42640results about "Marketing" patented technology

A secure data interchange system enables information about bilateral and multilateral interactions between multiple persistent parties to be exchanged and leveraged within an environment that uses a combination of techniques to control access to information, release of information, and matching of information back to parties. Access to data records can be controlled using an associated price rule. A data owner can specify a price for different types and amounts of information access.

Robotic surgical tools, systems, and methods for preparing for and performing robotic surgery include a memory mounted on the tool. The memory can perform a number of functions when the tool is loaded on the tool manipulator: first, the memory can provide a signal verifying that the tool is compatible with that particular robotic system. Secondly, the tool memory may identify the tool-type to the robotic system so that the robotic system can reconfigure its programming. Thirdly, the memory of the tool may indicate tool-specific information, including measured calibration offsets indicating misalignment of the tool drive system, tool life data, or the like. This information may be stored in a read only memory (ROM), or in a nonvolatile memory which can be written to only a single time. The invention further provides improved engagement structures for coupling robotic surgical tools with manipulator structures.

A system for exchanging data includes a communication system, a first and a second party connected to the communication system, wherein each party has personal data, and each party has a disclosure policy to control dissemination of its data, and a secure intermediate party connected to the communication system, wherein the secure intermediate party exchanges data between the first and second parties in accordance with their respective disclosure policies.

PCT No. PCT / US95 / 15429 Sec. 371 Date Dec. 24, 1997 Sec. 102(e) Date Dec. 24, 1997 PCT Filed Nov. 29, 1995 PCT Pub. No. WO96 / 17467 PCT Pub. Date Jun. 6, 1996A system and method for scheduling the receipt of desired movies and other forms of data from a network, which simultaneously distributes many sources of such data to many customers, as in a cable television system. Customer profiles are developed for the recipient describing how important certain characteristics of the broadcast video program, movie, or other data are to each customer. From these profiles, an "agreement matrix" is calculated by comparing the recipient's profiles to the actual profiles of the characteristics of the available video programs, movies, or other data. The agreement matrix thus characterizes the attractiveness of each video program, movie, or other data to each prospective customer. "Virtual" channels are generated from the agreement matrix to produce a series of video or data programming which will provide the greatest satisfaction to each customer. Feedback paths are also provided so that the customer's profiles and / or the profiles of the video programs or other data may be modified to reflect actual usage, and so that the data downloaded to the customer's set top terminal may be minimized. Kiosks are also developed which assist customers in the selection of videos, music, books, and the like in accordance with the customer's objective profiles.

In one embodiment, the invention is a method and apparatus for annotating media streams. One embodiment of a method for facilitating creation of an annotated media stream by a user includes receiving the media stream from the user, mapping at least one item of supplemental content to at least a portion of the media stream to produce the annotated media stream, and storing the annotated media stream. In another embodiment, a method for distributing an annotated media stream provided by a user includes receiving the annotated media stream from the user, where the annotated media stream includes at least one item of supplemental content mapped to at least a portion of a media stream to produce the annotated media stream, storing the annotated media stream, receiving a request from a viewer to view the annotated media stream, and distributing the annotated media stream to the viewer. In another embodiment, a method for distributing an annotated media stream provided by a user includes distributing the annotated media stream to a viewer, where the annotated media stream includes at least one item of supplemental content mapped to at least a portion of a media stream to produce the annotated media stream, and collecting a commission when the annotated media stream is viewed by the viewer. In one embodiment, the collecting requires further action on a part of the viewer (such as selection of a hyperlink contained in the at least one item of supplemental content or consummation of a commercial transaction).

The relevance of advertisements to a user's interests is improved. In one implementation, the content of a web page is analyzed to determine a list of one or more topics associated with that web page. An advertisement is considered to be relevant to that web page if it is associated with keywords belonging to the list of one or more topics. One or more of these relevant advertisements may be provided for rendering in conjunction with the web page or related web pages.

A method of enabling anonymous Internet users to publish and manage extensive, non-identifying personal data, including demographic, psychographic, needs, wants, interests, propensities, means to purchase, credibility and other data which in turn, enables a marketplace wherein such users, advertisers, websites, and other third-parties can mutually benefit from the commercial exploitation of such data. Advertisers can directly use the data to segregate the users into highly differentiated anonymous audiences for the purposes of targeting them with individualized marketing campaigns and then monitor user responses in near real-time. Websites can individualize their content to the profiles of visiting users. Users can share surface and deep web links with other users having similar profiles. Consumers participating in good faith are proportionately rewarded via revenue sharing, which they may withdraw from the marketplace or use to purchase and rent digital content offered in the marketplace's micropayment-enabled storefronts by other users and third-party content providers.

