Method and system for facilitating service transactions

• US 7,272,575 B2
• Filed: 07/13/2001
• Issued: 09/18/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Lilly Mae Vega
• Original Assignee: Lilly Mae Vega
• Inventors: Vega, Lilly Mae
• Primary Examiner(s): Fischer, Andrew J.
• Assistant Examiner(s): SHERR, CRISTINA O
• Application Number:
  US09/903,985
• Publication Number:
  US 20020069079A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,258 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26, 705/37, 705/27, 705/80, 705/39, 705/53, 705/35, 705/40, 705/28, 705/1, 705/2, 705/57, 705/14, 379/93.12, 283/67, 348/5, 348/7, 707/10, 707/100
• US Class Current: 705/80
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0269 based on user profile or attribute
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0613 Third-party assisted
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0641 Shopping interfaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/188 Electronic negotiation

Abstract

A computer-implemented method and system for facilitating service transactions, both on-line and off-line, for transacting services driven by purchasers or by service providers. In particular, the invention makes services freely tradable as goods via standardizing material terms describing such service transactions. The method includes steps defining a set of service classification and material terms, registering a plurality of participants of the service marketplace, searching and compiling at least one offer and one request for offers provided by the participants for selling or buying services while the offer and the request for offer is described in the set of service classification and material terms, evaluating and matching the offer and the request for offer based upon the degree of identicalness of the set of service classification and material terms recited in the offer and the request for offer, and communicating to matched participants of the result generated by the evaluating and matching step.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace between multiple buyers and sellers of services, comprising:

defining a set of service classification and material terms;

registering a plurality of participants of the service marketplace;

compiling offers to sell services and requests to buy services provided by said participants, wherein the offers and the requests are described in said set of service classification and material terms;

automatically evaluating and matching the offers and the requests, without human intervention, based upon the degree of identicalness of said set of service classification and material terms recited in the offers and the requests;

communicating to matched participants of the result generated by the evaluating and matching step;

the offers being unknown to service buyers and requests being unknown to service sellers prior to the communicating step; and

recognizing at least one of speech, language, emotion, social intelligent, character and characteristics of at least one of the participants by analyzing acoustic or imagery signals collated with the at least one of the participants.

2. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, further comprising a step of making the offer and the request accessible for consideration by the participants.

3. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, further comprising a step of settling a transaction based upon said set of service classification and material terms recited in the matched offer and the matched request.

4. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, further comprising a step of arbitrating a dispute regarding said set of service classification and material terms recited in the matched offer and the matched request.

5. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 3, further comprising a step of assisting the matched participants to fulfill the transaction based upon said set of service classification and material terms recited in the matched offer and the matched request.

6. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, wherein the searching and compiling step includes organizing at least one of retaining session, off-retaining session, accumulating session, and double session.

7. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, further comprising a step of data-mining the offers and the requests to discover at least one transactional attribute of one, a portion, or all of the participants.

8. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 7, further comprising a step of simulating the marketplace based upon the results of the data-mining step and operational constrains of one of said participants, wherein the operational constrains comprises assets, cash, capital, inventory, labor, staff, debt, liability, intellectual property, customer preference, competitors'"'"' actions and plans, suppliers'"'"' actions and plans so as to determine an optimized business action or plan from an integrated and long term perspective.

9. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 7, further comprising a step of recognizing at least one of speech, language, emotion, social intelligent, character and characteristics of at least one of the participants by analyzing acoustic or imagery signals collates with the at least one of the participants in conjunction with the at least one transactional attribute of one, a portion, or all of the participants.

10. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, further comprising a step of referring business among the participants based upon the results of the registration step or the offers and requests.

11. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, wherein the registering step further including registering at least one charity and one donor, wherein the offers and requests include at least one offer to donate services and one request for donating services.

12. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, wherein some of the participants are in locations without sufficient internet infrastructure.

13. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, further comprising providing a retaining agent to execute all steps in the method, wherein the retaining agent is equipped with artificial intelligence.

14. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, further comprising a step of taking or sharing risk with at least one of the participants.

15. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, further comprising a step of collecting fees or commission at least one of the participants for executing any one of the other steps in the method.

16. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, further comprising a step of promoting at least one of the offer and the request of at least one of the participants.

17. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 3, wherein the settling step including forwarding payment via a mode selected from the group consisting of credit card information, debit card information, electronic cash information, billing, invoicing, bartering or other non-monetary consideration, and combinations thereof.

18. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, further comprising a step of gap-filling any unspecific material terms in the offers and requests with a set of default terms or gap-fillers.

19. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 7, further comprising a step of predicting behavior of the participants or market based on the result generated by the data-mining step, a set of predetermined operational constrains of one participant, and casual relationships and sensitivities among the factors.

20. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 19, further comprising a step of optimizing profits of the participant based on the result generated by the predicting step.

21. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, whereby biometrics detect and analyze body language or pulse, temperature of the participant so as to recognize the emotion, social intelligence, character or characteristics of the participant.

22. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, wherein the matched offer and the matched request automatically becomes binding as soon as the result generated by the evaluating and matching step is sent or communicated to the matched participants according to said set of material terms recited in the matched offer and matched request.

23. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, wherein the matched offer and the matched request are still open according to said set of material terms recited in the matched offer and matched request, and the matched participants may elect to continue or stop negotiating.

24. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, wherein a participant limits other participants from submitting multiple offers of requests to probe for undisclosed material terms in said set of material terms recited in the at least one offer and one request.

25. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, further comprising a step of authenticating credit of the participants or the matched participants.

26. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, further comprising a step of authenticating one or more selected material terms recited in the offer and the request.

27. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, further comprising a step of hosting a site or a web site accessible to the participants for posting or browsing the offers and requests.

28. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 2, further comprising a step of screening access of the participants according to a screening criteria recited in the offers and requests.

29. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 6, further comprising a step of screening access of the participants to the sessions according to a screening criteria recited in the offers and requests.

30. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, wherein the material terms recited in the offer and the request are prioritized or weighted, and the evaluating and matching step including a step of establishing a hierarchy of offers or requests based on the prioritized or weighted material terms.

31. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 27, further comprising a step of representing at least one of the participants or the retaining agent in an actual or artificial two dimensional, three-dimensional, or holographic image.

32. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, wherein the services include service packages each of which contains two or more complementary or co-branding services.

33. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, wherein said material terms are established by trade associations or professional associations.

34. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 23, wherein the negotiation is continued by sending counter offers.

35. A computer-implemented method for creating a services marketplace according to claim 6, whereby offers or requests are incrementally pooled into one collective retainer and a retaining group is form at the end of the accumulating session.

36. A computer-implemented method for creating a services marketplace according to claim 35, wherein said retaining group includes members at different geographic locations.

37. A computer-implemented method for creating a services marketplace according to claim 35, wherein the members are affiliated via at least one of affiliated entities, agents, brokers, distributors, franchises, other cooperative relationships, associations, other types of non-profit organizations.

38. A computer-implemented method for creating a services marketplace according to claim 35, wherein the members are non-related but for selling or buying said services.

39. A computer-implemented method for creating a services marketplace according to claim 1, wherein the offers and requests are accepted, conditionally accepted, rejected or countered based upon the result generated by the evaluating and matching step.

40. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, further comprising a step of representing at least one of the participants or the retaining agent in a two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or holographic image according to spoken or written commands of the at least of the participants based on the result generated by the recognizing step.

41. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1, whereby the imagery signals of the participant is taken to compute features of the participant including lip separation, lip shape and intrusion depth parameters, so as to characterize and discriminate spoken phonemes of the participant.

42. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 41, whereby said spoken phonemes of the participant is normalized to be compared with reference languages so to identify the language used by the participant.

43. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 42, whereby the identified language is translated into another language in texts, voice or sight language.

44. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 43, whereby said voice or sight language is represented in an actual or artificial two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or holographic figure of the participant.

45. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 7, wherein the at least one transactional attribute include consumption profiles, habits and preferences.

46. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 4, whereby said body language-analyzing step includes:

taking a plurality of sequential actual images of the speaker;

extracting data on predetermined regions or features of the speaker from said plurality of sequential actual images;

comparing said data of every two of said sequential actual images to generate predicated images of the predetermined regions or features of the speaker with at least one facial expression algorithm;

further comparing the predicated images with the predetermined regions or features and the actual images taken and extracted immediately after said every two of said sequential actual images;

modifying said facial expression algorithm according to the comparing result of the predicted images and said actual images.

47. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 46, wherein the further comparing step is triggered only if the comparing step decides that the speaker demonstrated a negative emotion including anger, sadness, and fear.

48. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1 further comprising a step of balancing the load of a cluster of computers that function together as a single entity for executing the method.

49. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1 further comprising a step of assigning at least one of the participants an identification number so as to keep the participant anonymous.

50. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 1 further comprising a step of translating the offers and requests into a predetermined computer language or format.

51. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 10 further comprising rewarding a referrer which makes the referral.

52. A computer-implemented method for creating a services marketplace according to claim 1, wherein the material terms include at least one of geographic restrictions which include labor, unions, professional licenses, local contains requirements, heavy equipment or materials, or unique characteristics of products originated from a specific geographic location.

53. A computer-implemented method for creating a services marketplace according to claim 1 further comprising a step of executing at least one per scheduled purchase for at least one of the participants according to a set of pre-set preferences or criteria.

54. A computer-implemented method for creating a services marketplace according to claim 53, wherein the at least one of the participants orders an agent to automatically and systematically purchase lottery tickets according to criteria of types of lotteries, numbers and dates.

55. A computer-implemented method for creating a services marketplace according to claim 1 further comprising a step of auctioning and scheduling guest speakers services for guest speakers.

56. A computer-implemented method for creating a services marketplace according to claim 1 further comprising a step of matching employment opportunities initiated by an employer, a job-seeker, or a head-hunter.

57. A computer-implemented method for creating a services marketplace according to claim 1 further comprising an alternative evaluating and matching step in case that two or more offers or requests having a same degree of identicalness of said set of service classification and material terms recited in the offer and the request.

58. A computer-implemented method for facilitating a services marketplace according to claim 27, further comprising encrypting all communication among the participants or between the participants and the site or the website.