13th week of 2016 patent applcation highlights part 42 |
Patent application number | Title | Published |
20160092892 | Computer-Aided System for Improving Return on Assets - Systems and methods are described for managing assets in a manufacturing environment. The use of a time-based approach for determining costs of using individual resources in such an environment allows for the generation of detailed reports on assets, liabilities, equity, income and expenses (cost), and cash flows of a business. In addition, the time-based approach can be used in conjunction with transactional processing management systems to perform a variety of tasks such as tracking resources, filling orders, and operating a factory. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092893 | SYSTEM, METHOD, AND APPARATUS FOR PREDICTING ITEM CHARACTERISTIC POPULARITY - The present disclosure is directed to apparatuses, systems, and methods for predicting item characteristic popularity—i.e., identifying item characteristics (e.g., item brands, item types, etc.) that are to eventually become popular. Something that is to eventually become popular is referred to herein as “pre-trend” or “cool.” In the embodiments described herein, electronic marketplace transaction data is analyzed to identify popular characteristics of items involved in recent transactions. The electronic marketplace transaction data is further analyzed to identify one or more users that executed transactions for items having these popular characteristics during a previous time period. These users' transaction histories are analyzed to determine what other item characteristics are prevalent in their more recent transactions, as these item characteristics can be identified as pre-trend/cool. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092894 | VISUALIZING RELATIONSHIPS IN SURVEY DATA - Some examples of visualizing relationships between survey data can be implemented by displaying a user interface including a survey question region and a percentage region. In response to detecting a selection of a survey data set, multiple question objects are displayed in the survey question region. Each question object represents a survey question and an answer option for the survey question. In response to inputs to interact with the multiple question objects, survey results such as a percentage of selections of a first answer option to a first survey question represented by a first question object can be determined and displayed in the user interface. Also, interrelationships between answers to survey questions can be displayed by positioning question objects at different locations in the user interface. In response to a selection of a question object, other question objects can be presented according to the correlation with the selected question object. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092895 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IDENTIFYING MERCHANT MARKET SHARES BASED ON PURCHASE DATA - A method for identifying consumer segment market shares for a merchant includes: storing a plurality of consumer profiles, each profile including data related to a consumer including a measurement key and plurality of transaction data entries associated with a transaction involving the consumer, each including a merchant identifier for a merchant involved in the transaction; receiving a specific merchant identifier and consumer segments, each segment including a plurality of measurement keys each associated with a consumer; identifying, for each segment, consumer profiles in the database that include a measurement key corresponding to one of the associated keys; calculating, for each segment, a market share based on data included in transaction data entries in each associated consumer profile that includes the specific merchant identifier and transaction data entries in each associated consumer profile that does not include the specific merchant identifier; and transmitting the calculated market share for each segment. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092896 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING POLITICAL AFFILIATION AND ATTITUDE TRENDS - A method and a system are provided for determining political affiliation and/or attitude trends of a plurality of payment card holders. The method includes retrieving from one or more databases a first set of information comprising payment card transaction information of a plurality of payment card holders, and retrieving from the one or more databases a second set of information comprising external information. The external information comprises political affiliation and/or attitude information of a plurality of merchants, and political affiliation and/or attitude information of the plurality of payment card holders. The method also includes analyzing the first set of information and the second set of information to identify one or more associations between the payment card transaction information and the external information, and determining political affiliation and/or attitude trends of the plurality of payment card holders based on the one or more associations. The method and system can be used to measure shifts in ideological and political patterns of a population. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092897 | PRICING AN API IN AN API MARKETPLACE - In an approach to pricing an API, a computer determines whether an application programming interface (API) is published by a developer. Responsive to determining an API is published by the developer, the computer determines one or more characteristics of the API and whether a price history exists for the API. Responsive to determining a price history does exist for the API, the computer determines an initial price for the API. The computer then determines, based, at least in part, on the one or more characteristics of the API and the price history for the API, whether the initial price maximizes a surplus value for a sale of the API. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092898 | INTELLIGENT PRICING - A computer-implemented method schedules production in a business' production facilities by seeking market orders for products of the business on a timeline commensurate with a temporal availability of production capacity. The method involves recommending a selling price for a forecasted order for products of the business, checking whether the business has available production capacity to produce the products in time to fulfill the forecasted order, and determining the business' minimum selling price for the forecasted order. The method further includes checking whether a competitor has available manufacturing capacity to compete for the forecasted order based on competitor-specific information on available manufacturing capacity, cost and minimum profit margin requirement. The competitor-specific information is derived from market intelligence data. The method includes determining the recommended selling price for the forecasted order based on the business' and the competitor's minimum selling prices, and one or more quantifiable business objectives of the business. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092899 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR USING GAMIFICATION TO IMPROVE ECO-DRIVING BEHAVIOR AND MEASURE FUEL REDUCTIONS - Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for improving eco-driving behavior through gamification. Systems receive, at a user device, a fuel-efficiency metric for a vehicle associated with a user of the user device as the vehicle is traveling and identify a fuel-efficiency standard for the vehicle from a standards database. The system also enrolls the user in a game which promotes fuel efficient driving based on the fuel-efficiency metric and the fuel-efficiency standard. When the game indicates a threshold efficiency has been reached, based on the fuel-efficiency metric and the fuel-efficiency standard, the system assigns a reward to the user. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092900 | SYSTEM FOR ARRANGING PRODUCT TRIAL PRESENTATION WITH RETAILER FOR SUBSEQUENT ONLINE PURCHASE - A sales promotion system supporting a plurality of buyer and a plurality of sellers, wherein the sellers are online sellers or brick and mortar sellers, and some sellers can charge a fee for letting a potential buyer try a product before purchasing it online at a different seller. The sales promotion system makes an arrangement for a trial by potential buyers at some seller's premises, and subsequently helps the seller charge a fee for the trial, while the actual purchase is conducted with a different online seller. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092901 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR CALCULATING AND PROVIDING HOTEL RATE INFORMATION - A method for determining a hotel rate can include providing a predetermined number of hotel rooms for a predetermined number of nights, and providing a base rate for each of the predetermined rooms. The predetermined number of rooms is multiplied by the predetermined number of nights to yield a room night product, on which a discount is based. The discount is applied to the base rate to determine the hotel rate. Another method of determining a hotel rate can include selecting at least one hotel room for date(s) occurring within a particular week period (week 1) subject to a first base rate, and additional date(s) occurring within another particular week period (week 2) that is subject to a different base rate. The first and second base rates are added together, and the discount is applied to the sum to determine the hotel rate. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092902 | Distributed Offer Marketing Over Network System and Method - An actor creates marketing offers in an offer and redemption system. On checkout at the merchant store or website, a customer's payment method is tokenized and associated with a purchase transaction, the system produces a unique code on the receipt. A customer can create a unique profile ID and customer profile and associate past transactions associated with the tokenized payment method by entering a unique code off any receipt where that payment method was used in the transaction. An actor can utilize the system to create marketing offers based off of purchase behavior and attach those offers to a unique customer profile ID. Offers are associated with the unique profile ID and are delivered to the customer. Rewards can also be automatically redeemed when conditions of the offer are met. Customers may add multiple payment methods to the profile. Subsequent use of any of the payment methods in the profile will automatically associate qualifying purchase behavior, eligible offers, and reward redemption with the customer's profile. The payment system interacts with the offer and redemption module or system to provide the offer and profile information to the customer, and to report and track offers and redemptions, providing a full circle, closed loop accounting for the merchant and other actors. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092903 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CREATING A CONSUMER ENVIRONMENTALLY AWARE PRODUCT - A method for incentivizing ecological awareness is disclosed. The method includes providing a consumer device; marking the consumer device with a unique identifier; and linking the unique identifier to an environmental asset. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092904 | System and Method for a Loyalty Network - In one aspect, there is provided a computer-implemented loyalty commerce network for facilitating generation of an application via an application computing device for communicating with loyalty programs via corresponding loyalty program computing devices, the network comprising: an application programming interface for receiving a request for generating said application and for generating said application based on said request and pre-defined templates associated with at least one of said loyalty programs; a loyalty program interface configured for communicating between the loyalty commerce network and said at least one loyalty program, said loyalty program interface for redirecting said request to said loyalty program; said loyalty program interface for defining a plurality of pre-defined criteria for validating said application; and, a loyalty server processor for processing said request and for validating said application in dependence upon said criteria being met. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092905 | SYSTEM AND METHOD 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 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 validation and promotion. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092906 | Systems and Methods for Providing a Commerce Discount Card - Method and system for incentivizing student achievement and teacher performance by maintaining a database of students and their attributes, providing teachers access to update the attributes, and permitting businesses to offer attribute-related incentives to the students and teachers, but only when the student qualifies for the incentive based on their attributes or the teacher qualifies for the incentive based on the attributes of their students. Each student interacts with an incentive database to obtain a list of the available incentives. Each business interacts with the database and upon providing an identification of a student seeking an incentive, receives an indication of whether the student qualifies for an offered incentive. If so, the student is able to use the incentive. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092907 | CHARGING AND BILLING FOR CONTENT, SERVICES, AND ACCESS - Among other things, at a server, information is received from applications, services, or content being used on user devices about usage of communication services attributable to each of the applications, services, or content. The information about the amounts of attributable communication services is used in allocating charges for the services to one or more paying parties in accordance with one or more applicable business rules. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092908 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROCESSING AUTOMATIC PRODUCT DISCOUNTS AT POINT OF SALE - A method for processing account and product linked offers includes: storing data related to a payment transaction including a transaction amount, product data associated with one or more products, and account data associated with a transaction account; transmitting an offer data request, wherein the offer request includes the stored product data and account data; receiving offer data in response to the transmitted offer data request, wherein the offer data includes a transaction modifier and is associated with the stored product data and account data; calculating a modified transaction amount based on the stored transaction amount and the transaction modifier included in the received offer data; and transmitting the calculated modified transaction amount and account data for use in processing a payment transaction. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092909 | Advertising Module - A method of advertising includes placing an advertising module on a football field where the advertising module includes a platform, an exercise device positioned on the platform, and an advertisement attached to the platform. The location of the advertising module on the football field is between a goal line and a 25 yard line and proximate a side line of a playing region of the field. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092910 | Marketing/Referral Card/s - Techniques for gathering referral information and displaying business information. In one example, you may have it made so that the business card or marketing card can separate from the referral portion of the card using perforation to neatly separate them, all of which can be put into your pocket due to the size. And putting scores on the referral part of the card so that the card can fold to the size of a business card for easy transporting. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092911 | ESTIMATION OF TRUE AUDIENCE SIZE FOR DIGITAL CONTENT - A content server system provides a client device with content, such as an audio stream. Using various techniques, an estimate is made of the actual size of an audience associated with the provided content, rather than assuming that the audience is limited to a single user of the client device. The estimate may be made by the content server system, the client device, or the content server system and the client device collectively. Using the estimate of actual size of the audience, the content server system can take actions appropriate for the audience, such as providing advertisements appropriate for the size of the audience and for the collective characteristics of the audience members. The estimate of the actual audience size additionally allows the content server system to be compensated more precisely for any advertisements provided to that audience. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092912 | AUTOMATED OPTIMIZATION OF AN ADVERTISEMENT PLACEMENT ENGINE - A system and method for predicting a performance of a target advertisement placement via a simulation for optimum tuning is disclosed. A simulator receives a set of queries from a production engine, selects a subset of simulation queries from the queries by filtering, modifies query parameters as needed, transmits the simulation queries to the target engine for simulation, collects search results from the target engine, and computes a summary metric, which includes data fields retrieved from the search results and quantities calculated by using a prediction model derived from a production data warehouse. The simulator may further produce a simulation report, an indicator of performance prediction for the target engine, which comprises multiple metrics for the target engine, calculated with varying engine parameters. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092913 | TIME INTERVAL-BASED STATISTICALLY-INFERRED RESPONSE ATTRIBUTIONS - A time interval-based stimulus is created based upon a statistically-inferred time interval-based response rate. The time interval-based stimulus accounts over time for a proportion of responses that occur without being attributable to other stimuli. A response is retrieved. A time-interval response attribution value is calculated using the time interval-based stimulus and the response by applying a combination of a first response rate model and a second time delay model that weights output of the first response rate model based upon a continuous range of time delays between a minimum and maximum difference in time that separate the time interval-based stimulus and the response. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092914 | EVALUATING PAGE CONTENT TO DETERMINE USER INTEREST - The disclosure is directed to approaches for combining server-side decisions based on user attributes and/or demographics with client-side decisions based on expressed or implied user interests determined based on the contents of a web page being visited by the user. A server is responsive to an occurrence of an operation of a client device at the web page. Processing steps determine particular executable web page content to send to the client device (e.g., where the particular executable web page content is determined in response to a particular client-side operation). The web page is rendered with the aforementioned executable web page content. Server-side processing receives messages that are emitted conditionally, based on the occurrence of a user event. An event log message comprises a portion of the web page, such as a string, indicating or implying user interest. A targeted advertisement is presented to the user based on the user interest. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092915 | METHOD AND SYSTEM OF ENHANCING ONLINE CONTENTS VALUE - A method and a system for enhancing online contents value using optimization of a search engine are disclosed. The present invention indexes contents, generates indexing data, extracts main keywords from the indexing data, summarizes phrases, generates a sitemap containing the indexing data and the keywords and provides the sitemap to search engines such that the present invention has an effect of being capable of more efficiently exposing a user's content through search engines to the public. In addition, the present invention provides a content sitemap to a search engine, performs periodic searching via the corresponding search engine using the keywords extracted from the contents to check a search ranking, and analyzes the search ranking and a connection log of a website generating the corresponding content, to thereby be capable of analyzing an amount of traffic caused per content generator and advertisement effects and profitability per content generator, as well as analyzing an amount of traffic caused per content and advertisement effects and profitability per content. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092916 | PIXEL CLUSTER TRANSIT MONITORING FOR DETECTING CLICK FRAUD - Detecting click fraud that includes a client device capable of accessing a server hosting a web page containing an advertisement. The client device includes a network interface allowing access to the server and code on the client device. The code accesses and displays a web page containing an advertisement, provides mechanisms (e.g., an applet, an ActiveX control, a plugin, a JavaScript, a browser scripting language, browser extensions, or code native to the browser) associated with each pixel cluster where each mechanism captures information regarding the transit of the pixel cluster by a cursor on the web page, and collects information based on the capturing by each associated mechanism regarding the transit of the pixel cluster by a cursor on the web page. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092917 | Data Sharing Between Service Providers and Applications - Concepts and technologies are disclosed herein for data sharing between service providers and applications. According to one aspect disclosed herein, a service provider data server computer can expose an application programming interface (“API”). The API can collect location data associated with a user device after an application that calls the API is launched by the user device. The service provider data server computer can receive the location data from the application. The service provider data server computer can determine a user associated with the location data and can obtain enrichment data associated with the user. The service provider data server computer can provide the enrichment data associated with the user to the application or to an application server computer for use in determining an advertisement targeted to the user. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092918 | REAL-TIME ANNOUNCEMENTS AT A GIVEN LOCATION WITHIN A SPECIFIC GEOGRAPHICAL RADIUS - Disclosed herein are an electronic device, method, and non-transitory computer readable medium for finding events or bargains in a map. A request to display specific announcement data within a particular geographical radius is received. In response, a map corresponding to the particular geographical radius is displayed with the announcement data associated with an event or sale currently occurring at a given location within the geographical radius. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092919 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PLACING ADVERTISEMENTS ON A MOBILE DEVICE - The present invention discloses a platform to track and collect data throughout a user's engagement with a mobile device independent of user engagement with any one app. The user may transition between apps without closing an opened app or returning to a home screen. The user engagement data across the apps may be used by data analytics to target ads for the user. The data analytics analyzes the user engagement data to discern the user's interest to generate the targeted ads. The present invention also discloses a platform to deliver and display dynamic, targeted ads on a mobile device at all times, even when the user transitions between apps, or is on the home screen and disengaged from all apps. The targeted ads are displayed more timely in an ergonomically accessible manner to capture a user's attention, increasing the chance of user response and the return on investment for advertisers. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092920 | Delivering Personalized Content Based on a Social Graph of Sharing Activity of Users of the Open Web - A social graph is built which includes interactions, sharing activity, and connections between the users of the open Web and can be used to improve ad targeting and content personalization. Sharing activity between two users will affect ads or content that both users will be presented while surfing the Web. This sharing activity includes sending of links, sending of videos, sending of files, cutting and pasting of content, sending text messages, and sending of e-mails. Building of the social graph can include creating an edge in the social graph that is representative of a particular category type. Based on the social graph, personalized digital content can be selected. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092921 | TARGETED ADVERTISEMENTS FROM INTENDED RECIPIENT PREDICTIONS DERIVED FROM USER INFORMATION - A method of generating a targeted advertisement by identifying a target criteria from an entry of a search history associated with a user, identifying an intended recipient based on social information associated with the user and the target criteria, and associating at least one item with the intended recipient by analyzing the social information and the target criteria. Further, the method includes outputting as advertisement information the at least one item and at least one of a plurality of advertisement recipients. The advertisement information enables the generation of the targeted advertisement and the at least one item is utilized in the targeted advertisement. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092922 | TARGETED ADVERTISEMENTS FROM INTENDED RECIPIENT PREDICTIONS DERIVED FROM USER INFORMATION - A method of generating a targeted advertisement by identifying a target criteria from an entry of a search history associated with a user, identifying an intended recipient based on social information associated with the user and the target criteria, and associating at least one item with the intended recipient by analyzing the social information and the target criteria. Further, the method includes outputting as advertisement information the at least one item and at least one of a plurality of advertisement recipients. The advertisement information enables the generation of the targeted advertisement and the at least one item is utilized in the targeted advertisement. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092923 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR SEARCHING AND DISPLAYING PROMOTIONAL OFFERS ON A MOBILE DEVICE BASED ON CURRENT USER LOCATION - Methods and systems for searching and displaying promotional offers on a display screen of a mobile device based on current user location have been disclosed. An example method comprises identifying a location of the mobile device, retrieving from a remote server one or more promotional offers provided by merchants located in the nearby area within a predetermined distance from the identified location, associating the location of the mobile device and locations of the one or more merchants providing the one or more promotional offers with a virtual map, generating one or more map elements associated with locations of the mobile device and the one or more merchants, and displaying the virtual map and the one or more map elements. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092924 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DELIVERING CONTENT TO MOBILE DEVICES - At least some aspects of the present disclosure feature systems and methods for delivering content to a mobile device. In one embodiment, the system receives location information of the mobile device and determines a response duration. The system selects a content piece to deliver to the mobile device based on information regarding content comparisons or experimental units. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092925 | TIME INTERVAL-BASED STATISTICALLY-INFERRED RESPONSE ATTRIBUTIONS - A time interval-based stimulus is created based upon a statistically-inferred time interval-based response rate. The time interval-based stimulus accounts over time for a proportion of responses that occur without being attributable to other stimuli. A response is retrieved. A time-interval response attribution value is calculated using the time interval-based stimulus and the response by applying a combination of a first response rate model and a second time delay model that weights output of the first response rate model based upon a continuous range of time delays between a minimum and maximum difference in time that separate the time interval-based stimulus and the response. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092926 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EFFECTIVE MONETIZATION OF PRODUCT MARKETING IN SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS VIA AUDIO MONITORING - According to a preferred aspect of the instant invention, there is provided a system for effective monetization of product marketing in software applications by monitoring audio content preferably on mobile devices. A developer of applications for mobile devices is provided with the ability to integrate the system into the application. The audio content is analyzed, recognized and send to a server, on which data associated with the current product marketing campaign and related to the detected data is selected and send to the application, on which the data is automatically integrated into a plurality of different product marketing capabilities for example the provision of a quiz, or of advertisement graphics requesting interaction from the consumer. The data from that interaction is send back to the server wherein it is further processed and analyzed. Additionally the consumer receives a defined value providing an incentive to participate. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092927 | ONLINE RESOURCE SERVING TO A TRAVELING USER - Methods and systems for serving at least one online resource item to a user based on a state of the user are provided. A host computing device in communication with a memory receives data representing a record of movements of a user device. A user device profile associates locations of the user device with points in time, and with a state of a user. Following receipt of a resource request from the user device, a state of the user is determined. After at least one candidate online resource item responsive to the resource request are received, at least one online resource item relevant to the state of the user is identified and served to the user device. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092928 | THEME BASED ADVERTISING - Various embodiments of the present disclosure are related to leveraging mobility management techniques implemented in mobile networks to distribute advertisements to mobile devices. In certain embodiments of the present disclosure, based on the location of a mobile device, an advertisement is provided for a service associated with the location of the mobile device, wherein the advertisement includes a map of a path from the location of the mobile device to a location of a service provider of the service associated with the location of the mobile device. If a user is interested in the service that is offered in the advertisement, they can initiate a purchase procedure. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092929 | SCALING USER AUDIENCE GROUPS TO FACILITATE ADVERTISEMENT TARGETING - An online system receives a plurality of business rules from a third party system, each of which includes one or more conditions for associating a user of the online system with an audience group. The online system generates a decision tree including the business rules. Contextual information describing an interaction between a user of an online system and content of the third party system is received from a client device of the user. The online system determines, using the decision tree, one or more audience groups associated with the user based on a portion of the received contextual information. An advertisement is selected for presentation to the user based on the one or more audience groups associated with the user, and the selected advertisement is provided to the client device of the user. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092930 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR GATHERING DATA FOR TARGETED ADVERTISEMENTS - The present disclosure provides a method and system for collecting data for targeted advertisements. The method includes detecting a stare at a first set of products of one or more products for a user wearing an interactive wearable device with an integrated processor based on a plurality of pre-defined conditions; capturing an image of each of the stared first set of products of the one or more products; collecting a real time location coordinate of the user from the worn interactive head mounted optical device with an integrated processor; and storing the real time location coordinate of the user, a plurality of attributes of each of the captured image of each of the first set of products, and a profile information of the user. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092931 | DISTRIBUTED PROMOTION MANAGEMENT - Technologies are provided herein for distributed promotion management. According to a method for distributed promotion management, a device identification may be provided by a consumer electronic device that may comprise a dispensing device. An event notification may be received at the consumer electronic device. The event notification may be based upon the provided device identification. A promotional screen may then be displayed. The promotional screen may comprise a limited time offer section displaying a limited time offer. The limited time offer may be based on the received event notification. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092932 | Dynamically Generated Audio in Advertisements - A content server provides a client device with audio content including an audio advertisement, which is provided in response to receiving a request for digital audio content from a client device associated with a user. The content server obtains user information about the user and retrieves advertisement text received from an advertiser, which are used to generate a personalized text advertisement. The personalized text advertisement is generated according to an advertisement template specifying an ordered combination of text components. The personalized text advertisement includes the received advertisement text, user information text selected from the obtained user information, and template text. The client device is provided with an advertisement based on the personalized text advertisement and is configured to play an audio version of the personalized text advertisement. The audio advertisement is generated using a text-to-speech algorithm at the client device or at the content server. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092933 | ADVERTISEMENT OPPORTUNITY BIDDING - A demand-side platform (DSP) may bid on advertising opportunities (e.g., provided by a supply-side platform (SSP)) on behalf of an advertiser wishing to place an advertisement, such as part of an advertisement campaign. A target advertisement may be selected based upon various criteria, and a bid for the target advertisement to run during the advertising opportunity is made in a manner that satisfies one or more goals of the advertisement campaign while also being beneficial to the DSP. For example, the target advertisement may be selected from a reduced problem space where merely advertisements corresponding to a target advertising opportunity class are evaluated, where the target opportunity class corresponds to an opportunity class of the advertising opportunity. Win rate modeling data, inventory cost modeling data, user response modeling data, and/or other information may be used to select the target advertisement. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092934 | METHOD AND SYSTE OF ADVERTISING ON TAKEOUT BOXES AND TO GO CONTAINERS - A method of advertising on takeout containers, or “adgoboxes,” is provided. The adgoboxes may be any known container for storing and transporting consumer goods, such as takeout food, wherein the container has an exterior surface on which at least one advertisement may be affixed. A user of the method may be an advertising organization, whereby the advertising organization may design and provide the adgoboxes at no cost to predetermined providers of said consumer goods. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092935 | ADVERTISEMENTS BLENDED WITH USER'S DIGITAL CONTENT - Disclosed are systems and methods for generating customized advertising content by combining one or more content items with advertising content. The content items may comprise various forms of media content, including, video, audio, etc. Users may utilize an interface to accesses advertising content and content items. In one embodiment, the user may utilize the interface to integrate one or more content items with advertising content to generate customized advertising content. The interface may be used to further modify the customized advertising content. A computing device may monitor on more user's consumption of customized advertising content for various purposes. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092936 | Dynamically Selected Background Music for Personalized Audio Advertisement - A content server system provides a client device with content including an audio advertisement with personalized background music. The content server selects a vocal advertisement received from an advertiser for presentation to a user of a client device. The content server obtains content data describing audio content provided to the client device as part of the stream of audio content. The content server obtains content data describing audio content provided to the client device as part of the stream of audio content. The content server identifies candidate background music items and selects background music from the candidate background music items based on the obtained content data. The client device is provided with the selected background music and the selected vocal advertisement. The client device plays an audio advertisement comprising the background music played concurrently with the vocal advertisement. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092937 | Selectable Text Messaging Styles for Brand Owners - A system includes a computing device that includes a memory configured to store instructions. The system also includes a processor to execute the instructions to perform operations that include sending information to a publisher that represents one or more immutable stylistic features for enhancing text messages. Operations also include sending information to the publisher that represents one or more conditions regarding the use of the one or more immutable stylistic features in text messages that include mutable content. Operations also include receiving feedback information in response to the stylistic features being used in one or more text messages that include mutable content. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092938 | REQUESTING ADVERTISEMENTS INSERTED INTO A FEED OF CONTENT ITEMS BASED ON ADVERTISING POLICIES ENFORCED BY AN ONLINE SYSTEM - An online system presents advertisements and content items to its users in a feed of content items (e.g., a newsfeed). The online system enforces one or more advertisement policies regulating insertion of advertisements into the feed and determines a predicted likelihood that enforcing the advertising policies will prevent insertion of additional advertisements into the feed of content items when a request to present content via the feed is received from a user of the online system. Advertising policies describe conditions preventing insertion of additional advertisements into the feed (e.g., positions in the feed that may not be occupied by advertisements, a minimum distance separating advertisements in the feed, etc.). Based on the predicted likelihood, the online system determines whether to request one or more additional advertisements for insertion into the feed from an advertisement service. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092939 | Enhanced Shared Media Experiences - Enhanced shared media experiences allow viewer's personal devices to receive targeted content. Targeting advertisements and other content to personal devices is cheaper and more effective than broadcast delivery. Advertisers may still target their advertisements during popular programming with purchasing expensive broadcast advertising slots. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092940 | DE-DUPLICATING COMBINED CONTENT - A system, method, and apparatus for de-duplicating and serving a combined content feed are provided. The combined content includes items of two or more classes, such as sponsored and unsponsored, wherein some or all unsponsored content items may be sponsored. A feed service obtains sponsored and unsponsored items suitable for a user to whom the combined content feed is to be served. The service determines whether an item is duplicated among the multiple classes. If so, a distance between the duplicates is calculated (within the feed). If the distance is less than a first threshold, one of them is discarded and may or may not be replaced. A decision regarding which to eject may depend upon which version (e.g., sponsored or unsponsored) is positioned earlier in the feed, whether the duplicates are also less than a second threshold apart (which is lower than the first threshold), and/or other factors. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092941 | METHOD FOR DISPLAYING CLICKABLE ADVERTISEMENT ON WEB BROWSERS - A method for displaying advertisements on browsers (especially, tab browsers) that are effective and occupies smaller spaces of the screen is disclosed. When a user clicks a link on the screen and a new tab is displayed, the clicked link is replaced with another advertisement link, or another advertisement link is inserted near the clicked link, getting more attention from the user. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092942 | TRANSACTION SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR INTEGRATING PHILANTHROPY AND VOLUNTEERING - The present invention provides a system for managing charitable funds in the ecosystem of corporations, philanthropists, volunteers and non-profits that do social good. Participants may sponsor and cause to issue a finite number of alternative currency units, with varying conditions on use. These units are transferred to volunteers who are supporting a non-profit organization corresponding to the volunteer hours spent by each. The earned units may be gifted by each volunteer to any non-profit organization. Alternatively, the units may be directly granted to a non-profit by corporations and philanthropists corresponding to the units earned by each volunteer. The non-profits voluntarily accept the units and spend it to generate social good. These new methods to pledge, sponsor, issue, buy, sell, earn, store, gift and spend the alternative currency units create a vibrant, community that multiplies the social good generated. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092943 | Beacon Triggered Processes - Techniques and systems for beacon triggered processes are disclosed. A described technique includes causing a beacon device to broadcast a beacon message, the beacon device being within the vicinity of an establishment; detecting a presence of a user of a mobile device based on receiving from the mobile device a first message that is responsive to the beacon message; retrieving a transaction record based on a user or mobile device identifier in the first message; generating and transmitting a second message based on the transaction record to facilitate a completion of a transaction associated with the transaction record at the establishment; the second message being configured to provide notification of an arrival of the user and dispatch an employee to meet the user and handle the transaction; and generating and transmitting a third message based on the transaction record to facilitate the completion of the transaction at the mobile device. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092944 | PROXIMITY ALERTS FOR SERVICE RESOURCE AVAILABILITY - Provided are a system and method of electronic notification of an availability of a service resource. A signal is received from a sensor indicating that a customer has entered a region proximate to a store. The customer is determined to be a candidate for a service. A service resource is determined to be available at or near the store for performing the service. A notification is sent to a display of the availability of the service resource. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092945 | Quality Users Information Employed For Improved User Experience Including Ratings And Recommendations - An apparatus, method, and computer readable medium related to monitoring computer users to acquire information regarding use of application programs and device features as well as the context of such use. Computer users are monitored and data is collected to indicate the computer users' activities including the use of any particular application program. Profiles of each computer user may be created where the profiles are an aggregate of the collected information or a portion thereof. The Profiles may correlated to determine relationships between user behaviors. Various analytics regarding the relationship information may be employed to improve customer-oriented information such as ratings, recommendations, customer support, marketing, communications, and product features design. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092946 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR CALCULATING AND PROVIDING HOTEL RATE INFORMATION - A method for determining a hotel rate can include providing a predetermined number of hotel rooms for a predetermined number of nights, and providing a base rate for each of the predetermined rooms. The predetermined number of rooms is multiplied by the predetermined number of nights to yield a room night product, on which a discount is based. The discount is applied to the base rate to determine the hotel rate. Another method of determining a hotel rate can include selecting at least one hotel room for date(s) occurring within a particular week period (week 1) subject to a first base rate, and additional date(s) occurring within another particular week period (week 2) that is subject to a different base rate. The first and second base rates are added together, and the discount is applied to the sum to determine the hotel rate. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092947 | COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, COMMUNICATION SYSTEM, COMMUNICATION CONTROL METHOD, AND RECORDING MEDIUM - Example embodiments of the present invention include a communication management system, which stores, for each one of one or more values of quality parameter of content data, an additional charge fee to be added to a basic charge fee for providing a service to transmit content data having the value of quality parameter, receives a request for changing the quality parameter of content data from a currently set value to a value selected by a user at a communication terminal, obtains an additional charge fee associated with the selected value of quality parameter from the memory, and calculates an updated charge fee for transmitting content data having the selected value of quality parameter based on the obtained additional charge fee, and transmits the updated charge fee to the communication terminal for display to the user. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092948 | WIRELESS COMMUNICATION AND CONTROL SYSTEM FOR CHAIRS - A wireless communication and control method used to control functions of a chair and/or to facilitate commerce between an occupant of a chair and the operator of a facility. The system includes at least two devices in wireless communications. One being a chair based device capable of receiving and/or sending wireless signals, and may contain any or all of the following, a method for controlling functions of the chair, a method for accepting input from an occupant of the chair, a method for accepting payment, a method for receiving and displaying inputs from a remote operator or device. The second being a device capable of receiving and/or sending wireless signals, and may contain methods for accepting user input, displaying information conveyed by the operator of the first device, storing data, relaying data from the first device to any number of third devices. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092949 | METHOD FOR IMPROVED MANAGEMENT OF A PURCHASE ORDER BY INTERNET - A method for improved management of a purchase order comprises searching online for at least one product or group of products similar to each other to be ordered from a generic supplier and obtaining a confirmation of availability. The step of searching for the product to be ordered from the generic supplier can be extended to search for the product or the group of products or alternative products available at at least one alternative supplier. The product or group of products or the alternative products found at the alternative supplier are inserted into a shopping cart of the alternative supplier and compared with the product or the group of products of the generic supplier. The extension of the search is started automatically by a search and compare software application authorized by the user and provided by the alternative supplier. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092950 | UTILIZING A VEHICLE TO DETERMINE AN IDENTITY OF A USER - There are provided systems and methods for utilizing a vehicle to determine an identity of a user. A user may establish a vehicle as associated with the user, such as a vehicle owned by the user or used by the user. The vehicle may include a vehicle device that may be configured to establish connections with other devices using short range and network communications. In various embodiments, the other devices may be devices at merchant locations. Thus, a merchant at the merchant location may be informed about settings, preferences, and/or parameters for use of the vehicle established by the user. The merchant may receive these parameters even if another user is utilizing the vehicle, thus, establishing rules for use of the vehicle by the other user. In other embodiments, the other devices may be devices in other vehicles, allowing the users to communicate and set waypoints during trips. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092951 | DETERMINING AUTHENTICITY OF INFORMATION EMBEDDED IN A RESOURCE IDENTIFIER - Systems and methods are provided for generating a uniform resource identifier (“URI”) based on information relating to a transaction between two or more parties, and verifying the authenticity of the information embedded in the URI before generating a user interface to be displayed to one of the parties to the transaction. For example, the URI may include information relating to the terms of the transaction to which the parties have agreed. A system associated with a facilitator of the transaction may verify the authenticity of the terms embedded in the URI before dynamically generating a user interface that enables the transaction to proceed. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092952 | Method and System for Managing Geospatial Deployment - A system for managing geospatial deployment is described and includes an input for receiving design data indicative of a design that is to be deployed; a fragmenter configured to fragment said design data into work items, each of said work items including one or more geospatially tagged tasks; an aggregator; an allocator; a scheduler; and a work order generator configured to generate geospatially tagged work orders according to said implementation schedule, each of said work orders being indicative of one or more of said jobs and of one of said parties so identified as fit to implement said respective one or more jobs and each of the work orders being suitable for transmitting to the party identified in the respective work order. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092953 | TECHNIQUES FOR FACILITATING A FEE QUOTE - In some embodiments, a presentation offering an item for sale by a seller is provided on a computing device. An offer for purchase of the item including an offer amount and a buyer shipping address can be received. A notification identifying the item and the offer can be generated. The notification can include an option to respond to the offer with a request for an additional fee. An option to request a quote for the additional fee can be presented and a selection of the option to request a quote for the additional fee can be detected. A quote for the additional fee can be generated. A quote notification that includes the quote for the additional fee can be generated. The quote notification can include a first option to select the quote for the additional fee and a second option to provide a user quote for the additional fee. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092954 | MOBILE DEVICE LOCATION-ENABLED SERVICE PROVISIONING - Various embodiments each include at least one of systems, devices, methods, and software for mobile device location-enabled service provisioning. One embodiment, in the form of a method, includes receiving, via a network from a mobile device, data including a customer account identifier and an identifier of at least one beacon device. The method then determines, based on the received data, a location of a customer of the customer account identifier relative to each beacon device for which a beacon device identifier is included in the received data. The method then identifies any activities to be initiated with regard to the customer based on a stored customer profile associated with the customer account identifier, the determined location, and at least one activity rule. The method may then execute instructions associated with each identified activity. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092955 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR RECOGNITION OF IN-STORE CUSTOMERS - Various examples of methods and systems for recognition of in-store customers are described. In one implementation, a method may receive first information related to identification of a first customer prior to the first customer visiting a store. The method may also receive second information related to identification of a second customer when the second customer visits the store. The method may further determine whether the second customer is the first customer based on the first information and the second information. The method may additionally provide the first information related to identification of the first customer to one or more computing devices in response to a positive determination that the second customer is the first customer. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092956 | GARMENT SIZE MAPPING - Techniques for mapping size information associated with a client to target brands, garments, sizes, shapes, and styles for which there is no standardized correlation. The size information associated with a client may be generated by modeling client garments, accessing computer aided drawing (CAD) files associated with client garments, or by analyzing a history of garment purchases associated with the client. Information for target garments may be generated in a similar fashion. A system may then create a standardized scale with a set of sizes for a target, and map a client base size to that standardized size scale. Similar matching and mapping may also be done with shape and style considerations. A recommendation based on the mapping may then be communicated to the client. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092957 | COORDINATES INFORMATION PROVIDING SYSTEM AND READ INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM - A coordinating information providing system and a read information management system provide system to select a commodity to purchase. The coordinating information providing system includes a purchaser terminal structure, a management server that manages information of a commodity as well as information of a purchaser and an information provider and that provides the purchaser terminal with the information of the commodity, an information provider terminal operated by an information provider who provides the management server with coordinates information of a commodity, an information management administrator terminal operated by an information management administrator who administrates the management server, and a network system with interconnecting the terminals and the server allows them to communicate interlinked. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092958 | MACHINE TO GENERATE A SELF-UPDATING MESSAGE - A machine may generate and provide a message that updates itself when opened. Such a message may include a link that, when operated during display of the message by a user's device, causes the machine to generate an image that depicts updated information in the form of one or more updated parameters. For example, the machine may operate within a travel search engine and may generate and provide a message that includes a previously found search result and also includes a link to an image that, once generated, depicts an updated parameter for the search result. As part of displaying the message, the user's device may operate the link, which causes the machine to generate the image and provide the image to the device. The device receives the image and displays the message, which includes the search result and now also includes the image of the updated parameter. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092959 | Tag Based Property Platform & Method - A property tagging system permits stakeholders (owners, neighbors, gamers, merchants, realtors) to comment, rate and tag features of properties in accordance with customizable filters. The annotations, labels, etc., can be presented and targeted within mobile interfaces for user ease and engagement. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092960 | PRODUCT RECOMMENDATIONS OVER MULTIPLE STORES - Embodiments of the present invention disclose a method, computer program product, and system for identifying matching products relative to a reference product. A reference product is identified from a received product query and a query is generated based on the reference product. A generated query comprises of an ontology, at least one word appearing in a title of the reference product, and a set of key words appearing in social media data associated with the reference product. A database is searched using the generated query to find matching product sets and the results are returned and filtered. Results are filtered by calculating a relationship score between the reference product and one or more matching products in the set of matching products, and/or by filtering a subset of the set of matching products based on a customer profile. The filtered subset of results are communicated to a recipient. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092961 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR PROVIDING SHOPPING SUGGESTIONS TO IN-STORE CUSTOMERS - Various examples of methods and systems for providing shopping suggestions to in-store customers are described. In one implementation, a method may analyze store information specific to a store and customer information associated with a customer. The method may also identify one or more items as recommendation for the customer based on the analyzing. The method may further indicate the one or more items on a map of the store. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092962 | ASSISTANCE ON THE GO - A mobile computerized apparatus or method configured to coordinate towing facilities and roadside assistance providers and their available capacity to tow and provide roadside assistance and match users with those towing facilities and roadside assistance providers is disclosed. The apparatus or method may be configured to consider the following factors in matching the towing facilities/roadside assistance providers and users: (a) availability of nearby towing facilities; (b) telematics information from the vehicle to assist with the diagnosis/repairs; (c) preset preferences of the user; (d) insurance information (such as the type of the vehicle the user has and the user's home address); and (e) the capabilities of the towing facility. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092963 | BEHAVIOR SUPPORTING APPARATUS, BEHAVIOR SUPPORTING SYSTEM, AND BEHAVIOR SUPPORTING METHOD - A behavior supporting apparatus according to the invention includes a biological-information detecting unit configured to detect biological information of a user, a desire estimating unit configured to estimate a desire of the user on the basis of the detected biological information, and a behavior presenting unit configured to present behavior with which the user can enjoy at least one of a service and an article corresponding to the estimated desire of the user. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092964 | Electronic-Shopping Method and Apparatus - An electronic-shopping method and apparatus are provided. The electronic-shopping method includes obtaining information about at least two alternative commodities selected by a first user; sending, through a network, the information about the at least two alternative commodities to user equipment used by a second user, such that the second user performs selection from the at least two alternative commodities, where the second user is different from the first user and is designated by the first user; obtaining selection information of the second user on the at least two alternative commodities; and determining a to-be-purchased commodity from the at least two alternative commodities according to the selection information. Alternative commodities selected by a first user are sent to a second user for selection, which provides a socialized shopping solution in an electronic-shopping process. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092965 | Table-Side Information Device Imaging Capture - A pay-at-the-table device is augmented to include an imaging sub-system having one or more image-capture components. A front-facing image sensor records video, or takes still photos. A wide view image sensor/lens captures a view of an entire table (or some portion thereof). When table images are captured by the imaging system, image post-processing is used to ensure that any details that can identify the individual patrons are masked or otherwise obscured; in this way, only generic demographic data (e.g., number of patrons, gender, approximate age, etc.) is captured, and all such data is maintained anonymously and without reference to any payment or other information that might provide the restaurant with the patron's true identity. The image-capture components may also include image sensors enable events (e.g., drinks needing refills, entrée arrival, etc.) to be monitored. An infrared image sensor captures thermal data, which can identify the temperature of the prepared food. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092966 | Beacon Triggered Device to Device Content Transfer - Techniques and systems for beacon triggered device to device content transfer are disclosed. A described technique includes presenting, at an interactive beacon device, content including an interactive store catalog; receiving, at the interactive beacon device, user input responsive to the content; generating, at the interactive beacon device, a beacon message that can include transaction information based on the user input and the content, the transaction information including a service or product identifier corresponding to a product or service selected from the interactive store catalog; and transmitting, from the interactive beacon device, the beacon message over a short-range communication link to a mobile device. The beacon message can be configured to cause an application on the mobile device to advance a transaction associated with the transaction information. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092967 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS TO GENERATE SHOPPABLE CONTENT AND INCREASE ADVERTISING REVENUE IN SOCIAL NETWORKING USING CONTEXTUAL ADVERTISING - Methods and systems for increasing potential advertising revenue by incorporating shopping cart links into social media posts. The method may include receiving an input indicating a user request to add a shopping cart link to a social networking post associated with a user making the user request, the social networking post to be posted to one or more social networks, determining a cost for placing the shopping cart link in the social networking post, providing the determined cost to the user, receiving confirmation from the user to add the shopping cart link to the social networking post, and adding the shopping cart link to the social networking post. Any costs paid by the user to post the shopping cart link may be recovered from commissions or other similar payments received for each user that browses or purchases an item in the shopping cart link. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092968 | NON-VISUAL ENCODED COMMERCIAL REQUEST GENERATION - A method, device, and system for generating and accessing consumer commercial requests. A commercial request is generated by a consumer using a non-visual encoded commercial request device. Each consumer has a unique consumer identification barcode that is scanned, authenticated, and collected by the device. Following successful consumer authentication, target barcodes are scanned that represent various goods or services. The target barcodes are collected by the device. Upon completion of the scanning, the device generates a commercial request that is sent to a server. Vendors can request access to their respective commercial requests, and the server sends associated orders to the vendors. A speaker is connected as output to the non-visual encoded commercial request device, and the speaker provides feedback on the commercial request progress to the consumer. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092969 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR IN-STORE FULFILLMENT PRIORITIZATION BASED ON CUSTOMER LOCATION - Various examples of methods and systems for in-store fulfillment prioritization based on customer location are described. In one implementation, a method may receive a first order from a first customer for in-store pickup of a first item by the first customer at a store. The first item may include a product or a service. The method may also determine a location of the first customer. The method may further prioritize fulfillment of a plurality of orders for in-store pickup based at least in part on the location of the first customer. The plurality of orders may include the first order and at least a second order for in-store pickup of a second item. The method may additionally execute a human resources logistics algorithm to predict the number of store associates required in order to service the plural orders in view of changes to the orders. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092970 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PERFORMING IN-STORE AND ONLINE TRANSACTIONS - Items are added to a transaction on a user mobile device. In-store items may be added by scanning and on-line only items may be added to the transaction. Payment for the transaction may be invoked on the mobile device and processed in a single transaction. A verification code may be transmitted to the mobile device, scanned by an employee device, which uses the code to obtain a listing of the items of the transaction. The employee device sends verification to the server, which, in response, sends an electronic receipt to the mobile device. Recommendations for online products, including possible substitutions are provided. Where a desired quantity of an in-store item exceeds available inventory, an online order for the excess quantity may be added to the transaction. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092971 | CONTENT DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM, CONTENT DISTRIBUTION SERVER, STORAGE MEDIUM AND CONTENT DISTRIBUTION METHOD - A non-limiting example content distribution system comprises a content server that is connected communicably with a game apparatus via a network. If it is decided to reservation-purchase of a content according to an operation of a user, the content server distributes a reservation content to a game apparatus. The reservation content is a content that a part of a normal content that can be executed by the game apparatus is changed to be inexecutable (unable to start). If reaching a date and time of a sale start of the content or an executable date and time, the game apparatus is downloaded with a modifying program for the reservation content according to an operation of the user to modify the reservation content. Therefore, the reservation content can be changed to a normal content. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092972 | Operation Management - Described herein are systems, methods, and apparatus for managing operations, for instance making orders and fulfilling orders, using one or more computing devices. In accordance with an example embodiment, an operations management system can include a self-order system, a self-payment system, and an order-fulfillment system. The self-order system, the self-payment system, and the order-fulfillment system can communicate with each other via a communication system that connects the systems, such as a wireless network for example. Using the operation management system, orders can be placed and fulfilled efficiently and with minimal personal interaction. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092973 | METHOD FOR FINANCING PURCHASES FOR OTHERS USING A SENDER'S CHARGE ACCOUNT - A method allows a sender to buy goods or services for a third party immediately on an established account of the sender even before the sender pays for the expense occurred. The system works particularly well for purchases of mobile telephone airtime for others. In addition, the method works equally well for purchases of small amounts. The method utilizes SIMS protocol to send purchase orders in the form of text messages. The method takes advantage of existing technologies and contractual relationships that SIMS aggregators have with carriers. The method allows brokers to buy large quantities of goods and services such as mobile telephone airtime at discounted wholesale prices and then resell them in smaller quantities at higher retail prices. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092974 | MANAGING AN INVENTORY COMPRISING SERIALIZED PRODUCTS - Various embodiments are directed to a method for fulfilling orders from an inventory comprising serialized products. For example, a computer system may receive an order and derive from the order a plurality of products, a unit quantity for each of the plurality of products, and a serial identifier referencing a first product unit of at least one of the plurality of products. At least one of the plurality of products may be a non-reserved product. Also, the computer system may determine a first bin selected from a plurality of non-reserved product bins that is associated with product units of the non-reserved product and generate a pick instruction specifying the first bin and the unit quantity of the non-reserved product specified by the order. The computer system may also instruct a robot to retrieve the first product unit from one of the plurality of robot accessible bins. The robot may be programmed to load product units to the plurality of robot-accessible bins and retrieve product units from the plurality of robot-accessible bins. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092975 | PORTRAIT BASED PRODUCT TO PARTICIPANT MAPPING - Participant data for a participant is acquired. A feature vector is defined. Attributes of the participant are determined from the participant data. A participant feature vector for the participant is generated using the defined feature vector and the determined attributes of the participant. The participant is mapped to a portrait using the participant feature vector. A product is mapped to the portrait. The product is mapped to the participant based on the mapping of the participant to the portrait and the mapping of the product to the portrait. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092976 | ROVING VEHICLE RENTAL SYSTEM AND METHOD - A method and system for facilitating vehicle rental are provided. Rental request parameters are received from a first party, including a rental start time, a rental pick-up location, a rental end time and a rental drop-off location. A vehicle available for rent between the rental start time and the rental end time is acquired, and delivery of the vehicle to the rental pick-up location is initiated. A transaction with the user may be performed upon delivery. Retrieval of the vehicle from the rental drop-off location is initiated following the rental end time. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092977 | PREFERENTIAL INTERNET AUCTION SYSTEM ON BASIS OF BID PARTICIPATION TIME - The present invention relates to an Internet auction system for mediating and managing the purchase and sale of product by receiving bid information from a plurality of customer terminals via a communication network. The system includes: a product registration and management module for receiving information on a product to be auctioned off from a seller terminal and storing the received information; a product bid management module, as a product bid module, for receiving bid information from the customer terminals and storing the received bid information, wherein the bid information includes a bidding price; and a preferential successful bid management module for allowing a customer who has more possession time than other customers to preferentially receive a successful bid of the product. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092978 | COORDINATION OF THERMOSTATICALLY CONTROLLED LOADS - Apparatus and methods for a market-based control framework to coordinate a group of autonomous thermostatically controlled loads (TCL) to achieve system-level objectives with pricing incentives is disclosed. In one example of the disclosed technology, a method of providing power to a load via a power grid by submitting bids to a coordinator includes determining an energy response relating price data for one or more energy prices to quantity data for power to be consumed by the load, sending a bid for power for a finite time period based on the energy response to the coordinator, and receiving a clearing price based on: the bid, on bids received from a plurality of additional loads, and a feeder power constraint. In some examples, the energy response is based at least in part on an equivalent thermal parameter model and a control policy indicating one or more power states for the load. