FIELD OF DISCLOSURE
[0001] The present disclosure relates to systems and methods of ranking an entity based
on sharing of experiences relating to the entity by one or more user nodes.
BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE
[0002] The background description includes information that may be useful in
understanding the present invention. It is not an admission that any of the information provided
herein is prior art or relevant to the presently claimed invention, or that any publication
specifically or implicitly referenced is prior art.
[0003] Internet has changed forever how business is done. Users can instantly purchase a
myriad of products and services and have many avenues of receiving information and advise on
what they intend to purchase.
[0004] Present systems however have no way of ensuring that
recommendations/feedback/comments they provide are trustworthy and of relevance to a user
since they allow anyone to create such recommendations, feedback, comments, collectively
referred to as experiences hereinafter. The challenge of finding users who are trustworthy is all
the more in entities such as fashion or any other product where trends change very fast and what
is “in fashion” today could be “passé,” tomorrow.
[0005] There is therefore a need in the art, hence, for systems and methods that can
enable recommendations and experiences of only trustworthy users to influence consumer
behavior. These systems and methods should also be able to incorporate experiences and views
of those “who matter” for an entity/product/service for their recommendations to carry some
weight with a prospective customer.
[0006] All publications herein are incorporated by reference to the same extent as if each
individual publication or patent application were specifically and individually indicated to be
incorporated by reference. Where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is
inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term
provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply.
3
[0007] In some embodiments, the numbers expressing quantities or dimensions of items,
and so forth, used to describe and claim certain embodiments of the invention are to be
understood as being modified in some instances by the term “about.” Accordingly, in some
embodiments, the numerical parameters set forth in the written description and attached claims
are approximations that can vary depending upon the desired properties sought to be obtained by
a particular embodiment. In some embodiments, the numerical parameters should be construed
in light of the number of reported significant digits and by applying ordinary rounding
techniques. Notwithstanding that the numerical ranges and parameters setting forth the broad
scope of some embodiments of the invention are approximations, the numerical values set forth
in the specific examples are reported as precisely as practicable. The numerical values presented
in some embodiments of the invention may contain certain errors necessarily resulting from the
standard deviation found in their respective testing measurements.
[0008] As used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the
meaning of “a,” “an,” and “the” includes plural reference unless the context clearly dictates
otherwise. Also, as used in the description herein, the meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on”
unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
[0009] The recitation of ranges of values herein is merely intended to serve as a
shorthand method of referring individually to each separate value falling within the range.
Unless otherwise indicated herein, each individual value is incorporated into the specification as
if it were individually recited herein. All methods described herein can be performed in any
suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context.
The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g. “such as”) provided with respect to
certain embodiments herein is intended merely to better illuminate the invention and does not
pose a limitation on the scope of the invention otherwise claimed. No language in the
specification should be construed as indicating any non-claimed element essential to the practice
of the invention.
[00010] Groupings of alternative elements or embodiments of the invention disclosed
herein are not to be construed as limitations. Each group member can be referred to and claimed
individually or in any combination with other members of the group or other elements found
herein. One or more members of a group can be included in, or deleted from, a group for reasons
of convenience and/or patentability. When any such inclusion or deletion occurs, the
4
specification is herein deemed to contain the group as modified thus fulfilling the written
description of all groups used in the appended claims.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
[00011] Some of the objects of the present disclosure, which at least one embodiment
herein satisfies are as listed herein below.
[00012] It is an object of the present disclosure to provide a system and a method to
determine desirability of an entity based on experiences of different user nodes that are part of a
trusted network of the owner (i.e. the user node that has listed/or owns/distributes the entity) of
the entity.
[00013] It is an object of the present disclosure to provide a system and a method that
integrates reviews of expert user nodes to determine desirability of an entity.
[00014] It is an object of the present disclosure to provide a system and a method that
provides for ongoing engagement with prospective customer user nodes of an entity.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[00015] The present disclosure relates to systems and methods of ranking an entity based
on sharing of experiences relating to the entity by one or more user nodes.
