1113 results about "Decision process" patented technology

A computer implemented method and system which provides current, reliable and accurate personal information regarding a prospective borrower and / or co-borrower. The system includes a central server which receives requests for personal information relating to proposed borrowers, which in turn parses out similar requests relating to that borrower to information sources such as, among others, the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, the Daily Banking System and the pertinent credit bureaus. Information corresponding to the respective requests is retrieved from the information sources, and then compiled into a report format and forwarded to the requested party. The requested party may be the borrower / consumer individually, or may be a mortgage broker / agent, lending institution or other party authorized to request and obtain the information. An electronic signature or signatures accompany the request to the central server, which uses same to retrieve personal information data pertaining to the signatory(ies). Various encryption schemes may be employed for security purposes. The invention permits for the retrieval, compilation and reporting of relevant, personal data to a party or parties involved in the loan decision making process without any opportunity for the information to be tampered with by the proposed borrower(s) because the information is obtained electronically and directly from the information depositories.

A method and system for orthodontic treatment planning, evaluation and quality measurement is provided comprising a workstation having computing platform, a graphical user interface, a processor and a computer storage medium containing digitized records pertaining to a patient. The digitized records include image and other types of data. The computer storage medium further includes a set of software instructions providing graphical user interface tools for providing a user with access to the digitized records for planning orthodontic treatment of a patient. Also provided are reference databases for aiding in the decision process during treatment selection, treatment planning and treatment delivery and progress monitoring and evaluation. Also provided are parameter or criteria measurement techniques and generally acceptable thresholds, which can be updated through learning process and through acquisition of patient data. Once the treatment is planned, the virtual dentition model of the patient in the proposed treatment set-up or the target state is evaluated using several virtual model evaluation features and criteria.

A system and method for processing patient data permits physicians and other medical staff personnel to record, accurately and precisely, historical patient care information. An objective measure of a physician's rendered level of care, as described by a clinical status code, is automatically generated. Data elements used in the determination of the generated clinical status code include a level of history of the patient, a level of examination of the patient, a decision-making process of the physician treating the patient, and a "time influence factor." The quantity and quality of care information for a particular patient is enhanced allowing future care decisions for that patient to be based on a more complete medical history. Enhanced care information can be used in outcome studies to track the efficacy of specific treatment protocols. Archiving of patient information is done in a manner which allows reconstruction of the qualitative aspects of provided medical services. The medical care data can be recorded, saved, and transferred from a portable system to a larger stationary information or database system. Considerable physician and staff time are saved and precision and accuracy are significantly enhanced, by generating these clinical status codes automatically (at the point of service by the care-provider without any intermediary steps) from information recorded simultaneously with the provision of services.

Digital technology based consumer media devices have many desirable features, including the ability to easily find and watch television shows, and / or automatically record programs of interest. Disclosed is a system and method for allowing a group of television viewers to share program viewing information. This information, exchanged through various on-line community modalities (including Internet chat rooms, email, Internet Web Logs, and the like), can be used within a consumer media device to influence the decision process concerning which programs to record, buffer or view.

For each target cell determined by a handover decision process, a first message is transmitted from a source base station (20S) to a target base station (20T) servicing that target cell. The first message includes an identifier of a wireless device (10) having a communication link with the source base station and information for obtaining authentication data for this wireless device. The authentication data depends on a secret key available to the wireless device and the source base station and on an identity of the target cell. Upon failure of the communication link, a cell is selected at the wireless device, which transmits to that cell a reestablishment request message including its identifier and authentication data depending on the secret key and on an identity of the selected cell. If the selected cell is a target cell serviced by a target base station that received a first message, conformity of the authentication data included in the reestablishment request message with the authentication data obtained from this first message is verified to authorize transfer of the communication link to the selected cell.

To assist in patent searching a description includes a consumer purchasing behavior profiling system having aspects including consumer profiles formed and updated based on a variety of data. Advertisers access to send targeted advertising messages to the consumers. Aspects include advertising information together with incentive level and mix being correlated with the consumer profile to produce a measure of the applicability of the ad to that consumer and the probability of converting that consumer. Other aspects include determining the mix of ad information, incentive level and type, and product offering that will be required to convert an ad viewer to a buyer. Aspects focus on using wireless devices with consumers. Other aspects reside in methods of using electronic coupons distribution and redemption to collect additional data points necessary to understand the consumer's purchasing decision process and factors that influence the purchasing decision.

