88results about How to "Informed decision" patented technology

A computer system performs financial analysis on one or more financial entities, which may be corporations, securities, etc., based on the sentiment expressed about the one or more financial entities within raw textual data stored in one or more electronic data sources containing information or text related to one or more financial entities. The computer system includes a content mining search agent that identifies one or more words or phrases within raw textual data in the data sources using natural language processing to identify relevant raw textual data related to the one or more financial entities, a sentiment analyzer that analyzes the relevant raw textual data to determine the nature or the strength of the sentiment expressed about the one or more financial entities within the relevant raw textual data and that assigns a value to the nature or strength of the sentiment expressed about the one or more financial entities within the relevant raw textual data, and a user interface program that controls the content mining search agent and the sentiment analyzer and that displays, to a user, the values of the nature or strength of the sentiment expressed about the one or more financial entities within the data sources. This computer system enables a user to make better decisions regarding whether or not to purchase or invest in the one or more financial entities.

The invention is directed to techniques in a computer, for processing a content request. In one arrangement a content engine receives a content request from a client, generates a result based on the content request, the result including one of a content-providing value and a redirection value in response to the content request, and selectively provides, to the client, one of (i) content when the result includes the content-providing value, and (ii) a redirection message when the result includes the redirection value, the redirection message including an extended domain name having a client identifier which identifies the client.

The result can be used by a content router or content engine in deciding whether to provide content or a redirection. The decision to selectively provide can be based on client proximity to the content engines, past redirections, content size and type, content engine capacity, content availability and other factors.

A system for facilitating payment transaction disputes is provided. According to one aspect of the system, a user, such as an issuer, is allowed to use the system to resolve a disputed transaction. Based on information provided by a cardholder, the issuer is able to use the system to retrieve transactional information relating to the disputed transaction reported by the customer for review. When the issuer uses the system to retrieve information relating to the disputed transaction, a case folder is created. The case folder is a repository for storing all the relevant information and documentation relating to the disputed transaction. Using the information retrieved by the system, the issuer then determines whether to initiate a dispute. Alternatively, the system can also be used by an acquirer to respond to a dispute, usually on behalf of one of its merchant. If a dispute is responded to, a questionnaire is then created by the system. Alternatively, the issuer may decline to initiate a dispute and either seek additional information from the cardholder or deny the cardholder's inquiry. The case folder and the questionnaire are created for a specific disputed transaction. The questionnaire is designed to capture information from the cardholder and/or the issuer relating to the disputed transaction. The questionnaire may be pre-populated with previously retrieved transactional information which is stored in the case folder. Relevant documents in support of the disputed transaction may also be attached as part of the questionnaire. Various parties to the dispute may then provide relevant information (including supporting documentation) to the system. The relevant information provided by the parties is maintained in the case folder. The system then keeps track of the relevant timeframes for the case folder to ensure that each party to the dispute is given the correct period of time to respond during the processing of a dispute. Prior to filing the dispute for arbitration or compliance, the system permits the parties to resolve the dispute amongst themselves without the help of an arbiter through pre-arbitration and pre-compliance. If the parties to the dispute are unable to resolve the dispute on their own, the system also permits the parties to resolve the dispute via arbitration or compliance with the help of an arbiter. The system provides the arbiter with access to the case folder to allow the arbiter to render an informed decision on the dispute.

An index for an item in a computer implemented merchandising system is computed as a function of objective data, e.g., transaction data, and subjective data, e.g., customer satisfaction ratings or reviews. The index may be extended with other data, including revenue, returns, refunds, discontinuations, and interactive shopping data. The index may further be weighted using a variety of weight factors for different components of the subjective and objective data. A display of the index places customer satisfaction data in the context of transaction data. The index may be used to provide prospective customers with a more balanced picture of consumer satisfaction than can be provided from customer satisfaction data alone, including prospective purchase comparisons and desirability.

A method for authorising return of a purchase by a customer to a merchant by an interaction of a customer chip card upon which a customer transaction history is stored and a merchant POS terminal upon which predetermined data is stored, the method comprising the steps of, (a) reading at least part of the customer transaction history from the customer chip card, (b) comparing the part of the customer transaction history read from the customer chip card with the predetermined data, and (c) issuing to the merchant a message from the POS terminal based upon the outcome of the comparison.