[00016] In an aspect, the present disclosure relates to an experience based entity ranking
system comprising: a non-transitory storage device having embodied therein one or more
routines operable to receive and process experiences of one or more user nodes of a network for
an entity of/listed by an entity owner node; and one or more processors coupled to the nontransitory
storage device and operable to execute the one or more routines, wherein the one or
more routines can include: an entity configuration module, which when executed by the one or
more processors, configures the entity on a platform that is accessible to the one or more user
nodes, wherein the one or more user nodes form part of the network of the entity owner node,
and wherein the network is configured in a hierarchical tree having child nodes and parent nodes;
a user network based entity experience request engine, which when executed by the one or more
processors, requests the one or more user nodes of the network to transmit their experience
relating to the entity; a network nodes based entity experience receive engine, which when
executed by the one or more processors, receives the experience relating to the entity from a
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plurality of user nodes that form part of the one or more user nodes; and an aggregate experience
processing based entity ranking engine, which when executed by the one or more processors,
ranks the entity in a list of similar entities based on the received experience from the plurality of
user nodes.
[00017] In another aspect, the request transmitted from the user network based entity
experience request engine can be initially sent to immediate child nodes of the entity owner
node.
[00018] In yet another aspect, the immediate child nodes can further transmit the request
to their respective child nodes.
[00019] In another aspect, the proposed system can further include an entity based expert
determination and review engine, which when executed by the one or more processors, requests
at least one expert node to be determined from the network based on at least the entity, and
enables the determined at least one expert node to review the entity.
[00020] In yet another aspect, the aggregate experience processing based entity ranking
engine can rank the entity based on the review.
[00021] In an aspect, the entity can be any or a combination of a product or a service.
[00022] In another aspect, the network can be a social network.
[00023] In yet another aspect, the experience can be any or a combination of a vote for the
entity, comment on the entity, experience after using/interacting with the entity, and feedback on
the entity.
[00024] In an aspect, a method for network based entity recommendation is proposed,
proposed method comprising steps of configuring, by a processor of a computing system, an
entity on a platform that is accessible to one or more user nodes, wherein the one or more user
nodes form part of a network of an entity owner node that owns the entity, and wherein the
network is configured in a hierarchical tree having child nodes and parent nodes; requesting,
from the computing system, the one or more user nodes of the network to transmit their
experience relating to the entity; receiving, at the computing system, the experience relating to
the entity from a plurality of user nodes that form part of the one or more user nodes; and
ranking the entity, at the computing device, in a list of similar entities based on the received
experience from the plurality of user nodes.
6
[00025] In another aspect, proposed method can further include the step of requesting at
least one expert node to be determined from the network based on at least the entity, and
enabling the determined at least one expert node to review the entity.
[00026] In an aspect, technical effect/contribution of the instant invention lies in using
hierarchically arranged user nodes of a network to share their experiences of an entity, wherein
the network is of the owner of the entity, which enables the experience seeking request to be
shared in a single iteration to multiple levels of the network starting with the first level connected
nodes. Such request transmission for experience sharing enables exponential requests being sent
across a very short time (automatically or semi-automatically) to multiple user nodes that are
either immediate child user nodes of the entity owner or are child nodes of the first level child
nodes. It would be appreciated that first level child nodes of the entity owner user node (also
referred to as “entity owner” or “entity owner node”) are also referred to as immediate child
nodes of the entity owner node. It is further to be appreciated that technical contribution further
lies in storing user nodes in a hierarchical tree format in memory, access to which makes optimal
resource consumption in terms of number of requests that need to sent to different user nodes for
experience sharing.
[00027] Various objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present disclosure will
become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, along
with the accompanying drawing figures in which like numerals represent like features.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
[00028] The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of
the present disclosure, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The
drawings illustrate exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure and, together with the
description, serve to explain the principles of the present disclosure. The diagrams are for
illustration only, which thus is not a limitation of the present disclosure, and wherein:
[00029] FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary architecture of the proposed system to illustrate its
overall working in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
[00030] FIG. 2 illustrates exemplary functional modules of the proposed system in
accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
7
[00031] FIG. 3 illustrates a network configured as a hierarchical tree having child nodes
and parent nodes in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
[00032] FIG. 4 illustrates example of an entity interface in accordance with an exemplary
embodiment of the present disclosure.
[00033] FIG.5 illustrates example of an experiences interface for a configured/listed entity
in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
[00034] FIG. 6 illustrates a method of working of system proposed, in accordance with an
exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[00035] The following is a detailed description of embodiments of the disclosure depicted
in the accompanying drawings. The embodiments are in such detail as to clearly communicate
the disclosure. However, the amount of detail offered is not intended to limit the anticipated
variations of embodiments; on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications,
equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as
defined by the appended claims.
