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

• US 20130041754A1
• Filed: 10/12/2012
• Published: 02/14/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 12/14/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: John Nicholas and Kristin Gross Trust U/A/D April 13 2010
• Original Assignee: John Nicholas and Kristin Gross Trust U/A/D April 13 2010
• Inventors: Gross, John Nicholas
• Granted Patent: US 8,521,580 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/14.58
• 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 conducting a sampling event for items, comprising:

providing a first routine adapted to execute on one or more electronic data collection devices;

collecting at least a set of individual user ratings for the set of items from a group of participants using said first routine executing on said one or more electronic data collection devices during the item sampling event;

calculating item sampling event data for said group of participants, including at least item scores and participant scores, from the set of ratings using a second computing routine;

providing at least some of said item sampling event data from said electronic data collection devices through a network to one or more electronic computing systems associated with third parties involved in one or more of the making, distributing, or selling of the items;

sharing at least some of said item sampling event data, or metrics derived from said item sampling event data, with said group of participants with said first routine during a time period associated with the item sampling event; and

transferring one or both of promotional coupons or other electronic feedback from such third parties over a network to said one or more electronic data collection devices or other electronic message accounts associated with said group of participants;

wherein said promotional coupons or other electronic feedback are coupled to and dynamically adjustable by one or both of said second computing routine and said first computing routine based on one or both of a geographical location of said one or more data collection devices or a residence address of said group of participants.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said item sampling event is identified by one or both of said first routine and said second routine to begin at a designated time and to extend for a designated period.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein participants can dynamically join an item sampling event in progress.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said providing step and receiving steps are performed by a server computing device.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said promotional electronic coupons are configured to be active for a participant only when he or she is detected within a first distance of one or more predetermined preferred establishments.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein opinions on second items distinct from the set of items used in the sampling event are also obtained from participants.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said other electronic feedback includes audiovisual presentations describing the history/background of the item or the third party.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said set of items comprises consumable items.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said set of items comprises different wines.

10. A method of conducting a sampling event for items, comprising:

collecting at least a set of ratings on each of a set of items from a group of participants using at least one first computing routine running on at least one electronic data collection device;

calculating item sampling event data for the group of participants, including at least item scores and participant scores, using a second computing routine;

correlating the item scores or participant scores for at least some of the group of participants with either or both of (1) item scores or participant scores of others of the group of participants or (2) rating predictions for the group of participants to create a set of correlated data using the second computing routine or a third computing routine;

providing at least some of said item sampling event data from the at least one electronic data collection device through a network to one or more electronic computing systems associated with third parties involved in one or more of the making, distributing, or selling of the items;

sharing at least some of the set of correlated data with the group of participants; and

is transferring coupons or promotional materials over a network to the electronic data collection devices or to electronic message accounts associated with the group of participants, the coupons or promotional materials being based, at least in part, on the item sampling event data and being dynamically adjustable by one or more of the first, second or third computing routines based on the geographic locations or residence addresses of ones of the group of participants.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the set of items is preselected.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the identities of the members of the set of items are not shown to the group of participants at least until after said collecting.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the group of participants is selected by an organizing member of the group of participants.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein said correlating comprises determining one or more of the following:

a. which pair of participants provided the closest ratings results;

b. which pair of participants provided the most disparate ratings results;

c. which identified couple in the group provided the closest ratings data;

d. which identified couple in the group provided the most disparate ratings data;

e. a deviation from aggregate group scores on a participant by participant basis;

f. one or more participants who subjectively gave the lowest rating to the item rated highest by the group;

g. one or more participants who gave the highest rating to the item rated lowest by the group;

h. one or more participants who gave the lowest rating to the item rated lowest by the group;

i. one or more participants who gave the highest rating to the items rated highest by the group; and

j. a score of each item broken down by sex or age groups.

15. The method of claim 10, wherein said collecting further comprises collecting a set of predictive ratings from at least some of the group of participants, each of the set of predictive ratings indicating what one of the group of participants predicts another of the group of participants'"'"' rating will be for at least one of the set of items.

16. The method of claim 10, wherein the sampling event begins at a designated time and extends for a designated period of time.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein said sharing occurs during the designated period of time.

18. A method of conducting a sampling event for items, comprising:

selecting a set of items for a group of participants based on a set of predicted ratings using a recommendation engine running on a first computing system;

collecting a least a set of ratings on each of the set of items from the group of participants using a first computing routine running on at least one electronic data collection device during the sampling event;

calculating item sampling event data, including at least item scores and participant scores, using a second computing routine;

providing at least some of the item sampling event data from the at least one electronic data collection device through a network to one or more electronic computing systems associated with third parties involved in one or more of the making, distributing, or selling of the items;

correlating the item scores or participant scores for at least some of the group of participants with the predicted ratings for the group of participants to create a set of correlated data using the second computing routine or a third computing routine;

sharing at least some of the set of correlated data with the group of participants using the first computing routine during a time period associated with the sampling event;

transferring electronic coupons or electronic promotional materials through a network to the at least one electronic data collection device or to electronic message accounts associated with the group of participants, the coupons or promotional materials being based, at least in part, on the item sampling event data, and being dynamically adjustable by one or more of the first, second, or third computing routines based on the geographic locations of ones of the group of participants.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising rewarding those of the group of participants whose item scores or participant scores correlate most closely with the set of predicted ratings.

20. The method of claim 18, further comprising collecting data from or about the group of participants sufficient to generate the set of predicted ratings prior to the sampling event.