US6003020A
Expired / Lapsed
US
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Intelligent profiling system
Assignee: Sapient Health Network
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Filing: 1998-08-21
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Granted: 1999-12-14
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Expires: 2018-08-21
Abstract
Abstract An Intelligent Profiling Engine system contains a knowledge base and form base in which domain knowledge, forms, filters, rules, and clocks are represented. The system profiles users by presenting forms containing questions to users via multiple communication channels. Forms are selected based upon the results of utilizing filters, rules, and clocks to identify target populations of users. Filters, rules, and clocks also specify what information is important with respect to each user and how frequently information about each user must be refreshed. Liaisons present forms to users, store answers in a user data tank, and deliver benefits to users as a reward for answering questions. The system maximizes the utility of information gathered from users over time according to form weights. Thus, the invention is an automated profiling scheme.
Inventors
- 👤 Brian L. Hazlehurst
- 👤 Scott M. Burke
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
US
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-28 11:17
CPC Classifications
G; G16; G16H; G16H50/00; G16H50/20; G06; G06F; G06F9/00; G06F9/06; G06F9/44; G06F9/451; G16H10/00; G16H10/20; G16H15/00; Y; Y10; Y10S; Y10S706/00; Y10S706/902; Y10S706/924
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 37
Claim 1
Independent Claim
125 words
An intelligent profiling system, comprising: user data tanks retaining facts about profiling system users; multiple forms having a topic identifier for one or more questions and associated rules linking the facts about the users to the topic identifiers for the forms, the forms including different selectable weighting factors that automatically vary the importance of the forms according to user status in the intelligent profiling system and what context of information the user is currently accessing in the intelligent profiling system; a form base retaining the multiple forms; and an intelligent profiling engine selecting forms in the form base most relevant to the users and presenting the selected forms to the users according to the facts about the users and the rules associated with the forms.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
125 words
An intelligent profiling system, comprising: user data tanks retaining facts about profiling system users; multiple forms having a topic identifier for one or more questions and associated rules linking the facts about the users to the topic identifiers for the forms, the forms including different selectable weighting factors that automatically vary the importance of the forms according to user status in the intelligent profiling system and what context of information the user is currently accessing in the intelligent profiling system; a form base retaining the multiple forms; and an intelligent profiling engine selecting forms in the form base most relevant to the users and presenting the selected forms to the users according to the facts about the users and the rules associated with the forms.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
37 words
A system according to claim 1 wherein one of the different selectable weighting factors comprises a completeness factor that varies for individual forms according to a percentage of questions in the individual forms answered by the users.
Claim 4
Dependent Claim
44 words
A system according to claim 1 wherein one of the selectable weighting factors varies according to the context of information the users are currently accessing in the profiling system and how related the context of that information is to the questions in the forms.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
38 words
A system according to claim 1 including a liaison automatically querying the profiling engine for forms, presenting the forms to the users and storing answers by the users to the forms as facts in the user data tank.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
25 words
A system according to claim 1 including a knowledge based system used by the profiling engine for selecting which forms to present to the users.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
65 words
A system according to claim 5 wherein the knowledge based system includes the following: a knowledge base storing concepts and relationships between concepts for a particular domain of knowledge; and an inference engine mapping the user asserted facts in the user data tanks to the concepts in the knowledge base, the inference engine selectably enabled and disabled according to the rules associated with the forms.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
122 words
An intelligent profiling system, comprising: user data tanks retaining facts about profiling system users; multiple forms having a topic identifier for one or more questions and associated rules linking the facts about the users to the topic identifiers for the forms; a form base retaining the multiple forms; an intelligent profiling engine selecting forms in the form base most relevant to the users and presenting the selected forms to the users according to the facts about the users and the rules associated with the forms; and filters that produce lists of forms most applicable to each one of the users, the profiling engine using the rules in combination with the filters to select the forms presented to each one of the users.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
122 words
An intelligent profiling system, comprising: user data tanks retaining facts about profiling system users; multiple forms having a topic identifier for one or more questions and associated rules linking the facts about the users to the topic identifiers for the forms; a form base retaining the multiple forms; an intelligent profiling engine selecting forms in the form base most relevant to the users and presenting the selected forms to the users according to the facts about the users and the rules associated with the forms; and filters that produce lists of forms most applicable to each one of the users, the profiling engine using the rules in combination with the filters to select the forms presented to each one of the users.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
109 words
An intelligent profiling system, comprising: user data tanks retaining facts about profiling system users; multiple forms having a topic identifier for one or more questions and associated rules linking the facts about the users to the topic identifiers for the forms wherein the forms each include a clock parameter that determines how often the forms are presented to the users by the profiling engine; a form base retaining the multiple forms; and an intelligent profiling engine selecting forms in the form base most relevant to the users and presenting the selected forms to the users according to the facts about the users and the rules associated with the forms.
