U.S. patent application number 16/441891 was filed with the patent office on 2019-09-26 for vector-based characterizations of products and individuals with respect to customer service agent assistance.
The applicant listed for this patent is Walmart Apollo, LLC. Invention is credited to Todd D. Mattingly, Bruce W. Wilkinson.
Application Number | 20190295099 16/441891 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 60660302 |
Filed Date | 2019-09-26 |
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United States Patent
Application |
20190295099 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Wilkinson; Bruce W. ; et
al. |
September 26, 2019 |
VECTOR-BASED CHARACTERIZATIONS OF PRODUCTS AND INDIVIDUALS WITH
RESPECT TO CUSTOMER SERVICE AGENT ASSISTANCE
Abstract
Systems, apparatuses, and methods are provided herein for
providing customer service agent assistance. A system for providing
customer service agent assistance comprises a customer profile
database storing customer partiality vectors for a plurality of
customers, the customer partiality vectors comprise customer value
vectors, a communication device, and a control circuit. The control
circuit being configured to: provide a customer service agent user
interface on a user device associated with a customer service
agent, associate a particular customer with the customer service
agent, retrieving at least one customer value vector for the
particular customer from the customer profile database, and cause,
via the communication device, the at least one customer value
vector of the particular customer to be displayed on the customer
service agent user interface of the user device.
Inventors: |
Wilkinson; Bruce W.;
(Rogers, AR) ; Mattingly; Todd D.; (Bentonville,
AR) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Walmart Apollo, LLC |
Bentonville |
AR |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
60660302 |
Appl. No.: |
16/441891 |
Filed: |
June 14, 2019 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
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Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
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15624030 |
Jun 15, 2017 |
10366396 |
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16441891 |
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62350315 |
Jun 15, 2016 |
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62351463 |
Jun 17, 2016 |
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62436842 |
Dec 20, 2016 |
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62485045 |
Apr 13, 2017 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06Q 30/016
20130101 |
International
Class: |
G06Q 30/00 20060101
G06Q030/00 |
Claims
1. An apparatus for mapping a space comprising: a non-transitory
storage medium storing a set of computer readable instructions; and
a control circuit configured to execute the set of computer
readable instructions which causes to the control circuit to:
provide, via a communication device coupled to the control circuit,
a customer service agent user interface on a user device associated
with a customer service agent; associate a particular customer with
the customer service agent; retrieve at least one customer value
vector for the particular customer from the customer profile
database storing customer partiality vectors of a plurality of
customers, the customer partiality vectors comprise customer value
vectors; and cause, via the communication device, the at least one
customer value vector for the particular customer to be displayed
on the customer service agent user interface.
2. A system for providing shopping agent assistance, comprising: a
customer profile database storing customer partiality vectors for a
plurality of customers, the customer partiality vectors comprise
customer value vectors; a communication device; and a control
circuit coupled to the customer profile database and the
communication device, the control circuit being configured to:
provide a shopping agent user interface on a user device associated
with a shopping agent; associate a customer with the shopping
agent; retrieving at least one customer value vector for the
customer from the customer profile database; and cause, via the
communication device, the at least one customer value vector of the
customer to be displayed on the shopping agent user interface of
the user device.
3. The system of claim 2, wherein the customer partiality vectors
each represents at least one of a person's values, preferences,
affinities, and aspirations.
4. The system of claim 2, wherein the customer partiality vectors
each comprises a magnitude that corresponds to the customer's
belief in good that comes from an order associated with that
value.
5. The system of claim 2, wherein the customer partiality vectors
comprise partiality vectors determined from a purchase history of
the customer.
6. The system of claim 2, wherein the control circuit is further
configured to: receive a product identifier via the user device;
and retrieve vectorized product characterizations associated with
the product identifier from a product database.
7. The system of claim 6, wherein the control circuit is further
configured to: determine a compatibility based on comparing the
customer partiality vectors and the vectorized product
characterizations; and cause the shopping agent user interface to
display the compatibility.
8. The system of claim 7, wherein the compatibility comprises a
score and the shopping agent user interface is configured to
display a visual representation of the score.
9. The system of claim 6, wherein the product identifier is
received from the shopping agent user interface via one or more of
a barcode, a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag, a
photograph, a product name, and a brand name.
10. The system of claim 2, wherein the control circuit is further
configured to: recommend one or more products to purchase for the
customer based on the customer partiality vectors of the
customer.
11. The system of claim 2, wherein the customer is associated with
the shopping agent based on one or more of a current location of
the shopping agent, one or more customer orders, and a customer
selection received in the shopping agent user interface.
12. A method for providing shopping agent assistance, comprising:
providing, with a control circuit and a communication device
coupled to the control circuit, a shopping agent user interface on
a user device associated with a shopping agent; associating, with
the control circuit, a customer with the shopping agent;
retrieving, with the control circuit, at least one value vector of
the customer from a customer profile database storing customer
partiality vectors for a plurality of customers, the customer
partiality vectors comprise customer value vectors; and causing,
via the communication device, the at least one customer value
vector of the customer to be displayed on the shopping agent user
interface.
13. The method of claim 12, wherein the customer partiality vectors
each represents at least one of a person's values, preferences,
affinities, and aspirations.
14. The method of claim 12, wherein the customer partiality vectors
each comprises a magnitude that corresponds to the customer's
belief in good that comes from an order associated with that
value.
15. The method of claim 12, wherein the customer partiality vectors
comprise partiality vectors determined from a purchase history of
the customer.
16. The method of claim 12, further comprising: receiving a product
identifier via the user device; and retrieving vectorized product
characterizations associated with the product identifier from a
product database.
17. The method of claim 16, further comprising: determining a
compatibility based on comparing the customer partiality vectors
and the vectorized product characterizations; and causing the
shopping agent user interface to display the compatibility.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein the compatibility comprises a
score and the shopping agent user interface is configured to
display a visual representation of the score.
19. The method of claim 16, wherein the product identifier is
received from the shopping agent user interface via one or more of
a barcode, a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag, a
photograph, a product name, and a brand name.
20. The method of claim 12, further comprising: recommending one or
more products to purchase for the customer based on the customer
partiality vectors of the customer.
21. The method of claim 12, wherein the customer is associated with
the shopping agent based on one or more of a current location of
the shopping agent, one or more customer orders, and a customer
selection received in the shopping agent user interface.
Description
RELATED APPLICATION(S)
[0001] This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser.
No. 15/624,030 filed Jun. 15, 2017, which claims the benefit of
each of the following U.S. Provisional Applications: U.S.
Provisional application No. 62/436,842, filed Dec. 20, 2016, U.S.
Provisional application No. 62/485,045, filed Apr. 13, 2017, U.S.
Provisional application No. 62/351,463, filed Jun. 17, 2016, and
U.S. Provisional application No. 62/350,315, filed Jun. 15, 2016
which are all incorporated by reference in their entirety
herein.
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0002] These teachings relate generally to providing products and
services to individuals.
BACKGROUND
[0003] Various shopping paradigms are known in the art. One
approach of long-standing use essentially comprises displaying a
variety of different goods at a shared physical location and
allowing consumers to view/experience those offerings as they wish
to thereby make their purchasing selections. This model is being
increasingly challenged due at least in part to the logistical and
temporal inefficiencies that accompany this approach and also
because this approach does not assure that a product best suited to
a particular consumer will in fact be available for that consumer
to purchase at the time of their visit.
[0004] Increasing efforts are being made to present a given
consumer with one or more purchasing options that are selected
based upon some preference of the consumer. When done properly,
this approach can help to avoid presenting the consumer with things
that they might not wish to consider. That said, existing
preference-based approaches nevertheless leave much to be desired.
Information regarding preferences, for example, may tend to be very
product specific and accordingly may have little value apart from
use with a very specific product or product category. As a result,
while helpful, a preferences-based approach is inherently very
limited in scope and offers only a very weak platform by which to
assess a wide variety of product and service categories.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0005] The above needs are at least partially met through provision
of the vector-based characterizations of products described in the
following detailed description, particularly when studied in
conjunction with the drawings, wherein:
[0006] FIG. 1 comprises a flow diagram as configured in accordance
with various embodiments of these teachings;
[0007] FIG. 2 comprises a flow diagram as configured in accordance
with various embodiments of these teachings;
[0008] FIG. 3 comprises a graphic representation as configured in
accordance with various embodiments of these teachings;
[0009] FIG. 4 comprises a graph as configured in accordance with
various embodiments of these teachings;
[0010] FIG. 5 comprises a flow diagram as configured in accordance
with various embodiments of these teachings;
[0011] FIG. 6 comprises a graphic representation as configured in
accordance with various embodiments of these teachings;
[0012] FIG. 7 comprises a graphic representation as configured in
accordance with various embodiments of these teachings;
[0013] FIG. 8 comprises a graphic representation as configured in
accordance with various embodiments of these teachings;
[0014] FIG. 9 comprises a flow diagram as configured in accordance
with various embodiments of these teachings;
[0015] FIG. 10 comprises a flow diagram as configured in accordance
with various embodiments of these teachings;
[0016] FIG. 11 comprises a graphic representation as configured in
accordance with various embodiments of these teachings;
[0017] FIG. 12 comprises a graphic representation as configured in
accordance with various embodiments of these teachings;
[0018] FIG. 13 comprises a block diagram as configured in
accordance with various embodiments of these teachings;
[0019] FIG. 14 comprises a flow diagram as configured in accordance
with various embodiments of these teachings;
[0020] FIG. 15 comprises a graph as configured in accordance with
various embodiments of these teachings;
[0021] FIG. 16 comprises a flow diagram as configured in accordance
with various embodiments of these teachings;
[0022] FIG. 17 comprises a block diagram as configured in
accordance with various embodiments of these teachings;
[0023] FIG. 18 comprise a flow diagram as configured in accordance
with various embodiments of these teachings;
[0024] FIG. 19 comprises a block diagram as configured in
accordance with various embodiments of these teachings;
[0025] FIGS. 20A and 20B comprise illustrations of user interfaces
in accordance with various embodiments of these teachings;
[0026] FIG. 21 comprise a flow diagram as configured in accordance
with various embodiments of these teachings;
[0027] FIG. 22 comprises a block diagram as configured in
accordance with various embodiments of these teachings; and
[0028] FIGS. 23A and 23B comprise illustrations of user interfaces
in accordance with various embodiments of these teachings.
[0029] Elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and
clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example,
the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements
in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to
help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present
teachings. Also, common but well-understood elements that are
useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often
not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these
various embodiments of the present teachings. Certain actions
and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of
occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such
specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. The
terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical
meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons
skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where
different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth
herein.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0030] Generally speaking, many of these embodiments provide for a
memory having information stored therein that includes partiality
information for each of a plurality of persons in the form of a
plurality of partiality vectors for each of the persons wherein
each partiality vector has at least one of a magnitude and an angle
that corresponds to a magnitude of the person's belief in an amount
of good that comes from an order associated with that partiality.
This memory can also contain vectorized characterizations for each
of a plurality of products, wherein each of the vectorized
characterizations includes a measure regarding an extent to which a
corresponding one of the products accords with a corresponding one
of the plurality of partiality vectors.
[0031] Rules can then be provided that use the aforementioned
information in support of a wide variety of activities and results.
Although the described vector-based approaches bear little
resemblance (if any) (conceptually or in practice) to prior
approaches to understanding and/or metricizing a given person's
product/service requirements, these approaches yield numerous
benefits including, at least in some cases, reduced memory
requirements, an ability to accommodate (both initially and
dynamically over time) an essentially endless number and variety of
partialities and/or product attributes, and processing/comparison
capabilities that greatly ease computational resource requirements
and/or greatly reduced time-to-solution results.
[0032] So configured, these teachings can constitute, for example,
a method for automatically correlating a particular product with a
particular person by using a control circuit to obtain a set of
rules that define the particular product from amongst a plurality
of candidate products for the particular person as a function of
vectorized representations of partialities for the particular
person and vectorized characterizations for the candidate products.
This control circuit can also obtain partiality information for the
particular person in the form of a plurality of partiality vectors
that each have at least one of a magnitude and an angle that
corresponds to a magnitude of the particular person's belief in an
amount of good that comes from an order associated with that
partiality and vectorized characterizations for each of the
candidate products, wherein each of the vectorized
characterizations indicates a measure regarding an extent to which
a corresponding one of the candidate products accords with a
corresponding one of the plurality of partiality vectors. The
control circuit can then generate an output comprising
identification of the particular product by evaluating the
partiality vectors and the vectorized characterizations against the
set of rules.
[0033] The aforementioned set of rules can include, for example,
comparing at least some of the partiality vectors for the
particular person to each of the vectorized characterizations for
each of the candidate products using vector dot product
calculations. By another approach, in lieu of the foregoing or in
combination therewith, the aforementioned set of rules can include
using the partiality vectors and the vectorized characterizations
to define a plurality of solutions that collectively form a
multi-dimensional surface and selecting the particular product from
the multi-dimensional surface. In such a case the set of rules can
further include accessing other information (such as objective
information) for the particular person comprising information other
than partiality vectors and using the other information to
constrain a selection area on the multi-dimensional surface from
which the particular product can be selected.
[0034] People tend to be partial to ordering various aspects of
their lives, which is to say, people are partial to having things
well arranged per their own personal view of how things should be.
As a result, anything that contributes to the proper ordering of
things regarding which a person has partialities represents value
to that person. Quite literally, improving order reduces entropy
for the corresponding person (i.e., a reduction in the measure of
disorder present in that particular aspect of that person's life)
and that improvement in order/reduction in disorder is typically
viewed with favor by the affected person.
[0035] Generally speaking a value proposition must be coherent
(logically sound) and have "force." Here, force takes the form of
an imperative. When the parties to the imperative have a reputation
of being trustworthy and the value proposition is perceived to
yield a good outcome, then the imperative becomes anchored in the
center of a belief that "this is something that I must do because
the results will be good for me." With the imperative so anchored,
the corresponding material space can be viewed as conforming to the
order specified in the proposition that will result in the good
outcome.
[0036] Pursuant to these teachings a belief in the good that comes
from imposing a certain order takes the form of a value
proposition. It is a set of coherent logical propositions by a
trusted source that, when taken together, coalesce to form an
imperative that a person has a personal obligation to order their
lives because it will return a good outcome which improves their
quality of life. This imperative is a value force that exerts the
physical force (effort) to impose the desired order. The inertial
effects come from the strength of the belief. The strength of the
belief comes from the force of the value argument (proposition).
And the force of the value proposition is a function of the
perceived good and trust in the source that convinced the person's
belief system to order material space accordingly. A belief remains
constant until acted upon by a new force of a trusted value
argument. This is at least a significant reason why the routine in
people's lives remains relatively constant.
[0037] Newton's three laws of motion have a very strong bearing on
the present teachings. Stated summarily, Newton's first law holds
that an object either remains at rest or continues to move at a
constant velocity unless acted upon by a force, the second law
holds that the vector sum of the forces F on an object equal the
mass m of that object multiplied by the acceleration a of the
object (i.e., F=ma), and the third law holds that when one body
exerts a force on a second body, the second body simultaneously
exerts a force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction on the
first body.
[0038] Relevant to both the present teachings and Newton's first
law, beliefs can be viewed as having inertia. In particular, once a
person believes that a particular order is good, they tend to
persist in maintaining that belief and resist moving away from that
belief. The stronger that belief the more force an argument and/or
fact will need to move that person away from that belief to a new
belief.
[0039] Relevant to both the present teachings and Newton's second
law, the "force" of a coherent argument can be viewed as equaling
the "mass" which is the perceived Newtonian effort to impose the
order that achieves the aforementioned belief in the good which an
imposed order brings multiplied by the change in the belief of the
good which comes from the imposition of that order. Consider that
when a change in the value of a particular order is observed then
there must have been a compelling value claim influencing that
change. There is a proportionality in that the greater the change
the stronger the value argument. If a person values a particular
activity and is very diligent to do that activity even when facing
great opposition, we say they are dedicated, passionate, and so
forth. If they stop doing the activity, it begs the question, what
made them stop? The answer to that question needs to carry enough
force to account for the change.
[0040] And relevant to both the present teachings and Newton's
third law, for every effort to impose good order there is an equal
and opposite good reaction.
[0041] FIG. 1 provides a simple illustrative example in these
regards. At block 101 it is understood that a particular person has
a partiality (to a greater or lesser extent) to a particular kind
of order. At block 102 that person willingly exerts effort to
impose that order to thereby, at block 103, achieve an arrangement
to which they are partial. And at block 104, this person
appreciates the "good" that comes from successfully imposing the
order to which they are partial, in effect establishing a positive
feedback loop.
[0042] Understanding these partialities to particular kinds of
order can be helpful to understanding how receptive a particular
person may be to purchasing a given product or service. FIG. 2
provides a simple illustrative example in these regards. At block
201 it is understood that a particular person values a particular
kind of order. At block 202 it is understood (or at least presumed)
that this person wishes to lower the effort (or is at least
receptive to lowering the effort) that they must personally exert
to impose that order. At decision block 203 (and with access to
information 204 regarding relevant products and or services) a
determination can be made whether a particular product or service
lowers the effort required by this person to impose the desired
order. When such is not the case, it can be concluded that the
person will not likely purchase such a product/service 205
(presuming better choices are available).
[0043] When the product or service does lower the effort required
to impose the desired order, however, at block 206 a determination
can be made as to whether the amount of the reduction of effort
justifies the cost of purchasing and/or using the proffered
product/service. If the cost does not justify the reduction of
effort, it can again be concluded that the person will not likely
purchase such a product/service 205. When the reduction of effort
does justify the cost, however, this person may be presumed to want
to purchase the product/service and thereby achieve the desired
order (or at least an improvement with respect to that order) with
less expenditure of their own personal effort (block 207) and
thereby achieve, at block 208, corresponding enjoyment or
appreciation of that result.