Methods and system for managing demand for an object includes capturing information about the object through a mobile device associated with a user. The mobile device is configured to capture information about the object that include one or more of a spatial, temporal, topical and social attributes of the object. The identity of the object is verified and validated using this metadata captured by the user through the device from the real world object or its proxy. Upon successful verification and validation, the object and its metadata are automatically added to a wish list of the user. An aggregate list is generated using the attributes and metadata of the object from a plurality of users. The aggregate list defines a source of demand for the object. The object is tracked as it progresses through various phases of ownership cycle using dynamic demand calculations based on the information associated with the objects, the users and the aggregate lists.

The invention is a method for measuring and processing a plurality of electrical parameters of a common alternating current (AC) service that supplies multiple different electrical devices such that the power use rate and total power used by each of multiple devices is determined. Sensors provide high resolution signals corresponding to the current and voltage of the AC power supplied to the service panel typical of those used in residential construction. Analog-to-digital conversion and processing circuits determine multiple electrical parameters with high resolution at a sampling rate sufficient to determine the electrical parameters for approximately each AC cycle. The electrical parameters are stored as a large data set in a memory with sufficient capacity to store several months of electrical parameters representing each AC cycle. The data set is processed to extract complete on-off cycles of the devices. The on-off cycles are represented by instance structures. The characteristics of the instance structures are used to determine device structures. Each device structure characterizes one of the multiple devices. The contributions associated with the extracted instance structures are subtracted from the data set, making is possible to extract additional instance structures from the residual information in the data set. Information from the device structures are used to help extract instances structures that are partially obscured by overlapping instance structures. The newly extracted instances structures are subtracted from the data set and processing continues until no more instance structures can be extracted. Information from the extracted instance structures and device structures are further grouped and processed to provide useful information reports to a consumer. As the electrical parameters are determined and added to the data set, they can be incrementally processed so that near real time information can be provided to the consumer. The cost of operating each device and other information enables the consumer to make informed decision regarding energy use and conservation.

A user is able to informatively control how contact information is provided to one or more applications through the use of a persona interface object, corresponding personas and contact information, and an information picker interface. The persona interface identifies available personas, each persona having different contact information. The user can select a persona to use in response to an applications request for information. The personas can be modified and developed through the information picker interface, which can also be used to inform the user about what information is being requested and how it will be used.

A system and method for calculating and communicating personalized product environmental information to users at the point of purchase, for accounting for pollution resulting from raw material production, manufacture, use disposal and packaging of the purchased product and for accounting for price surcharges paid by the purchaser. In a preferred embodiment, the user can scan a Universal Product Code on a product label using a handheld computer with a bar code reader and view personalized product information and ratings on the handheld computer. In another preferred embodiment, the information can be viewed on a desktop computer when purchasing online over a network. Preferably, individual pollution and price surcharge accounts are maintained for each user based on purchases, allowing for price surcharges and non-profit donations to be collected based on product lifecycle pollution quantities.

A method for optimizing insurance estimates utilizing Monte Carlo simulation includes the steps of ascertaining the total number of potential insured units and obtaining a quote for full insurance based on the total number of potential insured units. The method further includes creating a model of total costs of self insurance for the potential insured units, obtaining data distributions for all variables in the model of total costs of self insurance and running a Monte Carlo simulation on the model a preselected number of iterations. A range of range of possible total costs of self-insurance and the probabilities of such costs is then obtained facilitating a selection between full insurance and self-insurance.

Systems and methods are utilized by facility managers for facility management and maintenance tracking. Specifically, systems and methods provide facility managers with the ability to manage one or more facilities in an organization or a company. More specifically, systems and methods of the present invention provide facility managers the ability to manage facilities and track information relating to the facilities, manage service required at the facilities, and manage bids from vendors for capital projects to the facilities.

Systems, apparatus, and computer program products are provided for security-monitoring at a place of business by automatically determining which individuals within a business location, such as a retail store, banking center or the like, are established customers of the business. Such a determination of established customer status is conducted without requiring any action on behalf of the individuals/customers and may be accomplished proximate in time to the individuals arriving at the business location. Once the established customers have been determined, the present invention provides for attaching customer identifiers to the established customers appearing within a live video stream displayed by the security-monitoring system to thereby create an augmented reality environment within the display.