The present invention is a method and system for automatically analyzing a category in a plurality of the categories in a physical space based on the visual characterization, such as behavior analysis or segmentation, of the persons with regard to the category. The present invention captures a plurality of input images of the persons in the category by a plurality of means for capturing images. The present invention processes the plurality of input images in order to understand the shopping behavior of the persons with the sub-categories of the category and analyzes the level of engagement and decision process at the sub-category level. The processes are based on a novel usage of a plurality of computer vision technologies to analyze the visual characterization of the persons from the plurality of input images. The physical space may be a retail space, and the persons may be customers in the retail space.

A computer-aided decision-making system and method that is applicable to a variety of decision-making contexts and applications such as, but not limited to, automobile or home purchase decisions. The computer-aided decision-making system provides immediate, useful, and relevant information to a person in a decision-making context, overcoming common human cognitive problems that occur in decision-making, and enabling consumer purchases in an on-line sales environment. In particular, aspects of the invention that aid a person in decision-making include, but are not limited to: managing all the sub-decisions, educating the decision-maker, highlighting the most important sub-decisions, offering the most viable proposals for evaluation, distinguishing significant differences between proposals, supplying various evaluation tools, preventing blind spots, assisting the decision-maker's memory, gauging the progress of the decision process, and learning about the decision maker from the decision process.

A system and method for providing targeted content to a surfer is disclosed. Exemplary embodiments of the present invention seek to provide novel solutions for determining which content object, taken from a group of content objects, will be best suited for presentation in association with a link on a web page that has been requested by a certain surfer. Exemplary types of content objects may comprise the text, topic, font, color or other attribute of an external advertisement or internal advertisement. Still other content objects may comprise the specific design of the object, an image, the design of the page in which the object is presented, etc. The decision process for selecting a content object can be based on predictive information that is associated with the request, such as a common HTTP request, or historical information about the surfer. Exemplary associated predictive information may include the day and time of receipt of the request for the web page, the IP address and\or domain from which the request was sent, the type and the version of the browser application that is used for requesting the web page, or the URL used by a surfer for requesting the web page with the parameters that are attached to the URL.

A user interface for facilitating a decision making process, such as planning a trip. A unified view of various types of information related to an event may be provided. The unified view may be presented in a simulated three-dimensional environment having different types of information depicted on different windows. Different types of information related to a common event may be visually linked. A window showing a articular type of information may be brought into a focus view for closer inspection by a user. Alternative decisions may be depicted to permit vagueness or uncertainty, particularly at early iterations in the decision making process.

Dynamically updating neural network systems may be implemented to generate, train, evaluate and update artificial neural network data structures used by content distribution networks. Such systems and methods described herein may include generating and training neural networks, using neural networks to perform predictive analysis and other decision-making processes within content distribution networks, evaluating the performance of neural networks, and generating and training pluralities of replacement candidate neural networks within cloud computing architectures and / or other computing environments.

A method and a computer implemented system for improving an active decision making process by using a simulation model of the decision making process. The simulation model is used to evaluate the impact of alternative decisions at a choice point, in order to select one alternative. The method or system may be integrated with an external system, like a manufacturing execution system. The simulation model may be stochastic, may be updated from monitoring the external system or the simulations, or may contain a Bayesian network

The present invention relates to a system and methodology to enable a variety of information associated with one or more notification sources to be directed to one or more notification sinks via a notification platform architecture. The architecture includes a context analyzer for determining a user's state such as location and attentional focus, wherein the user's state is employed by a notification manager to make decisions regarding what, when and how information generated by the notification sources should be forwarded to the notification sinks, for example. These decisions can include a cost benefit analysis wherein considerations are given as to whether the benefits of notifying the user are outweighed by the costs of disrupting the user. Decision-theoretic policies and / or somewhat less formal heuristic policies can be employed to enable the decision-making process within the notification manager.

A collection of data is processed and information arising from the processing can be distributed in a variety of ways to support a decision-making process. A query-analyze-distribute approach can be used, and queries, analysis directives, and distribution directives can be associated into a sequence and shared. Access to interim processing is provided, allowing recipients of information to more easily understand and refine the processing. Unbound queries, unbound analysis directives, and unbound distribution directives can be used and shared so that the queries, analysis directives, and distribution directives can be tailored to a particular situation via binding. The query, analysis, and distribution processing can be loosely-coupled to allow easy interchange and combination of sequence elements. A sequence can be scheduled for periodic execution, and distribution of data can be limited to instances when data falls outside of certain expected values. A decision-making process can be automated by creating an executable workflow. The environment in which the workflow is executed can support a rich set of features, including gating, branching, drill down, and execution tracking. A decision-making process based on a sequence can be refined by employing executable metasequences.