[0044] To facilitate such an analysis, the applicant has determined
that factors pertaining to a person's partialities can be
quantified and otherwise represented as corresponding vectors
(where "vector" will be understood to refer to a geometric
object/quantity having both an angle and a length/magnitude). These
teachings will accommodate a variety of differing bases for such
partialities including, for example, a person's values, affinities,
aspirations, and preferences.
[0045] A value is a person's principle or standard of behavior,
their judgment of what is important in life. A person's values
represent their ethics, moral code, or morals and not a mere
unprincipled liking or disliking of something. A person's value
might be a belief in kind treatment of animals, a belief in
cleanliness, a belief in the importance of personal care, and so
forth.
[0046] An affinity is an attraction (or even a feeling of kinship)
to a particular thing or activity. Examples including such a
feeling towards a participatory sport such as golf or a spectator
sport (including perhaps especially a particular team such as a
particular professional or college football team), a hobby (such as
quilting, model railroading, and so forth), one or more components
of popular culture (such as a particular movie or television
series, a genre of music or a particular musical performance group,
or a given celebrity, for example), and so forth.
[0047] "Aspirations" refer to longer-range goals that require
months or even years to reasonably achieve. As used herein
"aspirations" does not include mere short term goals (such as
making a particular meal tonight or driving to the store and back
without a vehicular incident). The aspired-to goals, in turn, are
goals pertaining to a marked elevation in one's core competencies
(such as an aspiration to master a particular game such as chess,
to achieve a particular articulated and recognized level of martial
arts proficiency, or to attain a particular articulated and
recognized level of cooking proficiency), professional status (such
as an aspiration to receive a particular advanced education degree,
to pass a professional examination such as a state Bar examination
of a Certified Public Accountants examination, or to become Board
certified in a particular area of medical practice), or life
experience milestone (such as an aspiration to climb Mount Everest,
to visit every state capital, or to attend a game at every major
league baseball park in the United States). It will further be
understood that the goal(s) of an aspiration is not something that
can likely merely simply happen of its own accord; achieving an
aspiration requires an intelligent effort to order one's life in a
way that increases the likelihood of actually achieving the
corresponding goal or goals to which that person aspires. One
aspires to one day run their own business as versus, for example,
merely hoping to one day win the state lottery.
[0048] A preference is a greater liking for one alternative over
another or others. A person can prefer, for example, that their
steak is cooked "medium" rather than other alternatives such as
"rare" or "well done" or a person can prefer to play golf in the
morning rather than in the afternoon or evening. Preferences can
and do come into play when a given person makes purchasing
decisions at a retail shopping facility. Preferences in these
regards can take the form of a preference for a particular brand
over other available brands or a preference for economy-sized
packaging as versus, say, individual serving-sized packaging.
[0049] Values, affinities, aspirations, and preferences are not
necessarily wholly unrelated. It is possible for a person's values,
affinities, or aspirations to influence or even dictate their
preferences in specific regards. For example, a person's moral code
that values non-exploitive treatment of animals may lead them to
prefer foods that include no animal-based ingredients and hence to
prefer fruits and vegetables over beef and chicken offerings. As
another example, a person's affinity for a particular musical group
may lead them to prefer clothing that directly or indirectly
references or otherwise represents their affinity for that group.
As yet another example, a person's aspirations to become a
Certified Public Accountant may lead them to prefer
business-related media content.
[0050] While a value, affinity, or aspiration may give rise to or
otherwise influence one or more corresponding preferences, however,
is not to say that these things are all one and the same; they are
not. For example, a preference may represent either a principled or
an unprincipled liking for one thing over another, while a value is
the principle itself. Accordingly, as used herein it will be
understood that a partiality can include, in context, any one or
more of a value-based, affinity-based, aspiration-based, and/or
preference-based partiality unless one or more such features is
specifically excluded per the needs of a given application
setting.
[0051] Information regarding a given person's partialities can be
acquired using any one or more of a variety of
information-gathering and/or analytical approaches. By one simple
approach, a person may voluntarily disclose information regarding
their partialities (for example, in response to an online
questionnaire or survey or as part of their social media presence).
By another approach, the purchasing history for a given person can
be analyzed to intuit the partialities that led to at least some of
those purchases. By yet another approach demographic information
regarding a particular person can serve as yet another source that
sheds light on their partialities. Other ways that people reveal
how they order their lives include but are not limited to: (1)
their social networking profiles and behaviors (such as the things
they "like" via Facebook, the images they post via Pinterest,
informal and formal comments they initiate or otherwise provide in
response to third-party postings including statements regarding
their own personal long-term goals, the persons/topics they follow
via Twitter, the photographs they publish via Picasso, and so
forth); (2) their Internet surfing history; (3) their on-line or
otherwise-published affinity-based memberships; (4) real-time (or
delayed) information (such as steps walked, calories burned,
geographic location, activities experienced, and so forth) from any
of a variety of personal sensors (such as smart phones,
tablet/pad-styled computers, fitness wearables, Global Positioning
System devices, and so forth) and the so-called Internet of Things
(such as smart refrigerators and pantries, entertainment and
information platforms, exercise and sporting equipment, and so
forth); (5) instructions, selections, and other inputs (including
inputs that occur within augmented-reality user environments) made
by a person via any of a variety of interactive interfaces (such as
keyboards and cursor control devices, voice recognition,
gesture-based controls, and eye tracking-based controls), and so
forth.
[0052] The present teachings employ a vector-based approach to
facilitate characterizing, representing, understanding, and
leveraging such partialities to thereby identify products (and/or
services) that will, for a particular corresponding consumer,
provide for an improved or at least a favorable corresponding
ordering for that consumer. Vectors are directed quantities that
each have both a magnitude and a direction. Per the applicant's
approach these vectors have a real, as versus a metaphorical,
meaning in the sense of Newtonian physics. Generally speaking, each
vector represents order imposed upon material space-time by a
particular partiality.
[0053] FIG. 3 provides some illustrative examples in these regards.
By one approach the vector 300 has a corresponding magnitude 301
(i.e., length) that represents the magnitude of the strength of the
belief in the good that comes from that imposed order (which
belief, in turn, can be a function, relatively speaking, of the
extent to which the order for this particular partiality is enabled
and/or achieved). In this case, the greater the magnitude 301, the
greater the strength of that belief and vice versa. Per another
example, the vector 300 has a corresponding angle A 302 that
instead represents the foregoing magnitude of the strength of the
belief (and where, for example, an angle of 0.degree. represents no
such belief and an angle of 90.degree. represents a highest
magnitude in these regards, with other ranges being possible as
desired).
[0054] Accordingly, a vector serving as a partiality vector can
have at least one of a magnitude and an angle that corresponds to a
magnitude of a particular person's belief in an amount of good that
comes from an order associated with a particular partiality.
[0055] Applying force to displace an object with mass in the
direction of a certain partiality-based order creates worth for a
person who has that partiality. The resultant work (i.e., that
force multiplied by the distance the object moves) can be viewed as
a worth vector having a magnitude equal to the accomplished work
and having a direction that represents the corresponding imposed
order. If the resultant displacement results in more order of the
kind that the person is partial to then the net result is a notion
of "good." This "good" is a real quantity that exists in
meta-physical space much like work is a real quantity in material
space. The link between the "good" in meta-physical space and the
work in material space is that it takes work to impose order that
has value.
[0056] In the context of a person, this effort can represent, quite
literally, the effort that the person is willing to exert to be
compliant with (or to otherwise serve) this particular partiality.
For example, a person who values animal rights would have a large
magnitude worth vector for this value if they exerted considerable
physical effort towards this cause by, for example, volunteering at
animal shelters or by attending protests of animal cruelty.
[0057] While these teachings will readily employ a direct
measurement of effort such as work done or time spent, these
teachings will also accommodate using an indirect measurement of
effort such as expense; in particular, money. In many cases people
trade their direct labor for payment. The labor may be manual or
intellectual. While salaries and payments can vary significantly
from one person to another, a same sense of effort applies at least
in a relative sense.
[0058] As a very specific example in these regards, there are
wristwatches that require a skilled craftsman over a year to make.
The actual aggregated amount of force applied to displace the small
components that comprise the wristwatch would be relatively very
small. That said, the skilled craftsman acquired the necessary
skill to so assemble the wristwatch over many years of applying
force to displace thousands of little parts when assembly previous
wristwatches. That experience, based upon a much larger aggregation
of previously-exerted effort, represents a genuine part of the
"effort" to make this particular wristwatch and hence is fairly
considered as part of the wristwatch's worth.
[0059] The conventional forces working in each person's mind are
typically more-or-less constantly evaluating the value propositions
that correspond to a path of least effort to thereby order their
lives towards the things they value. A key reason that happens is
because the actual ordering occurs in material space and people
must exert real energy in pursuit of their desired ordering. People
therefore naturally try to find the path with the least real energy
expended that still moves them to the valued order. Accordingly, a
trusted value proposition that offers a reduction of real energy
will be embraced as being "good" because people will tend to be
partial to anything that lowers the real energy they are required
to exert while remaining consistent with their partialities.
[0060] FIG. 4 presents a space graph that illustrates many of the
foregoing points. A first vector 401 represents the time required
to make such a wristwatch while a second vector 402 represents the
order associated with such a device (in this case, that order
essentially represents the skill of the craftsman). These two
vectors 401 and 402 in turn sum to form a third vector 403 that
constitutes a value vector for this wristwatch. This value vector
403, in turn, is offset with respect to energy (i.e., the energy
associated with manufacturing the wristwatch).
[0061] A person partial to precision and/or to physically
presenting an appearance of success and status (and who presumably
has the wherewithal) may, in turn, be willing to spend $100,000 for
such a wristwatch. A person able to afford such a price, of course,
may themselves be skilled at imposing a certain kind of order that
other persons are partial to such that the amount of physical work
represented by each spent dollar is small relative to an amount of
dollars they receive when exercising their skill(s). (Viewed
another way, wearing an expensive wristwatch may lower the effort
required for such a person to communicate that their own personal
success comes from being highly skilled in a certain order of high
worth.)
[0062] Generally speaking, all worth comes from imposing order on
the material space-time. The worth of a particular order generally
increases as the skill required to impose the order increases.
Accordingly, unskilled labor may exchange $10 for every hour worked
where the work has a high content of unskilled physical labor while
a highly-skilled data scientist may exchange $75 for every hour
worked with very little accompanying physical effort.
[0063] Consider a simple example where both of these laborers are
partial to a well-ordered lawn and both have a corresponding
partiality vector in those regards with a same magnitude. To
observe that partiality the unskilled laborer may own an
inexpensive push power lawn mower that this person utilizes for an
hour to mow their lawn. The data scientist, on the other hand, pays
someone else $75 in this example to mow their lawn. In both cases
these two individuals traded one hour of worth creation to gain the
same worth (to them) in the form of a well-ordered lawn; the
unskilled laborer in the form of direct physical labor and the data
scientist in the form of money that required one hour of their
specialized effort to earn.
[0064] This same vector-based approach can also represent various
products and services. This is because products and services have
worth (or not) because they can remove effort (or fail to remove
effort) out of the customer's life in the direction of the order to
which the customer is partial. In particular, a product has a
perceived effort embedded into each dollar of cost in the same way
that the customer has an amount of perceived effort embedded into
each dollar earned. A customer has an increased likelihood of
responding to an exchange of value if the vectors for the product
and the customer's partiality are directionally aligned and where
the magnitude of the vector as represented in monetary cost is
somewhat greater than the worth embedded in the customer's
dollar.
[0065] Put simply, the magnitude (and/or angle) of a partiality
vector for a person can represent, directly or indirectly, a
corresponding effort the person is willing to exert to pursue that
partiality. There are various ways by which that value can be
determined. As but one non-limiting example in these regards, the
magnitude/angle V of a particular partiality vector can be
expressed as:
V = [ X 1 X n ] [ W 1 W n ] ##EQU00001##
where X refers to any of a variety of inputs (such as those
described above) that can impact the characterization of a
particular partiality (and where these teachings will accommodate
either or both subjective and objective inputs as desired) and W
refers to weighting factors that are appropriately applied the
foregoing input values (and where, for example, these weighting
factors can have values that themselves reflect a particular
person's consumer personality or otherwise as desired and can be
static or dynamically valued in practice as desired).
[0066] In the context of a product (or service) the magnitude/angle
of the corresponding vector can represent the reduction of effort
that must be exerted when making use of this product to pursue that
partiality, the effort that was expended in order to create the
product/service, the effort that the person perceives can be
personally saved while nevertheless promoting the desired order,
and/or some other corresponding effort. Taken as a whole the sum of
all the vectors must be perceived to increase the overall order to
be considered a good product/service.
[0067] It may be noted that while reducing effort provides a very
useful metric in these regards, it does not necessarily follow that
a given person will always gravitate to that which most reduces
effort in their life. This is at least because a given person's
values (for example) will establish a baseline against which a
person may eschew some goods/services that might in fact lead to a
greater overall reduction of effort but which would conflict,
perhaps fundamentally, with their values. As a simple illustrative
example, a given person might value physical activity. Such a
person could experience reduced effort (including effort
represented via monetary costs) by simply sitting on their couch,
but instead will pursue activities that involve that valued
physical activity. That said, however, the goods and services that
such a person might acquire in support of their physical activities
are still likely to represent increased order in the form of
reduced effort where that makes sense. For example, a person who
favors rock climbing might also favor rock climbing clothing and
supplies that render that activity safer to thereby reduce the
effort required to prevent disorder as a consequence of a fall (and
consequently increasing the good outcome of the rock climber's
quality experience).
[0068] By forming reliable partiality vectors for various
individuals and corresponding product characterization vectors for
a variety of products and/or services, these teachings provide a
useful and reliable way to identify products/services that accord
with a given person's own partialities (whether those partialities
are based on their values, their affinities, their preferences, or
otherwise).
[0069] It is of course possible that partiality vectors may not be
available yet for a given person due to a lack of sufficient
specific source information from or regarding that person. In this
case it may nevertheless be possible to use one or more partiality
vector templates that generally represent certain groups of people
that fairly include this particular person. For example, if the
person's gender, age, academic status/achievements, and/or postal
code are known it may be useful to utilize a template that includes
one or more partiality vectors that represent some statistical
average or norm of other persons matching those same characterizing
parameters. (Of course, while it may be useful to at least begin to
employ these teachings with certain individuals by using one or
more such templates, these teachings will also accommodate
modifying (perhaps significantly and perhaps quickly) such a
starting point over time as part of developing a more personal set
of partiality vectors that are specific to the individual.) A
variety of templates could be developed based, for example, on
professions, academic pursuits and achievements, nationalities
and/or ethnicities, characterizing hobbies, and the like.
[0070] FIG. 5 presents a process 500 that illustrates yet another
approach in these regards. For the sake of an illustrative example
it will be presumed here that a control circuit of choice (with
useful examples in these regards being presented further below)
carries out one or more of the described steps/actions.
[0071] At block 501 the control circuit monitors a person's
behavior over time. The range of monitored behaviors can vary with
the individual and the application setting. By one approach, only
behaviors that the person has specifically approved for monitoring
are so monitored.
[0072] As one example in these regards, this monitoring can be
based, in whole or in part, upon interaction records 502 that
reflect or otherwise track, for example, the monitored person's
purchases. This can include specific items purchased by the person,
from whom the items were purchased, where the items were purchased,
how the items were purchased (for example, at a bricks-and-mortar
physical retail shopping facility or via an on-line shopping
opportunity), the price paid for the items, and/or which items were
returned and when), and so forth.
[0073] As another example in these regards the interaction records
502 can pertain to the social networking behaviors of the monitored
person including such things as their "likes," their posted
comments, images, and tweets, affinity group affiliations, their
on-line profiles, their playlists and other indicated "favorites,"
and so forth. Such information can sometimes comprise a direct
indication of a particular partiality or, in other cases, can
indirectly point towards a particular partiality and/or indicate a
relative strength of the person's partiality.
[0074] Other interaction records of potential interest include but
are not limited to registered political affiliations and
activities, credit reports, military-service history, educational
and employment history, and so forth.
[0075] As another example, in lieu of the foregoing or in
combination therewith, this monitoring can be based, in whole or in
part, upon sensor inputs from the Internet of Things (IOT) 503. The
Internet of Things refers to the Internet-based inter-working of a
wide variety of physical devices including but not limited to
wearable or carriable devices, vehicles, buildings, and other items
that are embedded with electronics, software, sensors, network
connectivity, and sometimes actuators that enable these objects to
collect and exchange data via the Internet. In particular, the
Internet of Things allows people and objects pertaining to people
to be sensed and corresponding information to be transferred to
remote locations via intervening network infrastructure. Some
experts estimate that the Internet of Things will consist of almost
50 billion such objects by 2020. (Further description in these
regards appears further herein.)
[0076] Depending upon what sensors a person encounters, information
can be available regarding a person's travels, lifestyle, calorie
expenditure over time, diet, habits, interests and affinities,
choices and assumed risks, and so forth. This process 500 will
accommodate either or both real-time or non-real time access to
such information as well as either or both push and pull-based
paradigms.
[0077] By monitoring a person's behavior over time a general sense
of that person's daily routine can be established (sometimes
referred to herein as a routine experiential base state). As a very
simple illustrative example, a routine experiential base state can
include a typical daily event timeline for the person that
represents typical locations that the person visits and/or typical
activities in which the person engages. The timeline can indicate
those activities that tend to be scheduled (such as the person's
time at their place of employment or their time spent at their
child's sports practices) as well as visits/activities that are
normal for the person though not necessarily undertaken with strict
observance to a corresponding schedule (such as visits to local
stores, movie theaters, and the homes of nearby friends and
relatives).