[00036] In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to
provide a thorough understanding of embodiments of the present invention. It will be apparent to
one skilled in the art that embodiments of the present invention may be practiced without some
of these specific details.
[00037] Embodiments of the present invention include various steps, which will be
described below. The steps may be performed by hardware components or may be embodied in
machine-executable instructions, which may be used to cause a general-purpose or specialpurpose
processor programmed with the instructions to perform the steps. Alternatively, steps
may be performed by a combination of hardware, software, and firmware and/or by human
operators.
[00038] Embodiments of the present invention may be provided as a computer program
product, which may include a machine-readable storage medium tangibly embodying thereon
instructions, which may be used to program a computer (or other electronic devices) to perform a
process. The machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, fixed (hard) drives,
magnetic tape, floppy diskettes, optical disks, compact disc read-only memories (CD-ROMs),
8
and magneto-optical disks, semiconductor memories, such as ROMs, PROMs, random access
memories (RAMs), programmable read-only memories (PROMs), erasable PROMs (EPROMs),
electrically erasable PROMs (EEPROMs), flash memory, magnetic or optical cards, or other
type of media/machine-readable medium suitable for storing electronic instructions (e.g.,
computer programming code, such as software or firmware).
[00039] Various methods described herein may be practiced by combining one or more
machine-readable storage media containing the code according to the present invention with
appropriate standard computer hardware to execute the code contained therein. An apparatus for
practicing various embodiments of the present invention may involve one or more computers (or
one or more processors within a single computer) and storage systems containing or having
network access to computer program(s) coded in accordance with various methods described
herein, and the method steps of the invention could be accomplished by modules, routines,
subroutines, or subparts of a computer program product.
[00040] If the specification states a component or feature “may”, “can”, “could”, or
“might” be included or have a characteristic, that particular component or feature is not required
to be included or have the characteristic.
[00041] As used in the description herein and throughout the claims that follow, the
meaning of “a,” “an,” and “the” includes plural reference unless the context clearly dictates
otherwise. Also, as used in the description herein, the meaning of “in” includes “in” and “on”
unless the context clearly dictates otherwise.
[00042] Exemplary embodiments will now be described more fully hereinafter with
reference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments are shown. These
exemplary embodiments are provided only for illustrative purposes and so that this disclosure
will be thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those of
ordinary skill in the art. The invention disclosed may, however, be embodied in many different
forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Various
modifications will be readily apparent to persons skilled in the art. The general principles defined
herein may be applied to other embodiments and applications without departing from the spirit
and scope of the invention. Moreover, all statements herein reciting embodiments of the
invention, as well as specific examples thereof, are intended to encompass both structural and
functional equivalents thereof. Additionally, it is intended that such equivalents include both
9
currently known equivalents as well as equivalents developed in the future (i.e., any elements
developed that perform the same function, regardless of structure). Also, the terminology and
phraseology used is for the purpose of describing exemplary embodiments and should not be
considered limiting. Thus, the present invention is to be accorded the widest scope encompassing
numerous alternatives, modifications and equivalents consistent with the principles and features
disclosed. For purpose of clarity, details relating to technical material that is known in the
technical fields related to the invention have not been described in detail so as not to
unnecessarily obscure the present invention.
[00043] Thus, for example, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that
the diagrams, schematics, illustrations, and the like represent conceptual views or processes
illustrating systems and methods embodying this invention. The functions of the various
elements shown in the figures may be provided through the use of dedicated hardware as well as
hardware capable of executing associated software. Similarly, any switches shown in the figures
are conceptual only. Their function may be carried out through the operation of program logic,
through dedicated logic, through the interaction of program control and dedicated logic, or even
manually, the particular technique being selectable by the entity implementing this invention.
Those of ordinary skill in the art further understand that the exemplary hardware, software,
processes, methods, and/or operating systems described herein are for illustrative purposes and,
thus, are not intended to be limited to any particular named element.
[00044] Each of the appended claims defines a separate invention, which for infringement
purposes is recognized as including equivalents to the various elements or limitations specified
in the claims. Depending on the context, all references below to the "invention" may in some
cases refer to certain specific embodiments only. In other cases it will be recognized that
references to the "invention" will refer to subject matter recited in one or more, but not
necessarily all, of the claims.