An interactive and enhanced digital Instant Catalog of products, services, and information that is personalized or personally profiled, to each unique user of the catalog. The catalog instantly and intelligently captures, stores, manages, and processes self-selected, reusable and "re-distributable" catalog groupings anonymously, for personalizing, enhancing, monitoring, tracking, and peer sharing through multiple mediums and platforms by intelligent agents for a variety of user and vendor specified purposes. The personally profiled cataloged information can be viewed instantaneously and simultaneously by each effected component or member of a supply chain, at the time the product or service has been cataloged, without identifying the cataloger. The user, who preferably employs a Web browser over the Internet, personalizes the interactively produced intelligent catalog content. Products, services, and information groupings are digitally captured and stored by an intelligent catalog agent for enhanced personalized interaction and networking through a peer sharing network, or through an open catalog exchange. The user has the ability to create their own individualized world of products, services, and information that is contextually tailored to each user's unique environment in real-time. Web services hosted within a personal Extranet can anonymously assist and facilitate a context specific task or service insightfully and spontaneously. Through the selective cataloging of multi-vendor products, services, and information, a user is able to fully control, personalize, enhance and share, any lifestyle interest captured from ITV, print, the World Wide Web, businesses, and peers.

Systems, methods, apparatus, and / or computer program products for measuring if, when, how, and / or to what degree an user responds to an advertisement to enable an advertiser to produce an unique advertisement for the user and measure the effectiveness of advertisements through wireless and other media channels. The system enables an advertiser to measure the effectiveness of advertisements transmitted to the user through multiple media channels, including, but not limited to: television, radio, personal computer, billboard, magazines, newspapers, product package, and / or other wireless devices, as well as a wireless network. The system also incorporates static and / or dynamic information about the user and / or feedback from the user to produce dynamically an unique advertisement that increases and / or maximizes the probability of the user and comparable users buying the advertised product.

A cell phone is equipped with a 2D optical sensor, enabling a variety of applications. For example, such a phone may also be provided with a digital watermark decoder, permitting decoding of steganographic data on imaged objects. Movement of a phone may be inferred by sensing movement of an imaged pattern across the optical sensor's field of view, allowing use of the phone as a gestural input device through which a user can signal instructions to a computer-based process. A variety of other arrangements by which electronic devices can interact with the physical world are also detailed, e.g., involving sensing and responding to digital watermarks, bar codes, RFIDs, etc.

A system and method of interactive cataloging of products and services by end users across multiple sales and marketing channels provide each end user with access to domain-independent catalog data from a plurality of vendor organizations through a catalog server system. Anonymous end user cataloging actions of products and / or services across multiple manufacturing, distribution, and retailing channels create personalized profile instances that are based on stored vendor catalog profile templates in the catalog server system, and stored in the end user's personalized electronic catalog as pre-sale digital receipts. An end user's personalized electronic catalog(s) can be shared with peers using mutual agreement permissions as managed by the catalog server system. Pre-sale digital receipts are used to provide a safe, secure, and convenient method for modifying an end user's actionable cataloged items from a pre-sale status to purchased status when purchased and to provide a traceable audit trail for each cataloged item or purchased item in order to facilitate respective pre-sales channel activities and post-sales channel support and services.

A system and method for scheduling the receipt of desired movies and other forms of data from a network which simultaneously distributes many sources of such data to many customers, as in a cable television system. Customer profiles are developed for the recipient describing how important certain characteristics of the broadcast video program, movie or other data are to each customer. From these profiles, an "agreement matrix" is calculated by comparing the recipient's profiles to the actual profiles of the characteristics of the available video programs, movies, or other data. The agreement matrix thus characterizes the attractiveness of each video program, movie, or other data to each prospective customer. "Virtual" channels are generated from the agreement matrix to produce a series of video or data programming which will provide the greatest satisfaction to each customer. Feedback paths are also provided so that the customer's profiles and / or the profiles of the video programs or other data may be modified to reflect actual usage. Kiosks are also developed which assist customers in the selection of videos, music, books, and the like in accordance with the customer's objective profiles.