[0078] At block 504 this process 500 provides for detecting changes
to that established routine. These teachings are highly flexible in
these regards and will accommodate a wide variety of "changes."
Some illustrative examples include but are not limited to changes
with respect to a person's travel schedule, destinations visited or
time spent at a particular destination, the purchase and/or use of
new and/or different products or services, a subscription to a new
magazine, a new Rich Site Summary (RSS) feed or a subscription to a
new blog, a new "friend" or "connection" on a social networking
site, a new person, entity, or cause to follow on a Twitter-like
social networking service, enrollment in an academic program, and
so forth.
[0079] Upon detecting a change, at optional block 505 this process
500 will accommodate assessing whether the detected change
constitutes a sufficient amount of data to warrant proceeding
further with the process. This assessment can comprise, for
example, assessing whether a sufficient number (i.e., a
predetermined number) of instances of this particular detected
change have occurred over some predetermined period of time. As
another example, this assessment can comprise assessing whether the
specific details of the detected change are sufficient in quantity
and/or quality to warrant further processing. For example, merely
detecting that the person has not arrived at their usual 6
PM-Wednesday dance class may not be enough information, in and of
itself, to warrant further processing, in which case the
information regarding the detected change may be discarded or, in
the alternative, cached for further consideration and use in
conjunction or aggregation with other, later-detected changes.
[0080] At block 507 this process 500 uses these detected changes to
create a spectral profile for the monitored person. FIG. 6 provides
an illustrative example in these regards with the spectral profile
denoted by reference numeral 601. In this illustrative example the
spectral profile 601 represents changes to the person's behavior
over a given period of time (such as an hour, a day, a week, or
some other temporal window of choice). Such a spectral profile can
be as multidimensional as may suit the needs of a given application
setting.
[0081] At optional block 507 this process 500 then provides for
determining whether there is a statistically significant
correlation between the aforementioned spectral profile and any of
a plurality of like characterizations 508. The like
characterizations 508 can comprise, for example, spectral profiles
that represent an average of groupings of people who share many of
the same (or all of the same) identified partialities. As a very
simple illustrative example in these regards, a first such
characterization 602 might represent a composite view of a first
group of people who have three similar partialities but a
dissimilar fourth partiality while another of the characterizations
603 might represent a composite view of a different group of people
who share all four partialities.
[0082] The aforementioned "statistically significant" standard can
be selected and/or adjusted to suit the needs of a given
application setting. The scale or units by which this measurement
can be assessed can be any known, relevant scale/unit including,
but not limited to, scales such as standard deviations, cumulative
percentages, percentile equivalents, Z-scores, T-scores, standard
nines, and percentages in standard nines. Similarly, the threshold
by which the level of statistical significance is measured/assessed
can be set and selected as desired. By one approach the threshold
is static such that the same threshold is employed regardless of
the circumstances. By another approach the threshold is dynamic and
can vary with such things as the relative size of the population of
people upon which each of the characterizations 508 are based
and/or the amount of data and/or the duration of time over which
data is available for the monitored person.
[0083] Referring now to FIG. 7, by one approach the selected
characterization (denoted by reference numeral 701 in this figure)
comprises an activity profile over time of one or more human
behaviors. Examples of behaviors include but are not limited to
such things as repeated purchases over time of particular
commodities, repeated visits over time to particular locales such
as certain restaurants, retail outlets, athletic or entertainment
facilities, and so forth, and repeated activities over time such as
floor cleaning, dish washing, car cleaning, cooking, volunteering,
and so forth. Those skilled in the art will understand and
appreciate, however, that the selected characterization is not, in
and of itself, demographic data (as described elsewhere
herein).
[0084] More particularly, the characterization 701 can represent
(in this example, for a plurality of different behaviors) each
instance over the monitored/sampled period of time when the
monitored/represented person engages in a particular represented
behavior (such as visiting a neighborhood gym, purchasing a
particular product (such as a consumable perishable or a cleaning
product), interacts with a particular affinity group via social
networking, and so forth). The relevant overall time frame can be
chosen as desired and can range in a typical application setting
from a few hours or one day to many days, weeks, or even months or
years. (It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the
particular characterization shown in FIG. 7 is intended to serve an
illustrative purpose and does not necessarily represent or mimic
any particular behavior or set of behaviors).
[0085] Generally speaking it is anticipated that many behaviors of
interest will occur at regular or somewhat regular intervals and
hence will have a corresponding frequency or periodicity of
occurrence. For some behaviors that frequency of occurrence may be
relatively often (for example, oral hygiene events that occur at
least once, and often multiple times each day) while other
behaviors (such as the preparation of a holiday meal) may occur
much less frequently (such as only once, or only a few times, each
year). For at least some behaviors of interest that general (or
specific) frequency of occurrence can serve as a significant
indication of a person's corresponding partialities.
[0086] By one approach, these teachings will accommodate detecting
and timestamping each and every event/activity/behavior or interest
as it happens. Such an approach can be memory intensive and require
considerable supporting infrastructure.
[0087] The present teachings will also accommodate, however, using
any of a variety of sampling periods in these regards. In some
cases, for example, the sampling period per se may be one week in
duration. In that case, it may be sufficient to know that the
monitored person engaged in a particular activity (such as cleaning
their car) a certain number of times during that week without known
precisely when, during that week, the activity occurred. In other
cases it may be appropriate or even desirable, to provide greater
granularity in these regards. For example, it may be better to know
which days the person engaged in the particular activity or even
the particular hour of the day. Depending upon the selected
granularity/resolution, selecting an appropriate sampling window
can help reduce data storage requirements (and/or corresponding
analysis/processing overhead requirements).
[0088] Although a given person's behaviors may not, strictly
speaking, be continuous waves (as shown in FIG. 7) in the same
sense as, for example, a radio or acoustic wave, it will
nevertheless be understood that such a behavioral characterization
701 can itself be broken down into a plurality of sub-waves 702
that, when summed together, equal or at least approximate to some
satisfactory degree the behavioral characterization 701 itself.
(The more-discrete and sometimes less-rigidly periodic nature of
the monitored behaviors may introduce a certain amount of error
into the corresponding sub-waves. There are various mathematically
satisfactory ways by which such error can be accommodated including
by use of weighting factors and/or expressed tolerances that
correspond to the resultant sub-waves.)
[0089] It should also be understood that each such sub-wave can
often itself be associated with one or more corresponding discrete
partialities. For example, a partiality reflecting concern for the
environment may, in turn, influence many of the included behavioral
events (whether they are similar or dissimilar behaviors or not)
and accordingly may, as a sub-wave, comprise a relatively
significant contributing factor to the overall set of behaviors as
monitored over time. These sub-waves (partialities) can in turn be
clearly revealed and presented by employing a transform (such as a
Fourier transform) of choice to yield a spectral profile 703
wherein the X axis represents frequency and the Y axis represents
the magnitude of the response of the monitored person at each
frequency/sub-wave of interest.
[0090] This spectral response of a given individual--which is
generated from a time series of events that reflect/track that
person's behavior--yields frequency response characteristics for
that person that are analogous to the frequency response
characteristics of physical systems such as, for example, an analog
or digital filter or a second order electrical or mechanical
system. Referring to FIG. 8, for many people the spectral profile
of the individual person will exhibit a primary frequency 801 for
which the greatest response (perhaps many orders of magnitude
greater than other evident frequencies) to life is exhibited and
apparent. In addition, the spectral profile may also possibly
identify one or more secondary frequencies 802 above and/or below
that primary frequency 801. (It may be useful in many application
settings to filter out more distant frequencies 803 having
considerably lower magnitudes because of a reduced likelihood of
relevance and/or because of a possibility of error in those
regards; in effect, these lower-magnitude signals constitute noise
that such filtering can remove from consideration.)
[0091] As noted above, the present teachings will accommodate using
sampling windows of varying size. By one approach the frequency of
events that correspond to a particular partiality can serve as a
basis for selecting a particular sampling rate to use when
monitoring for such events. For example, Nyquist-based sampling
rules (which dictate sampling at a rate at least twice that of the
frequency of the signal of interest) can lead one to choose a
particular sampling rate (and the resultant corresponding sampling
window size).
[0092] As a simple illustration, if the activity of interest occurs
only once a week, then using a sampling of half-a-week and sampling
twice during the course of a given week will adequately capture the
monitored event. If the monitored person's behavior should change,
a corresponding change can be automatically made. For example, if
the person in the foregoing example begins to engage in the
specified activity three times a week, the sampling rate can be
switched to six times per week (in conjunction with a sampling
window that is resized accordingly).
[0093] By one approach, the sampling rate can be selected and used
on a partiality-by-partiality basis. This approach can be
especially useful when different monitoring modalities are employed
to monitor events that correspond to different partialities. If
desired, however, a single sampling rate can be employed and used
for a plurality (or even all) partialities/behaviors. In that case,
it can be useful to identify the behavior that is exemplified most
often (i.e., that behavior which has the highest frequency) and
then select a sampling rate that is at least twice that rate of
behavioral realization, as that sampling rate will serve well and
suffice for both that highest-frequency behavior and all
lower-frequency behaviors as well.
[0094] It can be useful in many application settings to assume that
the foregoing spectral profile of a given person is an inherent and
inertial characteristic of that person and that this spectral
profile, in essence, provides a personality profile of that person
that reflects not only how but why this person responds to a
variety of life experiences. More importantly, the partialities
expressed by the spectral profile for a given person will tend to
persist going forward and will not typically change significantly
in the absence of some powerful external influence (including but
not limited to significant life events such as, for example,
marriage, children, loss of job, promotion, and so forth).
[0095] In any event, by knowing a priori the particular
partialities (and corresponding strengths) that underlie the
particular characterization 701, those partialities can be used as
an initial template for a person whose own behaviors permit the
selection of that particular characterization 701. In particular,
those particularities can be used, at least initially, for a person
for whom an amount of data is not otherwise available to construct
a similarly rich set of partiality information.
[0096] As a very specific and non-limiting example, per these
teachings the choice to make a particular product can include
consideration of one or more value systems of potential customers.
When considering persons who value animal rights, a product
conceived to cater to that value proposition may require a
corresponding exertion of additional effort to order material
space-time such that the product is made in a way that (A) does not
harm animals and/or (even better) (B) improves life for animals
(for example, eggs obtained from free range chickens). The reason a
person exerts effort to order material space-time is because they
believe it is good to do and/or not good to not do so. When a
person exerts effort to do good (per their personal standard of
"good") and if that person believes that a particular order in
material space-time (that includes the purchase of a particular
product) is good to achieve, then that person will also believe
that it is good to buy as much of that particular product (in order
to achieve that good order) as their finances and needs reasonably
permit (all other things being equal).
[0097] The aforementioned additional effort to provide such a
product can (typically) convert to a premium that adds to the price
of that product. A customer who puts out extra effort in their life
to value animal rights will typically be willing to pay that extra
premium to cover that additional effort exerted by the company. By
one approach a magnitude that corresponds to the additional effort
exerted by the company can be added to the person's corresponding
value vector because a product or service has worth to the extent
that the product/service allows a person to order material
space-time in accordance with their own personal value system while
allowing that person to exert less of their own effort in direct
support of that value (since money is a scalar form of effort).
[0098] By one approach there can be hundreds or even thousands of
identified partialities. In this case, if desired, each
product/service of interest can be assessed with respect to each
and every one of these partialities and a corresponding partiality
vector formed to thereby build a collection of partiality vectors
that collectively characterize the product/service. As a very
simple example in these regards, a given laundry detergent might
have a cleanliness partiality vector with a relatively high
magnitude (representing the effectiveness of the detergent), a
ecology partiality vector that might be relatively low or possibly
even having a negative magnitude (representing an ecologically
disadvantageous effect of the detergent post usage due to increased
disorder in the environment), and a simple-life partiality vector
with only a modest magnitude (representing the relative ease of use
of the detergent but also that the detergent presupposes that the
user has a modern washing machine). Other partiality vectors for
this detergent, representing such things as nutrition or mental
acuity, might have magnitudes of zero.
[0099] As mentioned above, these teachings can accommodate
partiality vectors having a negative magnitude. Consider, for
example, a partiality vector representing a desire to order things
to reduce one's so-called carbon footprint. A magnitude of zero for
this vector would indicate a completely neutral effect with respect
to carbon emissions while any positive-valued magnitudes would
represent a net reduction in the amount of carbon in the
atmosphere, hence increasing the ability of the environment to be
ordered. Negative magnitudes would represent the introduction of
carbon emissions that increases disorder of the environment (for
example, as a result of manufacturing the product, transporting the
product, and/or using the product)
[0100] FIG. 9 presents one non-limiting illustrative example in
these regards. The illustrated process presumes the availability of
a library 901 of correlated relationships between product/service
claims and particular imposed orders. Examples of product/service
claims include such things as claims that a particular product
results in cleaner laundry or household surfaces, or that a
particular product is made in a particular political region (such
as a particular state or country), or that a particular product is
better for the environment, and so forth. The imposed orders to
which such claims are correlated can reflect orders as described
above that pertain to corresponding partialities.
[0101] At block 902 this process provides for decoding one or more
partiality propositions from specific product packaging (or service
claims). For example, the particular textual/graphics-based claims
presented on the packaging of a given product can be used to access
the aforementioned library 901 to identify one or more
corresponding imposed orders from which one or more corresponding
partialities can then be identified.
[0102] At block 903 this process provides for evaluating the
trustworthiness of the aforementioned claims. This evaluation can
be based upon any one or more of a variety of data points as
desired. FIG. 9 illustrates four significant possibilities in these
regards. For example, at block 904 an actual or estimated research
and development effort can be quantified for each claim pertaining
to a partiality. At block 905 an actual or estimated component
sourcing effort for the product in question can be quantified for
each claim pertaining to a partiality. At block 906 an actual or
estimated manufacturing effort for the product in question can be
quantified for each claim pertaining to a partiality. And at block
907 an actual or estimated merchandising effort for the product in
question can be quantified for each claim pertaining to a
partiality.
[0103] If desired, a product claim lacking sufficient
trustworthiness may simply be excluded from further consideration.
By another approach the product claim can remain in play but a lack
of trustworthiness can be reflected, for example, in a
corresponding partiality vector direction or magnitude for this
particular product.
[0104] At block 908 this process provides for assigning an effort
magnitude for each evaluated product/service claim. That effort can
constitute a one-dimensional effort (reflecting, for example, only
the manufacturing effort) or can constitute a multidimensional
effort that reflects, for example, various categories of effort
such as the aforementioned research and development effort,
component sourcing effort, manufacturing effort, and so forth.
[0105] At block 909 this process provides for identifying a cost
component of each claim, this cost component representing a
monetary value. At block 910 this process can use the foregoing
information with a product/service partiality propositions vector
engine to generate a library 911 of one or more corresponding
partiality vectors for the processed products/services. Such a
library can then be used as described herein in conjunction with
partiality vector information for various persons to identify, for
example, products/services that are well aligned with the
partialities of specific individuals.
[0106] FIG. 10 provides another illustrative example in these same
regards and may be employed in lieu of the foregoing or in total or
partial combination therewith. Generally speaking, this process
1000 serves to facilitate the formation of product characterization
vectors for each of a plurality of different products where the
magnitude of the vector length (and/or the vector angle) has a
magnitude that represents a reduction of exerted effort associated
with the corresponding product to pursue a corresponding user
partiality.
[0107] By one approach, and as illustrated in FIG. 10, this process
1000 can be carried out by a control circuit of choice. Specific
examples of control circuits are provided elsewhere herein.
[0108] As described further herein in detail, this process 1000
makes use of information regarding various characterizations of a
plurality of different products. These teachings are highly
flexible in practice and will accommodate a wide variety of
possible information sources and types of information. By one
optional approach, and as shown at optional block 1001, the control
circuit can receive (for example, via a corresponding network
interface of choice) product characterization information from a
third-party product testing service. The magazine/web resource
Consumers Report provides one useful example in these regards. Such
a resource provides objective content based upon testing,
evaluation, and comparisons (and sometimes also provides subjective
content regarding such things as aesthetics, ease of use, and so
forth) and this content, provided as-is or pre-processed as
desired, can readily serve as useful third-party product testing
service product characterization information.
[0109] As another example, any of a variety of product-testing
blogs that are published on the Internet can be similarly accessed
and the product characterization information available at such
resources harvested and received by the control circuit. (The
expression "third party" will be understood to refer to an entity
other than the entity that operates/controls the control circuit
and other than the entity that provides the corresponding product
itself.)
[0110] As another example, and as illustrated at optional block
1002, the control circuit can receive (again, for example, via a
network interface of choice) user-based product characterization
information. Examples in these regards include but are not limited
to user reviews provided on-line at various retail sites for
products offered for sale at such sites. The reviews can comprise
metricized content (for example, a rating expressed as a certain
number of stars out of a total available number of stars, such as 3
stars out of 5 possible stars) and/or text where the reviewers can
enter their objective and subjective information regarding their
observations and experiences with the reviewed products. In this
case, "user-based" will be understood to refer to users who are not
necessarily professional reviewers (though it is possible that
content from such persons may be included with the information
provided at such a resource) but who presumably purchased the
product being reviewed and who have personal experience with that
product that forms the basis of their review. By one approach the
resource that offers such content may constitute a third party as
defined above, but these teachings will also accommodate obtaining
such content from a resource operated or sponsored by the
enterprise that controls/operates this control circuit.