[00045] All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless
otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all
examples, or exemplary language (e.g., “such as”) provided with respect to certain embodiments
herein is intended merely to better illuminate the invention and does not pose a limitation on the
scope of the invention otherwise claimed. No language in the specification should be construed
as indicating any non-claimed element essential to the practice of the invention.
10
[00046] Various terms as used herein are shown below. To the extent a term used in a
claim is not defined below, it should be given the broadest definition persons in the pertinent art
have given that term as reflected in printed publications and issued patents at the time of filing.
[00047] The present disclosure relates to systems and methods of ranking an entity based
on sharing of experiences relating to the entity by one or more user nodes.
[00048] In an aspect, the present disclosure relates to an experience based entity ranking
system comprising: a non-transitory storage device having embodied therein one or more
routines operable to receive and process experiences of one or more user nodes of a network for
an entity of/listed by an entity owner node; and one or more processors coupled to the nontransitory
storage device and operable to execute the one or more routines, wherein the one or
more routines can include: an entity configuration module, which when executed by the one or
more processors, configures the entity on a platform that is accessible to the one or more user
nodes, wherein the one or more user nodes form part of the network of the entity owner node,
and wherein the network is configured in a hierarchical tree having child nodes and parent nodes;
a user network based entity experience request engine, which when executed by the one or more
processors, requests the one or more user nodes of the network to transmit their experience
relating to the entity; a network nodes based entity experience receive engine, which when
executed by the one or more processors, receives the experience relating to the entity from a
plurality of user nodes that form part of the one or more user nodes; and an aggregate experience
processing based entity ranking engine, which when executed by the one or more processors,
ranks the entity in a list of similar entities based on the received experience from the plurality of
user nodes.
[00049] In another aspect, the request transmitted from the user network based entity
experience request engine can be initially sent to immediate child nodes of the entity owner
node.
[00050] In yet another aspect, the immediate child nodes can further transmit the request
to their respective child nodes.
[00051] In another aspect, the proposed system can further include an entity based expert
determination and review engine, which when executed by the one or more processors, requests
at least one expert node to be determined from the network based on at least the entity, and
enables the determined at least one expert node to review the entity.
11
[00052] In yet another aspect, the aggregate experience processing based entity ranking
engine can rank the entity based on the review.
[00053] In an aspect, the entity can be any or a combination of a product or a service.
[00054] In another aspect, the network can be a social network.
[00055] In yet another aspect, the experience can be any or a combination of a vote for the
entity, comment on the entity, experience after using/interacting with the entity, and feedback on
the entity.
[00056] In an aspect, a method for network based entity recommendation is proposed,
proposed method comprising steps of configuring, by a processor of a computing system, an
entity on a platform that is accessible to one or more user nodes, wherein the one or more user
nodes form part of a network of an entity owner node that owns the entity, and wherein the
network is configured in a hierarchical tree having child nodes and parent nodes; requesting,
from the computing system, the one or more user nodes of the network to transmit their
experience relating to the entity; receiving, at the computing system, the experience relating to
the entity from a plurality of user nodes that form part of the one or more user nodes; and
ranking the entity, at the computing device, in a list of similar entities based on the received
experience from the plurality of user nodes.
[00057] In another aspect, proposed method can further include the step of requesting at
least one expert node to be determined from the network based on at least the entity, and
enabling the determined at least one expert node to review the entity.
[00058] In an aspect, technical effect/contribution of the instant invention lies in using
hierarchically arranged user nodes of a network to share their experiences of an entity, wherein
the network is of the owner of the entity, which enables the experience seeking request to be
shared in a single iteration to multiple levels of the network starting with the first level connected
nodes. Such request transmission for experience sharing enables exponential requests being sent
across a very short time (automatically or semi-automatically) to multiple user nodes that are
either immediate child user nodes of the entity owner or are child nodes of the first level child
nodes. It would be appreciated that first level child nodes of the entity owner user node (also
referred to as “entity owner” or “entity owner node”) are also referred to as immediate child
nodes of the entity owner node. It is further to be appreciated that technical contribution further
lies in storing user nodes in a hierarchical tree format in memory, access to which makes optimal
12
resource consumption in terms of number of requests that need to sent to different user nodes for
experience sharing.
[00059] Various objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present disclosure will
become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, along
with the accompanying drawing figures in which like numerals represent like features.
