87 results about "Wish list" patented technology

A computer system and method uses one or more virtual wish lists of one or more shoppers over a computer network. One process extracts information from online address books or other personal databases, and creates lists of recipients for whom a shopper wants to purchase products. A second process obtains virtual wish lists of recipients by observing their visits to online stores, and other online behavior. Recipients are asked for permission to make this data available to other shoppers, online stores, and other Web sites. Recipients can modify their virtual wish lists, and selectively approve of their use by other shoppers, etc. A third process creates shopping lists for the recipients, and generates lists of recommended products for shoppers to buy for intended recipients.

There is provided a wireless portable device for providing location-based data to a user in a defined geographical area including a plurality of points of interest, the wireless portable device comprising a wireless transmitter, a wireless receiver, and a display. The wireless transmitter can transmit location information to a wireless server over a wireless network. The wireless receiver can receive location-based data relating to a point of interest from the wireless server periodically and automatically, based on the location of the wireless portable device. By optimizing map routes and schedules using the location-based data and user preferences including wish lists, the wireless portable device can provide helpful recommendations via the display, enabling the user to plan an efficient schedule of activities in the defined geographical area optimized by walking distance, queue wait times, booking and arriving at reserved events, and / or by other user preferences.

A method for providing a user with merchant discount offers comprising obtaining a profile from the user; storing discount offers received from one or more merchants as data in a merchant database; comparing the profile of the user with the data in the merchant database to identify matches of discounts offered by the merchants that likely may be of interest to the user based on the user profile; creating a personalized shopping guide for the user which lists the matches; displaying the personalized shopping guide to the user; enabling the user to select one or more discount offers of interest from the personalized shopping guide; storing the selected discount offers of interest in a selection database accessible to the user; and enabling a merchant to identify the user and to gain access to the selection database at the point of sale. The merchant is preferably a mall based store. The method also enables a user to setup a “wish list” of selected items which are of interest to the user when a discount offer becomes available, and to notify the user when offers for the selected items become available.

Individuals, couples, and families subscribe to a computerized service for facilitating the arrangement of their outings and social meetings. Subscribers fill in wish-lists to specify their level of interest in specific attractions, in getting together with specific other subscribers, and in arranging their preferred schedules for outings. An encounter generator processes the subscriber wish-lists to identify matches of subscribers who are interested in the same attraction, who favor each other's company, and who are free at the same time. The system notifies the matched subscribers, optionally offering ticketing and / or reservation assistance. Partial matches are optionally referred to the respective subscribers for negotiating the unmatched schedule or attraction. The system is adaptable to serve singles who wish to identify and get to know a prospective mate through mutual visits to attractions, as well as individuals, couples, and families who want to go out with their existing friends or make new friends.

A mobile shopping decision agent application is disclosed. A wireless-enabled (e.g., WiFi) device that uses three or more routers to locate the exact position (e.g., aisle number, shelf, etc. in a store) of a user operating the wireless-enabled device to provide the user with assistance in shopping (e.g., comparison, order online, read technical specifications, read customer reviews, etc.) for a product, and allows the user to purchase the product on the spot from the merchant (or another competing merchant) direct from his / her account with a bank online or at the merchant POS / checkout. In addition, application also may use various social networking features (e.g., product recommendations from friends, recommendations from public at large, wish list, etc.) to enhance the customer's shopping experience.

A system for managing wish list items from a plurality of online merchants is provided. The system includes a memory, processor and item management module executed by the processor. The memory stores data regarding the wish list items that have been selected by a user while browsing online merchant websites. The item management module has a receive-advice feature that sends an electronic message to user-selected contacts. The electronic message contains a request for feedback on one or more selected items of interest. When the contacts submit feedbacks, they are stored in the memory for viewing by the user.

