Automated estimation of a country where a client computer is configured to operate

• US 7,996,351 B1
• Filed: 12/16/2004
• Issued: 08/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Leffert, Jonathan B., Gautier, Patrice
• Primary Examiner(s): Gaffin; Jeffrey A
• Assistant Examiner(s): Coughlan; Peter
• Application Number:
  US11/016,673
• Time in Patent Office: 2,427 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/223, 709/201, 705/80, 705/14, 705/12, 706/1, 706/15, 706/45, 706/47, 704/4, 715/513, 725/1
• US Class Current: 706/47
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

A method for automatically estimating a country where a client computer is configured to operate. The method gathers information of the client computer (e.g., GMT offset, time zone name, daylight savings status, desktop language, etc.) and estimates a country where the client computer is configured to operate using the gathered information and country estimation programming. The method may send information regarding the identity of the estimated country to a server and then receive information from the server based on the estimated country. In other embodiments, the gathered information is sent to the server and the server estimates the country where the client computer is configured to operate. In some embodiments, the country estimation programming comprises a rule engine implemented by rule programming. In some embodiments, the rule engine comprises a recursive rule program.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method comprising:

on a computing device, performing an automated process for estimating a country where the computing device is configured to operate, said performing comprising;

gathering a time setting and a language setting of the computing device; and

using the time setting and the language setting to derive an estimate for the country where the computing device is configured to operate by applying country estimation programming to the gathered time setting and language setting, wherein said automated process does not require human intervention to perform said gathering of the time setting and language setting and said using of the gathered time setting and language setting, wherein the country estimation programming comprises a rule engine implemented by rule programming, the rule engine comprising a set of rules, a processing relationship between rules in the set of rules, and a recursive rule program.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the gathered time setting comprises at least one of Greenwich Mean Time offset, time zone name, and daylight savings status, wherein said language setting comprises a desktop language setting of the computing device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said gathering comprises querying a system configuration of the computing device for the time setting and the language setting.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein:

a rule in the set of rules comprises an antecedent and an inference, the inference being determined if conditions for the antecedent are determined to be true;

the inference is a string value or a rule; and

the rule engine calls rules in the set of rules to determine inferences until an inference that is a string value is determined, the string value indicating the estimated country.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving the country estimation programming from a server communicatively coupled to the computing device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the gathering and deriving the estimate are performed by an application executing on the computing device.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the application is a multimedia application or a web browser.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending information identifying the estimated country to a server communicatively connected with the computing device; and

receiving data from the server based on the estimated country.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the received data includes data for a product set available to the estimated country and prices of products in the product set in a currency type of the estimated country.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving data from a server communicatively connected with the computing device; and

after estimating the country, identifying a sub-set of the received data based on the estimated country.

11. A computer implemented method performed by a computing device, the method comprising:

at the computing device, gathering system setting data that does not expressly identify a country in which the computing device operates, wherein said system setting data comprises time related data and language related data;

sending the gathered system setting data to a server in order to allow the server to use a recursive rule program on the time related data and language related data to identify a particular country as the country in which the computing device operates;

from the server, receiving digital data that the server automatically identifies as relevant to the particular country based on the server'"'"'s automatic identification of the particular country from the system setting data, wherein the digital data comprises data related to a group of products that are a subset of products that are available in a plurality of countries, wherein said products that are available in the plurality of countries are products that are available for purchase in countries for which the computing device is configurable to operate; and

displaying, on an electronic display device, the digital data, wherein said gathering, sending, and receiving are performed automatically by the computing device without human intervention.

12. A computer implemented method for estimating a country where a client computer is configured to operate, the method comprising:

receiving, at a server, configuration information from the client computer about the client computer, wherein the configuration information does not expressly identify the country, wherein the configuration information comprises time configuration information and language configuration information; and

at the server, estimating the country where the client computer is configured to operate, wherein the estimating comprises the server applying country estimation programming to the received configuration information to derive the country, wherein the receiving and estimating are done automatically by the server without human intervention, wherein the country estimation programming comprises a rule engine implemented by rule programming, the rule engine comprising a set of rules, a processing relationship between rules in the set of rules, and a recursive rule program that processes each rule in the set of rules until the estimate of the country is derived.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

retrieving data from a storage based on the estimated country; and

sending the retrieved data to the client computer.