Embodiments of computer-implemented methods and systems are described, including: in a computer network system, providing a user page region viewable by a user; providing to the user, in the user page region, indicators of each of three categories, the categories consisting essentially of: (i) what the user has, (ii) what the user wants, and (c) what the user has thought or is thinking; wherein the user page region accepts a post by the user; after the post by the user, displaying the post in a group page region, viewable by a set of one of more persons other than the user, the set of persons being separated from the user at locations on a network; before the displaying, requiring the user to select one of the three categories to be associated with the post; and displaying the category selected by the user, with the post, in the group page region.

The present invention relates device, system and method for facilitating receiving active note(s) from active note(s) provider(s) from the client device and responding multidimensional active resources & actions(s) for said active note(s) by multidimensional active resources & actions(s) provider(s) to the client device. A real time and / or near real communication mechanism such as online, smart and mobile communication applications like web site, smart client, instant messaging, e-mail may be used to communicate with a client device and a community of responders or multidimensional active resources & actions(s) provider(s). One or more Active Note(s) are received from client devices, processed, and sent to responders. Responses from the responders are received, and response is sent to the client device.

The invention can enable monitoring of the display of content by a computer system. Moreover, the invention can enable monitoring of the displayed content to produce monitoring information from which conclusions may be deduced regarding the observation of the displayed content by an observer. The invention can also enable monitoring of the display at a content display site of content that is provided by a content provider site over a network to the content display site. Additionally, the invention can enable the expeditious provision of updated and / or tailored content over a network from a content provider site to a content display site so that the content provider's current and appropriately tailored content is always displayed at the content display site. Aspects of the invention related to transfer of content over a network are generally applicable to any type of network. However, it is contemplated that the invention can be particularly useful with a computer network, including private computer networks (e.g., America Online TM ) and public computer networks (e.g., the Internet). In particular, the invention can be advantageously used with computer networks or portions of computer networks over which video and / or audio content are transferred from one network site to another network site for observation, such as the World Wide Web portion of the Internet.

A system and method for conducting a multi-person, interactive auction, in a variety of formats, without using a human auctioneer to conduct the auction. The system is preferably implemented in software. The system allows a group of bidders to interactively place bids over a computer or communications network. Those bids are recorded by the system and the bidders are updated with the current auction status information. When appropriate, the system closes the auction from further bidding and notifies the winning bidders and losers as to the auction outcome.

Advertisers are permitted to put targeted ads on page on the web (or some other document of any media type). The present invention may do so by (i) obtaining content that includes available spots for ads, (ii) determining ads relevant to content, and / or (iii) combining content with ads determined to be relevant to the content.

A content-targeting ad system is provided with a user behavior (e.g., selection (e.g., click), conversion, etc.) feedback mechanism. The performance of individual ads, or groups of ads, may be tracked on a per document (e.g. per URL) and / or on a per host (e.g. per Website) basis. The performance of ad targeting functions may also be tracked on a per document, and / or per host basis. Such user behavior feedback data may be processed (e.g., aggregated) into useful data structures. Such user behavior feedback data (raw or processed) may then be used in a content-targeting ad system to improve ad quality, improve user experience, and / or maximize revenue.

The methods and systems described herein relate to online methods of collaboration in community environments. The methods and systems are related to an online apparel modeling system that allows users to have three-dimensional models of their physical profile created. Users may purchase various goods and / or services and collaborate with other users in the online environment.

A method, apparatus, computer readable medium, computer system, network, or system is provided for mobile and online payment systems for mobile and online promotions or offers or daily deal coupons or daily deal coupons aggregation provided using impressions tracking and analysis, location information, 2D and 3D mapping, social media, and user behavior and information for generating mobile and internet posted promotions or offers or daily deal coupons or daily deal coupons aggregation for, and / or sales of, products and / or services in a social network, online or via a mobile device-for mobile and web based promotions or offers that connect information and user behavior data to a user or related demographic location or user specified or predicted demographic location(s) for targeted promotions or offers for products and / or services in a social network, online or via a mobile device.

A comprehensive system effectuates global electronic commerce on the Internet across frontiers of nations, cultures, and languages. Referral Websites serving various locales offer Buyers the opportunity to view products for purchase. A Buyer selects categories of products for viewing by using drop-down menus that organize products into a clear taxonomy that can be expressed across all languages. Having selected a category of products for viewing, a Buyer receives, from a multi-version relational database, a version of marketing information about each product. The version is one automatically sent from the database to match the Buyer's language, culture, and nationality, as deduced from the use of a particular Referral Website. A shopping cart allows Buyers to select a product for purchase in an interactive way that encourages completion of the purchase. Products can be offered with custom options and in wholesale quantities. Personalized Web pages allow comprehensive customer service after a sale.