[00060] FIG. 1 illustrates architecture of system proposed to illustrate its overall working,
in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
[00061] As illustrated in FIG. 1, proposed experience based entities ranking system 110
(hereinafter interchangeably termed as system) can be configured in a computing device that is
accessible by other computing devices using any network technology known in the art such as
LAN, WAN, Bluetooth, Internet etc. In an exemplary embodiment elaborated herein, proposed
system can be operatively coupled with a website to enable features as elaborated.
[00062] In an aspect, proposed system can enable access to information regarding various
features of various entities, wherein an entity can be any or a combination of a product and a
service.
[00063] In various exemplary embodiments, entities can be various products and services
or combinations thereof such as but not limited to consumer goods such as Television,
refrigerator and the like, soft goods such as fashion goods, bags, cloths and the like, computing
devices, mobile devices, tourism services, hospitality services, medical services etc. etc.
[00064] In an aspect, proposed system can be accessed by various entity owner nodes that
can be product owners/distributors for example (shown as 102-1, 102-2..102-n) that are desirous
of using the system for promoting their entities using their respective computing devices 104-1,
104-2…104-n. Such entity owner nodes can be registered and authenticated by the system using
methods and techniques known in the art. Various restrictions can be put on such nodes as per
requirements. For example, a system can have only such entity owner node that are not part of
any similar system, or can be allowed only a limited number /type of entities.
[00065] In another aspect, entity owner nodes can be part of one or more networks that
can be configured in a hierarchical tree having child nodes and parent nodes. For instance, each
entity owner node can have its own network having user nodes that form part therein, wherein
user nodes that are directly connected to an entity owner node are called its immediate/child
nodes, and such user nodes may then have their own child nodes. For instance, entity owner node
13
A can have 15 user nodes in its network that A is directly connected to, whereas each of such 15
user nodes may have one or more user nodes that they are directly connected to, which also
therefore forms part of the network of entity owner node A even though A is not directly
connected to them. Such user nodes can be, for instance, 2’nd or 3’rd level nodes that are
connected to user A indirectly.
[00066] In yet another aspect, proposed system can enable an entity owner node to
configure an entity (that is, display information regarding features of the entity and likewise for a
plurality of entities) on a platform accessible to one or more user nodes. Such user nodes can
form part of the network of the entity owner node and as elaborated above, the network can be in
a hierarchical tree structure having child nodes and parent nodes.
[00067] In an aspect, proposed system can request one or more user nodes of the network
to transmit their experience related to an entity. In exemplary embodiments, such an experience
can take form of comments, voting, likes, dislikes, entity feature reviews, entity usage reviews
etc.
[00068] In another aspect, proposed system can receive various experiences relating to
various entities from various user nodes.
[00069] In yet another aspect, based on the received experiences from various user nodes,
proposed system can rank an entity in a list of similar entities. In this fashion proposed system
can serve to associate an entity with experience of various user nodes with that entity in order to
rank the entity amongst a field/list of similar entities.
[00070] In an aspect, proposed system can further determine expert nodes 106 within the
network based upon the entity, can request an expert node to review its relevant entity, and can
further rank the entity based on plurality of reviews received form a plurality of expert nodes.
[00071] As can be appreciated, an entity can be a product or a service while experience
with an entity can be expressed as a vote, a comment or a feedback. The hierarchical network
with parent and child nodes can be derived from a social network or can be created
independently of it.
[00072] In another aspect, proposed system can provide, to each entity owner node,
necessary user interfaces for a comprehensive listing of any/each of their entities. In an
exemplary embodiment, such interfaces can receive from an entity owner node listing a Jacket
for example, information related to size, material, color, finish, cut, price and availability etc. for
14
each size. Special features of an entity can also be elaborated upon. Using such interfaces, entity
owners can send their entity listings (shown as entity listing-1, entity listing -2, ..entity listing –n)
to proposed system. Features and specifications of numerous entities can accordingly be received
by system 110.
[00073] In another aspect, proposed system can receive, for each entity, different
experiences from user nodes, wherein such experiences can include good/bad features,
competing entities, acceptable price structure etc. User nodes can be invited to provide such
experiences using a hierarchical tree structure as elaborated further. Some nodes can be
automatically determined as expert nodes and also invited to provide their reviews.
[00074] As illustrated, user node 114-1 can receive an experience request 116-1 for entity
listing -1 using computing device 112-1 and provide its experience 118-1 to proposed system.
