user provided by a user mobile computing device;

correlating the user physical location to one or more selected merchants in the vicinity of the user physical location with the computing system, wherein the one or more selected merchants are identified by the computing system to carry one or more of the candidate items;

in response to detecting the one or more merchants in the vicinity of the user physical location, processing the set of candidate items with the computing system to identify the set of recommended items based on a calculated rating for the user for the set of candidate items;

providing at least one electronic coupon to the user'"'"'s mobile computing device for selected ones of the set of recommended items; and

providing electronic location indicia to the user'"'"'s mobile computing device identifying a physical location of the one or more selected merchants carrying the selected ones of the set of recommended items.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising collecting the at least one rating from the user.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the data repository contains at least one predictive rating of the first item or one of the one or more potential second items for the user, the at least one predictive rating being provided by another user.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the correlating the first item to the one or more potential second items employs the at least one rating and the at least one predictive rating.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the at least one rating and the at least one predictive rating are gathered by asking the user and the other user to express preferences for a defined set of items.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first item is among the set of candidate items.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the providing at least one electronic coupon further comprises providing at least one electronic coupon specific to one of the one or more selected merchants.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising performing the method for a plurality of users, such that the at least one electronic coupon comprises a plurality of electronic coupons.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising establishing a redemption rate for the plurality of electronic coupons.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the redemption rate is specific to ones of the one or more selected merchants.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising identifying which of the plurality of electronic coupons are redeemed.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising collecting a rating from the user on a second item purchased with the at least one electronic coupon.

13. A method of identifying a set of recommended items to a user, comprising:

correlating preferences of a first user with preferences of one or more second users using a computing system and a data repository associated with the computing system, the data repository containing at least one first rating of at least one first item for the first user and at least one second rating of at least one second item for one of the one or more second users;

based on said correlating preferences, identifying a candidate set of items likely to be of interest to the first user based on the preferences of similar ones of the one or more second users;

identifying a physical location for the first user based on location data for the first user provided by a user mobile computing device;

correlating the physical location to one or more selected merchants in the vicinity of the physical location using the computing system, wherein the one or is more selected merchants are identified by the computing system to carry one or more of the candidate items;

in response to detecting the one or more merchants in the vicinity of the physical location, processing the set of candidate items with the computing system to identify the set of recommended items based on a calculated rating for the first user for the set of candidate items;

providing at least one electronic coupon to the user'"'"'s mobile computing device for selected ones of the set of recommended items; and

providing electronic location indicia to the user'"'"'s mobile computing device identifying a physical location of the one or more selected merchants carrying the selected ones of the set of recommended items.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising collecting the at least one first rating from the first user.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising performing the method for a plurality of users, wherein the at least one electronic coupon comprises a plurality of electronic coupons.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising establishing a redemption rate for the plurality of electronic coupons.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the redemption rate is specific to ones of the one or more selected merchants.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising identifying which of the plurality of electronic coupons are redeemed.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising collecting a rating from the first user on a third item purchased with the at least one electronic coupon.

20. The method of claim 13, further comprising collecting the at least one first rating from the first user and the at least one second rating from one or more second users by asking the first user and ones of the one or more second users to express preferences for a defined set of items.