[0111] In any event, this process 1000 provides for accessing (see
block 1004) information regarding various characterizations of each
of a plurality of different products. This information 1004 can be
gleaned as described above and/or can be obtained and/or developed
using other resources as desired. As one illustrative example in
these regards, the manufacturer and/or distributor of certain
products may source useful content in these regards.
[0112] These teachings will accommodate a wide variety of
information sources and types including both objective
characterizing and/or subjective characterizing information for the
aforementioned products.
[0113] Examples of objective characterizing information include,
but are not limited to, ingredients information (i.e., specific
components/materials from which the product is made), manufacturing
locale information (such as country of origin, state of origin,
municipality of origin, region of origin, and so forth), efficacy
information (such as metrics regarding the relative effectiveness
of the product to achieve a particular end-use result), cost
information (such as per product, per ounce, per application or
use, and so forth), availability information (such as present
in-store availability, on-hand inventory availability at a relevant
distribution center, likely or estimated shipping date, and so
forth), environmental impact information (regarding, for example,
the materials from which the product is made, one or more
manufacturing processes by which the product is made, environmental
impact associated with use of the product, and so forth), and so
forth.
[0114] Examples of subjective characterizing information include
but are not limited to user sensory perception information
(regarding, for example, heaviness or lightness, speed of use,
effort associated with use, smell, and so forth), aesthetics
information (regarding, for example, how attractive or unattractive
the product is in appearance, how well the product matches or
accords with a particular design paradigm or theme, and so forth),
trustworthiness information (regarding, for example, user
perceptions regarding how likely the product is perceived to
accomplish a particular purpose or to avoid causing a particular
collateral harm), trendiness information, and so forth.
[0115] This information 1004 can be curated (or not), filtered,
sorted, weighted (in accordance with a relative degree of trust,
for example, accorded to a particular source of particular
information), and otherwise categorized and utilized as desired. As
one simple example in these regards, for some products it may be
desirable to only use relatively fresh information (i.e.,
information not older than some specific cut-off date) while for
other products it may be acceptable (or even desirable) to use, in
lieu of fresh information or in combination therewith, relatively
older information. As another simple example, it may be useful to
use only information from one particular geographic region to
characterize a particular product and to therefore not use
information from other geographic regions.
[0116] At block 1003 the control circuit uses the foregoing
information 1004 to form product characterization vectors for each
of the plurality of different products. By one approach these
product characterization vectors have a magnitude (for the length
of the vector and/or the angle of the vector) that represents a
reduction of exerted effort associated with the corresponding
product to pursue a corresponding user partiality (as is otherwise
discussed herein).
[0117] It is possible that a conflict will become evident as
between various ones of the aforementioned items of information
1004. In particular, the available characterizations for a given
product may not all be the same or otherwise in accord with one
another. In some cases it may be appropriate to literally or
effectively calculate and use an average to accommodate such a
conflict. In other cases it may be useful to use one or more other
predetermined conflict resolution rules 1005 to automatically
resolve such conflicts when forming the aforementioned product
characterization vectors.
[0118] These teachings will accommodate any of a variety of rules
in these regards. By one approach, for example, the rule can be
based upon the age of the information (where, for example the older
(or newer, if desired) data is preferred or weighted more heavily
than the newer (or older, if desired) data. By another approach,
the rule can be based upon a number of user reviews upon which the
user-based product characterization information is based (where,
for example, the rule specifies that whichever user-based product
characterization information is based upon a larger number of user
reviews will prevail in the event of a conflict). By another
approach, the rule can be based upon information regarding
historical accuracy of information from a particular information
source (where, for example, the rule specifies that information
from a source with a better historical record of accuracy shall
prevail over information from a source with a poorer historical
record of accuracy in the event of a conflict).
[0119] By yet another approach, the rule can be based upon social
media. For example, social media-posted reviews may be used as a
tie-breaker in the event of a conflict between other more-favored
sources. By another approach, the rule can be based upon a trending
analysis. And by yet another approach the rule can be based upon
the relative strength of brand awareness for the product at issue
(where, for example, the rule specifies resolving a conflict in
favor of a more favorable characterization when dealing with a
product from a strong brand that evidences considerable consumer
goodwill and trust).
[0120] It will be understood that the foregoing examples are
intended to serve an illustrative purpose and are not offered as an
exhaustive listing in these regards. It will also be understood
that any two or more of the foregoing rules can be used in
combination with one another to resolve the aforementioned
conflicts.
[0121] By one approach the aforementioned product characterization
vectors are formed to serve as a universal characterization of a
given product. By another approach, however, the aforementioned
information 1004 can be used to form product characterization
vectors for a same characterization factor for a same product to
thereby correspond to different usage circumstances of that same
product. Those different usage circumstances might comprise, for
example, different geographic regions of usage, different levels of
user expertise (where, for example, a skilled, professional user
might have different needs and expectations for the product than a
casual, lay user), different levels of expected use, and so forth.
In particular, the different vectorized results for a same
characterization factor for a same product may have differing
magnitudes from one another to correspond to different amounts of
reduction of the exerted effort associated with that product under
the different usage circumstances.
[0122] As noted above, the magnitude corresponding to a particular
partiality vector for a particular person can be expressed by the
angle of that partiality vector. FIG. 11 provides an illustrative
example in these regards. In this example the partiality vector
1101 has an angle M 1102 (and where the range of available positive
magnitudes range from a minimal magnitude represented by 0.degree.
(as denoted by reference numeral 1103) to a maximum magnitude
represented by 90.degree. (as denoted by reference numeral 1104)).
Accordingly, the person to whom this partiality vector 1001
pertains has a relatively strong (but not absolute) belief in an
amount of good that comes from an order associated with that
partiality.
[0123] FIG. 12, in turn, presents that partiality vector 1101 in
context with the product characterization vectors 1201 and 1203 for
a first product and a second product, respectively. In this example
the product characterization vector 1201 for the first product has
an angle Y 1202 that is greater than the angle M 1102 for the
aforementioned partiality vector 1101 by a relatively small amount
while the product characterization vector 1203 for the second
product has an angle X 1204 that is considerably smaller than the
angle M 1102 for the partiality vector 1101.
[0124] Since, in this example, the angles of the various vectors
represent the magnitude of the person's specified partiality or the
extent to which the product aligns with that partiality,
respectively, vector dot product calculations can serve to help
identify which product best aligns with this partiality. Such an
approach can be particularly useful when the lengths of the vectors
are allowed to vary as a function of one or more parameters of
interest. As those skilled in the art will understand, a vector dot
product is an algebraic operation that takes two equal-length
sequences of numbers (in this case, coordinate vectors) and returns
a single number.
[0125] This operation can be defined either algebraically or
geometrically. Algebraically, it is the sum of the products of the
corresponding entries of the two sequences of numbers.
Geometrically, it is the product of the Euclidean magnitudes of the
two vectors and the cosine of the angle between them. The result is
a scalar rather than a vector. As regards the present illustrative
example, the resultant scaler value for the vector dot product of
the product 1 vector 1201 with the partiality vector 1101 will be
larger than the resultant scaler value for the vector dot product
of the product 2 vector 1203 with the partiality vector 1101.
Accordingly, when using vector angles to impart this magnitude
information, the vector dot product operation provides a simple and
convenient way to determine proximity between a particular
partiality and the performance/properties of a particular product
to thereby greatly facilitate identifying a best product amongst a
plurality of candidate products.
[0126] By way of further illustration, consider an example where a
particular consumer as a strong partiality for organic produce and
is financially able to afford to pay to observe that partiality. A
dot product result for that person with respect to a product
characterization vector(s) for organic apples that represent a cost
of $10 on a weekly basis (i.e., CvP1v) might equal (1,1), hence
yielding a scalar result of .parallel.1.parallel. (where Cv refers
to the corresponding partiality vector for this person and P1v
represents the corresponding product characterization vector for
these organic apples). Conversely, a dot product result for this
same person with respect to a product characterization vector(s)
for non-organic apples that represent a cost of $5 on a weekly
basis (i.e., CvP2v) might instead equal (1,0), hence yielding a
scalar result of .parallel.1/2.parallel.. Accordingly, although the
organic apples cost more than the non-organic apples, the dot
product result for the organic apples exceeds the dot product
result for the non-organic apples and therefore identifies the more
expensive organic apples as being the best choice for this
person.
[0127] To continue with the foregoing example, consider now what
happens when this person subsequently experiences some financial
misfortune (for example, they lose their job and have not yet found
substitute employment). Such an event can present the "force"
necessary to alter the previously-established "inertia" of this
person's steady-state partialities; in particular, these
negatively-changed financial circumstances (in this example) alter
this person's budget sensitivities (though not, of course their
partiality for organic produce as compared to non-organic produce).
The scalar result of the dot product for the $5/week non-organic
apples may remain the same (i.e., in this example,
.parallel.1/2.parallel.), but the dot product for the $10/week
organic apples may now drop (for example, to
.parallel.1/2.parallel. as well). Dropping the quantity of organic
apples purchased, however, to reflect the tightened financial
circumstances for this person may yield a better dot product
result. For example, purchasing only $5 (per week) of organic
apples may produce a dot product result of .parallel.1.parallel..
The best result for this person, then, under these circumstances,
is a lesser quantity of organic apples rather than a larger
quantity of non-organic apples.
[0128] In a typical application setting, it is possible that this
person's loss of employment is not, in fact, known to the system.
Instead, however, this person's change of behavior (i.e., reducing
the quantity of the organic apples that are purchased each week)
might well be tracked and processed to adjust one or more
partialities (either through an addition or deletion of one or more
partialities and/or by adjusting the corresponding partiality
magnitude) to thereby yield this new result as a preferred
result.
[0129] The foregoing simple examples clearly illustrate that vector
dot product approaches can be a simple yet powerful way to quickly
eliminate some product options while simultaneously quickly
highlighting one or more product options as being especially
suitable for a given person.
[0130] Such vector dot product calculations and results, in turn,
help illustrate another point as well. As noted above, sine waves
can serve as a potentially useful way to characterize and view
partiality information for both people and products/services. In
those regards, it is worth noting that a vector dot product result
can be a positive, zero, or even negative value. That, in turn,
suggests representing a particular solution as a normalization of
the dot product value relative to the maximum possible value of the
dot product. Approached this way, the maximum amplitude of a
particular sine wave will typically represent a best solution.
[0131] Taking this approach further, by one approach the frequency
(or, if desired, phase) of the sine wave solution can provide an
indication of the sensitivity of the person to product choices (for
example, a higher frequency can indicate a relatively highly
reactive sensitivity while a lower frequency can indicate the
opposite). A highly sensitive person is likely to be less receptive
to solutions that are less than fully optimum and hence can help to
narrow the field of candidate products while, conversely, a less
sensitive person is likely to be more receptive to solutions that
are less than fully optimum and can help to expand the field of
candidate products.
[0132] FIG. 13 presents an illustrative apparatus 1300 for
conducting, containing, and utilizing the foregoing content and
capabilities. In this particular example, the enabling apparatus
1300 includes a control circuit 1301. Being a "circuit," the
control circuit 1301 therefore comprises structure that includes at
least one (and typically many) electrically-conductive paths (such
as paths comprised of a conductive metal such as copper or silver)
that convey electricity in an ordered manner, which path(s) will
also typically include corresponding electrical components (both
passive (such as resistors and capacitors) and active (such as any
of a variety of semiconductor-based devices) as appropriate) to
permit the circuit to effect the control aspect of these
teachings.
[0133] Such a control circuit 1301 can comprise a fixed-purpose
hard-wired hardware platform (including but not limited to an
application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) (which is an
integrated circuit that is customized by design for a particular
use, rather than intended for general-purpose use), a
field-programmable gate array (FPGA), and the like) or can comprise
a partially or wholly-programmable hardware platform (including but
not limited to microcontrollers, microprocessors, and the like).
These architectural options for such structures are well known and
understood in the art and require no further description here. This
control circuit 1301 is configured (for example, by using
corresponding programming as will be well understood by those
skilled in the art) to carry out one or more of the steps, actions,
and/or functions described herein.
[0134] By one optional approach the control circuit 1301 operably
couples to a memory 1302. This memory 1302 may be integral to the
control circuit 1301 or can be physically discrete (in whole or in
part) from the control circuit 1301 as desired. This memory 1302
can also be local with respect to the control circuit 1301 (where,
for example, both share a common circuit board, chassis, power
supply, and/or housing) or can be partially or wholly remote with
respect to the control circuit 1301 (where, for example, the memory
1302 is physically located in another facility, metropolitan area,
or even country as compared to the control circuit 1301).
[0135] This memory 1302 can serve, for example, to non-transitorily
store the computer instructions that, when executed by the control
circuit 1301, cause the control circuit 1301 to behave as described
herein. (As used herein, this reference to "non-transitorily" will
be understood to refer to a non-ephemeral state for the stored
contents (and hence excludes when the stored contents merely
constitute signals or waves) rather than volatility of the storage
media itself and hence includes both non-volatile memory (such as
read-only memory (ROM) as well as volatile memory (such as an
erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM).)
[0136] Either stored in this memory 1302 or, as illustrated, in a
separate memory 1303 are the vectorized characterizations 1304 for
each of a plurality of products 1305 (represented here by a first
product through an Nth product where "N" is an integer greater than
"1"). In addition, and again either stored in this memory 1302 or,
as illustrated, in a separate memory 1306 are the vectorized
characterizations 1307 for each of a plurality of individual
persons 1308 (represented here by a first person through a Zth
person wherein "Z" is also an integer greater than "1").
[0137] In this example the control circuit 1301 also operably
couples to a network interface 1309. So configured the control
circuit 1301 can communicate with other elements (both within the
apparatus 1300 and external thereto) via the network interface
1309. Network interfaces, including both wireless and non-wireless
platforms, are well understood in the art and require no particular
elaboration here. This network interface 1309 can compatibly
communicate via whatever network or networks 1310 may be
appropriate to suit the particular needs of a given application
setting. Both communication networks and network interfaces are
well understood areas of prior art endeavor and therefore no
further elaboration will be provided here in those regards for the
sake of brevity.
[0138] By one approach, and referring now to FIG. 14, the control
circuit 1301 is configured to use the aforementioned partiality
vectors 1307 and the vectorized product characterizations 1304 to
define a plurality of solutions that collectively form a
multidimensional surface (per block 1401). FIG. 15 provides an
illustrative example in these regards. FIG. 15 represents an
N-dimensional space 1500 and where the aforementioned information
for a particular customer yielded a multi-dimensional surface
denoted by reference numeral 1501. (The relevant value space is an
N-dimensional space where the belief in the value of a particular
ordering of one's life only acts on value propositions in that
space as a function of a least-effort functional relationship.)
[0139] Generally speaking, this surface 1501 represents all
possible solutions based upon the foregoing information.
Accordingly, in a typical application setting this surface 1501
will contain/represent a plurality of discrete solutions. That
said, and also in a typical application setting, not all of those
solutions will be similarly preferable. Instead, one or more of
those solutions may be particularly useful/appropriate at a given
time, in a given place, for a given customer.
[0140] With continued reference to FIGS. 14 and 15, at optional
block 1402 the control circuit 1301 can be configured to use
information for the customer 1403 (other than the aforementioned
partiality vectors 1307) to constrain a selection area 1502 on the
multi-dimensional surface 1501 from which at least one product can
be selected for this particular customer. By one approach, for
example, the constraints can be selected such that the resultant
selection area 1502 represents the best 95th percentile of the
solution space. Other target sizes for the selection area 1502 are
of course possible and may be useful in a given application
setting.
[0141] The aforementioned other information 1403 can comprise any
of a variety of information types. By one approach, for example,
this other information comprises objective information. (As used
herein, "objective information" will be understood to constitute
information that is not influenced by personal feelings or opinions
and hence constitutes unbiased, neutral facts.)
[0142] One particularly useful category of objective information
comprises objective information regarding the customer. Examples in
these regards include, but are not limited to, location information
regarding a past, present, or planned/scheduled future location of
the customer, budget information for the customer or regarding
which the customer must strive to adhere (such that, by way of
example, a particular product/solution area may align extremely
well with the customer's partialities but is well beyond that which
the customer can afford and hence can be reasonably excluded from
the selection area 1502), age information for the customer, and
gender information for the customer. Another example in these
regards is information comprising objective logistical information
regarding providing particular products to the customer. Examples
in these regards include but are not limited to current or
predicted product availability, shipping limitations (such as
restrictions or other conditions that pertain to shipping a
particular product to this particular customer at a particular
location), and other applicable legal limitations (pertaining, for
example, to the legality of a customer possessing or using a
particular product at a particular location).
[0143] At block 1404 the control circuit 1301 can then identify at
least one product to present to the customer by selecting that
product from the multi-dimensional surface 1501. In the example of
FIG. 15, where constraints have been used to define a reduced
selection area 1502, the control circuit 1301 is constrained to
select that product from within that selection area 1502. For
example, and in accordance with the description provided herein,
the control circuit 1301 can select that product via solution
vector 1503 by identifying a particular product that requires a
minimal expenditure of customer effort while also remaining
compliant with one or more of the applied objective constraints
based, for example, upon objective information regarding the
customer and/or objective logistical information regarding
providing particular products to the customer.
[0144] So configured, and as a simple example, the control circuit
1301 may respond per these teachings to learning that the customer
is planning a party that will include seven other invited
individuals. The control circuit 1301 may therefore be looking to
identify one or more particular beverages to present to the
customer for consideration in those regards. The aforementioned
partiality vectors 1307 and vectorized product characterizations
1304 can serve to define a corresponding multi-dimensional surface
1501 that identifies various beverages that might be suitable to
consider in these regards.