Claim 11
Dependent Claim
109 words
An intelligent profiling system, comprising: user data tanks retaining facts about profiling system users; multiple forms having a topic identifier for one or more questions and associated rules linking the facts about the users to the topic identifiers for the forms wherein the forms each include a clock parameter that determines how often the forms are presented to the users by the profiling engine; a form base retaining the multiple forms; and an intelligent profiling engine selecting forms in the form base most relevant to the users and presenting the selected forms to the users according to the facts about the users and the rules associated with the forms.
Claim 12
Dependent Claim
34 words
A system according to claim 8 wherein the clock parameter determines how often the forms are eligible for presentation to the users and how long the forms are ineligible for presentation to the users.
Claim 13
Dependent Claim
136 words
An intelligent profiling system, comprising: user data tanks retaining facts about profiling system users; multiple forms having a topic identifier for one or more questions and associated rules linking the facts about the users to the topic identifiers for the forms; a form base retaining the multiple forms; and an intelligent profiling engine selecting forms in the form base most relevant to the users and presenting the selected forms to the users according to the facts about the users and the rules associated with the forms; a liaison automatically querying the profiling engine for forms, presenting the forms to the users and storing answers by the users to the forms as facts in the user data tank, wherein the liaison provides incentives to the users to answer a maximum number of the questions in the forms.
Claim 14
Dependent Claim
136 words
An intelligent profiling system, comprising: user data tanks retaining facts about profiling system users; multiple forms having a topic identifier for one or more questions and associated rules linking the facts about the users to the topic identifiers for the forms; a form base retaining the multiple forms; and an intelligent profiling engine selecting forms in the form base most relevant to the users and presenting the selected forms to the users according to the facts about the users and the rules associated with the forms; a liaison automatically querying the profiling engine for forms, presenting the forms to the users and storing answers by the users to the forms as facts in the user data tank, wherein the liaison provides incentives to the users to answer a maximum number of the questions in the forms.
Claim 15
Dependent Claim
14 words
An intelligent profiling system according to claim 10 wherein the incentives comprise banner ads.
Claim 16
Independent Claim
110 words
A method for profiling users in an automated user profiling system, comprising: generating multiple forms each having one or more questions about associated topics; storing the multiple forms; retaining user facts from the users answering the questions in the forms; associating rules with each one of the multiple forms, the rules linking the user facts to the topics of the questions in the forms; and selecting forms most relevant to present to the users according to the user facts, the rules associated with the forms and a weighting factor that varies the importance of individual forms according to a percentage of the questions in the individual forms answered by users.
Claim 17
Independent Claim
110 words
A method for profiling users in an automated user profiling system, comprising: generating multiple forms each having one or more questions about associated topics; storing the multiple forms; retaining user facts from the users answering the questions in the forms; associating rules with each one of the multiple forms, the rules linking the user facts to the topics of the questions in the forms; and selecting forms most relevant to present to the users according to the user facts, the rules associated with the forms and a weighting factor that varies the importance of individual forms according to a percentage of the questions in the individual forms answered by users.
Claim 18
Dependent Claim
52 words
A method according to claim 12 including the following: associating clocks with at least some of the forms checking whether the clocks with forms indicate the forms are awake; presenting the forms in the form queue identified as being awake; and skipping presentation of forms having clocks indicating the forms as asleep.