Likewise, user node 114-2 can receive anther experience request 116-2 for entity listing -2 using
computing device 112-2 and can provide its experience 118-2 to proposed system, and so on.
[00075] In yet another aspect, system 102 can enable various user nodes to schedule user
review and usage meetings of any entity listed and share their experiences thereafter. An
experience can be voted upon and finally, all votes can be aggregated to determine an overall
raking of the entity.
[00076] In another aspect, upon listing of an entity as elaborated above, proposed system
can automatically send review invitations (shown as review invitation-1, review invitation-
2…review invitation-n) to nodes having good knowledge of the entity, such nodes being
interchangeably termed as expert nodes shown expert node 106-1, expert node 106-2….expert
node106-n. Such expert nodes can be identified automatically by proposed system based upon its
continuous scanning of various networks (for example, Internet, websites etc.) focusing on
entity/ entity category at hand. Such expert nodes may also be nominated by an entity owner
node. In an aspect, an expert node may or may not be a part of the network of the entity owner
node. It would be appreciated that each node of the proposed system can be an actual user of the
system.
[00077] In an exemplary embodiment, a review invitation can carry a link allowing the
expert node to access entity listing page at the system’s website and provide expert review
thereon, shown as expert review-1,expert review -2…expert review-n in FIG. 1.
15
[00078] In an exemplary embodiment, at a pre-determined time (that can be, for example,
launch date and time of an entity category), voting on entities of that category in proposed
system can be closed. Proposed system can calculate overall votes received by each entity and
can rank top entities (say top 5) based upon such voting and list them along with their prices for
purchase by any user node. In an exemplary embodiment, such information can be displayed at a
platform architecture (such as a web portal)that is configured by the proposed system as a top
entities listing page. Any user node seeing this page can be enabled to purchase any of the
entities listed there using usual ecommerce methods known in the art. Such buying nodes need
not necessarily be from the same network of the entity owner node.
[00079] In this fashion, proposed system can integrate review of expert nodes as well as
experiences of user nodes, all such nodes being part of network of an entity owner node, wherein
the network is configured in a hierarchical tree having child nodes and parent nodes. Hence
proposed system can enable authenticated reviews and experiences concerning different entities,
leveraging the networks of the corresponding entity owner nodes to provide experiences based
ranking of different entities.
[00080] As can be appreciated, in exemplary embodiments, proposed system can be
operatively connected to a website and so can be implemented on a global, 24*7 scale since
Internet can enable users to access the system from anywhere.
[00081] In this fashion, proposed system can determine desirability of an entity based on
experiences of different people that are part of a trusted network while at the same time
integrating expert reviews. The proposed system can provide ongoing engagement with
prospective customers of an entity.
[00082] FIG. 2 illustrates functional modules of system proposed, in accordance with an
exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
In an aspect, proposed system can include an entity configuration engine 202, a user network
based entity experience request engine 204, a network nodes based entity experience receive
engine 206, an aggregate experience processing based entity ranking engine 208 and an entity
based expert determination and review engine 210.
Entity Configuration Engine 202
[00083] In an aspect, engine 202 can enable an entity owner node and likewise a plurality
of entity owner nodes to configure their corresponding entities to be experienced by other nodes
16
(such as user nodes) by various means such as voting, comments, feedback etc. Each entity can
be associated with a unique Entity ID generated by engine 202. The entity ID can further be used
to associate all its other aspects as elaborated further on.
[00084] In another aspect, each entity configuration can carry the unique entity ID as well
as full information about the entity such as its features and usage. In an exemplary embodiment,
such configuration can also carry information such as time and date of launch, if any, of the
entity.
[00085] In yet another aspect, engine 202 can enable only a limited number of entities of
an entity category to be listed, and listings can be only allowed until a pre-determined time that
can be prior to the launch time of that entity category.
User Network Based Entity Experience Request Engine 204
[00086] In an aspect, engine 204 can request various users nodes (that can be present or
prospective users of an entity), which form part of the trusted network of the entity owner node,
their experiences with an entity configured by an entity owner node, using an experience request.
[00087] In another aspect, engine 204 can ensure that user nodes form part of network of
the entity owner node, and the network can be configured in a hierarchical tree having child
nodes and parent nodes, wherein entity owner node can be the root node and its direct
connections in the network can be immediate child nodes, and direct connections of the
immediate child nodes can be second level connections of the entity owner node. Engine 204 can
derive such hierarchical network with parent and child nodes from a social network or can create
such network independently by different methods. For example, engine 204 can map interactions
of an entity owner node with other nodes, data available at different nodes, digital traffic among
nodes, presence, visibility and responses of different entities in Internet etc.
