Apparatus and methods for a computer-aided decision-making system
First Claim
1. A computer-aided decision-making system, comprising:
- a rules-based analysis engine employing a plurality of rules, said rules being used for selecting and scoring and ranking a plurality of choices;
a user interface operable to accept user-provided information and selections and responses to system inquiries, said user interface indicating system-generated reports and proposals and feedback, said user interface comprising a plurality of advocates selectable by a user for assisting in a single choice and controlled by said rules-based analysis engine to aid the user in making the single choice, said advocates being abstract personalities embodied in software and representing points of view with respect to a decision to be made on the single choice, said points of view including relatively stronger positions on some issues and relatively weaker positions on other issues; and
wherein said rules-based analysis engine accepts said user-provided information and presents through said user interface choices to aid the user in making a decision, said choices being at least one of commented on and chosen by said advocates.
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Abstract
A computer-aided decision-making system and method that is applicable to a variety of decision-making contexts and applications such as, but not limited to, automobile or home purchase decisions. The computer-aided decision-making system provides immediate, useful, and relevant information to a person in a decision-making context, overcoming common human cognitive problems that occur in decision-making, and enabling consumer purchases in an on-line sales environment. In particular, aspects of the invention that aid a person in decision-making include, but are not limited to: managing all the sub-decisions, educating the decision-maker, highlighting the most important sub-decisions, offering the most viable proposals for evaluation, distinguishing significant differences between proposals, supplying various evaluation tools, preventing blind spots, assisting the decision-maker'"'"'s memory, gauging the progress of the decision process, and learning about the decision maker from the decision process.
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Citations
46 Claims
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1. A computer-aided decision-making system, comprising:
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a rules-based analysis engine employing a plurality of rules, said rules being used for selecting and scoring and ranking a plurality of choices; a user interface operable to accept user-provided information and selections and responses to system inquiries, said user interface indicating system-generated reports and proposals and feedback, said user interface comprising a plurality of advocates selectable by a user for assisting in a single choice and controlled by said rules-based analysis engine to aid the user in making the single choice, said advocates being abstract personalities embodied in software and representing points of view with respect to a decision to be made on the single choice, said points of view including relatively stronger positions on some issues and relatively weaker positions on other issues; and wherein said rules-based analysis engine accepts said user-provided information and presents through said user interface choices to aid the user in making a decision, said choices being at least one of commented on and chosen by said advocates. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. A computer-aided decision making system, comprising:
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a web browser; a server-side application/web server, wherein said web browser and said server-side application/web server form a distributed computing client-server system; a plurality of applets for running a rules-based analysis engine, rules of said rules-based analysis engine being used for selecting scoring and ranking a plurality of choices presented by said client-server system, said scoring and ranking retaining all of said plurality of choices without removal of lower ranking choices; and an interface having a first portion for displaying system-made choices and a second portion for displaying user-made choices, said first portion being distinct from said second portion, said second portion accepting the user-made choices as user preferences, said user choices being promoted from said first portion to said second portion; wherein said client-server system aids a user browsing on the web in making a decision.
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9. A computer-aided decision making system, comprising:
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a web browser; a server-side application/web server, wherein said web browser and said server-side application/web server form a distributed computing client-server system; a plurality of applets for running a rules-based analysis engine, rules of said rules-based analysis engine being used for selecting scoring and ranking a plurality of choices presented by said client-server system, said scoring and ranking retaining all of said plurality of choices without removal of lower ranking choices; and an interface having a first portion for displaying system-made choices and a second portion for displaying user-made choices, said second portion accepting the user-made choices as user preferences, said user choices being promoted from said first portion to said second portion; wherein said client-server system aids a user browsing on the web in making a decision, wherein said plurality of applets provide a plurality of advocates giving advise to the user to aid in making a single decision, said plurality of advocates providing comments on at least said user-made choices, said advocates being abstract personalities embodied in software and representing points of view with respect to said decision, said points of view including relatively stronger positions on some issues and relatively weaker positions on other issues.