[0145] Objective information regarding the customer and/or the
other invited persons, however, might indicate that all or most of
the participants are not of legal drinking age. In that case, that
objective information may be utilized to constrain the available
selection area 1502 to beverages that contain no alcohol. As
another example in these regards, the control circuit 1301 may have
objective information that the party is to be held in a state park
that prohibits alcohol and may therefore similarly constrain the
available selection area 1502 to beverages that contain no
alcohol.
[0146] As described above, the aforementioned control circuit 1301
can utilize information including a plurality of partiality vectors
for a particular customer along with vectorized product
characterizations for each of a plurality of products to identify
at least one product to present to a customer. By one approach
1600, and referring to FIG. 16, the control circuit 1301 can be
configured as (or to use) a state engine to identify such a product
(as indicated at block 1601). As used herein, the expression "state
engine" will be understood to refer to a finite-state machine, also
sometimes known as a finite-state automaton or simply as a state
machine.
[0147] Generally speaking, a state engine is a basic approach to
designing both computer programs and sequential logic circuits. A
state engine has only a finite number of states and can only be in
one state at a time. A state engine can change from one state to
another when initiated by a triggering event or condition often
referred to as a transition. Accordingly, a particular state engine
is defined by a list of its states, its initial state, and the
triggering condition for each transition.
[0148] It will be appreciated that the apparatus 1300 described
above can be viewed as a literal physical architecture or, if
desired, as a logical construct. For example, these teachings can
be enabled and operated in a highly centralized manner (as might be
suggested when viewing that apparatus 1300 as a physical construct)
or, conversely, can be enabled and operated in a highly
decentralized manner. FIG. 17 provides an example as regards the
latter.
[0149] In this illustrative example a central cloud server 1701, a
supplier control circuit 1702, and the aforementioned Internet of
Things 1703 communicate via the aforementioned network 1310.
[0150] The central cloud server 1701 can receive, store, and/or
provide various kinds of global data (including, for example,
general demographic information regarding people and places,
profile information for individuals, product descriptions and
reviews, and so forth), various kinds of archival data (including,
for example, historical information regarding the aforementioned
demographic and profile information and/or product descriptions and
reviews), and partiality vector templates as described herein that
can serve as starting point general characterizations for
particular individuals as regards their partialities. Such
information may constitute a public resource and/or a
privately-curated and accessed resource as desired. (It will also
be understood that there may be more than one such central cloud
server 1701 that store identical, overlapping, or wholly distinct
content.)
[0151] The supplier control circuit 1702 can comprise a resource
that is owned and/or operated on behalf of the suppliers of one or
more products (including but not limited to manufacturers,
wholesalers, retailers, and even resellers of previously-owned
products). This resource can receive, process and/or analyze,
store, and/or provide various kinds of information. Examples
include but are not limited to product data such as marketing and
packaging content (including textual materials, still images, and
audio-video content), operators and installers manuals, recall
information, professional and non-professional reviews, and so
forth.
[0152] Another example comprises vectorized product
characterizations as described herein. More particularly, the
stored and/or available information can include both prior
vectorized product characterizations (denoted in FIG. 17 by the
expression "vectorized product characterizations V1.0") for a given
product as well as subsequent, updated vectorized product
characterizations (denoted in FIG. 17 by the expression "vectorized
product characterizations V2.0") for the same product. Such
modifications may have been made by the supplier control circuit
1702 itself or may have been made in conjunction with or wholly by
an external resource as desired.
[0153] The Internet of Things 1703 can comprise any of a variety of
devices and components that may include local sensors that can
provide information regarding a corresponding user's circumstances,
behaviors, and reactions back to, for example, the aforementioned
central cloud server 1701 and the supplier control circuit 1702 to
facilitate the development of corresponding partiality vectors for
that corresponding user. Again, however, these teachings will also
support a decentralized approach. In many cases devices that are
fairly considered to be members of the Internet of Things 1703
constitute network edge elements (i.e., network elements deployed
at the edge of a network). In some case the network edge element is
configured to be personally carried by the person when operating in
a deployed state. Examples include but are not limited to so-called
smart phones, smart watches, fitness monitors that are worn on the
body, and so forth. In other cases, the network edge element may be
configured to not be personally carried by the person when
operating in a deployed state. This can occur when, for example,
the network edge element is too large and/or too heavy to be
reasonably carried by an ordinary average person. This can also
occur when, for example, the network edge element has operating
requirements ill-suited to the mobile environment that typifies the
average person.
[0154] For example, a so-called smart phone can itself include a
suite of partiality vectors for a corresponding user (i.e., a
person that is associated with the smart phone which itself serves
as a network edge element) and employ those partiality vectors to
facilitate vector-based ordering (either automated or to supplement
the ordering being undertaken by the user) as is otherwise
described herein. In that case, the smart phone can obtain
corresponding vectorized product characterizations from a remote
resource such as, for example, the aforementioned supplier control
circuit 1702 and use that information in conjunction with local
partiality vector information to facilitate the vector-based
ordering.
[0155] Also, if desired, the smart phone in this example can itself
modify and update partiality vectors for the corresponding user. To
illustrate this idea in FIG. 17, this device can utilize, for
example, information gained at least in part from local sensors to
update a locally-stored partiality vector (represented in FIG. 17
by the expression "partiality vector V1.0") to obtain an updated
locally-stored partiality vector (represented in FIG. 17 by the
expression "partiality vector V2.0"). Using this approach, a user's
partiality vectors can be locally stored and utilized. Such an
approach may better comport with a particular user's privacy
concerns.
[0156] It will be understood that the smart phone employed in the
immediate example is intended to serve in an illustrative capacity
and is not intended to suggest any particular limitations in these
regards. In fact, any of a wide variety of Internet of Things
devices/components could be readily configured in the same regards.
As one simple example in these regards, a computationally-capable
networked refrigerator could be configured to order appropriate
perishable items for a corresponding user as a function of that
user's partialities.
[0157] Presuming a decentralized approach, these teachings will
accommodate any of a variety of other remote resources 1704. These
remote resources 1704 can, in turn, provide static or dynamic
information and/or interaction opportunities or analytical
capabilities that can be called upon by any of the above-described
network elements. Examples include but are not limited to voice
recognition, pattern and image recognition, facial recognition,
statistical analysis, computational resources, encryption and
decryption services, fraud and misrepresentation detection and
prevention services, digital currency support, and so forth.
[0158] As already suggested above, these approaches provide
powerful ways for identifying products and/or services that a given
person, or a given group of persons, may likely wish to buy to the
exclusion of other options. When the magnitude and direction of the
relevant/required meta-force vector that comes from the perceived
effort to impose order is known, these teachings will facilitate,
for example, engineering a product or service containing potential
energy in the precise ordering direction to provide a total
reduction of effort. Since people generally take the path of least
effort (consistent with their partialities) they will typically
accept such a solution.
[0159] As one simple illustrative example, a person who exhibits a
partiality for food products that emphasize health, natural
ingredients, and a concern to minimize sugars and fats may be
presumed to have a similar partiality for pet foods because such
partialities may be based on a value system that extends beyond
themselves to other living creatures within their sphere of
concern. If other data is available to indicate that this person in
fact has, for example, two pet dogs, these partialities can be used
to identify dog food products having well-aligned vectors in these
same regards. This person could then be solicited to purchase such
dog food products using any of a variety of solicitation approaches
(including but not limited to general informational advertisements,
discount coupons or rebate offers, sales calls, free samples, and
so forth).
[0160] As another simple example, the approaches described herein
can be used to filter out products/services that are not likely to
accord well with a given person's partiality vectors. In
particular, rather than emphasizing one particular product over
another, a given person can be presented with a group of products
that are available to purchase where all of the vectors for the
presented products align to at least some predetermined degree of
alignment/accord and where products that do not meet this criterion
are simply not presented.
[0161] And as yet another simple example, a particular person may
have a strong partiality towards both cleanliness and orderliness.
The strength of this partiality might be measured in part, for
example, by the physical effort they exert by consistently and
promptly cleaning their kitchen following meal preparation
activities. If this person were looking for lawn care services,
their partiality vector(s) in these regards could be used to
identify lawn care services who make representations and/or who
have a trustworthy reputation or record for doing a good job of
cleaning up the debris that results when mowing a lawn. This
person, in turn, will likely appreciate the reduced effort on their
part required to locate such a service that can meaningfully
contribute to their desired order.
[0162] These teachings can be leveraged in any number of other
useful ways. As one example in these regards, various sensors and
other inputs can serve to provide automatic updates regarding the
events of a given person's day. By one approach, at least some of
this information can serve to help inform the development of the
aforementioned partiality vectors for such a person. At the same
time, such information can help to build a view of a normal day for
this particular person. That baseline information can then help
detect when this person's day is going experientially awry (i.e.,
when their desired "order" is off track). Upon detecting such
circumstances these teachings will accommodate employing the
partiality and product vectors for such a person to help make
suggestions (for example, for particular products or services) to
help correct the day's order and/or to even effect
automatically-engaged actions to correct the person's experienced
order.
[0163] When this person's partiality (or relevant partialities) are
based upon a particular aspiration, restoring (or otherwise
contributing to) order to their situation could include, for
example, identifying the order that would be needed for this person
to achieve that aspiration. Upon detecting, (for example, based
upon purchases, social media, or other relevant inputs) that this
person is aspirating to be a gourmet chef, these teachings can
provide for plotting a solution that would begin providing/offering
additional products/services that would help this person move along
a path of increasing how they order their lives towards being a
gourmet chef.
[0164] By one approach, these teachings will accommodate presenting
the consumer with choices that correspond to solutions that are
intended and serve to test the true conviction of the consumer as
to a particular aspiration. The reaction of the consumer to such
test solutions can then further inform the system as to the
confidence level that this consumer holds a particular aspiration
with some genuine conviction. In particular, and as one example,
that confidence can in turn influence the degree and/or direction
of the consumer value vector(s) in the direction of that confirmed
aspiration.
[0165] All the above approaches are informed by the constraints the
value space places on individuals so that they follow the path of
least perceived effort to order their lives to accord with their
values which results in partialities. People generally order their
lives consistently unless and until their belief system is acted
upon by the force of a new trusted value proposition. The present
teachings are uniquely able to identify, quantify, and leverage the
many aspects that collectively inform and define such belief
systems.
[0166] A person's preferences can emerge from a perception that a
product or service removes effort to order their lives according to
their values. The present teachings acknowledge and even leverage
that it is possible to have a preference for a product or service
that a person has never heard of before in that, as soon as the
person perceives how it will make their lives easier they will
prefer it. Most predictive analytics that use preferences are
trying to predict a decision the customer is likely to make. The
present teachings are directed to calculating a reduced effort
solution that can/will inherently and innately be something to
which the person is partial.
[0167] Customer service agents are associates who provide
information and/or suggestions to customers in person or remotely.
A customer agent's interaction with a customer affects a customer's
overall experience with a retailer and the customer's purchase
decisions.
[0168] In one embodiment, a system for providing customer service
agent assistance comprises a customer profile database storing
customer partiality vectors for a plurality of customers, the
customer partiality vectors comprise customer value vectors, a
communication device, and a control circuit coupled to the customer
profile database and the communication device, the control circuit
being configured to: provide a customer service agent user
interface on a user device associated with a customer service
agent, associate a particular customer with the customer service
agent, retrieving at least one customer value vector for the
particular customer from the customer profile database, and cause,
via the communication device, the at least one customer value
vector of the particular customer to be displayed on the customer
service agent user interface of the user device.
[0169] Referring next to FIG. 18, a method for providing customer
service agent assistance according to some embodiments is shown.
The steps in FIG. 18 may generally be performed by a
processor-based device such as a central computer system, a server,
a cloud-based server, a customer service agent system, a retail
management system, etc. In some embodiments, the steps in FIG. 18
may be performed by one or more of the control circuit 1301
described with reference to FIG. 13, the control circuit 1911, and
the customer service agent user device 1925 described with
reference to FIG. 19 herein.
[0170] In step 1801, the system provides a customer service agent
user interface to a user device associated with a customer service
agent. In some embodiments, the user device associated with the
customer service agent may comprise one or more of a desktop
computer, a laptop computer, a mobile device, a portable device, a
personal computer, a smartphone, a wearable device, a head-held
device, a head mounted display (HMD), an augmented reality display,
etc. The user device associated with the customer service agent may
comprise a processor-based device that include one or more user
input/output devices such as one or more of a display screen, a
touch screen, a head mounted display, a microphone, a speaker, one
or more buttons, a touch pad, a motion sensor, an eye tracker, a
gesture sensor, etc. In some embodiments, the customer service
agent user interface may comprise one or more of a mobile
application, a computer program, an augmented reality display
program, a web-based user interface and the like.
[0171] In step 1802, the system associates a customer with the
customer service agent. In some embodiments, for in-person
interactions, a customer service agent may ask for the customer's
identifier (e.g. name, phone number, email, club card, etc.) and
enter the customer's identifier into a customer service agent
device to associate the customer with the customer service session.
In some embodiments, for a customer service telephone call, the
system may use the customer's caller ID and/or prompt the customer
service agent ask for a customer identifier to associate the
customer with the customer service session. In some embodiments,
for an on-line customer service agent, the system may use the
customer's website log-in information and/or prompt the customer
service ask for a customer identifier to associate the customer
with the customer service session. In some embodiments, for a
customer service kiosk connecting an in-store customer to a remote
customer service agent, the system prompt ask the customer to scan
an ID (e.g. club card, discount card, bank card) or enter
identifying information via the kiosk, and/or prompt the customer
service agent to verbally ask for a customer identifier to
associate the customer with the customer service session.
Generally, a customer's identify may be obtain via various methods
and associated with the customer service agent depending on the
customer service session type without departing from the spirit of
the present disclosure.
[0172] In some embodiments, the system may be configured to select
a customer service agent for a customer. In some embodiments, the
customer service agent may be selected for a customer by comparing
the partiality vectors of the customer with a plurality of customer
service agents. For example, when a customer requests customer
service, a customer service agent may selected based on how well
the partiality vectors of the customer service agent aligns with
the partiality vectors of the customer. The partiality vector
alignments between the customer and the customer service agent may
be determined by adding, subtracting, multiplying, and/or dividing
the magnitudes of the corresponding vectors in the customer and
customer service agent partiality vectors. In some embodiments,
scores for each vector may be added and/or averaged to determine an
overall alignment score. In some embodiments, agents may be ranked
and/or prioritized for a customer based on the degree of alignment
between the partiality vectors of the customer service agent and
the customer, and the system may use the ranking to select an agent
for the customer. In some embodiments, the system may consider
other factors in the selection of an agent, such as agent
availability, wait time, agent knowledge, etc. In some embodiments,
only a subset of partiality vectors may be compared in selecting a
customer service agent for a customer. For example, the system may
only determine the alignment of value vectors in the selection of a
customer service agent.
[0173] In some embodiments, a customer may enter preferences (e.g.
language, gender, department specialty) for agents when he/she
requests customer service. In some embodiments, the customer may
select a specific product for a customer service session and a
customer service agent may be selected based on the selected
product. For example, if a television set is selected, a customer
service agent with knowledge of television technology may be
selected.
[0174] In some embodiments, one or more customers may be associated
with the customer service agent in step 1802. In some embodiments,
one or more members of a group (e.g. household, office, social
gathering, event, etc.) requesting customer service may have a
customer profile associated with them. When a customer service
agent is providing customer service to a group, each customer in
the group having a customer profile may be associated with the
customer service agent in step 1802.
[0175] In step 1803, the system retrieves customer value vectors
associated with a customer. In some embodiments, the customer value
vector may be retrieved from a customer profile database storing
customer partiality vectors for a plurality of customers using one
or more customer identifiers (e.g. customer name, customer ID,
etc.). The customer may generally be a person requesting customer
service. In some embodiments, the customer partiality vectors each
represents at least one of a person's values, preferences,
affinities, and aspirations. In some embodiments, customer value
vectors each comprises a magnitude that corresponds to the
customer's belief in good that comes from an order associated with
that value. In some embodiments, the customer partiality vectors,
including value vectors, may be determined and/or updated with the
purchase and/or return history of associated with the customer. In
some embodiments, if multiple customers are associated with the
customer service agent, the system may retrieve customer value
vectors associated with each customer associated in step 1803.
[0176] In step 1804, the system displays customer value vectors on
the customer service agent user interface. In some embodiments, the
customer value vectors may be provided to a user device associated
with the customer service agent to display. In some embodiments,
the customer service agent user interface may be configured to
display one or more partialities associated with the customer and
the vector magnitude associated with the partiality. In some
embodiments, the customer value and/or partiality vectors may be
presented with a graph such as one or more of a line graph, a bar
graph, a radar chart, a circle graph, and the like. Generally, the
customer service agent user interface may be configured to display
the value vectors and/or other partiality vectors in any text
and/or graphical format to convey the customer values and
magnitudes of the values. In some embodiments, if multiple
customers are associated with the customer service agent in step
1802, partiality vectors for one or more customer may be displayed
on the customer service agent user interface. In some embodiments,
if a plurality of customers comprise a group that shares a
purchase, the system may be configured to average the magnitudes of
a plurality of vectors and/or display the highest and/or lowest
magnitudes associated for each partiality vector. In some
embodiments, the user interface may select one or more partiality
vectors among each the partiality vectors in the customer's profile
to display. In some embodiments, the user interface may initially
display customer partiality vectors with the highest magnitudes. In
some embodiments, the display of the partiality vectors may be
interactive. For example, a customer service agent may select
different partiality vectors to view. In another example, a
customer service agent may select an item category (e.g. produce,
apparel, household supply, etc.) and the user interface may display
partiality vectors determined to be more relevant to the selected
item category.