An Internet based gift registry service allowing members to post events to a calendar and / or a list and create wish lists associated with those events. Members may create or join password protected gift-exchange groups, where they may share group-specific events and wish lists. Each member is provided with a personal calendar of events, which is automatically updated with group events to which the members belongs. A member may add event reminders to his / her calendar, which are viewable by all members, or private reminders viewable only by that member. Members may also exclude other groups and group members from viewing and accessing events and their associated wish lists at the time the event is entered. A message center is provided allowing members to exchange messages and a shopping forum is available for purchasing gifts online.

A shopping basket system includes a shopping basket component and a wish or gift list component. The functionality of the shopping basket system may be invoked via a graphical image, such as an icon, on a web browser or a desktop of the client computer. The user may browse registered sites on the Internet and drag and drop products into the user's shopping basket. All products may then be purchased concurrently regardless of the site that the product was found. The drag and drop capability is provided by the programmability of the shopping basket. A common schema can be employed for describing items (e.g., products and services) to be purchased from registered sites. In one aspect of the invention the common schema is provided in the eXtensible Markup Language (XML). The shopping basket system is provided with a search engine for searching for products on a user's wish or gift list over the Internet. The search results are provided to the user, which can be added to the user's shopping basket list. In one aspect of the invention, the shopping basket system is programmable, such that any application program may access a user's shopping basket system and add items to the user's shopping basket based on items found in a user's wish list.

A method and associated system is provided for providing an interactive checklist and collaborative shopping session. The method includes displaying desired items on an interactive checklist. A primary user may designate which users can view specific items and should purchase specific items. The method also includes the option for the primary user to send an email to a secondary user with information, extracted from a checklist or registry, with a wish list of items that the recipient can buy with a click to a shopping cart. The primary user may also initiate a real-time or static collaborative shopping session where multiple users can suggest, comment on and purchase items. The primary user may “return” a gift item before the item is shipped and receive credit or cash.

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.

Discount processing auction methods and systems are provided where buyers pool their purchasing power in order to get more competitive offers from sellers. Instead of sellers directly bidding for the buyer's shopping lists, the sellers update their discount rules and a discount processing method processes the sellers' latest discount rules and presents the results to the buyers while the auction is active. Buyers dynamically form a group and invite others to join the group to increase their purchasing power and maximize the discounts. Customers can form a social network with other buyers to share wish-lists, shopping carts, and discount scenarios. Consumers who commit to buy a total number of items over a period of time increase their effective purchasing power across time. Sellers also group together to offer higher total discount on a combination of items to buyers.

Embodiments of the invention include a merchant offer program application, which is downloaded onto or accessed through a customer computer, and that works in connection with the customer's accounts at an institution. The merchant offer program application monitors the content in which the customer is interested (i.e. through account transaction history, wish list, website content, etc.). The merchant offer program provides offers that are available for the product in which the customer is interested on an interface, such as an online banking transaction history interface. The offers are associated with the same, similar, or related products to the products associated with the transactions listed on the interface. The customer may select the offer and have the offer (i.e. discount) applied automatically when the customer enters a transaction for the product associated with the offer in the future.

The invention relates to electronic commerce and specifically to a method of adding desired product from various online stores to a single online third-party universal product registry used to provide services such as online gift registries, wish lists and online product catalogs. Prevalent techniques to add product information from any online store to a single registry has following deficiencies: 1. Precise information of the product e.g. image, price, and description cannot be captured. 2. To get this precise information, it requires software-programming integration with every online store making it impractical. This also necessitates the use of prime real estate on every merchant store, which they may not offer. The invention solves these deficiencies with a small software that works in conjunction with prevalent Internet Browsers by providing a simple one-click interface on the product image to record the image, description and price of the product to a single registry.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for connecting wish lists to users, thus making wish lists accessible to such user attributes as buddy lists, or the equivalent. The invention attaches a wish list to an instant messaging name and therefore makes it available to all persons on the user's buddy list. In a further embodiment of the invention, the wish list is attached to an account, such as a wallet. As a result, various conveniences are provided. For example, a member of the user's buddy list can give a gift to the user from the wish list; a group can contribute incrementally to the giving of a gift to the user; an individual can add incremental amounts to his or her wish list to pay for an item on time (as a type of layaway); and relatives and friends can give gifts that they know will be appreciated because the gifts are on the user's wish list.