A time / location information delivery system that provides focused advertising and / or other information to individuals based on the time and their location. A wireless identification device is carried by an individual and can be read from or written to when the individual passes by interrogators in a specific geographic location. The detectors read ID information embedded in the wireless identification device. A computer uses the ID and location information to select, from a list of information providers, those information providers which provide information content identifiable or correlated to a location and / or time, and is of interest to the individual. The information content can be forwarded to the individual by a variety of information channels. One channel uses conventional Internet email to deliver advertisements and other information to the individual's Internet mailbox. The email can be delivered to a conventional PC, a portable computer, a PDA, an intelligent telephone, pager or other suitable device. For ease of discussion, a pager and a PDA will be referred to collectively as a PDA. The wireless identification device can be an RFID tag embedded in a card, or even a wireless telephone. The RFID tag is read or written to by fixed interrogators and the location of the wireless telephone is detected by triangulating information from cell towers or by embedding the GPS receiver in the wireless telephone thereby providing the location information directly from the telephone. Of course, other nearly identical location determination means, such as quadrangulation could also be used. The location determination can be performed through similar means with other devices such as PDAs, laptops, pagers, etc.

The present invention relates generally to a consumer interactive shopping and marketing system. The system includes a portable data terminal for communicating information over a communication network. The present system has aspects that may be used within a shopping establishment or at a user's home.

A method, apparatus, computer readable medium, computer system, wireless or wired network, or system to provide an online and / or mobile security of a user's privacy and / or security method of internet or mobile access or system, apparatus, computer readable medium, or system using encryption technologies and / or filters to access data, encrypt and / or decrypt data, sync data, secure data storage and / or process data using cloud technology across many different networks and / or fiber optic communications from an endpoint accessed through multiple devices, browsers, operating systems, networks, servers, storage, software, applications or services integrated in a public cloud or a private cloud within an enterprise, a social network, big data analytics or electronic surveillance tracking or some mashup of two or more to prevent the unauthorized collecting, tracking and / or analysis of a user's personal data by a third party and / or for generating relevant advertising, mobile, internet social messaging, internet posted promotions or offers for products and / or services.

A system and method for displaying digital media files with compulsory advertisement files is disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes a user interface, a media file decryptor, an ad manager, an intersplicer, and a media player. The user interface receives input from a user indicating the selection of media files to be presented. The media file decryptor receives and decrypts the selected media files. The ad manager receives and manages ad files from an ad file source. The intersplicer combines the media files with the ad files by providing control signals to the media player, causing the media player to present the ad files with the selected media files. Various embodiments of the invention facilitate the wide distribution of media content in a way that allows the free use of media properties, on demand, with direct consumer exchange capabilities, while at the same time enabling compensation to copyright holders.

Systems and methods of utilizing communications networks and multivariate analysis to predict or recommend optimal products from a predefined population of commercially available products are disclosed. The recommendations are based on intelligence contained in processing elements and subjective and / or objective product information received from consumers or input to the systems as part of their initial setup. The output of the systems comprise sets of products that they predict the consumer will prefer and / or perform well for the problem or concern identified by the consumer. The performance and preference predictions are a function of consumer problems and product responsiveness patterns. Objective product information is generally obtained with diagnostic instruments. Data measured with the diagnostic instruments may be communicated to the data processing portions of the invention via the Internet. The outputs of the data processing portion of the system may be presented to consumers via the Internet as well.

A system for conducting promotional campaigns for multiple types of electronic communications devices. The promotional campaigns may include advertising and marketing campaigns involving the use of one or more of surveys, interactive games, contests, sweepstakes, location-based promotions, and tie-ins with brick-and-mortar outlets. The invention provides a process for (1) creating a promotional campaign, (2) simultaneously publishing the promotional campaign to users via a plurality of types of electronic communications devices, and (3) making the results of the promotional campaign available to the creator of the promotional campaign via communications devices of the creator's choice. Users of the system select the types of advertising and marketing campaigns in which they would be interested in participating. User-provided demographic, location, user preferences, device permissions settings and other user profile information enables creators of promotional campaigns to precisely direct those campaigns to receptive audiences and precisely monitor the success of those campaigns.