[0177] In some embodiments, a customer may select one or more items
for the customer service session. For example, if a customer has
questions about a particular television set, the television set's
product identifier (e.g. barcode, UPC, etc.) may be provided to the
system prior or during the customer service session. In some
embodiments, the system may select one or more vectorized product
characterizations associated with the product identifier as
relevant attributes based on the customer partiality vectors and
cause the customer service agent user interface to display the
relevant characterizations. For example, for a television set,
partiality vectors associated with energy savings, simplicity, and
advance technology may be displayed while vectors associated with
organic products and cleanliness may be omitted.
[0178] In some embodiments, the system may further be configured to
determine a vector alignment between an item selected by the
customer and the user's partiality vectors, including value
vectors. In some embodiments, the system may receive a product
identifier via one or more of an in-store kiosk, a customer user
device, and/or a customer service agent user device. For example,
the product identifier may be received via one or more of a
barcode, a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag, a photograph,
a product name, and a brand name. The system may then retrieve
vectorized product characterizations associated with the product
identifier from a product database and compare the customer
partiality vectors and the vectorized product characterizations of
the selected product. In some embodiments, the customer partiality
vectors, including customer value vectors, and the vectorized
product characterizations may be compared to determine a degree of
alignment between the customer and one or more products. In some
embodiments, the alignment between a product and a customer may be
determined by adding, subtracting, multiplying, and/or dividing the
magnitudes of the corresponding vectors in the customer partiality
vectors and product characterization vectors. For example, an
alignment score for each vector may be determined by subtracting
the magnitude of the customer vector from the magnitude of the
associated product characterization vector. In some embodiments,
alignment between the customer and the product may be determined
based on whether the scores of each vector exceeds a set score
(e.g. 0, -1, etc.). In some embodiments, scores for each vector may
be added and/or averaged to determine an overall alignment score.
In some embodiments, compatibility between the customer and the
product may further be determined based on whether the overall
alignment score exceeds a threshold. In some embodiments, an item
may be considered to be compatible with a customer if the alignment
between the customer partiality vectors and the vectorized product
characterizations exceeds a threshold. In some embodiments, the
system may determine that a product is compatible with a customer
only if each product characterization vector matches or exceeds the
corresponding customer partiality vector. In some embodiments,
products may be ranked and/or prioritized for the customer based on
the degree of alignment between the customer partiality vectors and
the product characterization vectors.
[0179] In some embodiments, the system may be select one or more
vectorized product characterizations associated with the product
identifier as relevant attributes based on the customer partiality
vectors and cause the customer service agent user interface to
display the relevant attributes/characteristics. In some
embodiments, relevant attributes may correspond to product
characterization vectors that have high alignment with customer
partiality vectors. For example, if the customer's partiality
vector and the product's associated with energy efficiency have a
high alignment (e.g. both have a high magnitudes), the system may
bring this alignment of vectors to the attention of the customer
service agent. The customer service agent may then highlight
features, attributes, and/or characteristics of the product that
corresponds to the highly aligned partiality vectors to the
customer during the customer service session.
[0180] In some embodiments, the system may further select one or
more promotional content based on the customer partiality vectors
for the particular customer and provide the one or more promotional
content for playback via the customer service agent user interface.
Promotional content may comprise one or more of a video clip, an
audio clip, an image, an interactive content, etc. that correspond
to a particular product, a brand, and/or a group of products. In
some embodiments, the promotional content may be associated with
one or more of product characteristics and/or customer
partialities. For example, different promotional content
highlighting the exterior design and the technology specification
of a television set may be available. The system may select from
the available promotional contents associated with the product or a
group of products based the content's alignment with the customer's
partiality vectors. In some embodiments, the promotional content
may be displayed on one or more of a customer's personal user
device, an in-store kiosk, a store display, and an in-store
customer service agent device. For example, a customer service
agent may cause an image or a video to be display on the customer
device by selecting the image or video on the customer service user
interface and explain the features of the product to the
customer.
[0181] In some embodiments, the system may further select a script
for communicating with the customer based on the customer
partiality vectors for the particular customer and cause the
customer service agent user interface to display the script to the
customer service agent. Scripts may generally refer to texts or
outlines configured to guide the customer service agent's
interaction with the customer. In some embodiments, scripts may
comprise text that can be read out to the customer and/or pasted
into chat windows. In some embodiments, scripts and/or sets of
scripts may be associated with one or more of product
characteristics and/or customer partialities. For example,
different scripts highlighting the exterior design and the
technology specification of a television set may be available. The
system may select from the available scripts associated with the
product based the script's alignment with the customer's partiality
vectors.
[0182] In some embodiments, the system may further be configured to
select one or more alternate items as purchase recommendations. For
example, the system may determine an item type associated with the
item selected by the customer, compare the customer partiality
vectors with a plurality of similar items offered for sale, and
display one or more items with the high alignment with the customer
partialities as the alternate items on the customer service agent
user interface. A customer service agent may then recommend the
alternate product to the customer during a customer service
session.
[0183] Referring next to FIG. 19, a block diagram of a system
according to some embodiments is shown. The system comprises a
central computer system 1910, a customer profile database 1914, a
product database 1915, and a customer service agent user device
1925.
[0184] The central computer system 1910 may comprise a
processor-based system such as one or more of a server system, a
computer system, a cloud-based server, a customer service computer
system, a retail management system, and the like. The control
circuit 1911 may comprise a processor, a central processor unit, a
microprocessor, and the like. The memory 1912 may comprise one or
more of a volatile and/or non-volatile computer readable memory
devices. In some embodiments, the memory 1912 stores computer
executable codes that cause the control circuit 1911 to provide a
customer service agent user interface to the customer service agent
user device 1925, associated a customer with a customer service
agent, retrieve customer value vectors from the customer profile
database 1914, and cause the customer service agent user device
1925 to display the partiality and/or value vector. In some
embodiments, the control circuit 1911 may be configured determine
product characteristics that may be of interest of the customer
based on the customer's partiality vectors and product information
stored in the product database 1915 and cause the characteristics
to be displayed on the customer service agent user device 1925. In
some embodiments, the control circuit 1911 may be configured to
select a customer service agent, promotional content, and/or
customer service script for a customer service session based on the
customer's partiality vectors. In some embodiments, computer
executable code causes the control circuit 1911 to perform one or
more steps described with reference to FIG. 18 herein.
[0185] The communication device 1913 may comprise one or more of a
wired and wireless communication devices such as a network adapter,
a data port, a Wi-Fi transceiver, a modem, etc. In some
embodiments, the communication device 1913 may be configured to
communicate with one or more the customer service agent user
devices 1925 via a network such as one or more of the Internet, an
intranet, a secured data connection, a Wi-Fi network, and a mobile
data network.
[0186] The central computer system 1910 may be coupled to the
customer profile database 1914 and/or the product database 1915 via
a wired and/or wireless communication channel. The customer profile
database 1914 may be configured store customer profiles for a
plurality of customers. Each customer profile may comprise one or
more of customer name, customer address, customer demographic
information, customer partiality vectors, and customer purchase
history. Customer partiality vectors may comprise one or more of a
customer value vectors, customer preference vectors, and customer
affinity vectors. In some embodiments, the customer partiality
vectors may be determined and/or updated based on one or more of
customer purchase history, customer survey input, customer item
return history, and/or customer return comments. In some
embodiments, customer partialities determined from a customer's
purchase history in one or more product categories and may be used
to match the customer to a product in a category from which the
customer has not previously made a purchase. For example, customer
partialities determined from the customer's purchase of snacks and
pet foods may indicate that the user values natural products. The
vector and magnitude associated with natural products may then be
used to match the user to products in the beauty and personal care
categories.
[0187] The product database 1915 may store one or more profiles of
products offered for sale in one or more retail and/or online
stores. In some embodiments, the product profiles may associate
product identifiers (e.g. Universal Product Code (UPC), barcode,
product name, brand name, etc.) with vectorized product
characterizations. In some embodiment, the vectorized product
characterizations may comprise one or more of vectors associated
with customer values, preferences, affinities, and/or aspirations
in reference to the products. For example, a product profile may
comprise of vectorized product characterization that includes a
magnitude that corresponds to how well the product aligns with a
customer's cruelty-free value vector. In some embodiments, the
vectorized product characterizations may be determined by one or
more of product packaging description, product ingredients list,
product material, product specification, brand reputation, customer
feedback, customer purchase history, and the like.
[0188] While the customer profile database 1914 and the product
database 1915 are shown outside the central computer system 1910 in
FIG. 19, in some embodiments, the customer profile database 1914
and the product database 1915 may be implemented as part of the
central computer system 1910 and/or the memory 1912. In some
embodiments, the customer profile database 1914 and the product
database 1915 comprise database structures that represent customer
partialities and product characterizations, respectively, in vector
form.
[0189] The customer service agent user device 1925 may comprise a
processor-based device associated with a customer service agent. In
some embodiments, the customer service agent may comprise one or
more of a retail store customer service agent, an online store
customer service agent, a remote customer service agent, etc. In
some embodiments, the customer service agent user device 1925 may
comprise one or more of a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a
mobile device, a portable device, a personal computer, a
smartphone, a wearable device, a head held device, a head mounted
display (HMD), an augmented reality display, etc. The customer
service agent user device 1925 may be configured to provide a
customer service agent user interface to a customer service agent.
In some embodiments, the customer service agent user interface may
comprise one or more of a mobile application, a computer program,
an augmented reality display program, a web-based user interface
and the like. In some embodiments, the customer service agent user
interface may be provided by the central computer system 1910
and/or at least partially stored on a memory device on the customer
service agent user device 1925.
[0190] In some embodiments, the customer service agent user device
1925 comprises a communication device such as a data port, a
network adapter, a Wi-Fi transceiver, a cellular signal
transceiver, a mobile data network transceiver, a Bluetooth
transceiver, etc. for communicating with the central computer
system 1910 via a network such as one or more of the a in-store
network, a mobile data network, a secured data network, and the
Internet. In some embodiments, the customer service agent user
device 1925 comprises user input/output devices such as one or more
of a display screen, a touch screen, a head mounted display, a
microphone, a speaker, one or more buttons, a touch pad, a motion
sensor, an eye tracker, a gesture sensor, etc. In some embodiments,
the customer service agent user device 1925 comprises a display
device for displaying information relating to customer partiality
vectors to the customer service agent. In some embodiment, an
augmented reality type display may be configured to display the
customer's partiality vectors to the side of the customer service
agent's field of view as the customer service agent interacts with
the customer in person or over a video. In some embodiment, an
augmented reality type display may be configured to display product
characteristics next to a customer service agent's real-world view
of a product. For example, the system may determine one or more
product characteristics that may be of interest to the customer
based on the customer's partiality vectors and cause the selected
characteristics to be displayed/emphasized on the customer service
agent user interface. In some embodiments, a remote customer
service computer program may be configured to display customer
value vectors and/or product compatibility within or next to a chat
window or video of the customer service session. Generally, the
customer service agent user device 1925 may comprises various user
input/out devices configured to allow the customer service agent to
interact with the customer service agent user interface provided by
the central computer system 1910. In some embodiments, the customer
service agent user device 1925 and/or the customer service agent
user interface provided on the device are further configured to
facility the interaction between the customer and the customer
service agent.
[0191] In some embodiments, the central computer system 1910 and/or
the customer service agent user device 1925 may further communicate
with a customer user device associated with the customer. A
customer user device may be a processor-based device and may
comprise one or more of an in-store kiosk, a desktop computer, a
laptop computer, a mobile device, a portable device, a personal
computer, a smartphone, a wearable device, a head held device, a
head mounted display (HMD), an augmented reality display, etc. In
some embodiments, the customer user device be configured to provide
a customer user interface comprising one or more of a mobile
application, a computer program, an augmented reality display
program, web-based user interface. In some embodiments, a customer
may use the customer user interface to request a customer service,
enter customer identifier, and/or enter product identifier. In some
embodiments, the customer user interface may be configured to
collect item identifier information to send to the central computer
system 1910. In some embodiment, item identifiers may be entered by
a customer using a user input/out device via the customer user
interface. In some embodiments, the customer user device may
comprise one or more sensors such as a camera, an optical sensor, a
barcode scanner, a RFID scanner, etc. In some embodiments, the
customer user interface may comprise an item identification
interface for entering/capturing item identifiers. For example, an
in-store kiosk may include a barcode scanner for scanning items
that the customer brought to the kiosk. In some embodiments, a
customer service agent user device 1925 carried by an in-store
customer service agent may include similar sensors and/or user
interfaces for gathering product identifier. In some embodiments, a
customer may describe a product to a customer service agent, and
the customer service agent may enter/select the product via the
customer service agent user interface.
[0192] In some embodiments, a customer user device may be optional
to the system. For example, if a customer calls a customer service
agent and/or speaks to an in-store customer service agent, a
customer user device may not be involved in providing customer
service. In some embodiments, retail stores may include in-store
customer service kiosks. A customer may enter a customer identifier
and/or a product identifier (e.g. enter name, scan barcode, etc.)
at the customer service kiosk and interact with the on-site or
remote customer service agent via the kiosk. In some embodiments,
the kiosk comprises a video screen and an image sensor for
facilitating a video-based interaction between the customer service
agent and the customer. In some embodiments, the customer service
agent user interface may be configured control the display of
content on the customer service kiosk and/or other customer user
devices during a customer service session via a customer service
agent user interface.
[0193] While only one customer service agent user device 1925 in
shown in FIG. 19, the central computer system 1910 may
simultaneously provide customer service agent user interfaces to a
plurality of customer service agent user devices 1925. In some
embodiments, the central computer system 1910 may further be
configured to match a request for customer service with a customer
service agent. In some embodiments, a customer service agent may be
selected for a customer based on the alignment between their
respective partiality values. In some embodiments, a customer
service agent may be selected further based on one or more of
customer service agent availability, customer service specialty
(e.g. electronics, apparel, home improvement, etc.), customer
selected product, and customer location.
[0194] Next referring to FIGS. 20A and B, illustrations of example
screen displays of a customer service agent user interface is
shown. FIG. 20A illustrates an example display of customer
partiality vectors. In FIG. 20A, magnitudes of vectors associated
with "environmentally friendly," "simplicity," "cleanliness," and
"animal friendly" are displayed via a customer service agent user
interface. In some embodiments, the screen shown in FIG. 20A may be
displayed after a customer service agent is associated with a
customer (e.g. Joe). In some embodiments, the user interface may
select the partiality vectors with the highest magnitudes to
display. In some embodiments, the user interface may select the
partiality vectors most relevant to the product or product category
selected by the customer. In some embodiments, a user may scroll in
the user interface to see additional partiality vectors. In some
embodiments, the partiality vectors may be indicated as one of a
value vector, a preference vector, or an affinity vector. For
example, different types of partiality vectors be displayed in
different colors. In some embodiments, selectable promotional
content and/or scripts may further be included in the user
interface display. In some embodiments, customer partiality vectors
may be shown on the customer service agent user interface along
with a chat window and/or video window of the customer service
session. In some embodiments, with an augmented reality type
display, the customer partiality vectors may be shown to the side
of the customer service agent's field of view while they speak to
the customer in person or over a video. In some embodiments, the
screen shown in FIG. 20A may be displayed as part of step 1804
described with reference to FIG. 18 herein.
[0195] FIG. 20B illustrates an example display of customer and
product compatibility. In FIG. 20B, the product characterization
vectors of "powdermilk biscuits" (solid bars) are shown with the
partiality vectors of Joe (white bars). The comparison of the
product and the customer may be shown after a customer select a
product to inquire before or during the customer service session.
For example, the customer and/or a customer service agent may scan
a barcode and/or RFID tag on the product selected by the customer.
In some embodiments, a customer may describes the product to a
customer service agent who then enters the product information via
the customer service agent user interface. The customer service
agent user interface may select characteristics of the product to
emphasize to the customer based on the customer's partiality
vectors. In some embodiments, the system may select customer
partiality vectors and product characterization vectors with high
degrees of alignment as characteristics to emphasise and highlight
these characteristics in the customer service agent user interface.
In some embodiments, the user interface may further be configured
to provide promotional content and/or script selected based on the
relevant characteristics of the product and/or customer partiality
vectors to the customer service agent. In some embodiments, the
user interface may further be configured to recommend a similar
product that may be more compatible with the customer's partiality
vectors.
[0196] While bar graphs are shown in FIGS. 20A and 20B, various
types of different graphics and texts may be used to represent
customer partiality vectors and/or product characterization vectors
without departing from the spirit of the present disclosure. In
some embodiments, the customer partiality vectors and product
characterization vectors may be represented by text and/or in one
of more of a line graph, a bar graph, a radar chart, a circle
graph, and the like. While the same partiality vectors are shown in
FIGS. 20A and 20B, in some embodiments, different partiality
vectors may be prioritized for display based on the product's
category and/or the alignment between a customer partiality vectors
and a product's characterization vectors. In some embodiments, the
user interface may visually highlight one or more customer
partiality and/or product characterization based on the degree of
vector alignment.
[0197] In one embodiment, a system for providing customer service
agent assistance comprises a customer profile database storing
customer partiality vectors for a plurality of customers, the
customer partiality vectors comprise customer value vectors, a
communication device, and a control circuit coupled to the customer
profile database and the communication device, the control circuit
being configured to: provide a customer service agent user
interface on a user device associated with a customer service
agent, associate a particular customer with the customer service
agent, retrieving at least one customer value vector for the
particular customer from the customer profile database, and cause,
via the communication device, the at least one customer value
vector of the particular customer to be displayed on the customer
service agent user interface of the user device.