14. A computing device comprising a non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for estimating a country where the computing device is configured to operate, the computer program executable by a processor of the computing device, the computer program comprising sets of instructions for:

gathering configuration information that is related to the computing device but does not expressly identify the country in which the computing device is configured to operate; and

using the gathered configuration information to derive an estimate for the country where the computing device is configured to operate, wherein the gathering and estimating are done automatically by the computing device without human intervention, wherein the set of instructions for using the gathered configuration information comprises a set of instructions for applying a rule engine to the gathered configuration information, the rule engine being a recursive rule program implemented by rule programming and comprising a set of rules and a processing relationship between rules in the set of rules.

15. The computing device of claim 14, wherein the gathered configuration information comprises at least one of Greenwich Mean Time offset, time zone name, daylight savings status, and desktop language settings of the computing device.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for estimating a country where a computing device is configured to operate, the computer program executable by a processor, the computer program comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving, at a server, configuration information about the computing device gathered by the computing device, wherein the configuration information does not expressly identify the country, wherein said configuration information comprises a time related setting and a language related setting; and

estimating the country where the computing device is configured to operate, wherein the set of instructions for estimating comprises a set of instructions for applying country estimation programming to the gathered configuration information to derive the country, wherein the receiving and estimating are done automatically by the server without human intervention, wherein the country estimation programming comprises a rule engine implemented by rule programming, the rule engine comprising a set of rules, a processing relationship between rules in the set of rules, and a recursive rule program that processes each rule in the set of rules until the country is derived.

17. A method of estimating a country where a client computing device is configured to operate, the method comprising:

at the client computing device;

receiving, from a server, country estimation programming instructions and an identification of a group of products that are available in a plurality of countries;

gathering a plurality of configuration settings of the client computing device;

estimating the country by applying the received country estimation programming instructions to the gathered plurality of configuration settings; and

identifying a set of products that are available in the estimated country by using an identity of the estimated country to exclude, from the group of products that are available in the plurality of countries, products that are not available in the estimated country.

18. The method of claim 17 further comprising receiving, at the client computing device, a plurality of rules for estimating the country, wherein at least one rule in the plurality of rules comprises an antecedent and an inference, wherein the inference is determined if the antecedent is determined to be true, wherein the country estimation programming comprises a rule engine that processes the plurality of rules to estimate the country.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the plurality of rules is configured such that the estimation is made from processing a limited number of rules specified in the plurality of rules.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein at least one inference identifies the country.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein a first inference in the plurality of rules identifies the United States.

22. The method of claim 18, wherein the plurality of rules is a first set of rules and at least one inference of a particular rule comprises a second set of rules.

23. The method of claim 18, wherein at least one antecedent in the plurality of rules comprises a plurality of conditions.

24. The method of claim 17, wherein the estimated country is a default country.

25. The method of claim 17, wherein the plurality of configuration settings comprises at least one of Greenwich Mean Time offset, time zone name, daylight savings status, and desktop language setting.

26. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for estimating a country where a computing device is configured to operate, the computer program executable by a processor, the computer program comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving, at the computing device, a plurality of rules for estimating the country, wherein at least one rule in the plurality of rules comprises an antecedent and an inference, wherein the inference is determined if the antecedent is determined to be true;

gathering, at the computing device, a plurality of configuration settings of the computing device;

evaluating, at the computing device, each particular rule in the plurality of rules against a particular configuration setting in the plurality of configuration settings to derive the estimate for the country where the computing device is configured to operate;

transmitting the estimate to a server;

receiving, at the computing device, an identification of a group of products that are available in a plurality of countries; and

identifying a set of products that are available in the estimated country by using an identity of the estimated country to exclude, from the group of products that are available in the plurality of countries, products that are not available in the estimated country.