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092979 | SYSTEM AND METHOD TO OPTIMIZE DISCOUNT SETTING UTILIZING FLEXIBLE PRICING AND CONTINUOUS PRODUCT TIME VALUE DECAY - A method and machine to provide a flexible pricing approach for one or more sellers and multiple buyers with a demand and time dependent real-time bid acceptance engine to work together to increase sales at optimal prices for both buyer and seller. Bids are accepted, by a machine comprising computing and comparative means as well as communication, fraud detection and manipulation parameters, at three potential moments in the process, at bid placement, between bid placement and auction end and at auction end. The acceptance threshold for bids is dependent on both time, demand and market volatility, but can be any combination of 2 or more. An auction will run between auction start and auction end and will only be prematurely terminated once supplies are depleted. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092980 | COMPUTER RUNTIME OPTIMIZATION FOR SYSTEM SUPPORTING ASSET-LEVEL BIDS ON A PORTFOLIO WITH MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM CONSTRAINTS - An Optimization Server reduces M×N iteration space using various techniques to enhance computer performance by improving computer runtime and memory usage. The Optimization Server determines an aggregate combination of bids that results in high proceeds on individual assets of a portfolio subject to minimum and maximum constraints imposed by a bidder across a plurality of individual asset bids. The Optimization Server stores in a memory a portfolio array including M number of elements. Each portfolio array element corresponds to a bid array of bids on the plurality of individual assets of the portfolio. Each bid array includes N number of elements and each bid array element corresponds to a bid amount on one of the plurality of individual assets in the portfolio. The bid array also includes a corresponding minimum constraint and a corresponding maximum constraint across all of the individual as set-level bids placed on the portfolio. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092981 | APPARATUS, METHOD, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR EXTRACTING INSIGHTS FROM BILL PRESENTMENT DATA - Access is obtained to a database of bill presentment data in an electronic bill presentment system connecting a plurality of customers with a plurality of billers. At least some of the billers are payment card issuers. At least one presentment record for at least one of the customers is extracted from the database of bill presentment data. Based on the at least one presentment record for the at least one of the customers, at least one of credit worthiness of the at least one of the customers and payment history of the at least one of the customers is determined. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092982 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR IMPROVED LOAN RESET AND RELATED PROCESSING - A system and method are provided that process customer interface data in conjunction with resetting a loan, the system comprises a processor coupled to a memory portion. The processor performs processing including (A) interfacing with a customer device; (B) retrieving prior customer data; (C) retrieving current loan data; (D) retrieving offered loan data; (E) generating first prospect loan data based on (a) offered loan data, (b) prior customer data, and (c) current loan data, and outputting first prospect loan data to the customer; (F) collecting current customer data regarding interfacing with the customer; and (G) generating second prospect loan data based on (a) offered loan data, (b) prior customer data, (c) current loan data, and (d) current customer data, and outputting adjusted prospect loan data to the customer, the adjusted prospect loan data output so as to render on the customer device in the form of graphics. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092983 | MICROFINANCE FUNDS AGGREGATION FOR A RETAIL INVESTOR - A computer-implemented system and method supporting aggregation for clients are disclosed. A particular example embodiment includes selecting listings for clients based on profiles; causing display of the listings at the clients; receiving, from at least some of the clients, authorization to aggregate resources; aggregating the authorized resources; and providing the aggregated resources to another party. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092984 | ELECTRONIC MARKET MESSAGE MANAGEMENT USING PRIORITY DETERMINATION - Methods, devices, and systems for managing electronic messages of an electronic trading system in which orders are extracted from the electronic messages involve executing actions associated with respect to the orders and matching orders to counter orders. Matching orders may be based on a priority determined using a market quality index of the order and an associated market participant. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092985 | ELECTRONIC MARKET MESSAGE MANAGEMENT WITH PRIORITY DETERMINATION - Methods, devices, and systems for managing electronic messages of an electronic trading system in which orders are extracted from the electronic messages involve executing actions associated with respect to the orders and matching orders to counter orders. Matching orders may be based on a priority determined using a market quality index of the order and an associated market participant. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092986 | COORDINATION OF THERMOSTATICALLY CONTROLLED LOADS WITH UNKNOWN PARAMETERS - Apparatus and methods are disclosed for coordination of a population of Thermostatically Controlled Loads (TCLs) with unknown parameters to achieve group objectives including bidding and market clearing strategies designed to motivate self-interested users to realize efficient energy allocation subject to a peak power constraint. In one examples of the disclosed technology, a method of operating a load includes estimating a set of values for unmeasured parameters of the load's thermal environment based on output measurements of the thermal environment, determining an energy response based on the estimated set of values for the unmeasured parameters, and transmitting a bid for power for a finite time period based on the determined energy response to the coordinator. A clearing price is received from the coordinator responsive to the transmitted bid and power is sent to the load responsive to the received clearing price. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092987 | Funding Seed Investments - A funding platform permits investors to review a company for investment and provide funding for the company by executing an investment transaction online. The funding platform determines whether the investor is an accredited or qualified investor and provides diligence information to the investor for evaluating whether to invest in the company. The investor provides a request to invest in the company, and the funding platform determines whether the investor has an account with a broker-dealer. The funding platform receives a commitment from the investor to fund the company, and when a funding threshold amount is reached from one or more investors, the funding platform initiates funding of the company and receives a financial instrument for the investors issued by the company. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092988 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR TRANSFERRING DIGITAL ASSESTS USING A DE-CENTRALIZED EXCHANGE - Systems and methods for transferring digital assets amongst a network of distributed users without the need to transfer the assets to an external party, such as an escrow agent, are provided. The transferring of assets may be in the form of electronic transactions between pluralities of currencies or assets. Temporary and localized escrow services may be created on a user terminal for safely overseeing the process of transferring digital assets. The trade instructions and execution orders for the transfer of assets may be validated over a de-centralized network of user terminals, such as the user terminals of traders. This type of network allows secure peer-to-peer electronic transactions to occur between distributed and anonymous users or participants, which are assumed to be trustless. In such networks, the transactions may be handled by cryptographic mathematical algorithms and which are known to be identical across all users or participants of the same network. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092989 | PREDICTION MARKET AND COMBINATORIAL PREDICTION MARKET VOLUME FORECASTS - Systems and methods for volumetric forecasting based on prediction market probability estimates. Alternative simulated starting values for prediction markets are used in order to determine the preferred starting values for prediction markets to use in volumetric forecasting. A user interface that facilitates using prediction market probability estimates to determine volumetric forecasts is described herein. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092990 | GENERATING AND NAVIGATING INSURANCE PLAN COMPARISON INTERFACES - Methods and system for generating an employee benefit user interface (UI) are provided. A method includes generating a first level user interface (UI) based on a user input, wherein the first level UI simultaneously displays information of plural different insurance plans in respective areas associated with the plural different insurance plans; receiving a user input of a selected topic at an area of the first level UI outside the respective areas; and reconfiguring the first level UI to display, in the respective areas, information regarding the selected topic for each of the plural different insurance plans. | 2016-03-31 |
20160092991 | Insurance Data Management System - A system and method for the capture, storage and usage of specific insurance underwriting and/or loss validation data includes a handheld mobile computer device containing one or more master forms in which insurance data is entered into the handheld device, normally at the location of the insured home along with an electronic signature of the insured and a geocode and time/date stamp. The data is uploaded to a secure, structured database. Insurance data can also be entered, in a secure manner, via a customer portal by the insured or from third party data sources. The system includes software with the ability to pre-populate standardized underwriting forms based on the collected data. The system also manages electronic insurance quotes and bind orders as well. | 2016-03-31 |