Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080215476 | ANONYMOUS BIDDING SYSTEM - An anonymous bidding system that allows bidders to participate in a live auction by placing bids for items, but that does not disclose the identify of the bidding parties. Bidding participants may utilize a bidding device, such as a handheld device, to receive information regarding the auction. This information can include a description of the item up for auction, the asking price, and the current high bidder. By actuating the bidding device, a signal is sent to the bidding system to indicate that a bid request is being submitted. The bid request includes a bidder identifier that is unique to the bidding party, but that does not disclose the identify of the bidding party to others in the audience. Thus, the parties can participate in the live auction without drawing attention to their participation. | 09-04-2008 |
20080235113 | ENHANCED CONTROL OF ON-LINE AUCTION - An online auctioning system that includes functions and features to help apply psychological tactics to increase sells, bidding activity and bid levels. The auctioning system allows and administrator to view items available for the auction, group them in a manner that may give the appearance of scarcity and/or may improve the relative worth of the items. One aspect of the invention is to provide a bidding/sell agnostic credit rating system that enables participants to qualify for a certain number of credits during the auction independent of what the particular items actually sell for during the auction. Each item in the auction may include a credit value and the credit values may also be used in grouping items to further create the appearance of scarcity and/or relative worth. | 09-25-2008 |
20100161448 | INTEGRATION OF REMOTE BIDDERS INTO MULTIPLE AND SIMULTANEOUS LIVE AUCTIONS - Multiple simultaneous auctions can be monitored and participated in using a single bidding device operated by a single remote bidder. A multi-windowed environment allows for the display of active bidding windows and docked bidding windows. The active bidding windows are fully functional bidding windows and include auction status, product information and the like. The docked bidding windows provide a subset of the information but, nonetheless provide real-time auction status information and allows for bidders to enter bids into the auctioning process without having to move the bidding window into an active status. A customer-identifier selector of identifier allows the remote bidder to associate a customer with a particular bidding window. The customer-identifier advantageously helps the remote bidder to track who purchased items are associated with, as well as providing control structure over the bidding process. | 06-24-2010 |
20100172403 | REAL-TIME AND BANDWIDTH EFFICIENT CAPTURE AND DELIVERY OF LIVE VIDEO TO MULTIPLE DESTINATIONS - Disclosed is a method and system to deliver real-time video data over the Internet in a bandwidth efficient manner. A streaming processor receives raw video data from a video source and communicates a compressed version of the video data to a reflector network. The video data is compress by grouping pixels into blocks and comparing blocks of adjacent frames of video data to identify any changes. Only blocks that have been changed are transmitted to the reflector network. In addition, if a block has been changed in a manner to create a previously transmitted block, then only an identification index for the block is transmitted. The actual content of the block can then be recreated by comparing the index to a list of previously received blocks. The reflector network provides the compressed video stream to multiple clients through a series of reflectors. Each client can customize the quality of the video stream received by requesting a full-stream of a sub-stream from the reflector network. | 07-08-2010 |
20110040638 | GAMING INTERFACE TO ONLINE AUCTION - An integration of an online auctioning system with the user interface look and feel of a desired application can be performed at varying levels. At one level, a simple mapping of characteristics and actions in the auctioning environment are mapped to characters, actions, features, etc. of the user interface. At another level, the bidder participates in a live auction in a manner that is akin to playing or operating the user interface of the desired application. At yet another level, the user interface and the desire application do not interface to a live auction at all, but rather, define a new game or application that is auction based. | 02-17-2011 |
20110040645 | VIRTUAL WORLD INTEGRATED AUCTION - An auctioning environment integrated into a virtual world system includes a computing platform that provides a virtual world environment and the integrated auctioning element. The system interfaces to a third party system to receive auctioning data representative of an auction that is taking place in the real world and in real time. The auctioning data is then used to formulate or augment a user interface for presenting an environment to a user of the virtual world system to participate in the auction. The environment can be presented in a variety of manners and in one embodiment includes an avatar for the auctioneer, the item being auctioned and any bidders present and participating at the live auction event. | 02-17-2011 |
20130054405 | NEGOTIATION FUNCTION BETWEEN BIDDER AND SELLER IN A TRADITIONAL LIVE AUCTION - Upon the conclusion of the bidding activity for an item that is being auctioned at a live auction and that includes an on-line audience and bidders, a negotiation function can be enabled between the high bidder and a seller/consignor or representative of the seller/consignor. The high bidder and seller can present counter offers until either landing on an acceptable arrangement or, concluding the negotiation process all together. In the mean time, the auction can proceed to the next item to be auctioned. | 02-28-2013 |
20130179293 | INTEGRATION OF REMOTE BIDDERS INTO MULTIPLE AND SIMULTANEOUS LIVE AUCTIONS - Multiple simultaneous auctions can be monitored and participated in using a single bidding device operated by a single remote bidder. A multi-windowed environment allows for the display of active bidding windows and docked bidding windows. The active bidding windows are fully functional bidding windows and include auction status, product information and the like. The docked bidding windows provide a subset of the information but, nonetheless provide real-time auction status information and allows for bidders to enter bids into the auctioning process without having to move the bidding window into an active status. A customer-identifier selector of identifier allows the remote bidder to associate a customer with a particular bidding window. The customer-identifier advantageously helps the remote bidder to track who purchased items are associated with, as well as providing control structure over the bidding process. | 07-11-2013 |
20140149252 | DYNAMIC TEMPLATE SELECTOR AND DATA INTEGRITY ENGINE FOR INSPECTION REPORTS - An electronic inspection report system includes a dynamic integrity checker. Upon reception of inspection data from mobile devices, the date from similar and related fields is cross-correlated to identify any inconsistencies or discrepancies. This data is also compared with third party data that may be related to the item or similar item. | 05-29-2014 |
20140164162 | INTEREST GAUGE BASED AUCTION - Information about participants in an auction are received and analyzed along with information about products to be auctioned and other information to generate an interest gauge. The interest gauge may reflect the interest of a buyer, a seller, an auction house or any other entity in the auctioning event. Based on the interest gauge, the operations of the auction can be augmented and/or modified to be optimal in view of revenue generation, products moved, and a balance between the two. For instance, the buyer interest gauge could be used to create packages of items to be auctioned in a combinatorial auction. | 06-12-2014 |
20140164164 | CONVERSION ENHANCED AUCTION ENVIRONMENT - An environment is established in which a variety of participating entities, including but not limited to auction houses, manufacturers, third party product and service providers, individuals, etc., can interface and benefit from the vast amount of data that is naturally collected or assimilated in the process of evaluating products to be introduced to an auction line. | 06-12-2014 |
20140304100 | LIVE AUCTION PARTICIPATION UTILIZING A COUPLED BIDDING DEVICE - The ability to participate in an active auction is enabled for remote bidders by allowing the remote bidder to use a bidding device coupled to an active auction through a network. The remote bidding device receives live audio from the auction with minimal delay, and can receive and provide bidding information to the auction in real time. As such, the remote bidder can participate with equal standing as local participants. | 10-09-2014 |