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US 2009/0157486 A1Published application
Integrated Gourmet Item Data Collection, Recommender and Vending System and Method
AssigneeJohn Nicholas and Kristin Gross
InventorJohn Nicholas Gross
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Items—including gourmet products—are evaluated and rated by participants in a controlled event, which can be coordinated by software locally or at a dedicated website. Event data, including item scores and participant scores can be shared with vendors, merchants and other commercial entities associated with the products. Promotional incentives from such entities for the products (and related products) can then be directly targeted and provided to participants and other members of the public. The participant's activities can also be collected and disseminated to affiliates/friends of the participants through social networking sites, personalized web pages, etc.
Claims20
A method of conducting a sampling event for items comprising:
- (a) providing one or more electronic data collection devices;
- (b) collecting at least a set of ratings for the set of items from a group of participants using a first routine executing on said one or more electronic data collection devices during the item sampling event;
- (c) calculating item sampling event data including at least item scores and participant scores using a second computing routine;
- (d) providing at least some of said item sampling event data through a network to one or more electronic computing systems associated with third parties involved in the making, distributing and/or selling of the items;
- (e) receiving promotional coupons and/or other electronic feedback from such third parties at said one or more electronic data collection devices or other electronic message accounts associated with said group of participants;
- wherein said promotional coupons and/or other electronic feedback are coupled and dynamically adjustable based on a geographical location of said one or more data collection devices and/or a residence address of said group of participants.
3 more elements
A method of marketing and promoting items comprising the steps:
- a) providing an item marketing computing system which is coupled through a network connection to a first item manufacturer computing system, a second item distributor computing system, and a third item data collection computing system;
- said item marketing computing system including one or more software routines to perform the following operations:
- 1) coordinating communication of first item event data to the third item data collection computing system from a group of participants sampling a first item;
- 2) calculating scores for said first item and/or for said group of participants;
- 3) communicating said scores and/or said first item event data to at least said first manufacture computing system;
- 4) process feedback data based on said scores and/or said first item event data from said first manufacture computing system and/or said second item distributor computing system which is specific to at least one or more said group of participants;
- 5) communicating promotional information to said third item data collection computing system relevant to said first item, and/or items determined to be related to said first item to said at least one or more of said group of participants;
- wherein promotional information is presented dynamically from a manufacturer and/or distributor of said first item to a participant during said item sampling event and which promotional information is responsive and related to scores provided by said participant and/or other participants in said sampling event.
5 more elements
An item data sampling collection computing device comprising:
- a. an electronic interface for capturing item sampling data from a participant for a set of items in an item sampling event;
- b. an item sampling processing routine that is adapted to:
- i. communicate at least some of said item sampling data with a remote computing system;
- ii. present feedback data from said remote computing system, including advertising and/or promotional coupons for items, which feedback data is derived at least in part from a recommender system and is customized for one or more participants in said item sampling event;
- iii. calculate scores and awards for said one or more participants based on evaluating and correlating their respective ratings provided on said set of items sampled during the item sampling event.
2 more elements
A data collection system for collecting data from participants in an item sampling event comprising:
- a. a portable master controller computing device;
- b. one or more portable slave computing devices;
- wherein each of said master controller computing device and said one or more slave computing devices having an electronic interface for capturing item sampling data from a participant for a set of items in an item sampling event;
- further wherein said portable master controller computing device is coupled to and controls data collection and data presentation for the item sampling event from the portable slave computing devices;
- c. the portable master controller computing device being further adapted with one or more software routines to:
- i. calculate scores and awards for said participants based on evaluating and correlating their respective ratings provided on a set of items sampled during the item sampling event.
- ii. present feedback data from a remote computing system, including advertising and/or promotional coupons for items, which feedback data is derived at least in part from a recommender system and is customized for one or more participants in said item sampling event.
4 more elements
An integrated sampling event kit for sampling a set of consumable items comprising:
- an integrated package including at least the following:
- 1) the set of consumable items;
- wherein the set of consumable items are packaged in a manner so as to obscure their origin and/or identity from at least some of a group of participants in a sampling event;
- 2) a storage media including item data stored thereon in electronic form, including identification data for each item in the set of items;
- wherein the storage media includes data and/or computing instructions adapted to be read by a portable computing device.
2 more elements
A social networking website comprising:
- a. one or more social networking web pages and/or data feeds associated with a member of the social networking site;
- wherein said member can identify a social circle specified by links and/or associations to other member of the social networking site
- b. a compilation routine executing at the social networking site and adapted to receive and process sampling event data for the member;
- wherein said sampling event data includes at least member event information relating to one of:
- 1) a set of items;
- 2) ratings associated therewith provided by the member;
- 3) scores and/or awards achieved by the member;
- 4) advertising materials presented to the member;
- c. said compilation routine being further adapted to automatically and selectively modify one of at least said one or more web pages and/or data feeds associated with said member and/or other members of said member's social circle based on said member event information.
6 more elements
A recommender computing system adapted to provide recommendations on a group of consumable items comprising:
- a) a first routine of the recommender computing system being adapted to collect at least a set of ratings for a set of consumable items from a group of participants using one or more electronic data collection devices during an item sampling event;
- (b) a second routine of the recommender computing system being adapted to calculate correlations based on said set of ratings between at least one of 1) said group of participants and other persons rating said set of consumable items or related items;
- and/or 2) said set of items including at least item scores and participant scores;
- c) a third routine of the recommender computing system being adapted to present recommendations on consumable items to at least some of said group of participants based on said correlations.
1 more element
A method of conducting a contest for sampling items using a computing system comprising:
- (a) providing a set of one or items to be rated during an item sampling event in which the items are sampled by a group of participants;
- (b) automatically collecting at set of reference ratings for said set of items from a group of one or more reference raters using said computing system;
- (c) automatically collecting at least a set of participant ratings for said set of items from said group of sampling participants during said item sampling event using said computing system;
- (d) calculating participant scores for said item sampling event using said computing system;
- wherein a winner of the contest is identified by said participant scores that are based on determining a correlation between each sampling participant rating provided for an item, and a corresponding reference rating provided by said one or more reference raters.
2 more elements
A website including a computing system adapted to conduct a sampling event for a set of items comprising:
- a. a first routine executing on the computing system for collecting at least a set of ratings for the set of items from a group of participants using said one or more electronic data collection devices during the item sampling event;
- b. a second routine executing on the computing system for calculating item sampling event data including at least item scores and participant scores;
- c. a third routine executing on the computing system for providing at least some of said item sampling event data through a network to one or more electronic systems associated with third parties involved in the making, distributing and/or selling of the items;
- d. a fourth routine for processing and sending promotional coupons and/or other electronic feedback from such third parties to said one or more electronic data collection devices or electronic accounts for said group of participants;
- wherein said promotional coupons and/or other electronic feedback are coupled and dynamically adjustable based on a geographical location of said one or more data collection devices and/or a residence address of said group of participants.
2 more elements
A method of conducting a contest for sampling items using a computing system comprising:
- (a) providing a set of one or items to be rated during an item sampling event in which the items are sampled by a group of participants;
- (b) automatically generating a set of predicted ratings for said set of items by said group of participants using said computing system prior to said sampling event;
- (c) automatically collecting at least a set of participant ratings for said set of items from said group of sampling participants during said item sampling event using said computing system;
- (d) calculating a correlation between said set of participant ratings and said set of predicted ratings for said item sampling event using said computing system;
- (e) providing a report to said group of participants which contains feedback relating to said correlation;
- (f) repeating steps (a) through (e) for a different group of participants;
- (g) generating a report identifying a ranking based on a respective correlation for different groups of participants.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.