An apparatus and method for managing inter-personal activities to facilitate matchmaking between single individuals, by instructing each individual what to do and with whom during a series of game sessions. Singles join a forum in which a plurality of activities contained in a database are individually assigned to participants, who confidentially express their preferences for specific activities and for other participants with whom to conduct activities. Expressed preferences are not disclosed to other individuals, but are input to a secure computer system that assigns the activities. Participants' wish-lists influence assignments made by the computer, and random factors provide variety and protect privacy by obscuring the effect of the wish-lists. After each assignment, participants can update their wish-list to affect further assignments.

Leisure & entertainment attraction information is available from commercial attraction-provider servers. Users subscribe to a computerized service to facilitate making arrangements for visiting such attractions. Subscribers fill in wish-lists to specify their level of interest in specific attractions, in getting together with specific other subscribers, and in arranging their preferred schedules for outings. An encounter generator processes the subscriber wish-lists to identify matches of subscribers who are interested in the same attraction, who favor each other's company, and who are free at the same time. The system notifies the matched subscribers, optionally offering ticketing and / or reservation assistance. The system is adaptable for serving singles who wish to identify and get to know a prospective mate through mutual visits to attractions, as well as individuals, couples, and families who want to go out with their existing friends or make new friends.

Individuals, couples, and families subscribe to a computerized service for facilitating the arrangement of their outings and social meetings. Subscribers fill in wish-lists to specify their level of interest in specific attractions, in getting together with specific other subscribers, and in arranging their preferred schedules for outings. An encounter generator processes the subscriber wish-lists to identify matches of subscribers who are interested in the same attraction, who favor each other's company, and who are free at the same time. The system notifies the matched subscribers, optionally offering ticketing and / or reservation assistance. Partial matches are optionally referred to the respective subscribers for negotiating the unmatched schedule or attraction. The system is adaptable to serve singles who wish to identify and get to know a prospective mate through mutual visits to attractions, as well as individuals, couples, and families who want to go out with their existing friends or make new friends.

A system (10), apparatus (12) and method (40) for providing content channels to end users based on end user wish lists. The method includes a domain channel manager apparatus accessing a plurality of end user wish lists maintained at end user devices, such as end user residential gateways and home servers. The domain channel manager accesses the plurality of wish lists and aggregates the wish list items, organizing and ranking the wish list items if necessary. Based on the aggregated wish list items from the plurality of end users, the domain channel manager retrieves content from all available content sources, such as content providers and existing content repositories. The domain channel manager creates content channels based on the retrieved content and offers those content channels to end users whose preferences match the content of the particular channel offered.

A method and apparatus is disclosed that provides an Internet wish list for deferred purchasing. A user clicks on an add to wish list button located on locations, such as, a product page, a banner ad, or search results to add an item to the wish list. A reminder system is used to remind a user to purchase an item at a future time. The shopping list service may be integrated at a high level of integration and a low level of integration. On a low level of integration a proxy platform is used to add functionality to a website.

A device and a method for sharing resources in a network of peers are disclosed. A user may compile a wish list (420) of programs to be recorded on a recording device (400) that is a peer in the network. A resource list (421) is compiled of resources that the device shares within the network. The wish list and resource list are communicated to a coordinator (440) comprised within the network. The coordinator makes assignments of who records what and communicates an assignment list (422) to each peer. Each peer plans (405) and executes (407) the assigned recordings, which can be retrieved from a peer (410), or sent to the user device. Deletion control is applied to prevent the loss of recordings by deletion on a local peer. The coordinator may be comprised within a peer, as a standalone service within the network or implemented as a distributed algorithm between the peers.