[0198] In one embodiment, a method for customer service agent
assistance comprises providing, with a control circuit and a
communication device coupled to the control circuit, a customer
service agent user interface on a user device associated with a
customer service agent, associating, with the control circuit, a
particular customer with the customer service agent, retrieving,
with the control circuit, at least one customer value vector of the
particular customer from the customer profile database storing
customer partiality vectors for a plurality of customers, the
customer partiality vectors comprise customer value vectors, and
causing, via the communication device, the at least one customer
value vector for the customer to be displayed on the customer
service agent user interface.
[0199] In one embodiments, an apparatus for mapping a space
comprises a non-transitory storage medium storing a set of computer
readable instructions; and a control circuit configured to execute
the set of computer readable instructions which causes to the
control circuit to: provide, via a communication device coupled to
the control circuit, a customer service agent user interface on a
user device associated with a customer service agent, associate a
particular customer with the customer service agent, retrieve at
least one customer value vector for the particular customer from
the customer profile database storing customer partiality vectors
of a plurality of customers, the customer partiality vectors
comprise customer value vectors, and cause, via the communication
device, the at least one customer value vector for the customer to
be displayed on the customer service agent user interface.
[0200] Shopping agents generally refer to agents who browse and
select items for a customer. For example, the shopping agent may
select items in a brick-and-mortar retail store and/or an online
retail store for a customer who pays for the purchase either
directly or via the shopping agent. A customers may select the
exact product(s) that they want the shopping agent to purchase, may
only indicate a generate type of items (e.g. eggs, detergent,
etc.), and/or may express a general need (e.g. snacks, ingredients
for a dish) and rely on the shopping agent to select from the
available products to purchase. In some embodiments, the systems
and methods described herein function to assist shopping agents in
selecting items for the customers.
[0201] In one embodiment, a system for providing shopping agent
assistance comprises a customer profile database storing customer
partiality vectors for a plurality of customers, the customer
partiality vectors comprise customer value vectors, a communication
device, and a control circuit coupled to the customer profile
database and the communication device. The control circuit being
configured to provide a shopping agent user interface on a user
device associated with a shopping agent, associate a customer with
the shopping agent, retrieving at least one customer value vector
for the customer from the customer profile database, and cause, via
the communication device, the at least one customer value vector of
the customer to be displayed on the shopping agent user interface
of the user device.
[0202] Referring next to FIG. 21, a method for providing shopping
agent assistance according to some embodiments is shown. The steps
in FIG. 21 may generally be performed by a processor-based device
such as a central computer system, a server, a cloud-based server,
a shopping agent service management system, a retail management
system, etc. In some embodiments, the steps in FIG. 21 may be
performed by one or more of the control circuit 1301 described with
reference to FIG. 13, the control circuit 2211, and the shopping
agent user device 2225 described with reference to FIG. 22
herein.
[0203] In step 2101, the system provides a shopping agent user
interface to a user device associated with a shopping agent. In
some embodiments, the user device associated with the shopping
agent may comprise one or more of a mobile device, a portable
device, a personal computer, a smartphone, a wearable device, a
head mounted display (HMD), an augmented reality display, etc. The
user device associated with a shopping agent may comprise a
processor-based device that include one or more user input/output
devices such as one or more of a display screen, a touch screen, a
head mounted display, a microphone, a speaker, one or more buttons,
a touchpad, a motion sensor, an eye tracker, a gesture sensor, etc.
In some embodiments, the shopping agent user interface may comprise
one or more of a mobile application, a computer program, an
augmented reality display program, a web-based user interface and
the like.
[0204] In step 2102, the system associates a customer with the
shopping agent. In some embodiments, the customer may be associated
with the shopping agent based on one or more of a current location
of the shopping agent, one or more customer orders, and a customer
selection received in the shopping agent user interface, In some
embodiments, the shopping agent may enter a customer selection via
the shopping agent user interface. In some embodiments, the
shopping agent may enter an identifier (e.g. name, user ID,
customer number, etc.) associated with the customer in the shopping
agent user interface. In some embodiments, the shopping agent may
first log into the user interface and the system may display one or
more customer profiles of customers who have been assigned to the
shopping agent. In some embodiments, the customer may be associated
with the shopping agent based on the shopping agent's location and
the items selected by the customer. For example, when a shopping
agent arrives at a brick-and-mortar retail location, the system may
display a list of customers that has ordered items from that retail
location in the shopping agent user interface.
[0205] In some embodiments, the customer may be associated with a
shopping agent by comparing the partiality vectors of the customer
with a plurality of shopping agents. For example, when a customer
requests shopping agent service, a shopping agent in the customer's
service area may be selected based on how well the partiality
vectors of the shopping agent aligns with the partiality vectors of
the customer. In some embodiments, the partiality vector alignment
between the customer and the customer service agent may be
determined by adding, subtracting, multiplying, and/or dividing the
magnitudes of the corresponding vectors of the customer partiality
vectors and product characterization vectors. For example, a score
for each vector may be determined by multiplying the magnitudes of
the vectors and/or an overall alignment score may be determined by
adding and/or averaged individual vector scores. In some
embodiments, agents may be ranked and/or prioritized for a customer
based on the degree of alignment between the partiality vectors of
the customer service agent and the customer, and the system may use
the ranking to select an agent for the customer. In some
embodiments, only a subset of partiality vectors may be compared
when selecting a customer service agent for a customer. For
example, the system may only select a customer service agent based
on the alignment of value vectors.
[0206] In some embodiments, a customer may select a shopping agent
to associate with when he/she request the shopping agent service.
For example, a customer user interface may present for selection, a
list of shopping agents who the customer had previously work with
and/or is a good match with the customer based on the customer's
partiality vectors. Generally, a shopping agent may be employed by
a retail store or a shopping agent service, may be a freelance
and/or crowdsourced shopping agent, or may be a personal friend or
family of the customer without departing from the spirit of the
present disclosure. In some embodiments, one or more individuals
may be associated with the shopping agent in step 2102. In some
embodiments, one or more members of a group (e.g. household,
office, social gathering, event, etc.) requesting shopping agent
service may have a customer profile associated with them. When a
shopping agent is shopping for the entire group, each customer in
the group having a customer profile may be associated with the
shopping agent in step 2102. In some embodiments, a shopping agent
may shop on behalf of multiple individual customers making separate
orders during a shopping trip and one or more of the customers
associated with the shopping trip may be associated in step
2102.
[0207] In step 2103, the system retrieves customer value vectors
associated with a customer. In some embodiments, the customer value
vectors may be retrieved from a customer profile database storing
customer partiality vectors for a plurality of customers using one
or more customer identifiers (e.g. customer name, customer ID,
etc.). The customer may generally be a customer participating in a
shopping agent service. In some embodiments, the customer
partiality vectors each represents at least one of a person's
values, preferences, affinities, aspirations. In some embodiments,
customer partiality vectors each comprises a magnitude that
corresponds to the customer's belief in good that comes from an
order associated with that value. In some embodiments, the customer
partiality vectors, including value vectors, may be determined
and/or updated with the purchase and/or return history of
associated with the customer. In some embodiments, if multiple
customers are associated with the shopping agent, the system may
retrieve customer partiality vectors associated with each customer
associated in step 2103.
[0208] In step 2104, the system displays customer value vectors on
the shopping agent user interface. In some embodiments, the
customer partiality vectors may be provided to a user device
associated with the shopping agent to display via a shopping agent
user interface. In some embodiments, the shopping agent user
interface may be configured to display one or more partialities
associated with the customer and the vector magnitudes associated
with the partialities. In some embodiments, the customer value
vectors and/or partiality vectors may be presented in a graphical
format such as one or more of a line graph, a bar graph, a radar
chart, a circle graph, and the like. Generally, the shopping agent
user interface may be configured to display the value vectors
and/or other partiality vectors in any text and/or graphical format
to convey the customer values and magnitudes of the values. In some
embodiments, if multiple customers are associated with the shopping
agent in step 2102, partiality vectors for one or more customer may
be displayed on the shopping agent user interface. In some
embodiments, if a plurality of customers comprises a group that
shares a purchase, the system may be configured to average the
magnitudes of a plurality of vectors and/or display the highest
and/or lowest magnitudes associated with each partiality vector. In
some embodiments, the user interface may select one or more
partiality vectors among the partiality vectors in a customer's
profile to display. In some embodiments, the user interface may
initially display customer partiality vectors with the highest
magnitudes. In some embodiments, the user interface may initially
display customer partiality vectors that are relevant to one or
more products types the customer wish to purchase. In some
embodiments, the display of the partiality vectors may be
interactive. For example, a shopping agent may select different
partiality vectors to view. In another example, a shopping agent
may select an item category (e.g. produce, apparel, household
supply, etc.) and the user interface may display partiality vectors
that are more relevant to the selected item category.
[0209] In some embodiments, the system may further be configured to
determine a compatibility between an item selected by the shopping
agent and the user's partiality vectors, including value vectors.
In some embodiments, the system may receive a product identifier
via the user device associated with the shopping agent. For
example, the product identifier may be received from the shopping
agent user interface via one or more of a barcode, a Radio
Frequency Identification (RFID) tag, a photograph, a product name,
and a brand name. The system may then retrieve vectorized product
characterizations associated with the product identifier from a
product database and compare the customer partiality vectors and
the vectorized product characterizations of the selected product.
In some embodiments, the customer partiality vectors, including
customer value vectors, and the vectorized product
characterizations may be compared to determine a degree of
alignment between the customer and one or more products. In some
embodiments, the alignment between a product and a customer may be
determined by adding, subtracting, multiplying, and/or dividing the
magnitudes of the corresponding vectors in the customer partiality
vectors and product characterization vectors. For example, an
alignment score for each vector may be determined by subtracting
the magnitude of the customer vector from the magnitude of the
associated product characterization vector. In some embodiments,
compatibility between the customer and the product may be
determined based on whether the scores of each vector exceeds a set
score (e.g. 0, -1, etc.). In some embodiments, a score for each
vector may be determined by multiplying the magnitudes of the
customer vector and the associated product characterization vector.
In some embodiments, scores for each vector may be added and/or
averaged to determine an overall alignment score. In some
embodiments, compatibility between the customer and the product may
be determined based on the alignment score, for example, whether
the overall alignment score exceeds a threshold. In some
embodiments, an item may be considered to be compatible to if the
alignment between the customer partiality vectors and the
vectorized product characterizations exceeds a threshold. In some
embodiments, the system may determine that a product is compatible
with a customer only if each product characterization vector
matches or exceeds the corresponding customer partiality vector. In
some embodiments, products may be ranked and/or prioritized for the
customer based on the degree of alignment between the customer
partiality vectors and the product characterization vectors. In
some embodiments, compatibility may comprise a binary indicator
(e.g. compatible/not compatible), a gradient score (e.g. 1-10), a
color, and/or a text descriptor (e.g. poor match, good match,
excellent match, etc.).
[0210] In some embodiments, after the system determines a
compatibility between the customer and the item selected by the
shopping agent, the system causes the shopping agent user interface
to display the compatibility. In some embodiments, product
compatibility comprises a score and the shopping agent user
interface may be configured to display a visual representation of
the score. In some embodiments, the compatibility of one or more
individual partiality vectors may be displayed. In some
embodiments, the system may display a combined compatibility based
on a plurality of customer partiality vectors. In some embodiments,
the shopping agent user interface may be configured to display a
list of items selected for a customer and a compatibility indicator
next to each item selected for the customer. For example, a color
coded icon (e.g. red, yellow, green, etc.) may be displayed next to
items on the shopping list. In some embodiments, a compatibility
indicators may be included in the display of a virtual shopping
cart for an online and/or brick-and-mortar store purchase. In some
embodiments, an augmented reality display device may be configured
to display a compatibility indicator and/or vectorized product
characteristics as an overlay of the shopping agent's view of a
real-world product.
[0211] In some embodiments, the system may further be configured to
suggest an alternate item to purchase based on the customer's
partiality vectors. For example, the system may determine an item
type associated with the selected item, compare the customer
partiality vectors with a plurality of similar items offered for
sale, and recommend an item with a higher alignment score with the
customer partialities as the alternate item.
[0212] In some embodiments, after step 2104, the system may prompt
the customer for feedback regarding the shopping agent and/or one
or more items purchased by the shopping agent. In some embodiments,
customer's feedback of the purchase may be used to update customer
profile. For example, the customer's rating of one or more items
selected by a shopping agent may be used to update the customer's
partiality vectors stored in the customer profile database.
[0213] Referring next to FIG. 22, a block diagram of a system
according to some embodiments is shown. The system comprises a
central computer system 2210, a customer profile database 2214, a
product database 2215, and a shopping agent user device 2225.
[0214] The central computer system 2210 may comprise a
processor-based system such as one or more of a server system, a
computer system, a cloud-based server, a shopping agent service
management computer system, a retail management system, and the
like. The control circuit 2211 may comprise a processor, a central
processor unit, a microprocessor, and the like. The memory 2212 may
comprise one or more of a volatile and/or non-volatile computer
readable memory devices. In some embodiments, the memory 2212
stores computer executable codes that cause the control circuit
2211 to provide a shopping agent user interface to the shopping
agent user device 2225, associated a customer with a shopping
agent, retrieve customer value vectors from the customer profile
database 2214, and cause the shopping agent user device 2225 to
display the value vector. In some embodiments, the control circuit
2211 may be configured to determine the compatibility between the
customer and one or more items based on product information stored
in the product database 2215 and cause the compatibility to be
displayed on the shopping agent user device 2225. In some
embodiments, computer executable code causes the control circuit
2211 to perform one or more steps described with reference to FIG.
21 herein.
[0215] The communication device 2213 may comprise one or more of a
wired and wireless communication devices such as a network adapter,
a data port, a Wi-Fi transceiver, a modem, etc. In some
embodiments, the communication device 2213 may be configured to
communicate with one or more the shopping agent user devices 2225
via a network such as one or more of the Internet, a secured data
connection, and a mobile data network.
[0216] The central computer system 2210 may be coupled to the
customer profile database 2214 and/or the product database 2215 via
a wired and/or wireless communication channel. The customer profile
database 2214 may be configured store customer profiles for a
plurality of customers of a shopping agent service. Each customer
profile may comprise one or more of customer name, customer
address, customer demographic information, and customer partiality
vectors. Customer partiality vectors may comprise one or more of a
customer value vectors, customer preference vectors, and customer
affinity vectors. In some embodiments, the customer partiality
vectors may be determined and/or updated based one or more of
customer purchase history, customer survey input, customer item
return history, and/or customer return comments. In some
embodiments, customer partialities determined from a customer's
purchase history in one or more product categories and may be used
to match the customer to a product in a category from which the
customer has not previously made a purchase. For example, customer
partialities determined from the customer's purchase of snacks and
pet foods may indicate that the user values natural products. The
value vector and magnitude associated with natural products may
then be used to match the user to products in the beauty and
personal care categories.
[0217] The product database 2215 may store one or more profiles of
products offered for sale in one or more retail and/or online
stores. In some embodiments, the product profiles may associate
product identifiers (e.g. Universal Product Code (UPC), barcode,
product name, brand name, etc.) with vectorized product
characterizations. In some embodiment, the vectorized product
characterizations may comprise one or more of vectors associated
with customer values, preferences, affinities, and/or aspirations
in reference to the products. For example, a product profile may
comprise of vectorized product characterization that includes a
magnitude that corresponds to how well the product aligns with a
customer's cruelty-free value vector. In some embodiments, the
vectorized product characterizations may be determined by one or
more of product packaging description, product ingredients list,
product material, product specification, brand reputation, customer
feedback, customer purchase history, and the like.
[0218] While the customer profile database 2214 and the product
database 2215 are shown outside the central computer system 2210 in
FIG. 22, in some embodiments, the customer profile database 2214
and the product database 2215 may be implemented as part of the
central computer system 2210 and/or the memory 2212. In some
embodiments, the customer profile database 2214 and the product
database 2215 comprise database structures that represent customer
partialities and product characterizations, respectively, in vector
form.
[0219] The shopping agent user device 2225 may comprise a
processor-based device associated with a shopping agent. In some
embodiments, the shopping agent may comprise one or more of a
retail store associate, an in-store picker, a contracted service
provider, a shopping agent service employee, a crowdsourced service
provider, a friend, a family member, etc. Generally, a shopping
agent may be any person who shops for the actual consumer of the
purchased items.
[0220] In some embodiments, the shopping agent user device 2225 may
comprise one or more of a mobile device, a portable device, a
personal computer, a smartphone, a wearable device, a head mounted
display (HMD), an augmented reality display, etc. The shopping
agent user device 2225 may be configured to provide a shopping
agent user interface to a shopping agent. In some embodiments, the
shopping agent user interface may comprise one or more of a mobile
application, a computer program, an augmented reality display
program, a web-based user interface and the like. In some
embodiments, the shopping agent user interface may be provided by
the central computer system 2210 and/or at least partially stored
on a memory device on the shopping agent user device 2225.
[0221] In some embodiments, the shopping agent user device 2225
comprises a communication device such as a Wi-Fi transceiver, a
cellular signal transceiver, a mobile data network transceiver, a
Bluetooth transceiver, etc. for communicating with the central
computer system 2210 via a network such as one or more of an
in-store network, a mobile data network, a secured data network,
and the Internet. In some embodiments, the shopping agent user
device 2225 comprises user input/output devices such as one or more
of a display screen, a touch screen, a head mounted display, a
microphone, a speaker, one or more button, a touch pad, a motion
sensor, an eye tracker, a gesture sensor, etc. In some embodiments,
the shopping agent user device 2225 comprises a display device for
displaying information relating to customer partiality vectors to
the shopping agent. In some embodiment, an augmented reality type
display may be configured to display the customer's partiality
vectors to the side of the shopping agent's field of view as the
shopping agent walks around a store to select items for purchase.
