Method and apparatus for automated selection, organization, and recommendation of items

In a computer for recommending recipes catered to a particular user's preference, each recipe being represented by a recipe vector having a plurality of fields, each field corresponding to a chemical component contained in food, a method for creating the recipe vector for a particular recipe comprising:

• maintaining a chemical database storing a list ingredients and chemical components found in each of the ingredients;
• parsing the particular recipe for ingredients contained in the particular recipe;
• searching for the parsed ingredients in the chemical database;
• retrieving the chemical components found in each of the parsed ingredients;
• and
• assigning values to the fields of the recipe vector corresponding to the retrieved chemical components, the values being based on a total amount of each retrieved chemical component, the recipe vector being used for comparing against a user preference vector for determining whether the particular recipe may be recommended to the user.

A computer system for recommending recipes catered to a particular user's preferences, the system comprising:

• means for creating a user preference vector having a plurality of fields, each field corresponding to a chemical component contained in food;
• means for obtaining user preference for a particular type of dish;
• means for analyzing the chemical components contained in the dish;
• means for assigning values to the fields of the user preference vector corresponding to the chemical components contained in the dish;
• means for storing recipes for being recommended to the user;
• and
• means for comparing the recipes with the user preference vector;
• means for selecting one or more recipes as a recommended recipe.

computer system for creating a recipe vector for recommending a recipe catered to a particular user's preferences, the recipe vector having a plurality of fields, each field corresponding to a chemical component contained in food, the system comprising:

• means for storing a list of ingredients and chemical components found in each of the ingredients;
• means for obtaining ingredients contained in the particular recipe;
• means for searching for the obtained ingredients in the chemical database;
• means for retrieving the chemical components found in each of the obtained ingredients;
• and
• means for assigning values to the fields of the recipe vector corresponding the retrieved chemical components the recipe vector being used for comparing against a user preference vector for determining whether the particular recipe may be recommended to the user.

A computer system adapted to recommend recipes catered to a particular user's preferences, the system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processor and having program instructions stored therein, the processor being operable to execute the program instructions, the program instructions including:
• creating a user preference vector having a plurality of fields, each field corresponding to a chemical component contained in food;
• obtaining a user preference for a particular type of dish;
• analyzing the chemical components contained in the dish;
• assigning values to the fields of the user preference vector corresponding to the chemical components contained in the dish, the values being based on an amount of each chemical component present in the dish;
• retrieving a recipe from a menu recommendation database;
• comparing the recipe with the user preference vector;
• and
• selecting the recipe as a recommended recipe.

A computer system for creating a recipe vector for recommending a recipe catered to a particular user's preferences, the recipe vector having a plurality of fields, each field corresponding to a chemical component contained in food, the system comprising:

• a memory storing a chemical database including a list of ingredients and chemical components found in each of the ingredients, the memory having program instructions stored therein;
• and
• a processor coupled to the memory, the processor being operable to execute the program instructions, the program instructions including:
• parsing the particular recipe for ingredients contained in the particular recipe;
• searching for the parsed ingredients in the chemical database;
• retrieving the chemical components found in each of the parsed ingredients;
• and
• assigning values to the fields of the recipe vector corresponding to the retrieved chemical components, the values being based on a total amount of each retrieved chemical component, the recipe vector being used for comparing against a user preference vector determining whether the particular recipe may be recommended to the user.