A method of sequencing and scheduling web resources, via a software application that collects URLs and feeds them to a Web browser, so that the amount of clicks and decisions are reduced when browsing the Internet. The method begins after a computer user with Net-access encounters a URL that leads to a collection of other URLs that the software application has arranged to be presented in a continuous, show manner. This collection of resources then plays automatically, going from one resource to the next without the user being required to make a decision or click. The decision-making process is not inhibited, it is made optional. A method of inserting full-screen advertising, public service announcements, news, etc. has been developed. The server software application module described herein allows a publisher to stream URLs to a user who does not have the client-side software. The publishing module allows a user to format resources to a particularly desirable size and characteristic that promotes readability during a show viewing session. This same module can publish collections of nodes for others to view as a whole sequence, accessible via e-mail, screen saver or as a web resource.

The invention provides systems and methods for processing sales leads. Illustratively, the invention provides a method for distributing sales leads, the method comprising: inputting a sales lead, having lead information, to a lead processing portion; performing a decisioning process relating to assignment of the sales lead, the decisioning process determining the recipient of the sales lead for working the sales lead, wherein at least a call center is included in the decisioning process as a possible recipient; and outputting information regarding the sales lead from the lead processing portion to the recipient of the sales lead for access and working of the sales lead by the recipient.

A system and method of intelligent navigation with collision avoidance for a vehicle is provided. The system includes a global positioning system and a vehicle navigation means in communication with the global positioning system. The system also includes a centrally located processor in communication with the navigation means, and an information database associated with the controller, for identifying a location of a first vehicle and a second vehicle. The system further includes an alert means for transmitting an alert message to the vehicle operator regarding a collision with a second vehicle. The method includes the steps of determining a geographic location of a first vehicle and a second vehicle within an environment using the global positioning system on the first vehicle and the global positioning system on the second vehicle, and modeling a collision avoidance domain of the environment of the first vehicle as a discrete state space Markov Decision Process. The methodology scales down the model of the collision avoidance domain, and determines an optimal value function and control policy that solves the scaled down collision avoidance domain. The methodology extracts a basis function from the optimal value function, scales up the extracted basis function to represent the unscaled domain, and determines an approximate solution to the control policy by solving the rescaled domain using the scaled up basis function. The methodology further uses the solution to determine if the second vehicle may collide with the first vehicle and transmits a message to the user notification device.

The present invention is a system and method for determining the hierarchical purchase decision process of consumers in front of a product category. The decision path of consumers is obtained by combining behavior data with the category layout and transaction data based on observed actual in-store purchase behavior using a set of video cameras and software for extracting sequence and timing of each consumer's decision process. A hierarchical decision tree structure comprises nodes and edges, wherein a node represents the state-of-mind of the consumer, the number of nodes is predefined, and an edge represents the transition of the decision. The decisions for each product group are captured down to the product attribute level and analyzed by demographic group. The outcome provides relative importance of each product attribute in the purchase decision process, and helps retailers and manufacturers to evaluate the layout of the category and customize it for key segment.

An ordnance system of the present invention may include or feature any one or more of: a control unit, one or more effectors (detonators, initiators, shaped charges and the like), and a two-, three- or four-wire communication bus between the control unit and the effectors; an addressable system in which all the effectors can be connected to the same communication bus and the control unit can issue coded signals on the bus addressed to a specific effector; inductive coupling between the effectors and the communication bus; and a multi-voltage level communication system in which communication signals are carried at a first voltage and arming signals are provided at a second, higher voltage. Other features may include two-way communication between effectors and the control unit and the de-centralization of firing control so that the control unit does not have exclusive control over whether the effectors function. As a result, the individual effectors possess decision-making ability and, for purposes of this invention, may be referred to as "intelligent" effectors. To participate in the decision-making process, effectors of this invention may be equipped with sensors or other diagnostic circuitry whose condition is checked for satisfactory output before functioning is permitted to occur.