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10. A computer implemented method for assisting a person in making a decision, comprising:
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decomposing a choice into a plurality of subchoices, wherein said subchoices represent different dimensions of a decision space; determining a plurality of potential proposals for each said subchoice; ranking said subchoices according to a range of general to specific subchoices and presenting said ranking to a user for random access at any position along the general to specific ranking; ranking said plurality of potential proposals in accordance with a user'"'"'s selection among said plurality of subchoices; ordering said proposals using presentation to indicate a relative ranking of said proposals; presenting all of said plurality of proposals in ranking order to the user without removing proposals from said plurality of proposals; and accepting a selection by the user of any proposal of said plurality of proposals regardless of a position of a chosen proposal in said ranking order. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13)
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14. A computer readable media that causes a computer-aided decision-making system to aid a user in making a choice, comprising performing the steps of:
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retrieving system-provided subchoices specific to a decision domain from a set of application rules/facts; accepting user input regarding said subchoices via an input; aggregating said subchoices into distinct facets based upon type of information; establishing a multidimensional hierarchical relationship among said facets, wherein said facets are ordered within a dimension according to increasing specificity to an ultimate selected proposal to define ordered facets; and permitting user access to ones of said facets without regard to a position of a currently accessed facet relative to a previously accessed facet of said ordered facets, said user access permitting user promotion of subchoices. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
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17. A computer-aided decision making system for deciding among a plurality of choices, comprising:
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a rules-based analysis engine; a user interface accepting input from a user and providing output including results of application of said rules-based analysis engine to inputs of the user; a plurality of advocates having predetermined mutually different perspectives relating to said choices, said plurality of advocates applying said predetermined mutually different perspectives to said choices and presenting corresponding different perspectives to the user, said plurality of advocates being abstract personalities embodied in software, said abstract personalities having relatively stronger positions on some issues related to said decision and relatively weaker positions on other issues related to said decision. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A computer implemented method of sorting proposals, comprising the steps of:
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providing a plurality of choices for a user; accepting input from the user; applying a rules-based analysis to said plurality of choices from said input of the user to assign a rank to each of said choices; and presenting an ordered sort of all choices of said plurality of choices according to said rules-based analysis; accepting designations of choices preferred by the user to a short list; fixing sort values in said ordered sort of choices designated to said short list; accepting further input from the user, said further input including input that is inconsistent with the designations by the user, said inconsistent input being accepted; and resorting choices based on said further input without resorting choices designated to said short list.
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26. A computer implemented method of sorting proposals, comprising the steps of:
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providing a plurality of choices to a plurality of users; receiving input from the plurality of users; applying a rules-based analysis to said plurality of choices from said input of the user to assign a rank to each of said choices; presenting an ordered sort of all choices of said plurality of choices according to said rules-based analysis; providing a plurality of advocates, each of said advocates being an abstract personality embodied in software and representing a point of view with respect to a single decision, said point of view including strong positions on some issues relating to said decision and weak positions on other issues relating to said decision, one of said advocates being a user advocate associated with at least one of the users, said user advocate representing the relatively stronger positions and relatively weaker positions of said at least one user relating to said proposals to others of the users.
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27. A method of rules based analysis in a computer aided decision-making system in which rules operate on logical entities of a decision frame, comprising the steps of:
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sorting hierarchically arranged facets horizontally in order of increasing specificity to thereby provide; upper panes containing input or proposal choices reflecting user values, said input or proposal choices each being one of choices and other decision frames; and lower panes containing input or proposal choices reflecting system generated surrogate values in which choices are sorted vertically in order of decreasing importance to decision outcome, said values being provided by a user/decision maker in said upper pane and by the system in said lower pane; providing a plurality of advocates each representing a different predefined point of view, said point of view being an encapsulation of a different set of inter-choice rules and a different set of surrogate values and which are capable of informing the user/decision maker of input that meets a criteria of being at least one of inconsistent and incomplete and inadequate; and providing gauges which inform the decision maker of a degree to which further input is capable of influencing a decision state.
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28. A method of sorting proposals, comprising the steps of:
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logically grouping a set of input parameter choices into one or more subsets called facets based on relative generality and specificity of the parameters to a decision topic at hand; and logically sorting said facets from general to specific wherein the facets sorted to a more general relate to a decision topic at hand and being sorted to a left hand and the facets sorted to a more specific relate to the decision and being sorted to a right hand, a most specific facet containing final proposal choices. - View Dependent Claims (29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46)
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Specification