| 05th week of 2012 patent applcation highlights part 64 |
| Patent application number | Title | Published |
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| 20120029945 | System and Method for Estimating Loss Propensity of an Insured Vehicle and Providing Driving Information - A system and method for estimating loss propensity of a vehicle and providing driving information are provided. A loss propensity estimation server receives information from a telematics device installed in a vehicle, determines at least one loss cost area through which vehicle has traveled, and calculates a numeric loss cost factor based upon the at least one loss cost area relative to the amount of risk indicated by the vehicle's garaging loss cost. The numeric loss cost factor can be transmitted to an insurer for subsequent use by the insurer in underwriting or pricing a future insurance policy. A driving information database in the loss propensity estimation server stores driving information obtained from the telematics device installed in the vehicle, which can subsequently be transmitted to an insurer. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029946 | SYSTEM AND METHOD OF ADMINISTERING, TRACKING AND MANAGING OF CLAIMS PROCESSING - A system and method of administering, tracking and managing of claims processing. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029947 | METHOD FOR OFFERING A PROTECTION POLICY FOR A MOBILE DEVICE - One embodiment includes a method for offering an protection policy for a mobile device, the method comprising the steps of providing an application, conducting a test of the mobile device, calculating the risk of protecting the mobile device, and offering an protection policy. The application is configured to operate on the mobile device and to test at least one function of the mobile device. The test is conducted by the application and verifies at least one function of the mobile device through the application. The risk of protecting the mobile device is based upon at least one result of the test. The protection policy for the mobile device is based upon the calculated risk, has a cost, and is offered for purchase to a user of the mobile device an. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029948 | Method And System For Determining Rate Of Insurance - A method and system for determining a rate of insurance for management liability coverage which determines a base premium, a limit/retention factor, shared limit credits, and other rating considerations. The limit/retention factor, shared limit credits, and rating considerations are applied to the base premium to ascertain a resultant premium. Another aspect of the disclosure provides a method for determining a shared limit credit when insured clients purchase multiple insurance coverages in a single policy or package of policies and subject to common limit of liability. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029949 | Method And System For Determining Rate Of Insurance - A method and system for determining a rate of insurance for management liability coverage which determines a base premium, a limit/retention factor, shared limit credits, and other rating considerations. The limit/retention factor, shared limit credits, and rating considerations are applied to the base premium to ascertain a resultant premium. Another aspect of the disclosure provides a method for determining a shared limit credit when insured clients purchase multiple insurance coverages in a single policy or package of policies and subject to common limit of liability. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029950 | Systems And Methods For Health Insurance Claim Processing - A method of processing health insurance claims includes receiving, within a claim receiver, a claim submission from a client, the claim submission identifying a policy of the client and details of the health insurance claim. The claim receiver converts, within the claim receiver, the claim submission into a claim charge to facilitate automated processing of the health insurance claim. The claim charge is validated against one or more validation rules to the identify zero, one, or more claim validation exceptions. The validation exceptions are resolved and the claim submission is settled if the validated claim charge and any remaining validation exceptions conform to settlement control data. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029951 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR VALIDATION OF CLAIMS AGAINST POLICY WITH CONTEXTUALIZED SEMANTIC INTEROPERABILITY - A method and system is provided for validating claim submissions against a claim policy that can perform a comparative analysis by comparing structured or unstructured claim submissions to semantically structured policies to direct and optimize processing of the claim submission. A method and system is also provided for enabling semantic interoperability across different proprietary electronic transaction records. Semantic queries and semantic analysis can be performed on a collection of electronic transaction records originating from different proprietary systems. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029952 | METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR PROCESSING INSURANCE CLAIMS ACCORDING TO A PLURALITY OF RULES - A method and a computer program product are provided for processing an insurance claim. In particular, an example method may comprise receiving policy information associated with a particular insurance policy. The policy information may comprise a plurality of rules that define one or more benefits under the insurance policy. The example method may further comprise organizing the plurality of rules into a predefined tabular format. Furthermore, the example method may comprise providing a claims processing engine with the organized plurality of rules and thereafter processing the insurance claim in accordance with the plurality of rules. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029953 | SYSTEM FOR MANAGING A STABLE VALUE PROTECTED INVESTMENT PLAN - Method and system to track, reconcile and administer the values of life insurance policies in separate accounts, including Stable Value Protected funds. Accordingly, targeted returns are translated into unit values on a daily basis for each fund. Additionally the system tracks restrictions (e.g., timing, amount of withdrawal and amount of reallocations) on a premium-by-premium basis, and tracks the book value, market value, duration and targeted return on a client-by-client basis. The system calculates and tracks the payments and credits applicable to a withdrawal or reallocation request, in addition to the liquidation schedules for each fund based on the payment amounts and credits of specific funds. Additionally, daily unit values are calculated given a periodic targeted return (i.e., a quarterly targeted return). | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029954 | Method and apparatus using current fares for seating availability determination - A travel reservation system has an interface with system users configured to receive of availability requests from system users. The travel reservation system further includes a reservation system coupled with the interface and an inventory system coupled with the reservation system. The inventory system is configured to respond to a receipt of an availability request to obtain bid prices associated with the availability request and to obtain current fares associated with the availability request from the reservation system. The inventory system is further configured to compare the current fares to the bid prices so as to one of grant or not grant availability based on the result of the comparison. Also disclosed are related methods and computer programs. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029955 | Fare Rules Summarizer for Travel Planning - A user interface for a fare summary tool is described. The user interface is for display on a monitor and includes a fare evaluation result table that displays fare rule summaries for fares in slices of an itinerary. A method for producing a rule summary is also described. The method retrieves fares and fare rules for a city pair over a specified time period and evaluates the retrieved fares against the retrieve rules to return a status corresponding to pass, fail defer. The method produces a summary of the results of evaluating the rules that indicates the status of the rules for each category of rules and displays the summary on a user output device. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029956 | COMPREHENSIVE EXPOSURE ANALYSIS SYSTEM AND METHOD - Embodiments of the invention allow an institution to obtain a more comprehensive view of its exposure to one or more entities or groups of entities and, in some cases, to use this information to identify opportunities for and/or risks to the institution. For example, embodiments of the invention involve systems and methods for: (1) selecting an entity; (2) determining exposure to the entity in isolation; (3) determining one or more related entities based on transaction data associated with the selected entity; (4) determining exposure to the one or more related entities; and (5) combining the exposure data for the selected entity and the related entities to obtain comprehensive exposure metrics for the selected entity. Some embodiments of the invention further involve aggregating the comprehensive entity exposure metrics for several entities based on entity characteristics to create other exposure metrics, and then displaying exposure metrics to a user on a display based on user-selected entities or entity characteristics. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029957 | FACTOR ANALYSIS SYSTEM AND ANALYSIS METHOD THEREOF - A factor analysis system and method thereof is disclosed. The factor analysis system comprises a data receiving module for receiving a plurality of factors having influence on a target total value, a plurality of base values corresponding to the factors, and a target improvement percentage; a first computing unit for computing a reference target total value and a plurality of upgraded target total values; a second computing unit using the upgraded target total values and the reference target total value to compute the sensitivity of each of the factors; and a processing module for multiplying a factor improvement of each factor in percentage point by the factor sensitivity of each factor to obtain the level of contribution of each factor to the target total value. Through the factor analysis, a decision maker can decide the optimal combination of different factor improvements for achieving the planned target total value. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029958 | DEVICE AND METHOD FOR DYNAMICALLY ADAPTING A COMPLEX SYSTEM TO VARIOUS CONTEXTS OF USE OF THE COMPLEX SYSTEM - A device for dynamically adapting a complex system to various contexts of use of the complex system, by executing business processes adapted automatically by the said device to a current context, the device taking as input a variable business process model that can vary as a function of context. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029959 | METHOD OF EXTENDING ACTIVITY FLOATS IN THE CRITICAL PATH METHOD - The method of extending floats in the critical path method (CPM) method allows for extending the project duration while keeping the networking basic parameter of total float intact. The method allows for rescheduling of the start times of some activities so that the resource requirements never exceed the specified resource limit. The extendable network transforms the process of seeking an extended schedule that fulfils resource constraints from searching in a boundless solution space to searching in a well-defined and definite solution space. The definite searching space harnesses for the mathematical formulation of the optimization techniques, i.e., integer programming, which provides the optimum solution as a schedule that fulfills the resource constraint and yet minimizes the project duration. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029960 | Method and system for predicting resource allocation in cohort time - The system and method of the subject invention operates to allow one to make predictions, based on Populations having retrospective and prospective patterns, for similar Populations where only retrospective information is available and to allow one to identify variables that may significantly affect the pattern for UOA's in the Populations. The system and method of the subject invention also operates to create an Output Expression that allows one to determine the significance of such variables and their effect on a Population thereby allowing one to determine the specific variables that will be adjusted in an intervention in an attempt to reduce the use of resources and allowing one to determine the effectiveness of the intervention. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029961 | METHOD, DEVICE AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR SERVICE BALANCING IN AN ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM - A method of service balancing in an electronic communications system. The method comprises receiving ( | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029962 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR COMMUNICATING JOB ASSIGNMENT INFORMATION TO A USER - A method for a business organization to assign a job to an employee comprising providing a job assignment database stored on a computer readable medium. The job assignment database storing job data conveying an identification of a job assignment yet to be performed and an identification of an employee that has been assigned the job assignment. The method further comprising executing software encoded on a machine readable storage medium by a CPU in communication with the job assignment database to implement a notification vehicle selection logic for selecting a notification vehicle among a set of notification vehicles to notify the employee of the job assignment and send an electronic notification to the employee of the job assignment over the selected notification vehicle. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029963 | Automated Management of Tasks and Workers in a Distributed Workforce - A job is divided into multiple discrete tasks that can be performed by multiple different workers of a distributed workforce. The tasks are assigned to the workers through their mobile phones or other communication devices, and the workers perform the assigned tasks and provide responses to the tasks through the devices. Workers are compensated, in part, based in part on the quality of their responses. Once the workers' responses have been determined to be sufficiently accurate, the responses are assembled into a final result. To manage the distributed workforce, the system stores information for each worker, such as an identification of the worker, the tasks previously completed by the worker, and the quality of performance of those tasks. The stored worker information is used to assign tasks to workers, to compensate workers, and in general to manage the workforce. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029964 | METHOD FOR UPDATING AN ELECTRONIC CALENDAR IN A VEHICLE - A method for updating an electronic calendar in a vehicle involves uploading an appointment to the electronic calendar, where the appointment includes a description of an event, a time block for the event, and a travel time preceding the time block. An alert is set in a telematics unit of the vehicle, where the alert notifies a vehicle occupant of the appointment. The alert is configured to be activated in response to a trigger. At a time subsequent to the time block of the event, one of i) a memo is uploaded to the electronic calendar indicating that the alert was activated, or ii) another memo is uploaded to the electronic calendar indicating that the alert was not activated. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029965 | SELECTING A PROJECT PORTFOLIO - Disclosed embodiments relate to selecting a project portfolio. A processor may select a project portfolio based on a list of projects and lists of objectives. In one embodiment, a project portfolio is selected from the list of projects based on the degree to which each project portfolio fulfills the lists of objectives. The lists of objectives may be stakeholder objectives. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029966 | MONITORING AND EVALUATING THE PRODUCTION OF A CONVERSION FACILITY - The disclosure provides a system and method for monitoring and evaluating a conversion facility. The method includes storing values for quantitative variables and/or cost variables associated with processes performed at the conversion facility. The method includes receives a syncing frame, wherein the syncing frame embraces values for the quantitative variables and/or the cost variables stored less than thirty days prior to receiving the syncing time frame. The method includes determining, from the stored values for at least one set of values for at least one of the variables that are within the syncing frame. The method also includes calculating a cost of processing a commodity processed at the conversion facility for the syncing frame using the first and second set of values. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029967 | ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING TOOL - An enterprise resource planning tool that accesses primary sales data tracked by an enterprise resource planning system operated by a company and describing primary sales of products offered by the company. The enterprise resource planning tool also accesses inventory level data that describes inventory levels for the products at one or more recipients of the primary sales of the products offered by the company. The enterprise resource planning tool further derives secondary sales data that describes secondary sales of the products offered by the company based on the accessed primary sales data and the accessed inventory level data. In addition, the enterprise resource planning tool stores the derived secondary sales data and uses the stored secondary sales data to perform operations related to enterprise resource planning. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029968 | DETERMINING WORK RELATED INCENTIVES - A fair incentive calculating method with a reasonable amount of computation is performed by inputting a set of x jobs X={1, 2, . . . , x} and processing times of each worker {t(i)} (1≦i≦n) and providing a set of jobs W(A, X, t(i), t(−i)) assigned to each worker i, where A is a given scheduling algorithm; determining MaxInc(X, t(i)) by recursively solving MaxInc(X, t(i))=Σ_{wεX} t(i, Kind(w))+max_{s(i) εSlower(t(i))} MaxInc(X, s(i)); and using the step of determining MaxInc(X, t(i)) to calculate an incentive NewInc(A, X, t(i), t(−i)) for each worker i based on NewInc(A, X, t(i), t(−i))=Σ_{wεW(A, X, t(i), t(−i))} t(i, Kind(w))+max_{s(i) εSlower(t(i))} MaxInc(X, s(i)). | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029969 | RISK MANAGEMENT OF BUSINESS PROCESSES - Various embodiments of systems and methods for risk management of business processes are described herein. A system integrating process monitoring and automated risk management through a risk-annotated business process model is described. Such a risk would be computed for each of the possible path of execution of the business process. The source of such a data can be derived from other systems or be entered manually. A risk prediction rule is executed when a given event has happen. Depending on the current execution state of a business process instance, the risk is calculated from the probability and the impact. If the risk is over a certain threshold, some actions can be taken (e.g., stopping processes, initiate mitigation processes or notifying the business process owner). | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029970 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ASSETS, PERSONNEL, AND TRAVEL INFORMATION AND RISK MANAGEMENT - A system(s) and method(s) for providing asset, personnel, and travel information accumulation, analysis, and reporting for improved risk assessment and management are disclosed. In various embodiments, risk assessments(s) may be provided and may include receiving intelligence from at least one intelligence source, receiving information about one or more asset(s), and generating a risk assessment report. Various embodiments may include receiving intelligence from at least one intelligence source, receiving asset information, and generating a risk assessment report based on the intelligence and a personnel or employee profile. Further, various embodiments methods and systems may provide travel information to a consumer, by for example, acquiring information from at least one information source, characterizing the acquired information by its pertinence to travel, transforming the characterized travel information into a useable format, applying rules to this transformed travel information in connection with the consumer-specific travel profile, and delivering a report to the consumer. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029971 | Method and apparatus for risk identification and mitigation in shift work fatigue - Method and apparatus for shift work scheduling based upon an optimization of analyzing and managing fatigue primarily in but not limited to aviation occupations. The invention matches workers to shifts in a manner that minimizes fatigue while on shift and maximizes shift worker effectiveness. The invention is adaptable to other occupations where assuring shift work crew rest is critical. Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) allow for the insertion of sleep into crew shift work schedules. Alternative sleep models are used for different modes of sleep. The invention produces as an output an optimized shift work/sleep schedules with an associated effectiveness determination. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029972 | Method and system for brokering services with time-dependent labor rates - Service Providers (SPs) enter on a Broker Website a profile of their services, workdays, and Daily Labor Rates (DLRs). Users access the Website, and enter services they require, and when. The Website displays the identities, profiles, and DLRs of SPs who can do the required work during the User's time window. SPs set DLRs, directly or via criteria by which the Website calculates them, including by applying a Discount for Days Out from the present day. The User selects a SP and requests a booking for a date, locking in the DLR, if accepted. Once the work is completed, the SP bills the User, and is paid, through the Broker Website. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029973 | Methods For Verifying Satisfaction Of Prognostic Algorithm Requirements For A Component Having Multiple Failure Modes - Methods for verifying satisfaction of prognostic algorithm requirements for a component of a certain device of interest are provided. A method according to an example of an embodiment of the invention can include providing a prognostic algorithm requirements statement for a preselected component contained in each of a plurality of a certain type device, receiving field data indicating a number of premature component failures and a total number of replacements including both due to premature failures and scheduled maintenance, determining a probability density function providing a probability of failing to replace the prematurely failed components, determining a confidence value indicating a level of confidence that failure avoidance requirements provided in the prognostic algorithm statement are being met, and verifying whether or not the prognostic algorithm requirements provided in the prognostic algorithm requirements statement are being satisfied according to a preselected minimum level of confidence. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029974 | COMPLEX SERVICE MODELING - A deal management system is used to manage a complex service deal that defines various services to be fulfilled on behalf of a client. The deal management system includes a deal specification subsystem, a cost subsystem, and an estimation subsystem. The deal specification subsystem has a new deal interface to facilitate user specification of the complex service deal, including a plurality of service elements scheduled for fulfillment from a plurality of service delivery centers. The cost subsystem tracks an aggregate cost of a service delivery center that is arranged to fulfill a particular service element. The estimation subsystem dynamically evaluates accuracy of a deal cost model for the complex service deal during a duration of the particular service element by establishing a correlation between particular service elements within the complex service deal and portions of the aggregate cost data allocated to the corresponding service delivery center. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029975 | RETURN ON INVESTMENT ANALYSIS TOOL FOR STORAGE SYSTEMS - An apparatus, system, and method are disclosed for modeling and projecting future storage requirements and analyzing the associated storage system costs including storage system costs associated with multi-tier storage systems. Storage environment data corresponding to a first storage environment is received, where the first storage environment data includes one or more variables associated with a cost of the first storage environment. Target storage environment data corresponding to a target storage environment is also received. Target storage environment data includes one or more variables associated with a cost of the target storage environment. A cost associated with the first storage environment based on the received first storage environment data and a cost associated with the target storage environment is determined based on the received target storage environment data. The determined cost of the first storage environment is compared to the determined cost of the target storage environment. The results are displayed. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029976 | Monitoring and Validating Energy Savings - Calculating and validating energy savings. Energy savings from programs such as telework are calculated and validated through the use of authenticated remote access systems. A person or device working away from the place of work authenticates themselves with a remote access system using a personal digital device. Through such authenticated remote access logs including location information, systems can determine where a person and/or device is, and is not. Energy savings can be calculated based not only on the energy expenditures of avoided travel, but also on the energy expenditures saved at the place of work location. These energy savings may be summed over employees and/or devices and/or places of work. Energy savings are documented, and may be expressed in terms of KWH, BTUs, metric tons of CO2, or other similarly derivable units. These may be used for example for credit trading. Such monitoring, calculating, and trading may be locally provided, offered as a managed service, or provided as a Software as a Service application for individuals, devices, groups of individuals, groups of devices, or enterprises. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029977 | Self-Extending Monitoring Models that Learn Based on Arrival of New Data - Mechanisms are provided for monitoring a process of a data processing system. With these mechanisms, a notification of an event comprising information regarding the event, and a process running in the data processing system that generated the event, is generated. It is determined whether one or more key performance indicators (KPIs) have been defined for an element corresponding to the process, in a model of the data processing system. In response to one or more KPIs not having been defined for an element in the model corresponding to the process, new KPI definitions are generated for the element in the model corresponding to the process based on specified default KPIs. The new KPI definitions constitute an extension of the model of the data processing system to thereby generate an extended model of the data processing system. The extended model is then used to monitor an operation of the data processing system. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029978 | Economic Rewards for the Performance of Tasks by a Distributed Workforce - A job is divided into multiple discrete tasks that can be performed by multiple different workers of a distributed workforce. The tasks are assigned to the workers through their mobile phones or other communication devices, and the workers perform the assigned tasks and provide responses to the tasks through the devices. Workers are compensated, in part, based in part on the quality of their responses. Once the workers' responses have been determined to be sufficiently accurate, the responses are assembled into a final result. To manage the distributed workforce, the system stores information for each worker, such as an identification of the worker, the tasks previously completed by the worker, and the quality of performance of those tasks. The stored worker information is used to assign tasks to workers, to compensate workers, and in general to manage the workforce. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029979 | DONATION PAGES FOR AN ON-LINE CAMPAIGN MANAGEMENT - A method for facilitating communication between a candidate and at least one voter includes receiving at least one communication between the candidate and at least one voter, determining at least one jurisdiction for the communication between the candidate and voter, accessing a compliance database based on the determined jurisdiction, determining at least one compliance rule responsive to the accessing, comparing the received communication and compliance rule, and facilitating the transmission of the communication between the candidate and at least one voter based on the comparison. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029980 | Method and Apparatus for Collecting Recyclable Materials - The invention provides an apparatus in which recyclable materials are collected, analyzed, crushed, sorted and stored; interactive media content is displayed and coupons are printed, wherein the content is selected based upon location, material collected, user information, user responses, and other variables; information about the user, user responses, materials received and other variables are stored in memory; and rewards for providing recyclable materials are given to the user in the form of points, coupons, and/or cash. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029981 | Method and System of Distributing Charitable Contributions - A method and system of distributing charitable contributions where a sponsoring entity donates money to a charitable organization of a user's choosing via a nonprofit administrative entity. In return, the sponsoring entity receives contact information of the user, such as user's email, text, IM, for advertisement purposes. Sponsoring entities and users are matched based on the sponsoring entity's profile and user's profile, which may include the contents of the user's electronic communications. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029982 | System for the registration, compensation, management and analysis of product or content customized purchase or selling - The present invention refers to the customization of generic product and/or content purchase and/or offering, either comprising or not a social responsibility parameter by means of a system comprising the incorporation of a key, designated token, which solely identifies each item of said products. By means of an adequate incentive such as rendering a specific offer, the purchaser and/or recipient of the offer, will use this key to personally identify himself before the system, namely by means of a proper site on the Internet, through telephone line, SMS, MMS, WAP, among others. The present invention describes a system, database and co-related methods allowing the said functionality. By means of this identification it is possible to convert generic product and/or content purchase and/or offering, either with or without a social responsibility parameter, into totally identified transactions, thus generating information and allowing its valorization and promotion. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029983 | Conversion Tracking System for an Executable Download - An example embodiment of the present disclosure provides a conversion tracking system for an executable download on a mobile client device. In the example embodiment, the system stores in memory at least one of a plurality of components of a first notification associated with the presentation of an advertisement for a mobile client application on a client browser of a mobile client device. The example system also stores in memory at least one of a plurality of components of a second notification associated with an activation of the presented advertisement for the mobile client application. In addition, the example system stores in memory at least one of a plurality of components of a third notification associated with the acquisition, installation, and initial launch of the mobile client application and sends a response to the third notification, wherein the acquisition is facilitated by the activated presented advertisement. Notably, the third notification includes a custom uniform resource locator which is operable to subsequently launch the mobile client application. Further, the response to the third notification includes a redirection message operable to launch the mobile client application using the custom uniform resource locator. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029984 | SYSTEM AND METHOD OF PACKAGE CREATION THAT INCLUDES AUDIO CONTENT AND AUDIO ADVERTISING - A particular method includes receiving, via an interactive voice response unit, an audio content item during a first call. An indication of an insertion point at which to insert audio advertising in the audio content item is also received. The method further includes receiving via the interactive voice response unit an audio advertisement during a second call. The audio advertisement is automatically inserted into the audio content item at the insertion point to create a package. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029985 | System And Method For Managing Recyclable Materials - The disclosure relates to a system and method for receiving recyclable materials, associating the materials with a specific user, capturing data specific to that user and the materials, and providing reward points to the user based on the materials. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029986 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMPROVING E-COMMERCE - A system and method for improving advertising response rates by allowing an electronic advertising content to be stored, retrieved, shared, and manipulated by individual users, while enabling the accurate recordation of accounting information associated with the electronic advertising content. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029987 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONSUMER-SELECTED ADVERTISING AND BRANDING IN INTERACTIVE MEDIA - A user of an interactive medium may select advertising for display on the user's avatar, property, or other user-associated environment. The invention presents one or more advertisements to the user and allows the user to select at least one advertisement to display. The user may also choose a location for displaying the selected advertisement. The invention presents the selected advertisement to other users of the interactive medium. The invention tracks these presentations or displays and rewards the original user based on the presentation. The tracking data may also be used to bill the advertiser or optimize the process of selecting and displaying advertisements. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029988 | Method and System for Triggering Network Access - The present invention makes it possible that devices are triggered by RF signals and the owner of the RF chip responsible for the triggering can receive a financial compensation for this. Hereto a method and a system for triggering a first-device by a RF signal and logging the triggering are presented. The system comprises a RF chip of a first party. The first device comprises communication means for receiving a RF signal from the RF chip and communication means for communicating with a network or server of a second party. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029989 | LET ME PAY: SYSTEM OF SPONSORSHIP THROUGH TARGETED ADVERTISEMENT - Let Me Pay is a system invented to help users find sponsors that would pay their bills. In exchange, the sponsors can send targeted advertisements to the users receiving their sponsorship. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029990 | Social Media Marketing Based on Transactions Using a Mobile Device and Associated Secure Element - A secure element can be physically coupled to a mobile communication device to allow for transactions with remote terminals such as point-of-sale and point-of-entry terminals. Data can be transmitted data between the mobile communication device and the secure element in a manner that allows for easy receipt of the data especially in cases where a wireless carrier network or WIFI connection is not available. Once the mobile communication device receives the transaction data, it can be posted on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, etc . When a consumer shares their latest purchase and opinions about the product or event with their Special Interest Group (e.g. fans on facebook, followers on twitter , or any members affiliated with a social media group), it gives them a voice not available through traditional product review channels, and could compel others to purchase that item as well and merchants can reward users for posting (i.e. marketing) purchase history | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029991 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DELIVER BROWSABLE ADVERTISEMENT THROUGH MOBILE TERMINAL - The present invention provides a method for delivering an advertisement to a user including providing an advertisement by the advertiser to the service system, followed by delivering the matched advertisement based on conditions set by the user from the service system to a mobile phone of a user through mobile phone communication network. The user determines to browse the advertisement or not. The user watches and brows the advertisement via the display of the mobile phone. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029992 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MAXIMIZING VALUE THROUGH COLLABORATION AND POOLING OF BUYERS, SELLERS AND PARTIES WITH COMMON INTERESTS - A system and method for enabling buyers and sellers to collaborate within their communities of interest and other social networks to determine similar buying interests, negotiate best pricing and terms in order to realize optimum deal terms, and close their collective best deal (for those buyers that are willing to commit once deal pricing and terms have been presented) in a real-time, dynamic manner analogous to how deals are negotiated in the real world. Further augmenting the current state-of-the-art, buyers are given the opportunity to pool their collective buying requirements from specific sellers for discounts based on volume pricing thereby enabling the purchase of potentially many goods from the sellers instead of being limited to a specific item, or group of items. Sellers are also given the opportunity to advertise and offer their goods for sale through a website, and the system can match-up buyers and sellers with common interests and enable both parties to discuss, negotiate and close their best deal, thereby resulting in a true win-win transaction since both buyer-specific and user interests are explored and satisfied. The invention also enables a portion of deal revenues to be donated to a common cause or charity thereby further motivating users with common interests to pool together, maximize deal volume and value, and drive traffic to the internet-enabled system, with the potential for significantly improving the human condition on a global scale. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029993 | e-COMMERCE VOLUME PRICING - A system and method that facilitates e-commerce volume pricing is provided. According to one aspect of the present invention, the system includes an offers and orders component that receives and aggregates orders for a product from a plurality of buyers. The system also includes a logistics component that determines a shipping price for the product for a subset of the plurality of buyers. The shipping price is determined at least in part upon the subset of buyers sharing a shipping method. According to another aspect of the present invention, a method is provided in which buyers within an aggregated purchasing group may be subject to different pricing structures for the same product. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029994 | COUPON ORGANIZATION USING A BAR CODE READER - A consumer can use his or her cell phone to scan barcodes from newspaper circulars at home, on a computer screen at home and/or to scan coupon barcodes positioned on the edge of shelves in a store or displayed on a kiosk in a store. The data from all these coupons is be combined into (preferably) a single 2D barcode or in the event of a large number of coupons, into a smaller number of 2D barcodes on the cell phone's display, for scanning by an imaging barcode scanner at the point of sale. This 2D barcode can also include the user's loyalty card information, so reading a single barcode off the screen of the phone can accomplish what formerly required multiple individual scans to accomplish. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029995 | LOCATION BASED DISCOUNTS - The claimed subject matter relates to an architecture for interacting with a multiple criteria buying and/or selling system to conduct business electronically. In particular, the architecture can include a dynamic discount card that includes an information access component for receiving information. In addition, the dynamic discount card can include a presentation component for displaying information to a user via the dynamic discount card. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029996 | Loyalty-Based Credit Prescreening System - An integrated credit and loyalty offering to a retailer maximizes the effectiveness of both programs. The integrated system allows a retailer to enroll customers in a loyalty program, then solicit only pre-qualified customers immediately upon receipt of demographic information corresponding to the customer. The integrated system accepts transaction data from the retailer's loyalty program through the retailer's POS system to the credit prescreening program and awards appropriate loyalty rewards, as well as authorizing the retailer to offer credit to the pre-qualified customers. The credit prescreening process is done in real time as part of a retail transaction with the customer. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029997 | METHODS, SYSTEMS, AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIA FOR REGISTERING IN A MERCHANT SPONSORED PROGRAM USING A NEAR FIELD COMMUNICATION (NFC) DEVICE - Methods, systems, and computer readable media for registering in a merchant sponsored program using a near field communication (NFC) device is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method includes interfacing an NFC enabled mobile device with a smart poster associated with a merchant sponsored program to obtain a merchant sponsored program identifier from the smart poster, and receiving, at a merchant backend server, a request message for merchant sponsored program registration information from the NFC enabled mobile device, wherein the request message from the NFC enabled device includes the merchant sponsored program identifier. The method further includes obtaining merchant sponsored program registration information associated with the merchant sponsored program using the merchant sponsored program identifier and providing the merchant sponsored program registration information to the NFC enabled mobile device. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029998 | PROMOTIONAL CONTENT AND COUPON DELIVERY - Systems and methods provide interactive functionality and the ability for integrating coupon delivery with the use and features of a variety of portable, electronic devices. Coupons, advertisements, and/or other types of promotional content may be directed to a user's device from one or more of a plurality of sources. The presentation, use, and/or rendering of such promotional content is configurable according to, e.g., a consumer's preferences, an advertiser or coupon provider's preferences, and/or in an electronic FSI format, from which coupons may be printed, utilized in e-commerce, and/or linked to one or more loyalty cards/frequent shopper cards or accounts, for subsequent redemption. Shopping lists may be created with information regarding products based on such promotional content, and or the retrieval of product identifying information. Implementation of the systems and methods includes embedding promotional content into various types of media content, and/or via a standalone application. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120029999 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMMEDIATE ISSUANCE OF TRANSACTION CARDS - A system and method for substantially immediate issuance of transaction cards includes at least one unassigned transaction card including a storage medium having a card number encoded thereupon. The system also includes a computing system configured to receive application information from an applicant that has been provided said unassigned transaction card, and to activate the unassigned transaction card so that access to monetary funds is extended to the applicant through said unassigned transaction card, upon an evaluation of said application information indicating that the applicant has been approved for access to the monetary funds. The unassigned transaction card bears no visible marking presenting information concerning the applicant and encodes no information concerning said applicant upon the storage medium of said unassigned transaction card. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030000 | System and method for calculating loyalty points based on usage of consumer energy - A system of the present invention allows owners of various commercial establishments including and not limited to hotels, motels, and any other commercial establishments that rent or lease spaces for short terms or long term use to patrons to provide the patron with incentives such as loyalty points (“green points”) in exchange for the patron's efficient and economical use of consumer energy. The system includes several components operably communicated with one another for calculating usage of electricity and water, compare actual usage of electricity and water with a predetermined amount or value of electricity and water usage for a particular premises such as a room in the hotel, a rental apartment, an office space and the like based on a season, geographic location of the premises. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030001 | RELAY DEVICE, CONTROL METHOD FOR A RELAY DEVICE, AND CONTROL METHOD FOR A COUPON ISSUING SYSTEM - A relay device, expansion board, coupon issuing system, control method for a relay device, and a program enable adding a coupon issuing function at a low cost. A coupon-issuing control unit that generates and outputs coupon print data corresponding to receipt print data to a printer provides a relay device that has an expiration information acquisition unit that acquires expiration information corresponding to a product code, a coupon-issuing period calculation unit that calculates a coupon-issuing period from the expiration information, a coupon print data generating unit that generates coupon print data when the current date and time is in the coupon-issuing period, and a coupon print data output unit that outputs coupon print data to the printer. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030002 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROCESSING OFFERS - A system, method and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium are disclosed for processing coupons. A system configured to practice the method transmits an advertisement to a mobile device of a user after the user registers to receive advertisements, wherein the advertisement is associated with an identification card of the user and a coupon, activates the coupon based on an acceptance via a user interaction with the mobile device, other than a telephone call, to yield an activated coupon, receives an indication at a point of sale device of a purchase using the identification card, wherein the mobile device is different from the point of sale device, and applies a discount to the purchase according to the activated coupon. Thus, a user can redeem the coupon by simply purchasing using the identification card without presenting a separate physical coupon. The coupon can be applied in substantially real time or after the transaction. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030003 | POINT OF SALE VIRTUAL CUSTOMER SESSION - A terminal and methods are presented for displaying customer information about a transaction occurring on a point of sale terminal on a customer's portable computing device. Creating a virtual session on the portable computing device permits additional information to be presented to the customer. The invention allows the virtual session to be started and ended without the need for assistance by an operator for the point of sale terminal. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030004 | Electronic Offer Management System and Method Thereof - An electronic offer management system and method thereof is disclosed. In particular, the system comprises means for receiving information related to a plurality of offers distributed by a plurality of different offer distributors to customer for redemption at plurality of stores, means for automatically routing the information related to an offer to a point-of-sale system of each store in which the offer can be redeemed, and means for automatically clearing the offers redeemed by the customer at the stores. The system further comprises means for automatically reconciling financial obligations associated with each cleared offer, as well means for dynamically profiling customers so that improved offer targeting can be achieved. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030005 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING ADVERTISEMENTS - An example of a method includes electronically blending an advertisement into a web page based on physical attributes of the web page and providing the web page with the advertisement. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030006 | Systems and Methods to Optimize Media Presentations using a Camera - In one aspect, a computing apparatus is configured to: capture first images of customers who have watched a digital sign, using a digital camera attached to the digital sign positioned in vicinity of a retail location; identify characteristics of the customers based on the first images; identify, using the characteristics, a subset of customers who have made payment transactions at the retail location through a transaction handler; determine an aggregated spending profile based on transactions of the subset of customers recorded by the transaction handler; and arrange content on the digital sign based on the aggregated spending profile. The computing apparatus may be further configured to capture second images of the customers who have made payment transactions at the retail location through the transaction handler, using a digital camera attached to a point of sale (POS) station at the retail location, and to correlate the first and second images to identify the subset. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030007 | ONLINE ADVERTISEMENT PROFILES - Techniques are provided in which information is obtained regarding a set of one or more online advertisements. Information is also obtained relating to performance of advertisements of the set, including information regarding locations of user recipients of the advertisements and information regarding times of serving or receipt of the advertisements. Using the obtained information, an advertisement profile is built, relating to the set of advertisements, providing an indication of varying advertisement performance in connection with differing times of serving or receipt, and differing locations of user recipients. The advertisement profile may be used in selection or ranking of advertisements. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030008 | FORECASTING AND BOOKING OF INVENTORY ATOMS IN CONTENT DELIVERY SYSTEMS - Systems and methods for planning and booking advertising campaigns are provided. In operation, a booking engine generates a collection of proposed campaigns in response to a campaign request, where the each of the proposed campaigns corresponds to a scenario of atom availability. Such scenarios can account for possible or anticipated changes in the number and cost of atoms or any other changes of interest to the advertiser. The availability for the atoms in the campaign request can be projected using the past history and the known future unavailability of the atoms and is further modified to account for the variation in atom availability associated with each scenario. Thereafter, the booking engine can present the results for each scenario to the advertiser and allow him to select a campaign. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030009 | DIGITAL CREATIVE INTERACTION SYSTEM - A digital creative interaction system receives a request for creative briefs for the target consumer group from a client and determines parameters of the request for creative briefs. The digital creative interaction system issues the request for creative briefs to a plurality of sources. The digital creative interaction system, in response to issuing a request for creative briefs, receives creative briefs and corresponding bids. The digital creative interaction system deploys each of the creative briefs to the target consumer group and captures user behavior data responsive to the deployed creative briefs. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030010 | SOCIAL IMPACT ON ADVERTISING - Techniques are provided that relate to social and communications impact relating to advertising. Techniques are provided that include tracking information relating to an online advertisement served to a user, communications between the ser and one or more other users in the user's social network relating to the advertisement or a subject of the advertisement, and online or offline behavior of the other users in connection with one or more objectives of the online advertisement. The tracked information is used in assessing the impact of the advertising on the other users, which assessment can be used in advertisement campaign optimization. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030011 | Systems and Methods for Estimating a Conversion Rate for a Digital Advertisement Based on Dwell Times Associated with the Digital Advertisement - The present disclosure is directed to systems and methods for estimating a conversion rate associated with a digital ad. Generally, an ad provider and/or an ad campaign management system detects an action of a user associated with a digital ad. The ad provider and/or ad campaign management system detects a subsequent action of the user after detecting the action of the user associated with the digital ad and determines an amount of time between the action of the user associated with the digital ad and the subsequent action of the user. The ad provider and/or ad campaign management system then estimates a conversion rate associated with the digital ad based on the determined amount of time. In some implementations, a model is utilized to estimate a conversion rate associated with a digital ad based on dwell times even when the ad provider and/or ad campaign management system has little or no conversion data associated with the digital ad. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030012 | YIELD OPTIMIZATION FOR ADVERTISEMENTS - A system provides clients, such as Internet advertising networks, with the ability to select different yield optimization engines to optimize various parts of their network. The system allows clients to run simulations, using real advertising data, on various implemented engines to determine which one is the best to use. Because each ad network is different in terms of the types of ads, number of new ads entering the network, etc., the yield optimization engine producing the “best” results is unknown without trial and error. The system can combine different pricing models, including cost-per-mille (CPM), cost-per-click (CPC), and cost per action (CPA), and normalize advertisements to allow an equal comparison. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030013 | SLIDESHOWS IN SEARCH - Techniques are provided to allow users to access interested information without performing engaging searches. A content-providing system may track collective interests of a large set of users and/or individual interests of a user. User-selectable items may be presented to the user directly without the user performing searches. Some of the user-selectable items may be associated with slideshows that are, for example, pre-deposited or curated to provide interesting information relating to these user-selectable items. The user may easily access a slideshow and the content therein using easily comprehensible controls presented on a display page. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030014 | Automatic Ad Creative Generation - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, that are operable to identify a web page that is to be a basis for an advertisement creative; extract content to create an advertisement for serving in response to a request, extracting including extracting a title for the web page; create a title for the advertisement creative including computing a snippet of the title based on the request and the extracted title; combine a body with the advertising creative title; and combine with the body a uniform resource locator (URL) for a landing page that is to be associated with the advertisement creative. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030015 | AUTOMATIC ABSTRACTED CREATIVE GENERATION FROM A WEB SITE - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, that are operable to identify a web page that is to be a basis for an advertisement creative; extract content associated with the web page to create an advertisement for serving in response to a request, extracting including abstracting content extracted so that the advertisement is not specifically descriptive of the web page; create a title for the advertisement; combine a body with the title; and combine with the body a uniform resource locator (URL) for a landing page that is to be associated with the advertisement creative. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030016 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DISTRIBUTING REVENUE AMONG USER-AUTHORS - Described is a method and system for receiving user-authored content from one or more user-authors, receiving at least one advertisement from one or more third-parties, associating the at least one advertisement with the user-authored content and determining a compensation for at least one of the user-authors, wherein the compensation is based on at least one of the number of advertisements associated with the user authored content and a number of associations made with the user-authored content by third parties. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030017 | USAGE MEASUREMENT COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS TO DYNAMICALLY REGULATE CUSTOMER NETWORK USAGE - In a network subscriber system, a method of determining how to monitor whether a subscriber's network usage exceeds a quota for the current billing period. The frequency at which the subscriber's usage data is collected and analyzed during the billing period is based upon the probability the subscriber's network usage exceeds the quota at a given point in time during the billing cycle. Usage data is collected more frequently as the probability increases. Usage analysis is performed if the probability exceeds a threshold. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030018 | Systems And Methods For Managing Electronic Content - Systems and methods are disclosed for managing electronic content, such as over the Internet. One computer-implemented method for managing electronic content includes: receiving, over an electronic network, log data of activities by Internet users; filtering the log data based on at least one aspect of the activities; aggregating the filtered log data by a predetermined period of time; calculating a trend in the aggregated log data based on a change of the activities; and presenting a request to a contributor over the electronic network, the request soliciting the submission of electronic content relating to the calculated trend. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030019 | Enablers For Service Delivery HUB On A Mobility Network - A system includes a hub server for providing a single point of access for an application and wherein the hub server also provides an access point for a user to access the application and wherein the application accesses one of a profile of the user, a location of the user, and an identity for the user and at least one enabler in communication with the hub server to provide additional functionality to the application based on the user's identity. The method includes querying a search enabler for search history of the user, identifying at least one of an identity of the user, a location of the user, and the profile of a user, creating an advertisement profile based on the search history to be retrieved and retrieving the advertisement based on the advertisement profile created. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030020 | COLLABORATIVE FILTERING ON SPARE DATASETS WITH MATRIX FACTORIZATIONS - A system, method and computer program product automatically present at least one product to at least one client for at least one possible purchase. The system applies a matrix factorization on a binary matrix X representing which clients purchased which products. The system optimizes zero-valued elements in the matrix X that correspond to unknown client-product affinities. The system constructs based on the optimization, a prediction matrix {circumflex over (X)} whose each element value represents a likelihood that a corresponding client purchases a corresponding product. The system identifies at least one client-product pair with the highest value in the matrix {circumflex over (X)}. The system recommends at least one product to at least one client according to the client-product pair with the highest value. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030021 | SELECTING ADVERTISEMENTS USING SAME SESSION QUERIES - Techniques are described herein for selecting an advertisement using same session queries. Each occurrence of a query is referred to as a query instance. When a query instance is received from a user, that query instance and other query instances that were received from the user prior to that query instance (i.e., historical query instances) are taken into consideration to select an advertisement to be provided to the user. The query instance in response to which the advertisement is to be provided and the historical query instances that are received at respective time instances that do not precede a threshold time instance are referred to collectively as a session of the user. Accordingly, the session of the user may be described generally as a collection of query instances that are most recently received from the user. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030022 | ELECTRONIC BOOK SYSTEM AND CONTENT SERVER - An electronic book system which enables selecting and distributing music matching contents etc. of an electronic book and playing the selected music upon browsing the electronic book. A typical embodiment of the present invention includes a content server and a terminal having a viewer for browsing electronic books and playing music, the viewer including an electronic book playback portion which plays and displays electronic books and a music playback portion which plays music. The content server includes an electronic book information DB which retains attribution information of electronic books, a music information DB which retains attribution information of music, an electronic book distribution portion which distributes electronic books, a music distribution portion which distributes music, and a music selection portion which selects music having attribution information matching attribution information of an electronic book currently being browsed by a user from the music information DB and specifies the selected music and makes the music distribution portion distribute the selected music. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030023 | Targeted Advertising System and Method - A targeted advertising server system for providing advertising material to a browser which is operatively coupled with an internet of interconnected computer networks via an internet service provider (ISP). The system includes a database containing a plurality of advertisements and a matching engine operatively coupled with the database. The matching engine includes computer-readable instructions adapted to receive browsing information transmitted to the targeted advertising server system via the ISP, where the browsing information pertains to one or more web pages requested by the browser and is obtained by a context reader applied from the ISP to operate on the requested web pages. The computer readable instructions are further adapted to select one of the plurality of advertisements from the database for delivery to and presentation at the browser, such selection being dependent upon the browsing information received from the ISP. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030024 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DIRECT OR INDIRECT OFFERS PROCESSING VIA CONSUMER CELL PHONES - A system, method and computer program product for generating and processing consumer offers or incentives, including a consumer account offers system configured to receive from a consumer client device a consumer account identification number and a point-of-sale (POS) identification number; the consumer account offers system configured to generate and directly provide to a POS system coupled to the consumer account offers system and to a POS terminal, offer information, based on the received consumer account identification number and the POS identification number; and alternatively or in conjunction with the consumer account offers system generating and directly providing to the POS system the offer information, the consumer account offers system configured to provide the offer information to the POS terminal indirectly via a pseudo bar code generator coupled to the POS terminal. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030025 | Delivering Highly Targeted Advertisements to a User of a Computing Device by Statistically Analyzing of Key Words Used in a Communication Module - A method for delivering highly targeted advertisements to a user of a computing device is disclosed. Communication media files resulting from the user's interaction with communication modules of the computing device are utilized. The communication module may include voice communication, e-mail, Short Message Service (SMS), on-line chat, social network and web browsing. Key words related to categories and sub-categories of advertisements are extracted from the media files. Statistic trends of the usage of the key words are generated by a statistic processor. A significant increase or decrease in usage of anyone of the key words over a predetermined period time is employed to determine the user's most recent commercial interests. The highly targeted advertisements may be delivered without risking a leakage of the user's privacy. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030026 | Methods and Apparatus for Presenting Offers to Qualified Consumers - A system which allows identification of a consumer as belonging to a designated category and makes special offers available to consumers who are members of the designated category is described. The system comprises a database of offers accessible through connection by consumer operated computers upon authentication of consumer registration, an offer presentation module for controlling access to the database of offers and a consumer registration module allowing registration of a consumer for access to the database of offers. The consumer registration module allows registration of a consumer upon submission of identifying information provided to the consumer by a party who has identified the consumer as belonging to a designated category and used to identify the consumer as belonging to the designated category. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030027 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRESENTING TARGETED CONTENT - A method and system for presenting targeted content to users over the internet is provided. The method includes enabling a user to sign into a website. An identifier is generated for the user, if the user is signing into the website for the first time. Information corresponding to the user is mined and the information is linked to the user. Further, verification is made to determine whether the generated identifier matches with existing identifiers. If the generated identifier matches with an existing identifier, then existing information corresponding to the matched identifier is linked to the user. Targeted content is presented to the user by processing at least the information linked to the user. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030028 | System and Method for Adaptive Soundtracks - A system and method for computer-implemented adaptive soundtracks selects and arranges songs in media instances in accordance with inferred preferences based, at least in part, on usage behaviors. Variations of the system and method include automatically selecting and/or arranging the songs in accordance with the contents of the songs, the tagging of the songs, a physical location, and physiological responses. Information as to why songs were selected for inclusion in media instances may be provided to media instance recipients. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030029 | System and Method for Adaptive Videos - A system and method for computer-implemented adaptive videos selects and arranges video elements in media instances in accordance with inferred preferences based, at least in part, on usage behaviors. Variations of the system and method include automatically selecting and/or arranging the video elements in accordance with the contents of the video elements, physical location, and physiological responses. Soundtracks may be selected in accordance with selected video elements. Information as to why video elements were selected for inclusion in media instances may be provided to media instance recipients. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030030 | System and Method for Adaptive Media Instances - A system and method for computer-implemented adaptive media instances selects and arranges objects in media instances in accordance with inferred preferences based, at least in part, on usage behaviors, including subscriptions to objects representing people. Variations of the system and method include automatically selecting and/or arranging the objects in accordance with the contents of the objects, tagging of the objects, physical location, and physiological responses. Information as to why objects were selected for inclusion in media instances may be provided to media instance recipients. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030031 | USER-SPECIFIED ONLINE ADVERTISING - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer program products, for sponsoring content are disclosed. Input from a user is received, the input specifying one or more content items for inclusion in a respective space on each of one or more personal online properties associated with the user. The input is made accessible to a plurality of users through the one or more personal online properties, the plurality of users being associated with the user on a social network. One or more advertisements relevant to the input are provided to the plurality of users through the one or more personal online properties. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030032 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS USED FOR PUBLISHING AND AGGREGATING REAL WORLD AND ONLINE PURCHASES VIA STANDARDIZED PRODUCT INFORMATION - The present disclosure relates to enabling users to broadcast their purchases by means of a service provider. Service provider catalogs such purchases based on standardized product data, such as UPC or RFID, allowing for the aggregation and consequent utility of such data for commercial purposes. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030033 | Contextual advertisements within mixed-content page layout model - One or more text blocks, one or more images, and one or more contextual advertisements related to the text blocks are input into a mixed-content page layout model. One or more pages are generated by the mixed-content page layout model such that the text blocks, the images, and the contextual advertisements are displayed on the pages. For each contextual advertisement, a dynamic weight to a particular text block is determined. The mixed-content page layout model uses the dynamic weight for a contextual advertisement in determining where the advertisement is displayed within the pages in relation to the particular text block. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030034 | MANAGING BIDS IN A REAL-TIME AUCTION FOR ADVERTISEMENTS - A method and system conduct an auction for advertising across multiple markets. A first market conducts a first auction for a first advertising impression. A first bid is selected as the auction winner and a ratio is computed as the first bid plus a spread to the second highest bid. The price to be paid is the lower of the first bid or the first bid multiplied by the ratio. The first bid, second bid, and spread are transmitted to a second market for a second advertising impression auction. The second market respects the rules of the first market's auction where such that if the first bid is selected as the winner, a ratio is computed as the first bid plus the spread to the next highest bid. The price to be paid for the second impression is the first bid multiplied by the new ratio. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030035 | PAY-PER-ACTION SYSTEM FOR SELLING ADVERTISEMENTS - A system is disclosed for a pay-per-action (PPA) advertising model. An advertiser reports actions and pays an advertising provider for each action that is reported. The payment may be based on the rate at which the actions are reported. The action rate may be updated based on each reported action, which may modify the payment for that action and may modify the payment for previous actions. A one-time premium may be charged to advertisers and a minimum action rate may be established to encourage advertisers to accurately report actions. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030036 | BOOKING AND MANAGEMENT OF INVENTORY ATOMS IN CONTENT DELIVERY SYSTEMS - Systems and methods for managing electronic content from multiple content providers in a dynamic environment are provided. In operation, an advertiser can plan and book an electronic advertisement campaign by providing a campaign request specifying a requested inventory slot of atoms in an inventory space and other associated data. Thereafter, a proposed campaign can be generated based on an estimated availability of the atoms and any performance criteria specified by the advertiser. Once the proposed campaign is accepted and booked, the proposed campaign can be managed along with other active campaigns. These active campaigns can be managed based on a relative priority of the campaigns and an estimated availability for the atoms in the inventory space. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030037 | Measuring Quality of User Interaction with Third Party Content - An online services system provides monitoring of user interaction with third-party content. The monitoring is performed by a script in a web page provided by the online services system, which script provides a timer invoked when the browser leaves the online services system's page for a page comprising third party content. When the online services system serves the page, the browser reads the HTML to render the page, including the script with the timer. When the user leaves the online services system page, the timer begins, and when the browser returns to a page provided by the online services system, the timer ends and duration information from the timer is provided to the online services system. Applications include measurement of the quality of interaction between users and a third party advertisers, in which time spent viewing third party content is a proxy for the quality of the interaction. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030038 | Animated Messaging - A method and apparatus that allows an animated interactive talking character to appear on a user's screen when conducting an Instant Messaging (IM) session. The character which is displayed on the user's screen is determined by a profile for the sender of the message. This allows a user to pre-select which character will be displayed on the screen of recipients of the instant messages. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030039 | METHODS OF ESTABLISHING SIP COMMUNICATIONS BY THE ACTIVATION OF A LINK ON A WEBSITE - Methods of establishing an SIP communication between a first network device and a second network device is provided. According to one implementation the first network device includes a web browser and a first IP telephone and the second network device includes a second IP telephone. In one implementation an advertising link on a webpage includes identifying information of the advertising link, identifying information of the website hosting the advertising link and information containing a SIP URI associated with the second IP telephone, and upon the advertising link being activated by the browser the first network device establishes an SIP communication between the first IP telephone and the second IP telephone using the SIP URI of the second IP telephone. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030040 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ADVERTISEMENT USING INTERNET BROWSER TO INSERT ADVERTISEMENTS - An electronic advertisement method and system for an Internet browser with a book-like page-based flipping interface. Full pages of electronic advertisements presented on the computer screen are possible without obstructing the viewing and reading of other contents. This benefits both the viewer as well as the advertiser. An advertisement matching/delivery system provides a novel method of inserting advertisements into content as well as a novel method for revenue sharing among the parties involved. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030041 | CONTENT INTERACTIVITY GATEWAY AND METHOD OF USE THEREWITH - A method includes receiving, by way of a host device, a request to pause playback of content. The method further includes the host device displaying an input area. Also included is the host device accepting an annotation entered into the input area by the user and conveying the annotation to a content interactivity gateway. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030042 | SYSTEM AND METHOD TO ENABLE A CUSTOMER TO SELECT A WINE BASED UPON AVAILABLE INVENTORY - A system for aiding a restaurant patron to make a wine selection from wines available in the restaurant wine inventory includes a plurality of dedicated patron display devices and a content management system including a processor, a communications interface and a database wherein the dedicated patron display devices are operable to receive and display screens transmitted from the content management system and transmit patron input to the content management system in order to select a wine from the restaurant inventory. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030043 | WEARABLE FINANCIAL INDICATOR - A wearable article, such as but not limited to a watch, wristband, or ring, is configured for indicating financial information to a customer. The wearable article includes a communication device configured for receiving a financial indicator from a server. The financial indicator may be communicated by a financial institution's server in accordance with a financial indicator profile pre-established by the customer. A user output device, such as a display, is configured for communicating user output, such as a colored light, to the customer based at least in part on the financial indicator. The wearable article may be configured to communicate with the server through a mobile terminal, such as a mobile phone, an Internet hot spot, a mobile telephony system, a payment network, a point-of-sale terminal, or the like. The wearable article may be configured to communicate with a point-of-sale terminal so that the wearable article can also be used as a payment device. | 2012-02-02 |
| 20120030044 | VIRTUAL POINT OF SALE TERMINAL AND ELECTRONIC WALLET APPARATUSES AND METHODS FOR PROCESSING SECURE WIRELESS PAYMENT TRANSACTIONS - Apparatuses and methods for a virtual point of sale terminal and an electronic wallet are described. One embodiment is a virtual point of sale terminal for initiating and accepting a wireless electronic payment, comprising a mobile communication device configured to communicate with a payment gateway system and a point of sale processing application installed in the mobile communications device, the point of sale processing application being configured to wirelessly transmit a request for payment of a transaction to the payment gateway system and to wirelessly receive an approval code for payment of the transaction from the payment gateway system. | 2012-02-02 |