27. The computer readable medium of claim 26, wherein the receiving and the processing are performed by a rule engine that receives the plurality of rules and processes the plurality of rules to estimate the country.

28. A method performed by a computing device, the method comprising:

sending, to a server, a request for information related to a set of products that is available in a particular country in which the computing device operates;

identifying system configuration data of the computing device that does not expressly identify the particular country in which the computing device operates;

using the identified system configuration data to identify the particular country as the country in which the computing device operates;

receiving, from the server, an identification of a group of products that are available in a plurality of countries; and

identifying the set of products that are available in the particular country by using the identified particular country to exclude products that are not available in the particular country from the group of products that are available in the plurality of countries, said identifying the system configuration data, using the identified system configuration data, and identifying the set of products performed automatically by the computing device without an intervention of a user.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the system configuration data comprises a time based configuration setting and a non-time based configuration setting.

30. The method of claim 29, wherein the time based configuration setting comprises at least one of Greenwich Mean Time offset, time zone name, and daylight savings status.

31. The method of claim 29, wherein the non-time based configuration setting comprises a language setting.

32. The method of claim 28, wherein the plurality of countries are countries in which the computing device is configurable to operate.

33. The method of claim 28, wherein said method is performed by an image organizing application running on said computing device, wherein the set of products is a set of photo prints in standard sizes of the particular country.

34. The method of claim 28, wherein the system configuration data comprises at least two different configuration settings that are both used to estimate the country.

35. A method of estimating a country where a device is configured to operate, said method comprising:

at a server, receiving a plurality of configuration settings defined for said device, wherein said configuration settings comprise a first configuration setting that is based on time and a second configuration setting that is not based on time; and

at the server, using a recursive rule program to estimate the country where the device is configured to operate based on said received plurality of configuration settings.

36. The method of claim 35, wherein the first configuration setting comprises at least one of Greenwich Mean Time offset, time zone name, and daylight savings status.

37. The method of claim 35, wherein the second configuration setting comprises a language setting.

38. The method of claim 35, wherein said device is configured to interface with a network and to send and receive data to and from the server, wherein the received data comprises product information based on the country estimated.

39. The method of claim 35, wherein the first and second configuration settings are both used to estimate the country.

40. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for execution by at least one processor on a computing device, said computer program comprising sets of instructions for:

receiving a request for a display of products;

identifying system configuration data that does not expressly identify a country in which the computing device operates;

using the identified system configuration data to identify a particular country as the country in which the computing device operates;

identifying a particular set of products that are available in the particular country by using the identified particular country to exclude products that are not available in the particular country from a group of products that are available in a plurality of countries; and

displaying said particular set of products.

41. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program that when executed by at least one processor on a device estimates a country where the device is configured to operate, said computer program comprising sets of instructions for:

gathering a plurality of configuration settings defined for said device, wherein said configuration settings comprise a first configuration setting that is based on time and a second configuration setting that is not based on time; and

estimating, based on the gathered configuration settings, the country where the device is configured to operate, wherein said estimating is performed using recursive rules.

42. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a computer program for execution by at least one processor on a computing device, said computer program comprising sets of instructions for:

sending, to a server, a request for information related to a set of products that is available in a particular country in which the computing device operates;

identifying system configuration data of the computing device that does not expressly identify a country in which the computing device operates;

using the identified system configuration data to identify the particular country as the country in which the computing device operates;

receiving, from the server, an identification of a group of products that are available in a plurality of countries; and

identifying the set of products that are available in the particular country by using the identified particular country to exclude products that are not available in the particular country from the group of products that are available in the plurality of countries, wherein said identifying the system configuration data, using the identified system configuration data, and identifying the set of products are performed automatically by the computing device without an intervention of a user.