Decision aid

• US 7,761,345 B1
• Filed: 04/21/1999
• Issued: 07/20/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/21/1998
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Socrates Holding GmbH
• Original Assignee: Socrates Holding GmbH
• Inventors: Martin, Sean Christopher, Sharp, David William Nathaniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Havan; Thu Thao
• Application Number:
  US09/673,790
• Time in Patent Office: 4,108 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705 27- 28, 705 7- 8, 705/36
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]

Abstract

An information sorting decision aid which aids a decisionmaker through the second stage of decision-making of choosing from a large variety of similar products through the use of a graphical preference mechanism together with locally executed recommendation and display logic. A novel combination of a user interface comprising several sliders with Rackham'"'"'s hypothesis and with a novel weighted matching algorithm to rank products is presented. Each product or service is given a score based on how well its feature strengths match the needs of a user of a system of the invention as expressed by the positions of the sliders.

Claims

1. Apparatus for aiding the decision-making process of a user selecting from a plurality of products/services, the apparatus comprising:

a memory storing data defining a plurality of products/services a user is able to select, said data comprising for each respective product/service;

data defining a graphical representation of said respective product/service;

data defining a number of criteria defining said respective product/service; and

data defining a user interface display providing further information on said respective product/service;

a user interface display comprising a first and a second display portion; and

recommendation logic responsive to user input of plural selection criteria to apply a matching algorithm to calculate, for each one of a plurality of respective products/services for which data is stored in said memory, a respective score for ranking each respective product/service according to the matching of the data defining the criteria defining the respective product/service and the input user plural selection criteria and to select a predetermined number of graphical representations for inclusion in said second display portion of said user interface display wherein said selected graphical representations comprise graphical representations of products/services associated with scores corresponding to the leading ranked matches between said input plural selection criteria and the data defining the criteria defining said respective products/services, the graphical representations displayed in said second display portion being selectable by a user, said user interface display being responsive to user selection of a graphical representation of a product/service from said second display portion to generate a user interface display providing further information on said selected product/service utilizing data stored in said memory.

2. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1 wherein said data defining graphical representations of a product/service comprise data identifying a name or other textual description of said product/service or a picture of said product/service.

3. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1 wherein said user interface display is responsive to user input of selection criteria to generate a user interface display wherein indications of said input user selection criteria comprising representations of slider settings identifying said user selection criteria are displayed in said first display portion.

4. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1 wherein said user interface display is responsive to user selection of a graphical representation of a product/service from said second display portion to generate a user interface display providing further information on said selected product/service in a third portion of a display at the same time as the display of said first and second display portions.

5. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1 wherein said recommendation logic is operable to order the graphical representations of said products/services displayed in said second display portion of said user display on the basis of said ranking.

6. A computer network comprising:

a user terminal;

a server storing;

program logic for generating user interface displays on a user terminal;

definition data defining a plurality of products/services a user is able to select, said data comprising for each respective product/service;

data defining a graphical representation of said respective product/service;

data defining a number of criteria defining said respective product/service; and

data defining a user interface display providing further information on said respective product/service; and

recommendation logic responsive to receipt of data identifying user input of selection criteria to apply a matching algorithm to calculate, for each one of a plurality of products/services for which definition data is stored a respective score for ranking each respective product/service according to the matching of the data defining the criteria defining the respective product/service and the user input plural selection criteria and to select a predetermined number of graphical representations associated with scores corresponding to the leading ranked matches between said input plural selection criteria and the data defining the criteria defining said respective products/services for inclusion in a generated user interface display; and

a communications medium operable to transmit program logic, recommendation logic and definition data between said server and said user terminal, wherein said user terminal is operable to download program logic, recommendation logic and definition data from said server via said communications medium, said program logic being such cause said user terminal to generate a user interface display comprising a first and a second display portion, said user interface display being responsive to user input of selection criteria to cause indications of said input user selection criteria to be displayed in said first display portion and the predetermined number of graphical representations selected by said recommendation logic as associated with scores indicative of the leading ranked matches between the input plural selection criteria and data defining said respective products/services to be displayed in said second display portion, wherein said graphical representations in said second portion are selectable by a user and said user interface display is responsive to user selection of a graphical representation of a product/service from said second display portion to generate a user interface display providing further information on said selected product/service.

