Electronic product catalog systems
US7006990B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 27, 2001 |
| Grant date | Feb 28, 2006 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Oct 26, 2022 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06Q30/0633
- WIPO fieldIT methods for management
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Methods are provided for selecting a question to be presented to a user of an electronic product catalog system (1) to assist identification of a suitable product from a set of potentially suitable products according to the user's needs. The question is selected from a group of questions stored in the system (1). The methods use product data, which defines features of products in the product set and product scores associated with respective products in the product set, and rule data which defines rules relating answers associated with the questions to product feature constraints. The product data and rule data are processed to calculate question scores (QS) for respective questions such that the question score (QS) for each question is dependent on at least one of (a) the product scores of any products excluded from the product set if a rule relating to an answer associated with that question is effective, and (b) the product scores of any products retained in the product set if a rule relating to an answer associated with that question is effective. The question to be presented to the user is then selected in dependence on the question scores (QS). The disclosed methods allow ques…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.