System and method for dynamic profiling of users in one-to-one applications and for validating user rules

• US 7,603,331 B2
• Filed: 03/07/2005
• Issued: 10/13/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc. (f/k/a Facebook, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: New York University
• Inventors: Adomavicius, Gediminas, Tuzhilin, Alexander S.
• Primary Examiner(s): Vincent; David R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kennedy; Adrian L
• Application Number:
  US11/074,157
• Publication Number:
  US 20050149460A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,681 Days
• Field of Search: 705/10
• US Class Current: 706/45
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0224 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0255 based on user history
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0267 Wireless devices
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 706/925 Business
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 706/934 Information retrieval or Information management
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99931 Database or file accessing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99932 Access augmentation or optimizing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing

Abstract

A system and method for generating and validating a user profile (25) for a user based on a static profile (10) and a dynamic profile (15) of the user. The method and system compresses the dynamic rules (15) into aggregated rules so that the user can view a comparatively small number of the aggregated rules and select the desired rules from the aggregated rules based on user desired criteria. The method and system validates user rules (60) using a processing device, which are retrieved from a storage device. The user rules are separated into at least one subset of a user set. Then, it is determined if a particular rule of the at least one subset is one of acceptable, unacceptable and undecided based on a defined criteria (415). If the particular rules of the at least one subset are acceptable, the particular rules of the at least one subset are provided (e.g. assigned) to a corresponding user (435).

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for generating a particular information which is at least one of a suggestion or a recommendation for at least one individual based on data associated with the at least one individual and wherein the suggestion or the recommendation is configured to be generated by an execution of instructions provided on a computer-accessible medium, the method comprising:

a) receiving at least one dynamic profile associated with the at least one individual, wherein the at least one dynamic profile comprises at least one rule of at least one individual,

wherein the at least one dynamic profile is at least one of produced or updated as a function of historical data; and

b) generating the at least one of the suggestion or the recommendation associated with at least one of preferences, needs or desires of the at least one individual as a function of the historical data.

2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

c) obtaining a collection of information for the at least one individual which is associated with the historical data; and

d) obtaining further information associated with a state of the at least one individual or the collection of the information, wherein the particular information is provided as a further function of, at least in part, the further information.

3. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

c) obtaining further information associated with external information which is capable of effecting choices of the at least one individual, wherein the particular information is provided as a further function of, at least in part, the further information.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the further information includes at least one of product-service location information, discount information or price information associated with at least one of a particular product or a particular service.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the dynamic profile is updated or generated based on a current location of the at least one individual.

6. A computer implemented method for generating a particular information which is at least one of a suggestion or a recommendation for at least one individual based on data associated with the at least one individual and wherein the suggestion or the recommendation is configured to be generated by an execution of instructions provided on a computer-accessible medium, the method comprising:

a) receiving at least one dynamic profile associated with the at least one individual, wherein the at least one dynamic profile comprises at least one rule of at least one individual,

wherein the at least one dynamic profile is at least one of produced or updated as a function of historical data; and

b) generating the at least one of the suggestion or the recommendation associated with at least one of preferences, needs or desires of the at least one individual as a function of the historical data

c) providing the at least one of the suggestion or the recommendation based on at least one of the at least one rule.

7. The method according to claim 6, further comprising:

d) separating the rules into at least one subset;

e) determining if particular rules of the at least one subset are one of acceptable, unacceptable or undecided based on a defined criteria; and

f) providing the particular rules of the at least one subset to at least one of the at least one individual or an expert.

8. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

g) if the particular rules are acceptable, at least one of identifying or moving the at least one subset from a previous set to a further set; and

h) if the particular rules are unacceptable, at least one of identifying or removing the at least one subset from the previous set.

9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the at least one subset includes a plurality of subsets, and wherein steps (e) and (f) are executed for each of the subsets.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the at least one subset is part of a set, and further comprising:

i) forming the set with the subsets using a predetermined criteria.

11. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

j) displaying the particular rules of the at least one set; and

k) if the particular rules in the at least one subset are determined to be one of acceptable or unacceptable, correspondingly marking the at least one set as one of an acceptable subset or an unacceptable subset.