In some embodiment, an augmented reality type display may be
configured to display product compatibility next to a shopping
agent's real-world view of a product. In some embodiments, a
website and/or a web browser extension may be configured to display
customer partiality vectors and/or product compatibility within or
next to an online shopping interface. For example, a shopping agent
may enter customer identifier into a website or a browser
extension, and a product compatibility identifier may be displayed
next to one or more items offered for sale in an online shopping
user interface. Generally, the user input/out devices may be
configured to allow the shopping agent to interact with the
shopping agent user interface provided by the central computer
system 2210.
[0222] In some embodiments, the shopping agent user device 2225 may
be configured to collect item identifier information to send to the
central computer system 2210. In some embodiment, item identifiers
may be entered by a shopping agent using a user input/out device
via the shopping agent user interface. In some embodiments, the
shopping agent user device 2225 may comprise one or more sensors
such as a camera, an optical sensor, a barcode scanner, a RFID
scanner, etc. In some embodiments, the shopping agent user device
2225 may comprise an image sensor for capturing an image of a
product (e.g. labeling, text, barcode, signage etc.) to identify
the product. In some embodiments, the shopping agent user interface
may comprise an item identification interface for
entering/capturing item identifiers. The central computer system
2210 may compare the vectorized item characterization associated
with the item identifier stored in the product database 2215 with
the partiality vectors associated with a customer stored in the
customer profile database 2214 to determine a compatibility between
the item and the customer. In some embodiments, the shopping agent
user interface may then display a representation of the
compatibility to the shopping agent via the shopping agent user
device 2225.
[0223] In some embodiments, compatibility between a customer and a
product may comprise a binary indicator (e.g. compatible/not
compatible), a gradient score (e.g. 1-10), a color, and/or a text
descriptor (e.g. poor match, good match, excellent match, etc.) In
some embodiments, product compatibility comprises a score and the
shopping agent user interface may be configured to display a visual
representation of the score (e.g. color, icon, graphic elements,
etc.). In some embodiments, the compatibilities of one or more
individual partiality vectors may be displayed. In some
embodiments, the system may display an overall compatibility. In
some embodiments, the shopping agent user interface may be
configured to receive and display a list of items selected for a
customer and a compatibility indicator next to each item selected
for the customer. For example, a color coded icon (e.g. red,
yellow, green, etc.) may be displayed next to the listing of the
item in the shopping list. In some embodiments, a compatibility
indicators may be added to a virtual shopping cart display of an
online and/or brick-and-mortar store checkout system. In some
embodiments, an augmented reality display device may be configured
to display a compatibility indicator over and/or next to a product
being viewed by a shopping agent.
[0224] While only one shopping agent user device 2225 in shown in
FIG. 22, the central computer system 2210 may simultaneously
provide shopping agent user interfaces to a plurality of shopping
agent user devices 2225 and shopping agents. In some embodiments,
the central computer system 2210 may further communicate with one
or more user devices associated with customers of the shopping
agent service. For example, the central computer system 2210 may
receive user selections and/or configurations regarding an order to
be completed by a shopping agent via the customers' user devices.
The central computer system 2210 may then forward the order
information to the shopping agent user device 2225. In some
embodiments, the central computer system 2210 may further be
configured to match a customer requesting shopping agent service
with a shopping agent. In some embodiments, a shopping agent may be
selected for a customer based on their respective partiality
values. In some embodiments, a shopping agent may be selected
further based on one or more of shopping agent availability,
shopping agent location, and customer location.
[0225] Next referring to FIGS. 23A and B, illustrations of example
screen displays of a shopping agent user interface is shown. FIG.
23A illustrates an example display of customer partiality vectors
on a shopping agent user interface. In FIG. 23A, magnitudes of
vectors associated with "environmentally friendly," "simplicity,"
"cleanliness," and "animal friendly" are displayed via the shopping
agent user interface. In some embodiments, the screen shown in FIG.
23A may be displayed after a shopping agent is associated with a
customer (e.g. Joe). In some embodiments, the user interface may
display the partiality vectors with the highest magnitudes among
the partialities in the customer's profile. In some embodiments,
the user interface may display the partiality vectors most relevant
to the category of products the shopping agent is shopping for. In
some embodiments, a user may scroll in the user interface to see
additional partiality vectors. In some embodiments, the partiality
vectors may be indicated as one of a value vector, a preference
vector, or an affinity vector. For example, different types of
partiality vectors may be displayed in a different color. In some
embodiments, the screen shown in FIG. 23A may be displayed as part
of step 2104 described with reference to FIG. 21 herein.
[0226] FIG. 23B illustrates an example display of customer and
product compatibility. In FIG. 23B, the product characterization
vectors of "powder milk biscuits" (solid bars) are shown with the
partiality vectors of the customer (white bars). The display
further includes an overall compatibility indicator (i.e. "good")
between the product and the customer. The comparison of the product
and the customer may be shown after a shopping agent selects a
product to purchase for a customer. For example, the shopping agent
may capture an image and/or scan a barcode and/or RFID tag on the
product selected for the customer via the shopping agent user
interface. The shopping agent user interface may then determine the
degree of alignment between the product and the customer and
display the compatibility in the user interface. In some
embodiments, the user interface may display only a compatibility
indicators and not the individual vector comparisons. In some
embodiments, the compatibility indicator may comprise a binary
indicator (e.g. good/bad match) and/or a score (e.g. 1-5, A-F,
etc.). In some embodiments, the user interface may further be
configured to suggest a similar product more compatible with the
customer's partiality vectors for purchase.
[0227] While bar graphs are shown in FIGS. 23A and 23B, various
types of different graphics and texts may be used to represent
customer partiality vectors and/or product characterization vectors
without departing from the spirit of the present disclosure. In
some embodiments, the customer partiality vectors and product
characterization vectors may be represented by text and/or with one
of more of a line graph, a bar graph, a radar chart, a circle
graph, and the like. In some embodiments, the compatibility between
the product and the customer may be shown via showing the relative
magnitudes of the one or more associated vectors. In some
embodiments, an overall compatibility may be determined and
displayed via one or more of text, number, color, and images. In
some embodiments, the shopping agent user interface may allow the
shopping agent to build a purchase list by scanning and/or
selecting products and the shopping agent user interface may be
configured to include a compatibility indicator next to each item
on the purchase list. In some embodiments, in an augmented reality
type display, FIG. 23A may be displayed when the shopping agent is
walking around in a store, and FIG. 23B may be displayed when the
shopping agent is looking directly at a product. While the same
partiality vectors are shown in FIGS. 23A and 23B, in some
embodiments, different partiality vectors may be prioritized for
display based on their relevance to the selected product. For
example, vectorized product characterization for a food item may
not include a partiality vector related to energy efficiency, and
the customer's energy efficiency vector may be omitted in the
compatibility comparison and display.
[0228] In one embodiment, a system for providing shopping agent
assistance comprises a customer profile database storing customer
partiality vectors for a plurality of customers, the customer
partiality vectors comprise customer value vectors, a communication
device, and a control circuit coupled to the customer profile
database and the communication device. The control circuit being
configured to provide a shopping agent user interface on a user
device associated with a shopping agent, associate a customer with
the shopping agent, retrieving at least one customer value vector
for the customer from the customer profile database, and cause, via
the communication device, the at least one customer value vector of
the customer to be displayed on the shopping agent user interface
of the user device.
[0229] In one embodiment, a method for providing shopping agent
assistance, comprises providing, with a control circuit and a
communication device coupled to the control circuit, a shopping
agent user interface on a user device associated with a shopping
agent, associating, with the control circuit, a customer with the
shopping agent, retrieving, with the control circuit, at least one
value vector of the customer from the customer profile database
storing customer partiality vectors for a plurality of customers,
the customer partiality vectors comprise customer value vectors,
and causing, via the communication device, the at least one
customer value vector of the customer to be displayed on the
shopping agent user interface.
[0230] In one embodiments, an apparatus for providing shopping
agent assistance comprises a non-transitory storage medium storing
a set of computer readable instructions, and a control circuit
configured to execute the set of computer readable instructions
which causes to the control circuit to: provide, via a
communication device coupled to the control circuit, a shopping
agent user interface on a user device associated with a shopping
agent, associate a customer with the shopping agent, retrieve at
least one customer value vector of the customer from the customer
profile database storing customer partiality vectors for a
plurality of customers, the customer partiality vectors comprise
customer value vectors, and cause, via the communication device,
the at least one customer value vector of the customer to be
displayed on the shopping agent user interface.
[0231] Systems, apparatuses, and methods are provided herein for
providing shopping agent assistance. A system for providing
shopping agent assistance comprises a customer profile database
storing customer partiality vectors for a plurality of customers,
the customer partiality vectors comprise customer value vectors, a
communication device, and a control circuit. The control circuit
being configured to provide a shopping agent user interface on a
user device associated with a shopping agent, associate a customer
with the shopping agent, retrieving at least one customer value
vector for the customer from the customer profile database, and
cause, via the communication device, the at least one customer
value vector of the customer to be displayed on the shopping agent
user interface of the user device.
[0232] In some embodiments, a system for providing shopping agent
assistance, comprises a customer profile database storing customer
partiality vectors for a plurality of customers, the customer
partiality vectors comprise customer value vectors, a communication
device, and a control circuit coupled to the customer profile
database and the communication device, the control circuit being
configured to: provide a shopping agent user interface on a user
device associated with a shopping agent, associate a customer with
the shopping agent, retrieving at least one customer value vector
for the customer from the customer profile database, and cause, via
the communication device, the at least one customer value vector of
the customer to be displayed on the shopping agent user interface
of the user device.
[0233] In some embodiments, the customer partiality vectors each
represents at least one of a person's values, preferences,
affinities, and aspirations. In some embodiments, the customer
partiality vectors each comprises a magnitude that corresponds to
the customer's belief in good that comes from an order associated
with that value. In some embodiments, the customer partiality
vectors comprise partiality vectors determined from a purchase
history of the customer. In some embodiments, the control circuit
is further configured to: receive a product identifier via the user
device and retrieve vectorized product characterizations associated
with the product identifier from a product database. In some
embodiments, the control circuit is further configured to determine
a compatibility based on comparing the customer partiality vectors
and the vectorized product characterizations and cause the shopping
agent user interface to display the compatibility. In some
embodiments, the compatibility comprises a score and the shopping
agent user interface is configured to display a visual
representation of the score. In some embodiments, the product
identifier is received from the shopping agent user interface via
one or more of a barcode, a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
tag, a photograph, a product name, and a brand name. In some
embodiments, the control circuit is further configured to:
recommend one or more products to purchase for the customer based
on the customer partiality vectors of the customer. In some
embodiments, the customer is associated with the shopping agent
based on one or more of a current location of the shopping agent,
one or more customer orders, and a customer selection received in
the shopping agent user interface.
[0234] In some embodiments, a method for providing shopping agent
assistance comprises providing, with a control circuit and a
communication device coupled to the control circuit, a shopping
agent user interface on a user device associated with a shopping
agent, associating, with the control circuit, a customer with the
shopping agent, retrieving, with the control circuit, at least one
value vector of the customer from a customer profile database
storing customer partiality vectors for a plurality of customers,
the customer partiality vectors comprise customer value vectors,
and causing, via the communication device, the at least one
customer value vector of the customer to be displayed on the
shopping agent user interface.
[0235] In some embodiments, the customer partiality vectors each
represents at least one of a person's values, preferences,
affinities, and aspirations. In some embodiments, the customer
partiality vectors each comprises a magnitude that corresponds to
the customer's belief in good that comes from an order associated
with that value. In some embodiments, the customer partiality
vectors comprise partiality vectors determined from a purchase
history of the customer. In some embodiments, the method further
comprises receiving a product identifier via the user device, and
retrieving vectorized product characterizations associated with the
product identifier from a product database. In some embodiments,
the method further comprises determining a compatibility based on
comparing the customer partiality vectors and the vectorized
product characterizations and causing the shopping agent user
interface to display the compatibility. In some embodiments, the
compatibility comprises a score and the shopping agent user
interface is configured to display a visual representation of the
score. In some embodiments, the product identifier is received from
the shopping agent user interface via one or more of a barcode, a
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tag, a photograph, a product
name, and a brand name. In some embodiments, the method further
comprises recommending one or more products to purchase for the
customer based on the customer partiality vectors of the customer.
In some embodiments, the customer is associated with the shopping
agent based on one or more of a current location of the shopping
agent, one or more customer orders, and a customer selection
received in the shopping agent user interface.
[0236] In some embodiments, an apparatus for providing shopping
agent assistance comprises a non-transitory storage medium storing
a set of computer readable instructions and a control circuit
configured to execute the set of computer readable instructions
which causes to the control circuit to: provide, via a
communication device coupled to the control circuit, a shopping
agent user interface on a user device associated with a shopping
agent, associate a customer with the shopping agent, retrieve at
least one customer value vector of the customer from a customer
profile database storing customer partiality vectors for a
plurality of customers, the customer partiality vectors comprise
customer value vectors, and cause, via the communication device,
the at least one customer value vector of the customer to be
displayed on the shopping agent user interface.
[0237] Those skilled in the art will recognize that a wide variety
of modifications, alterations, and combinations can be made with
respect to the above described embodiments without departing from
the scope of the invention, and that such modifications,
alterations, and combinations are to be viewed as being within the
ambit of the inventive concept.
[0238] This application is related to, and incorporates herein by
reference in its entirety, each of the following U.S. provisional
applications listed as follows by application number and filing
date: 62/323,026 filed Apr. 15, 2016; 62/341,993 filed May 26,
2016; 62/348,444 filed Jun. 10, 2016; 62/350,312 filed Jun. 15,
2016; 62/350,315 filed Jun. 15, 2016; 62/351,467 filed Jun. 17,
2016; 62/351,463 filed Jun. 17, 2016; 62/352,858 filed Jun. 21,
2016; 62/356,387 filed Jun. 29, 2016; 62/356,374 filed Jun. 29,
2016; 62/356,439 filed Jun. 29, 2016; 62/356,375 filed Jun. 29,
2016; 62/358,287 filed Jul. 5, 2016; 62/360,356 filed Jul. 9, 2016;
62/360,629 filed Jul. 11, 2016; 62/365,047 filed Jul. 21, 2016;
62/367,299 filed Jul. 27, 2016; 62/370,853 filed Aug. 4, 2016;
62/370,848 filed Aug. 4, 2016; 62/377,298 filed Aug. 19, 2016;
62/377,113 filed Aug. 19, 2016; 62/380,036 filed Aug. 26, 2016;
62/381,793 filed Aug. 31, 2016; 62/395,053 filed Sep. 15, 2016;
62/397,455 filed Sep. 21, 2016; 62/400,302 filed Sep. 27, 2016;
62/402,068 filed Sep. 30, 2016; 62/402,164 filed Sep. 30, 2016;
62/402,195 filed Sep. 30, 2016; 62/402,651 filed Sep. 30, 2016;
62/402,692 filed Sep. 30, 2016; 62/402,711 filed Sep. 30, 2016;
62/406,487 filed Oct. 11, 2016; 62/408,736 filed Oct. 15, 2016;
62/409,008 filed Oct. 17, 2016; 62/410,155 filed Oct. 19, 2016;
62/413,312 filed Oct. 26, 2016; 62/413,304 filed Oct. 26, 2016;
62/413,487 filed Oct. 27, 2016; 62/422,837 filed Nov. 16, 2016;
62/423,906 filed Nov. 18, 2016; 62/424,661 filed Nov. 21, 2016;
62/427,478 filed Nov. 29, 2016; 62/436,842 filed Dec. 20, 2016;
62/436,885 filed Dec. 20, 2016; 62/436,791 filed Dec. 20, 2016;
62/439,526 filed Dec. 28, 2016; 62/442,631 filed Jan. 5, 2017;
62/445,552 filed Jan. 12, 2017; 62/463,103 filed Feb. 24, 2017;
62/465,932 filed Mar. 2, 2017; 62/467,546 filed Mar. 6, 2017;
62/467,968 filed Mar. 7, 2017; 62/467,999 filed Mar. 7, 2017;
62/471,804 filed Mar. 15, 2017; 62/471,830 filed Mar. 15, 2017;
62/479,525 filed Mar. 31, 2017; 62/480,733 filed Apr. 3, 2017;
62/482,863 filed Apr. 7, 2017; 62/482,855 filed Apr. 7, 2017;
62/485,045 filed Apr. 13, 2017; Ser. No. 15/487,760 filed Apr. 14,
2017; Ser. No. 15/487,538 filed Apr. 14, 2017; Ser. No. 15/487,775
filed Apr. 14, 2017; Ser. No. 15/488,107 filed Apr. 14, 2017; Ser.
No. 15/488,015 filed Apr. 14, 2017; Ser. No. 15/487,728 filed Apr.
14, 2017; Ser. No. 15/487,882 filed Apr. 14, 2017; Ser. No.
15/487,826 filed Apr. 14, 2017; Ser. No. 15/487,792 filed Apr. 14,
2017; Ser. No. 15/488,004 filed Apr. 14, 2017; Ser. No. 15/487,894
filed Apr. 14, 2017; 62/486,801, filed Apr. 18, 2017; 62/510,322,
filed May 24, 2017; 62/510,317, filed May 24, 2017; Ser. No.
15/606,602, filed May 26, 2017; and 62/513,490, filed Jun. 1,
2017.
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