US 8,818,881 B2Granted

System and method for integrating a plurality of isolated components into an online auction for automatic real-time auction participant support

AssigneeVauto, Inc.

InventorsKyle Martin Himmerick, Todd Richard Kinzle, Andrew Marvin Welch

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Abstract

Disclosed is a method and system for integrating a plurality of isolated components to automatically provide real-time support to a participant in an online auction, particularly for live online auctions that may require quick decision making. An embodiment may automatically display information from the plurality of isolated components for the current item being auctioned in the online auction in a single user interface window. An embodiment may further update any information from any of the plurality of isolated components in real-time as the online auction is occurring. Examples of various isolated components that may be integrated into the single user interface window include: item history reports, third party valuation reports on the item, and the interface into the online auction. Various embodiments may have additional user interface windows concurrently monitoring/automatically integrating with different online auction locations that are concurrently auctioning different items. An embodiment may also include automatic non-decision support actions such as: requesting placing purchased items into an electronic inventory system, requesting delivery/shipping of purchased items, and/or requesting financing for a purchase.

Claims36

Dependent claims

A method for integrating isolated components into an auction, comprising:

selecting a plurality of isolated components operating on a computer system by an auction participant support system operating on said computer system based on input from an auction participant's user-device, wherein at least one of said plurality of isolated components is an online auction application component that permits participation in an online auction, said online auction application component being directed to an online auction;
configuring, by the computer system, attributes and display of said plurality of isolated components for a single auction item within a single user interface window of said auction participant support system operating on said computer system based on input from an auction participant's user-device;
obtaining identification information from said online auction application component, the identification information being indicative of a current auction item that is currently being auctioned in said online auction;
communicating, by the auction participant support system operating on said computer system, said identification information to said plurality of isolated components except said online auction application component;
prompting, by the auction participant support system operating on said computer system, each of said plurality of isolated components to update in nearly real-time information for each of said plurality of isolated components, except said online auction application component, based on said identification information;
and
supplying, by the computer system, auction decision support information for said current auction item via said single user interface window, said auction decision support information is included in said updated information for said current auction item and is obtained from said plurality of isolated components.

4 more elements

A system comprising:

a computer-readable non-transitory storage medium having instructions encoded thereon, the instructions comprising a component selection subsystem, a component configuration subsystem, a current auction item identification subsystem, an update component subsystem, and a user interface subsystem;
and
a computer system that is coupled to the computer-readable non-transitory storage medium and is configured to execute the instructions, wherein:
the component selection subsystem is configured to select a plurality of isolated components operating on said computer system at direction of an auction participant user where at least one of said plurality of isolated components is an online auction application component that permits participation in an online auction, said online auction application component being directed to an online auction;
the component configuration subsystem is configured to configure attributes and display of said plurality of isolated components for a single auction item within a single user interface window at direction of said auction participant user;
the current auction item identification subsystem is configured to obtain identification information from said online auction application component, said identification information identifies a current auction item that is currently being auctioned in said online auction, and deliver said identification information that identifies said current auction item being auctioned to said plurality of isolated components except said online auction application component;
the update component subsystem is configured to prompt each of said plurality of isolated components to update in nearly real-time information for each of said plurality of isolated components except said online auction application component based on said identification information that identifies said current auction item being auctioned;
and
the user interface subsystem is configured to display said updated information for said current auction item from said plurality of isolated components in said single user interface window where said auction participant user obtains auction decision support information for said current auction item from said plurality of isolated components in said single interface window.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.