An electronic item list system and method, such as a wish or gift list, for an electronic shopping mall / online shopping portal, or an item list system provided as a software service. The system and method provides a user with the ability to create a list of items that the user would like others to purchase for the user as a gift or as a list of items that the user would like to retain for a later purchase. A user interface is provided that allows the user to select items electronically to add to a user specific gift list. The items are not limited to specific products, but can include general product categories and / or products from a specific merchant or manufacturer. The user interface communicates through an interface component that extracts data from a number of databases. For example, the databases can include a merchant database, an offers database, a manufacturers database and a products database. The interface will extract data from one or all of the databases based on the amount of information in a gift list request and provide the best results. As records are removed from the databases, the interface allows for graceful degradation of the display, such that something is always displayed to the user.

An electronic bartering system which associates each user with at least one community and enables users to create their own communities. Each user can specify at least one barterable item in a wish list and at least one barterable item in a trade list. Within a given community, the system periodically compares the wish lists and trade lists only of users within the community in order to identify a trade match. When a match is identified, an e-mail message is sent to users advising of the trade match. The system also receives confirmation from the users accepting or rejecting the trade match.

A system and method is described where an advertising server targets store coupon advertisements to people carrying wireless devices. In some embodiments the advertisement server tracks the position of several of its subscribed members in an area. The server then computes statistical measures, dynamically generates nearby store discount deals that match subgroups of the members or uses pre-existing deals from nearby stores, and forwards the deal advertisements to the wireless devices of the members. The advertised deals involve one or more items from the same store or multiple items from different stores. The members then use ad-hoc networking to build spontaneous social networks, advertise the deals to nearby shoppers, and get referral rewards. The advertising server also provides a portal shopping network web site where shoppers can search for deals, post their shopping / wish lists and deal referrals, and use forums to discuss products and stores.

A user terminal device including a display, a sensor configured to detect a user input on the display, a controller configured to extract objects displayed within an area on the display indicated by the user input on the display and add the objects to a wish list, and a memory configured to store the wish list. The user terminal device executes a method for providing an electronic shopping service, the method including receiving a user input at a user terminal device, determining a selection area on a screen of the user terminal device corresponding to the user input, determining a shopping object within the selection area, extracting information of the shopping object within the selection area, and adding the information to a wish list.

Embodiments of the invention include systems, methods, and computer-program products that provide for a unique directional wayfinding system. In one embodiment of the invention, products are received from the user, such as a shopping list or wish list. The system determines the location of the user, determines the location of the product in the business, determines a route from the user to the product, and provides instructions to the user along the route. In an embodiment, the system identifies and / or confirms the product when the user reaches the product. In at least one embodiment, the systems, methods, and computer-program products provide functionality for the visually-impaired to assist in everyday shopping for products in businesses.

Systems herein relate to acquiring shopper insights from home product use and influencing shoppers to make additional future purchases of products. Further, the invention relates to electronically communicating with the shopper at the second moment of truth to provide the shopper with one or more influential messages including, but not limited to product information, e-coupons, discounts, surveys, ingredients, ingredient suggestions, recipe suggestions, entertaining, consumer reports, shopping list suggestions, wish list suggestions, and inventory list suggestions.

Novel tools and techniques are provided for providing and operating a federated e-commerce network. In some embodiments, a standard database is provided for local providers, stores, or retailers to automatically reflect their supply levels and price in order to facilitate providing a national-level or international-level type e-commerce experience for the local providers, stores, or retailers. A website might be established or maintained that provides local retailers with control over sale of items, while allowing customers to search and purchase items listed in a consolidated inventory list compiling inventory information from databases associated with two or more local retailers in the federated e-commerce network. Customers may also be provided with options to create, modify, or delete wish lists, hate lists, and / or gift lists. Ads may automatically be generated based on one or more of viewing or buying patterns, the wish lists, the hate lists, or gift lists associated with each customer.