12. The method according to claim 11, wherein the at least one subset is displayed on a display device.

13. The method according to claim 7, wherein the at least one subset is part of a set, and further comprising:

l) if the particular rules of the at least one subset are marked as unacceptable, re-forming the set using the at least one subset to generate further subsets of the re-formed set; and

m) repeating steps (e) and (f) using each of the further subsets as the at least one subset.

14. The method according to claim 7, wherein the at least one subset is part of a set, and further comprising:

n) if the particular rules of the at least one subset are marked as undecided, re-forming the set using the at least one subset to generate further subsets of the re-formed set; and

o) repeating steps (e) and (f) using each of the further subsets as the at least one subset.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein step (n) includes the substeps of:

i) combining attributes from the transactional user information into related groups,

ii) generating hierarchy data using the related groups,

iii) configuring at least a portion of the hierarchy data as a function of separation data, the separation data separating a first portion of the hierarchy data from a second portion of the attribute hierarchy data, and

iv) grouping the rules into further subsets of the set as a function of the hierarchy data and the separation data.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the separation data is generated based on the attribute hierarchy data and using a further criteria which is defined by an expert.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein substep (iii) includes further substeps of:

A. generating a cut to separate the attribute hierarchy data, and

B. if the cut is improperly specified or if the cut is unacceptable, generating a new cut and repeating substep A using new cut, wherein the separation data is generated as a function of at least one of the cut and the different cut.

18. The method according to claim 16, wherein substep (iv) includes the substeps of:

A. combining the rules from the set to form a first set,

B. initializing a second set,

C. retrieving a further rule from the first set,

D. if the first set does not have any rules, aborting substep (iv),

E. if the further rule corresponds to a predetermined class of a particular cluster subset in the second set, moving the further rule from the first set to the particular cluster subset, and

F. if the further rule does not correspond to the predetermined class of the particular cluster subset in the second set, generating a new cluster subset in the second set having a further class which corresponds to the further rule, and moving the further rule from the first set to the new cluster subset.

19. The method according to claim 14, wherein the at least one subset includes a plurality of subsets, and wherein step (no) includes the substep of:

i) selecting a predetermined number of the subsets in the set, and

ii) merging the predetermined number of subsets to form the further subsets.

20. The method according to claim 19, wherein the predetermined number of the subsets is selected by one of a human expert or as a function of a predetermined selection criterion.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein the predetermined selection criteria provides that a size of the subsets is smaller than a predetermined value.

22. The method according to claim 14, wherein the at least one subset includes a plurality of subsets, and wherein step (n) includes the substep of:

i) selecting a predetermined number of the subsets in the set, and ii) applying a partitioning operator to each of the selected subsets.

23. The method according to claim 22, wherein the partitioning operator includes at least one of a filtering operator and a clustering operator.

24. The method according to claim 23, wherein substep (ii) includes the substeps of:

receiving, at the filtering operator, a particular subset of the subsets, and

separating the particular subset from a first subset and a second subset of the set, the first subset including the rules which pass a predetermined selection criteria of the filtering operator, the second subset including the rules which do not pass the predetermined selection criteria.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein the predetermined selection criteria is specified using at least one of a data mining query and a pattern template.

26. The method according to claim 7, further comprising:

p) terminating an operation of the method based on a predetermined condition.

27. The method according to claim 26, wherein the at least one subset is part of a set, and wherein the predetermined condition includes at least one of:

a first condition in which the set is empty,

a second condition in which a number of subsets in set is less than a first predetermined value,

a third condition in which a ratio of the rules in set with respect to all of existing rules is less than a second predetermined value, and

a fourth condition in which an expert stops the operation of the method.

28. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

q) after step (c), forwarding the at least one of the suggestion or the recommendation to a portable remote unit.