Claim 19
Independent Claim
148 words
A method for profiling users in an automated user profiling system, comprising: generating multiple forms each having one or more questions about associated topics; storing the multiple forms; retaining user facts from the users answering the questions in the forms; associating rules with each one of the multiple forms, the rules linking the user facts to the topics of the questions in the forms; selecting forms most relevant to present to the users according to the user facts and the rules associated with the forms; generating filters for the multiple forms that associate categories of topics associated with the forms to the users; periodically applying the filters to the forms to generate a form-by-user matrix that lists the relevant users for the forms; inverting the form-by-user matrix to generate candidate form lists for the users; and presenting the forms to the users according to the candidate form lists.
Claim 20
Independent Claim
148 words
A method for profiling users in an automated user profiling system, comprising: generating multiple forms each having one or more questions about associated topics; storing the multiple forms; retaining user facts from the users answering the questions in the forms; associating rules with each one of the multiple forms, the rules linking the user facts to the topics of the questions in the forms; selecting forms most relevant to present to the users according to the user facts and the rules associated with the forms; generating filters for the multiple forms that associate categories of topics associated with the forms to the users; periodically applying the filters to the forms to generate a form-by-user matrix that lists the relevant users for the forms; inverting the form-by-user matrix to generate candidate form lists for the users; and presenting the forms to the users according to the candidate form lists.
Claim 21
Dependent Claim
79 words
A method according to claim 14 including the following: checking the candidate form lists for the users; executing the rules associated with the forms in the candidate form lists, the executed rules generating importance values for the forms with respect to the users; ranking the forms in the candidate form list according to the importance values; storing the ranked forms in form queues; and presenting the forms to the users according to the ranked order in the form queues.
Claim 22
Dependent Claim
55 words
A method according to claim 15 including the following: evaluating the rules associated with the forms stored in the form queue; removing forms in the form queue that are no longer indicated as relevant by the evaluated rules; and presenting the forms in the form queue that are indicated as still relevant to the user.
Claim 23
Dependent Claim
39 words
A method according to claim 16 wherein evaluating the rules comprise the following: checking whether forms having clocks are awake; presenting the forms in the form queue identified as being awake; and skipping presentation of forms identified as asleep.
Claim 24
Dependent Claim
82 words
A method according to claim 16 including the following: presenting forms to the user that exist in the user form queue; checking the candidate form list when the user form queue is empty; ranking the forms in the candidate form list according to the importance values; presenting the forms in the order of the ranked candidate form to the user; and presenting no forms to the user when there are no forms in the candidate form list or the user form queue.
Claim 25
Dependent Claim
122 words
Forms presented to a user in an intelligent profiling system, the forms comprising: a form ID identifying a topic associated with the form; one or more questions used for retrieving facts asserted by the user in response to the questions; a rule linking the asserted facts to the form ID, the forms presented to the user according to the rules that identify the relevance between the facts asserted by the user and the topics associated with the forms; and selectable weighting factors that are applied to vary the importance of the forms according to the context of information the user is currently accessing in the intelligent profiling system and how similar the context of information is to the questions in the forms.
Claim 26
Dependent Claim
122 words
Forms presented to a user in an intelligent profiling system, the forms comprising: a form ID identifying a topic associated with the form; one or more questions used for retrieving facts asserted by the user in response to the questions; a rule linking the asserted facts to the form ID, the forms presented to the user according to the rules that identify the relevance between the facts asserted by the user and the topics associated with the forms; and selectable weighting factors that are applied to vary the importance of the forms according to the context of information the user is currently accessing in the intelligent profiling system and how similar the context of information is to the questions in the forms.
Claim 27
Dependent Claim
36 words
Forms according to claim 18 wherein at least some of the forms include banner messages that vary according to user responses to questions in the forms and the context of information the user is currently accessing.
