System, method and computer program product for interfacing software engines

• US 8,954,367 B2
• Filed: 10/01/2012
• Issued: 02/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Four Charm Technologies, LLC
• Original Assignee: dSide Technologies, LLC
• Inventors: Kellogg, Rawdon W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chang, Li-Wu
• Assistant Examiner(s): Bharadwaj, Kalpana
• Application Number:
  US13/632,277
• Publication Number:
  US 20130091014A1
• Time in Patent Office: 862 Days
• Field of Search: 706/45
• US Class Current: 706/45
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 5/04 Inference or reasoning models
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0241 Advertisements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0256 User search
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0275 Auctions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0277 Online advertisement
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0627 using item specifications
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0629 for generating comparisons
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/10 in which an application is distributed across nodes in the network software deployment G06F8/60; multiprogramming arrangements G06F9/46

Abstract

A system, method and computer program product for interfacing a decision engine and a marketing engine in order to provide vendor-related data in response to decision-related data is disclosed. In at least one embodiment, the system and method may include providing a decision engine on a user-accessible network; interfacing a marketing engine with the decision engine on the network; receiving a plurality of user inputs with the decision engine; processing decision-related data with the decision engine in accordance with the plurality of user inputs; sharing the decision-related data with the marketing engine; processing the decision-related data with the marketing engine; and transmitting vendor-related data via the network.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for providing vendor options, comprising:

monitoring, by a connector engine, communications between a user of a communication device and a decision engine over a network;

retrieving, by the connector engine, communication data between the user'"'"'s communication device and the decision engine in response to identifying communications between the user of the communication device and the decision engine, the decision engine configured to receive user input and provide the user with a set of decision options;

the communication data including the information associated with the user input and the set of decision options provided to the user, wherein the user input modifies at least one modifiable decision option factor corresponding to the set of decision options, wherein at least one modified decision option factor is used by the decision engine to select the set of decision options to provide to the user in response to receiving the user input;

retrieving, by the connector engine, at least one vendor option from a marketing database based on the communications between the user of the communication device and the decision engine, wherein retrieving the at least one vendor option includes;

matching the at least one modified decision option factor to at least one corresponding modifiable vendor option factor;

modifying the at least one corresponding modifiable vendor option factor according to the modified decision option to identify the at least one vendor option; and

outputting, by the connector engine, the at least one vendor option.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising triggering, by the connector engine, a marketing engine associated with the marketing database to output the at least one vendor option to the user.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising providing, by the connector engine, the at least one vendor option to a marketing engine associated with the marketing database as a recommendation of vendor options to provide to the user, the marketing engine utilizing the recommendation to provide vendor options to the user.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein at least one decision option of the set of decision options includes at least one factor having a weighted score, the weighted score of the at least one factor determined by at least an importance assigned to the at least one factor by the user.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein retrieving the at least one vendor option includes:

selecting the marketing database corresponding to a vendor; and

retrieving the at least one vendor option from the selected at least one marketing database.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein selecting the marketing database corresponding to the vendor includes selecting the vendor based on whether or not goods and/or services provided by the vendor correspond to the set of decision options provided to the user by the decision engine.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein outputting the at least one vendor option includes selecting the at least one vendor option based on an advertisement subscription of a vendor associated with the at least one vendor option.

8. A system for providing vendor options, comprising:

one or more processors of a connector engine on a network, the one or more processor configured to;

monitor communications between a user of a communication device and a decision engine over a network;

retrieve communication data between the user'"'"'s communication device and the decision engine in response to identifying communications between the user of the communication device and the decision engine, the decision engine configured to receive user input and provide the user with a set of decision options,

the communication data including the information associated with the user input and the set of decision options provided to the user, wherein the user input modifies at least one modifiable decision option factor corresponding to the set of decision options, wherein at least one modified decision option factor is used by the decision engine to select the set of decision options to provide to the user in response to receiving the user input;

retrieve at least one vendor option from a marketing database based on the communications between the user of the communication device and the decision engine, wherein retrieving the at least one vendor option includes;

match the at least one modified decision option factor to at least one corresponding modifiable vendor option factor;

modify the at least one corresponding modifiable vendor option factor according to the modified decision option to identify the at least one vendor option; and

output the at least one vendor option.

9. The system of claim 8 wherein the one or more processors are further configured to trigger a marketing engine associated with the marketing database to output the at least one vendor option to the user.

10. The system of claim 8 wherein one or more processors are further configured to provide the at least one vendor option to a marketing engine associated with the marketing database as a recommendation of vendor options to provide to the user, the marketing engine utilizing the recommendation to provide vendor options to the user.

11. The system of claim 8 wherein at least one decision option of the set of decision options includes at least one factor having a weighted score, the weighted score of the at least one factor determined by at least an importance assigned to the at least one factor by the user.

12. The system of claim 8 wherein the one or more processors are further configured to:

select the marketing database corresponding to a vendor; and

retrieve the at least one vendor option from the selected at least one marketing database.

13. The system of claim 12 wherein the one or more processors are further configured to select the vendor based on whether or not goods and/or services provided by the vendor correspond to the set of decision options provided to the user by the decision engine.

14. The system of claim 8 wherein the one or more processors are further configured to output the at least one vendor option based on an advertisement subscription of a vendor associated with the at least one vendor option.

15. The system of claim 8 wherein the one or more processors are further configured to provide the at least one vendor option along with at least one decision option.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the at least one decision option is product and/or service related data.

17. A computer-implemented method for providing vendor options, comprising:

retrieving, by a connector engine, communication data between a user'"'"'s communication device and a decision engine in response to identifying communications between the user of a communication device and the decision engine, the decision engine configured to receive user input and provide the user with a set of decision options;

retrieving, by the connector engine, at least one vendor option from a marketing database based on the communications between the user of the communication device and the decision engine; and

outputting, by the connector engine, the at least one vendor option.