A user interface for facilitating a decision making process, such as planning a trip. A unified view of various types of information related to an event may be provided. The unified view may be presented in a simulated three-dimensional environment having different types of information depicted on different windows. Different types of information related to a common event may be visually linked. A window showing a particular type of information may be brought into a focus view for closer inspection by a user. Alternative decisions may be depicted to permit vagueness or uncertainty, particularly at early iterations in the decision making process.

A configurable PSTN call-handling (CPC) service enables monitoring and custom responses to calls received over multiple subscriber lines associated with a user. A CPC Client Program runs on a computer and presents a graphical user interface (GUI) that allows the user to associate call-handling options with call characteristics, such as caller, date, or time. The GUI also allows the user to customize the notification signals provided and to provide custom responses to certain callers, by associating call characteristics with various GUI appearances, sound files, or images. The CPC relieves the communications network of performing certain call-handling functions, such as call forwarding, by moving decision-making processes to the user's PC. The user can remotely monitor any subscriber line associated with the user from any browser, because the communications network sends notifications directly to an IP address specified by the user, rather than to the IP address associated with the subscriber line.

Methods are provided that enable dispatchers in power grid control centers to manage changes. A comprehensive operating plan is provided with multiple, security constrained economic dispatch engines 1, 2 and 3. The scheduler engines are security constrained unit commitments and economic dispatch sequences with different look-ahead periods. The comprehensive operation plan is configured to integrate scheduler engines into a unified scheduling system. The comprehensive operating plan includes a repository of all operating plans in a multi-stage decision process.

The invention provides a mobile robot path planning algorithm based on single-chain sequential backtracking Q-learning. According to the mobile robot path planning algorithm based on the single-chain sequential backtracking Q-learning, a two-dimensional environment is expressed by using a grid method, each environment area block corresponds to a discrete location, the state of a mobile robot at some moment is expressed by an environment location where the robot is located, the search of each step of the mobile robot is based on a Q-learning iterative formula of a non-deterministic Markov decision process, progressively sequential backtracking is carried out from the Q value of the tail end of a single chain, namely the current state, to the Q value of the head end of the single chain until a target state is reached, the mobile robot cyclically and repeatedly finds out paths to the target state from an original state, the search of each step is carried out according to the steps, and Q values of states are continuously iterated and optimized until the Q values are converged. The mobile robot path planning algorithm based on the single-chain sequential backtracking Q-learning has the advantages that the number of steps required for optimal path searching is far less than that of a classic Q-learning algorithm and a Q(lambda) algorithm, the learning time is shorter, and the learning efficiency is higher; and particularly for large environments, the mobile robot path planning algorithm based on the single-chain sequential backtracking Q-learning has more obvious advantages.

The invention discloses an automatic-driving intelligent vehicle trajectory tracking control strategy based on deep reinforcement learning. For an intelligent vehicle automatic-driving task, accordingto an action-critics structure in a deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) algorithm, a double-action network is adopted to output a steering wheel angle command and a vehicle speed command. A main reviewer network is designed to guide the updating process of the double-action network, and the stragety specifically comprises the steps of describing an automatic driving task as a Markov decision process: < st,at,Rt, st +1 >; initializing a'double-action 'network in the improved DDPG algorithm by adopting a behavior cloning algorithm; pre-training a'reviewer 'network in the deep reinforcement learning DDPG algorithm; designing a training road containing various driving scenes to carry out reinforcement learning online training; and setting a new road to test the trained deep reinforcement learning (DRL) model. The control strategy is designed by simulating the human driving learning process, and automatic driving of the intelligent vehicle in the simple road environment is achieved.

A method and system for enabling interconnection of VPNs is disclosed. An interconnection device manages an interconnection process at one or more facilities including, for example, a gateway device. The gateway device has information relating to a plurality of VPNs, and may facilitate interconnection between devices on at least two of the VPNs by determining that one device is in fact a member of a first one of the VPNs, and by forwarding connection parameters of the first VPN to the second VPN on an as-needed basis. In this way, the gateway allows interconnection without the need for a completely centralized decision-making process, and does so independently of the type of device and / or VPN(s) being used. Moreover, the gateway may implement only those VPN parameters needed by both VPNs to communicate with one another with a desired level of security, thereby simplifying the routing and forwarding processes associated with the actual communication occurring via the interconnection. The information related to the plurality of VPNs and their respective member devices may be stored in a mapping table at the gateway, and identification parameters of a device seeking interconnection and / or associated VPN parameters may be verified by the use of digital certificates.