String-based systems and methods for searching for real estate properties

• US 8,024,349 B1
• Filed: 07/25/2006
• Issued: 09/20/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/25/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Movoto, LLC
• Original Assignee: Movoto, LLC
• Inventors: Shao, Henry K., Yao, Xiangyang
• Primary Examiner(s): Robinson; Greta L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wilcox; James J
• Application Number:
  US11/459,928
• Time in Patent Office: 1,883 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 707/769
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/3338 Query expansion
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/951 Indexing; Web crawling techniques
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/946 Real estate

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for generating, responsive to user input from a user, a set of property results, said set of property results including data pertaining to one or more properties, the computer-implemented method comprising: (a) receiving the user input, the user input including one or more text strings; (b) checking the one or more text strings against one or more references to find one or more changeable text strings, the one or more references including a real estate dictionary; (c) forming one or more search criteria using one or more transformed terms, the one or more transformed terms pertaining to the one or more changeable text strings; and (d) searching in one or more databases using the one or more search criteria to produce the set of property results, the one or more databases include one or more property databases.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for generating, responsive to user input from a user, a set of property results, said set of property results including data pertaining to one or more properties, the computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving the user input, the user input including one or more text strings wherein the text string comprises jargon used in the real estate industry;

checking the one or more text strings against one or more references comprising one or more of geographical area names, street names, building names, business names, and facility names to find one or more changeable text strings, the one or more references including a real estate dictionary;

forming one or more search criteria using one or more transformed terms, the one or more transformed terms pertaining to the one or more changeable text strings

wherein the forming step comprises;

changing the one or more changeable text strings into the one or more transformed terms if the one or more changeable text strings are found; and

creating the one or more search criteria using the one or more transformed terms by parsing the one or more transformed terms to find one or more relevant criteria and translating the one or more relevant criteria into the one or more search criteria if the one or more relevant criteria are found;

wherein parsing includes identifying one or more measurement units in the user input or the one or more transformed terms;

wherein the translating step includes converting one or more abstract terms in the one or more relevant criteria into one or more logical or mathematical representations, the one or more logical or mathematical representations being a subset of the one or more search criteria;

searching in one or more databases using the one or more search criteria to produce the set of property results, the one or more databases include one or more property databases.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the creating step further comprising using data from a client database, the client database containing client preference data.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the one or more references further include a language dictionary.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the one or more references further include a list, the list comprising one or more of geographical area names, street names, building names, business names, and facility names.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the one or more changeable text strings include at least one of abbreviations, acronyms, symbols, misspelled words, mistyped words, spelling errors, and typographical errors.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising receiving data from an extrinsic factor database in one or more of the checking, changing, creating, and searching steps, the extrinsic factor database being external to the one or more property databases.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising receiving data from a self-learning system in one or more of the checking, changing, parsing, translating, and searching steps, the self-learning system being configured to store intermediate information, the intermediate information including at least one or the one or more understandable terms, the one or more relevant criteria, and the one or more search criteria.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising storing unused information into a self-learning system, the unused information being filtered in the creating step.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising identifying one or more negative search criteria in the user input or the one or more transformed terms.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

generating one or more additional criteria based on the one or more search criteria; and

searching in the one or more databases using the one or more additional criteria to produce an additional set of property results.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the searching step comprises:

receiving the one or more search criteria;

searching the one or more property databases using the one or more criteria to find one or more intermediate properties;

receiving at least one of extrinsic data and intrinsic data, the extrinsic data pertaining to data from one or more extrinsic factor databases external to the one or more property databases and pertaining to at least of the one or more intermediate properties, the intrinsic data pertaining to data from the one or more property databases and pertaining to other properties within a predefined vicinity of the at least of the one or more intermediate properties, the other properties excluding the one or more intermediate properties; and

searching one or more of the one or more property and extrinsic factor databases using the at least one of extrinsic data and intrinsic data to generate the set of property results.

12. A system comprising a processor and a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, that when executed by the processor cause the processor to generate, responsive to user input from a user, a set of property results, said set of property results including data pertaining to one or more properties, the processor being caused to:

receive the user input, the user input including one or more text strings wherein the text string comprises jargon used in the real estate industry;

check the one or more text strings against one or more references comprising one or more of geographical area names, street names, building names, business names, and facility names to find one or more changeable text strings, the one or more references including a real estate dictionary;

form one or more search criteria using one or more transformed terms, the one or more transformed terms pertaining to the one or more changeable text strings wherein the forming step comprises;

changing the one or more changeable text strings into the one or more transformed terms if the one or more changeable text strings are found; and

creating the one or more search criteria using the one or more transformed terms by parsing the one or more transformed terms to find one or more relevant criteria and translating the one or more relevant criteria into the one or more search criteria if the one or more relevant criteria are found;

wherein parsing includes identifying one or more measurement units in the user input or the one or more transformed terms;

wherein the translating step includes converting one or more abstract terms in the one or more relevant criteria into one or more logical or mathematical representations, the one or more logical or mathematical representations being a subset of the one or more search criteria;

search in one or more databases using the one or more search criteria to produce the set of property results, the one or more databases include one or more property databases.

13. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

a search interpreter configured to deduce from the user input;

(a) location information of the one or more properties, and (b) one or more search criteria; and

a search engine configured to search one or more databases using the location information and the one or more search criteria to generate the set of property results;

a processor for performing one or more of the above recited functions.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more database includes a property information database.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein the one or more database includes an extrinsic factor database.

16. The system of claim 12, wherein the search interpreter comprises:

a location information parser configured to deduce the location information of the one or more properties using one or more geographic area names pertaining to the user input; and

a property attribute translator configured to form the one or more search criteria using one or more relevant criteria pertaining to the user input.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the search interpreter further comprises an input clean-up engine, the input clean-up engine configured to:

check the user input against one or more references to find one or more changeable text strings, the one or more references including a real estate dictionary; and

form the one or more relevant criteria using the one or more changeable text strings.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the input clean-up engine is further configured to generate the one or more geographic area names using the one or more changeable text strings.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the search interpreter further comprises a self-learning system configured to collected unused information of the user input, the unused information of the user input being unused by the location information parser and the property attribute translator.

20. The system of claim 12, further comprising a preference information collector configured to collect information pertaining to at least one of the user input, the one or more search criteria, and the user.