Method and system for recommending electronic component connectivity configurations and other information

A computer-implemented method for providing recommendations to a user of audiovisual components through a vendor web site accessible over a computer network by a plurality of users, the users having user computers connected to the computer network for accessing the vendor web site, comprising:

• (a) providing a vendor/user interactive web site having a graphics user interface display, said web site containing data representing at least a group of predetermined user-selectable audiovisual components;
• (b) receiving, electronically forwarded via the computer network, data representing a user-selected subset of audiovisual components from said group of predetermined user-selectable audiovisual components;
• (c) storing said data representing said user-selected subset of audiovisual components into an object-oriented database;
• (d) identifying each of said user-selected subset of audiovisual components with its associated technical attributes;
• (e) comparing said technical attributes of said user-selected subset of audiovisual components in order to connect said audiovisual components to one another;
• and
• (f) electronically forwarding to the user, via the computer network, data representing a recommended connection of said audiovisual components to one another.

In a computer system for providing recommendations from a vendor computer to a user computer through a vendor web site accessible over a computer network by a plurality of users, the users having user computers connected to a computer network for accessing the vendor web site, a graphical audiovisual component generating system comprising:

• (a) a graphical audiovisual component generation program executable on the vendor computer and containing instructions for causing the vendor computer to generate an interactive vendor graphical audiovisual component display that represents the vendor's audiovisual components and interactively guides a user through the vendor computer web site;
• and
• (b) said graphical audiovisual component generation program being operative to send display commands to said user computer when said user computer has accessed the vendor web site causing said user computer to display on a display device associated with the user computer said interactive vendor audiovisual components for selection by the user.
• (c) said graphical audiovisual component generation program receiving data on audiovisual components and attributes selected by the user such that a proposed connectivity display graphically depicting the connection of selected audiovisual components one to another is presented to the user.

A computer-implemented method for providing recommendations to a user of audiovisual components, comprising:

• (a) providing, from an object-oriented database, a user interface display containing data representing at least a group of predetermined user-selectable audiovisual components;
• (b) receiving data representing a user-selected subset of audiovisual components from said group of predetermined user-selectable audiovisual components;
• (c) retrieving, from an audiovisual component attribute gathering module, attributes associated with each audiovisual component of said user-selected subset of audiovisual components;
• (d) transferring said user-selected subset of audiovisual components and said associated attributes to an analysis engine having a rules database;
• (e) analyzing said user-selected subset of audiovisual components and said associated attributes in order to connect said electronic components to one another;
• and
• (f) presenting data representing a recommended connection of said audiovisual components to the user.

A computer-implemented method for providing recommendations to a user of audiovisual components, comprising:

• (a) providing a graphics user interface display containing data representing at least a group of predetermined user-selectable audiovisual components, each audiovisual component from said group of predetermined user-selectable audiovisual components being associated with its own dialog box;
• (b) receiving data representing a user-selected subset of audiovisual components from said group of predetermined user-selectable audiovisual components;
• (c) retrieving from a memory storage device attributes associated with each component of said user-selected subset of audiovisual components;
• (d) comparing said user-selected subset of audiovisual components and said associated attributes in order to connect said audiovisual components to one another;
• and
• (e) presenting data representing a recommended connection said audiovisual components to one another to the user.

A computer-implemented method for determining audiovisual component connectivity configurations of a set of audiovisual components, comprising:

• (a) providing an analysis engine;
• (b) providing a rules database containing logic rules;
• (c) analyzing known attributes of said set of audiovisual components;
• and
• (d) applying rules from said rules database in order to connect said electronic components to one another.