Providing customized information to a user based on identifying a trend

• US 9,253,268 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2012
• Issued: 02/02/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Malikie Innovations Limited (Key Patent Innovations Limited)
• Original Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Inventors: Leeder, Michael A.
• Primary Examiner(s): SHEDRICK, CHARLES TERRELL
• Application Number:
  US13/619,701
• Publication Number:
  US 20130013772A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,236 Days
• Field of Search: 455/414.1, 705/10, 705/14, 705/7, 707/10, 707/104.1
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/535 Tracking the activity of the user network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34

Abstract

To provide customized information to the user, a wireless communications network node receives a stream of data associated with a user. A first trend associated with at least a first attribute in the stream of data is identified, and based on the identified first trend, customized information is sent for presentation to the user at a mobile station.

Claims

1. A method for updating a hierarchical trend, the method comprising:

receiving, by a computing device, data;

adding, by the computing device, a first node associated with the data to a tree structure grown in a top-down manner, wherein the first node is added at a current general level of the tree structure when a first trend is detected, wherein the first node corresponds to the first trend;

predicting, by the computing device, a second trend associated with the first trend when a second node is not constructed under the first node; and

in response to predicting the second trend, adding, by the computing device, the second node under the first node at an updated general level of the tree structure, the second node corresponding to the second trend.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the computing device, customized information based on the first trend; and

sending, by the computing device, the customized information for presentation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first trend is one of a major trend or a minor trend.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

determining, by the computing device, whether the first trend is a minor trend or a major trend; and

constructing, by the computing device, one or more nodes under the first node only if the first trend is determined to be the major trend.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the predicting indicates that at least a portion of the data is not part of the second trend, and the method further comprises subsequently pruning, by the computing device, the at least the portion of the data.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of the data in the first node is determined to not be part of the first trend, and the method further comprises subsequently pruning, by the computing device, at least a portion of the data of the first node.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining, by the computing device, that the data is related to an attribute and identifying, by the computing device, at least one value associated with the attribute.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the attribute is a flat attribute or a hierarchical attribute.

9. The method of claim 7, further comprising assigning, by the computing device, at least two threshold values to the attribute.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising forming, by the computing device, a trend vector based on the at least two threshold values.

11. The method of claim 7, wherein an occurrence of the at least one value is recorded.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein a frequency of the occurrence of the at least one value forms an indicator regarding a significance level of a trend.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising providing, by the computing device, customized information based on the frequency of occurrence.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising predicting, by the computing device, whether the data indicates the second trend;

and

adjusting, by the computing device, the tree structure to reflect an outcome of the prediction of the data.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising pruning, by the computing device, a subset of the data associated with the second node if the second node is incorrectly predicted.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining, by the computing device, whether to add a new node to a lower level of the tree structure; and

adding, by the computing device, the new node only if a major trend has been detected at a level higher than the lower level.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein lower level nodes are not added to the tree structure until a higher level node in the tree structure indicates a major trend has occurred.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising identifying, by the computing device, missed events from the data, each of the missed events corresponding to a minor trend.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein updating the first node until the first trend is detected comprises incrementing a trend count if a data packet is received that corresponds to the first trend.