7. A computer network in accordance with claim 6 wherein said user terminal is responsive to user selection of a graphical representation of a product/service from said second display portion to request further information for a selected product/service from said server and responsive to receipt of said further information to utilize said further information to generate a display comprising said user interface display providing further information on said selected product/service.

8. Apparatus for aiding the decision-making process of a user selecting from a plurality of products/services, the apparatus comprising:

a memory storing data defining a plurality of products/services a user is able to select, said data comprising for each respective product/service;

data defining a graphical representation of said respective product/service;

data defining a number of criteria defining said respective product/service; and

data defining a user interface display providing further information on said respective product/service;

a user interface display comprising a first and a second display portion; and

recommendation logic responsive to user input of plural selection criteria to apply a scoring algorithm to calculate, for each of a plurality of respective products/services for which data is stored in said memory, a respective score for ranking each respective product/service and to select a predetermined number of graphical representations for inclusion in said second portion of generated display wherein said selected graphical representations comprise graphical representations of products/services associated with scores corresponding to the leading ranked products/services, the graphical representations displayed in said second display portion being selectable by a user, said user interface display being responsive to user selection of the graphical representation of a product/service from the second display portion to generate a user interface display providing further information on said selected product/service utilizing data stored in said memory;

wherein said scoring algorithm is defined by the following formula;

S_p=f(S_i,p,I_{i i});

iε

{1 . . . N};

pε

{1 . . . Q},

wherein;

S_p represents the overall score for a particular product/service p;

f( . . . ) represents “

a function of”

;

S_i,p, represents the individual score for criterion i of product/service p;

I_i represents the importance of feature i to a user;

N represents the number of possible selection criteria; and

Q represents the number of products/services for which data is stored in said memory.

9. A computer network comprising:

a user terminal;

a server storing;

program logic for generating user interface displays on a user terminal; and

definition data defining a plurality of products/services a user is able to select, said data comprising for each respective product/service;

data defining a graphical representation of said respective product/service;

data defining a number of criteria defining said respective product/service; and

data defining a user interface display providing further information on said respective product/service;

recommendation logic responsive to receipt of data identifying user input of selection criteria to apply a scoring algorithm to calculate, for each one of a plurality of products/services for which definition data is stored a respective score for ranking each respective product/service and to select a predetermined number of graphical representations associated with scores corresponding to the leading ranked products/services for inclusion in a generated user interface display; and

a communications medium operable to transmit program logic, recommendation logic and definition data between said server and said user terminal, wherein said user terminal is operable to download program logic, recommendation logic and definition data from said server via said communications medium, said program logic being such cause said user terminal to generate a user interface display comprising a first and a second display portion, said user interface display being responsive to user input of selection criteria to cause indications of said input user selection criteria to be displayed in said first display portion and the predetermined number of graphical representations selected by said recommendation logic as associated with scores indicative of the leading ranked products/services to be displayed in said second display portion, wherein said graphical representations in said second portion are selectable by a user and said user interface display is responsive to user selection of a graphical representation of a product/service from said second display portion to generate a user interface display providing further information on said selected product/service;

wherein said scoring algorithm is defined by the following formula;

S_p=f(S_i,p,I_i);

iε

{1 . . . N};

pε

{1 . . . Q},

wherein;

S_p represents the overall score for a particular product/service p;

f( . . . ) represents “

a function of”

;

S_i,p, represents the individual score for criterion i of product/service p;

I_i represents the importance of feature i to a user;

N represents the number of possible selection criteria; and

Q represents the number of products/services for which data is stored.