Claim 28
Independent Claim
111 words
A system for presenting forms to a user in an intelligent profiling system, the forms comprising: a form ID identifying a topic associated with the form; one or more questions used for retrieving facts asserted by the user in response to the questions; and a rule linking the asserted facts to the form ID, the forms presented to the user according to the rules that identify the relevance between the facts asserted by the user and the topics associated with the forms; and filters comprising lists of forms most applicable to each one of the users, the rules in combination with the filters determining which forms are presented to the user.
Claim 29
Independent Claim
111 words
A system for presenting forms to a user in an intelligent profiling system, the forms comprising: a form ID identifying a topic associated with the form; one or more questions used for retrieving facts asserted by the user in response to the questions; and a rule linking the asserted facts to the form ID, the forms presented to the user according to the rules that identify the relevance between the facts asserted by the user and the topics associated with the forms; and filters comprising lists of forms most applicable to each one of the users, the rules in combination with the filters determining which forms are presented to the user.
Claim 30
Dependent Claim
16 words
Forms according to claim 21 including a weight parameter that indicates the importance of the rules.
Claim 31
Dependent Claim
27 words
Forms according to claim 22 including a location factor that varies the weight parameter according to what information the user is currently accessing in the profiling system.
Claim 32
Dependent Claim
107 words
Forms presented to a user in an intelligent profiling system, the forms comprising: a form ID identifying topics associated with the forms; one or more questions used for retrieving facts asserted by the user in response to the questions; and a rule linking the asserted facts to the form ID, the forms presented to the user according to the rules that identify the relevance between the facts asserted by the user and the topics associated with the forms, wherein the forms include a completeness factor that varies the weight parameter for individual forms according to a percentage of questions in the individual forms answered by the users.
Claim 33
Dependent Claim
107 words
Forms presented to a user in an intelligent profiling system, the forms comprising: a form ID identifying topics associated with the forms; one or more questions used for retrieving facts asserted by the user in response to the questions; and a rule linking the asserted facts to the form ID, the forms presented to the user according to the rules that identify the relevance between the facts asserted by the user and the topics associated with the forms, wherein the forms include a completeness factor that varies the weight parameter for individual forms according to a percentage of questions in the individual forms answered by the users.
Claim 34
Dependent Claim
97 words
Forms presented to a user in an intelligent profiling system, the forms comprising: a form ID identifying a topic associated with the forms; one or more questions used for retrieving facts asserted by the user in response to the questions; a rule linking the asserted facts to the form ID, the forms presented to the user according to the rules that identify the relevance between the facts asserted by the user and the topics associated with the forms; and a clock parameter that determines how long and how often the forms should be presented to the user.
Claim 35
Dependent Claim
97 words
Forms presented to a user in an intelligent profiling system, the forms comprising: a form ID identifying a topic associated with the forms; one or more questions used for retrieving facts asserted by the user in response to the questions; a rule linking the asserted facts to the form ID, the forms presented to the user according to the rules that identify the relevance between the facts asserted by the user and the topics associated with the forms; and a clock parameter that determines how long and how often the forms should be presented to the user.
Claim 36
Dependent Claim
85 words
Forms presented to a user in an intelligent profiling system, the forms comprising: a form ID identifying a topic associated with the form; one or more questions used for retrieving facts asserted by the user in response to the questions; and a rule linking the asserted facts to the form ID, the forms presented to the user according to the rules that identify the relevance between the facts asserted by the user and the topics associated with the forms, wherein the forms comprise banner ads.
Claim 37
Dependent Claim
85 words
Forms presented to a user in an intelligent profiling system, the forms comprising: a form ID identifying a topic associated with the form; one or more questions used for retrieving facts asserted by the user in response to the questions; and a rule linking the asserted facts to the form ID, the forms presented to the user according to the rules that identify the relevance between the facts asserted by the user and the topics associated with the forms, wherein the forms comprise banner ads.
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USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
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| 7.5 Years (Year 8) | 2006-12-13 | 2007-06-14 | 2007-12-14 | $3760.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |
| 11.5 Years (Year 12) | 2010-12-13 | 2011-06-14 | 2011-12-14 | $7700.00 | Window Closed / Lapsed |