METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR INTERACTIVE EVOLUTIONARY ALGORITHMS WITH RESPONDENT DIRECTED BREEDING

• US 20140279203A1
• Filed: 03/13/2014
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nielsen Consumer LLC (Nielsen Holdings plc)
• Original Assignee: Affinnova, Inc. (RR Donnelley & Sons Company)
• Inventors: Malek, Kamal M., Telller, David B., Al-Atraqchi, Waleed M.A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,785,995 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26.7
• CPC Class Codes: G06N 3/126 Evolutionary algorithms, e.g. genetic algorithms or genetic programming
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0631 Item recommendations

Abstract

A method comprises displaying visual representations of a plurality of product alternatives each including at least one attribute variant to a respondent, receiving from the respondent an indication of a preferred one of the plurality of product alternatives, transmitting a request to the respondent to identify at least one attribute variant of a non-preferred product alternative that is preferred by the respondent to the corresponding attribute variant of the preferred one of the plurality of product alternatives and receiving a response from the respondent identifying at least one attribute variant of a non-preferred product alternative that is preferred by the respondent to the corresponding attribute variant of the preferred one of the plurality of product alternatives.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

displaying visual representations of a plurality of product alternatives each comprising at least one attribute variant to a respondent;

receiving from the respondent an indication of a preferred one of the plurality of product alternatives;

transmitting a request to the respondent to identify at least one attribute variant of a non-preferred product alternative that is preferred by the respondent to the corresponding attribute variant of the preferred one of the plurality of product alternatives; and

receiving a response from the respondent indicating the requested identified variant.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising utilizing the response to select a breeding mate for generating additional product alternatives.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein utilizing the response comprises selecting the identified attribute variant of the non-preferred product alternative as the breeding mate.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprises performing a breeding operation utilizing the breeding mate and at least one attribute of the preferred one of the plurality of product alternatives to produce an offspring.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising repairing the offspring.

6. The method of claim 5 wherein repairing the offspring comprises changing an attribute variant of the offspring to the preferred attribute variant of the non-preferred product alternative.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein a probability of repairing the offspring is between approximately 0.3 and 1.0.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the probability is approximately 0.6.

9. A computer program product residing on a computer readable medium having a plurality of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

displaying visual representations of a plurality of product alternatives each comprising at least one attribute variant to a respondent;

receiving from the respondent an indication of a preferred one of the plurality of product alternatives;

transmitting a request to the respondent to identify at least one attribute variant of a non-preferred product alternative that is preferred by the respondent to the corresponding attribute variant of the preferred one of the plurality of product alternatives; and

receiving a response indicating the identified requested attribute variant.

10. The computer program of claim 9 wherein the processor performs further steps comprising utilizing the response to select a breeding mate for generating product alternatives.

11. The computer program of claim 10 wherein utilizing the response comprises selecting the identified attribute variant of the non-preferred product alternative as the breeding mate.

12. The computer program of claim 10 wherein the processor performs further steps comprising performing a breeding operation utilizing the breeding mate and at least one attribute of the preferred one of the plurality of product alternatives to produce an offspring.

13. The computer program of claim 12 wherein the processor performs further steps comprising repairing the offspring.

14. The computer program of claim 13 wherein repairing the offspring comprises changing an attribute variant of the offspring to the preferred attribute variant of the non-preferred product alternative.

15. The computer program of claim 14 wherein a probability of repairing the offspring is between approximately 0.3 and 1.0.

16. The computer program of claim 15 wherein the probability is approximately 0.6.