29. A tangible computer-accessible medium which provides thereon software to be accessed by a processing arrangement and configure the processing arrangement to generate at least one of at least one suggestion or at least one recommendation for at least one individual based on data associated with the at least one individual, the software comprising:

a first set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to receive at least one dynamic profile associated with the at least one individual, wherein the at least one dynamic profile comprises at least one rule of at least one individual,

wherein the at least one dynamic profile is at least one of produced or undated as a function of historical data; and

a second set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to generate the at least one of the suggestion or the recommendation associated with at least one of preferences, interests or desires of the at least one individual as a function of the historical data.

30. A computer implemented arrangement for assisting a processing arrangement to generate at least one of at least one suggestion or at least one recommendation for at least one individual based on a particular information associated with the at least one individual, the arrangement comprising:

a tangible computer-accessible medium which provides thereon instructions to be accessed by the processing arrangement and configure the processing arrangement to;

receive at least one dynamic profile associated with the at least one individual, wherein the at least one dynamic profile comprises at least one rule of at least one individual,

wherein the at least one dynamic profile is at least one of produced or updated as a function of historical data, and

generate the at least one of the suggestion or the recommendation associated with at least one of preferences, needs or desires of the at least one individual as a function of the historical data.

31. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 29, wherein the software further comprising:

a third set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to obtain a collection of information for the at least one individual which is associated with the historical data; and

a fourth set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to obtain further information associated with a state of the at least one individual or the collection of the information, wherein the particular information is provided as a further function of, at least in part, the further information.

32. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 29, wherein the software further comprising:

a fifth set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to obtain further information associated with external information which is capable of effecting choices of the at least one individual, wherein the particular information is provided as a further function of, at least in part, the further information.

33. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 32, wherein the further information includes at least one of product-service location information, discount information or price information associated with at least one of a particular product or a particular service.

34. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 29, wherein the at least one dynamic profile is generated or modified based on a current location of the at least one individual.

35. The method according to claim 6, further comprising:

q) obtaining further information associated with external information which is capable of effecting choices of the at least one individual, wherein the particular information is provided as a further function of, at least in part, the further information; and

s) associating the rules with the second information and the further information for producing additional information which relates to at least one estimated need of the at least one individual.

36. A tangible computer-accessible medium which provides thereon software to be accessed by a processing arrangement and configure the processing arrangement to generate at least one of at least one suggestion or at least one recommendation for at least one individual based on data associated with the at least one individual, the software comprising:

a first set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to receive at least one dynamic profile associated with the at least one individual, wherein the at least one dynamic profile comprises at least one rule of at least one individual,

wherein the at least one dynamic profile is at least one of produced or updated as a function of historical data; and

a second set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to generate the at least one of the suggestion or the recommendation associated with at least one of preferences, interests or desires of the at least one individual as a function of the historical data,

wherein at least one of the suggestion or the recommendation is based on the rules.

37. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 36, wherein the software further comprising:

a third set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to separate the rules into at least one subset;

a fourth set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to determine if particular rules of the at least one subset are one of acceptable, unacceptable or undecided based on a defined criteria; and

a fifth set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to provide the particular rules of the at least one subset to at least one of the at least one individual or an expert.

38. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 37, wherein the software further comprising:

a sixth set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to at least one of identify or move the at least one subset from a previous set to a further set if the particular rules are acceptable; and

a seventh set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to at least one of identify or remove the at least one subset from the previous set if the particular rules are unacceptable.

39. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 37, wherein the at least one subset includes a plurality of subsets, and wherein the sixth and seventh sets of instructions are executable for each of the subsets.

40. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 39, wherein the at least one subset is part of a set, and wherein the software further comprising:

an eighth set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to form the set with the subsets using a predetermined criteria.

41. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 37, wherein the software further comprising:

a ninth set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to display the particular rules of the at least one set; and

a tenth set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to correspondingly mark the at least one set as one of an acceptable subset or an unacceptable subset if the particular rules in the at least one subset are determined to be one of acceptable or unacceptable.

42. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 41, wherein the at least one subset is displayed on a display device.

43. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 37, wherein the at least one subset is part of a set, and wherein the software further comprising:

an eleventh set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to re-form the set using the at least one subset to generate further subsets of the re-formed set if the particular rules of the at least one subset are marked as unacceptable; and

a twelfth set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to repeat the third and fourth sets of instructions using each of the further subsets as the at least one subset.

44. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 37, wherein the at least one subset is part of a set, and wherein the software further comprising:

a thirteenth set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to re-form the set using the at least one subset to generate further subsets of the re-formed set if the particular rules of the at least one subset are marked as undecided; and

a fourteenth set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to repeat the third and fourth sets of instructions using each of the further subsets as the at least one subset.

45. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 37, wherein the software further comprising:

a fifteenth set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to terminate an operation based on a predetermined condition.

46. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 45, wherein the at least one subset is part of a set, and wherein the predetermined condition includes at least one of:

a first condition in which the set is empty,

a second condition in which a number of subsets in set is less than a first predetermined value,

a third condition in which a ratio of the rules in set with respect to all of existing rules is less than a second predetermined value, and

a fourth condition in which an expert stops the operation.

47. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 36, wherein the software further comprising:

a sixteenth set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to obtain further information associated with external information which is capable of effecting choices of the at least one individual, wherein the particular information is provided as a further function of, at least in part, the further information; and

a seventeenth set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to associate the rules with the second information and the fourth information for producing additional information which relates to at least one estimated need of the at least one individual.

48. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 36, wherein the particular information includes a static profile, the static profile including factual data associated with the at least one individual.

49. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 36, wherein the software further comprising:

an eighteenth set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to obtain a collection of information for the at least one individual which is associated with the historical data; and

a nineteenth set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to obtain further information associated with a state of the at least one individual or the collection of the information, wherein the particular information is provided as a further function of, at least in part, the further information.

50. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 36, wherein the software further comprising:

a twentieth set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to obtain further information associated with external information which is capable of effecting choices of the at least one individual, wherein the particular information is provided as a further function of, at least in part, the further information.

51. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 50, wherein the further information includes at least one of product-service location information, discount information or price information associated with at least one of a particular product or a particular service.

52. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 36, wherein the the at least one dynamic profile is generated or modified based on a current location of the at least one individual.

53. A computer implemented arrangement for assisting a processing arrangement to generate at least one of at least one suggestion or at least one recommendation for at least one individual, the arrangement comprising:

a computer-accessible medium which provides thereon instructions to be accessed by the processing arrangement and configure the processing arrangement to;

receive at least one dynamic profile associated with the at least one individual, wherein the at least one dynamic profile comprises at least one rule of at least one individual,

wherein the at least one dynamic profile is at least one of produced or updated as a function of historical data, and

generate the at least one of the suggestion or the recommendation associated obtain with at least one of preferences, needs or desires of the at least one individual as a function of the historical data.

54. The method according to claim 1, wherein the particular information includes a static profile, the static profile including factual data associated with the at least one individual.

55. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 29, wherein the particular information includes a static profile, the static profile including factual data associated with the at least one individual.

56. The method according to claim 54, further comprising at least one of compressing or reducing the rules into modified rules so as to modify the dynamic profile associated with the at least one individual.

57. The method according to claim 56, further comprising:

e) providing the modified rules corresponding to the dynamic profile to at least one of the at least one individual or an expert;

f) selecting at least one of rule from the modified rules based on a criteria provided by at least one of a computing arrangement or the user; and

g) comparing the rules to the at least one selected rule to modify the dynamic profile.

58. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 55, wherein the software further comprising:

third set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to at least one of compress or reduce the rules into modified rules so as to modify the dynamic profile associated with the at least one individual.

59. The computer-accessible medium according to claim 58, wherein the software further comprising:

a fourth set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to provide the modified rules corresponding to the dynamic profile to at least one of the at least one individual or an expert;

a fifth set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to select at least one of rule from the modified rules based on a criteria provided by at least one of a computing arrangement or the user; and

a sixth set of instructions which, when executed on the processing arrangement, configure at least one portion of the processing arrangement to compare the rules to the at least one selected rule to modify the dynamic profile.