[00088] In yet another aspect, engine 204 can propagate an experience request
automatically to all or some of child and sub-child nodes etc. associated with an entity owner
node (as further elaborated in FIG. 3). In an exemplary embodiment, such experience requests
can be generated as soon as an entity owner node configures an entity at the proposed system, or
at any other pre-determined time.
[00089] In an aspect, module/engine 204 can generate an experience request to invite one
or a plurality of user nodes to discussion /usage meetings where the discussions and usage
meetings regarding an entity can be held and experiences generated on such basis.
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[00090] In yet another aspect, engine 204 can tag an experience request in such a fashion
that it is received only by a few nodes of a network, and not the other nodes. For example, engine
204 can tag an experience request only for other entity owner nodes, or level-1 child user nodes
and level-3 child user nodes of an entity owner node and not others, as elaborated further. All
such permutations and combinations are completely within ambit of the present disclosure.
Network Nodes Based Entity Experience Receive Engine 206
[00091] In an aspect, engine 206 can enable proposed system to receive experiences of
different user nodes based upon experience requests received by them. In another aspect, such
experiences can take the form of any or a combination of comments, voting, feedback,
like/dislike etc. on an entity configuration as elaborated by an entity owner. As can be
appreciated, such experiences can be received from various user nodes of a network that can be
configured in a hierarchical tree structure having child nodes and parent nodes, of which the
parent node can be the entity owner node. As can also be appreciated, it is not necessary for all
child nodes to receive an experience request, neither is it required for a child node that receives
an experience request to respond to such a request.
Aggregate Experience Processing Based Entity Ranking Engine 208
[00092] In an aspect, engine 208 can aggregate various experiences received from user
nodes for an entity and can accordingly rank the entity amongst a group of entities of same
category.
[00093] In another aspect, engine 208 can proceed with such an aggregation and ranking
thereupon at a predetermined date and time based upon experiences received till then, and not
allow any further experiences to be received by the system.
[00094] In an exemplary embodiment, engine 208 can associate an entity with its ranking
and price and consequently, make available to any user node a list of entities ranked according to
experiences received by them, along with their prices. In another exemplary embodiment, engine
208 can make such list available to nodes not necessarily in network of a parent node (that can be
an entity owner node, for example).
Entity Based Expert Determination and Review Engine 210
[00095] In an aspect, proposed system can include an engine 210 that can automatically
determine/classify one or a plurality of nodes presently in an entity owner nodes’ network as
expert nodes for an entity and can automatically send a review invitation to the expert nodes to
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review the entity. In yet another aspect, engine 210 can automatically determine an expert node
for an entity based on that node’s participation in various online/offline media relevant to that
entity. As an example, a node that comments above a pre-determined level on mobile phones, for
example, can be determined as an expert node for mobile phones.
[00096] In yet another aspect, engine 210 can similarly determine nodes that are expert
nodes of an entity listed but not yet part of the entity owners’ network, send them an invitation to
become part of the entity owners’ network and, upon acceptance of such invitation, can
automatically send them review invitations to review the entity.
[00097] In an aspect, engine 210 can send review of one or more expert nodes to engine
208, where the engine 208 can consider this also as an experience to be aggregated along with
others to determine overall ranking of the entity. In an exemplary embodiment, engine 208 can
give a higher weightage to experience as received from an expert node to determine ranking of
the entity.
[00098] In this fashion, proposed system can integrate review of expert nodes as well as
experiences of user nodes, all such nodes being part of network of an entity owner node, wherein
the network can be configured in a hierarchical tree structure having child nodes and parent
nodes. Hence, proposed system can enable authenticated reviews and experiences concerning
different entities, leveraging the networks of the corresponding entity owner nodes to provide
experiences based ranking of different entities.
[00099] FIG. 3 illustrates a network configured as a hierarchical tree having child nodes
and parent nodes, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
[000100] As illustrated, proposed system can employ a network of which a parent can be
302. In an exemplary embodiment, 302 can be an entity owner node. In an aspect, entity owner
node 302 can have child nodes (or first level nodes) shown as 304-1, 304-2 and 304-3. In turn,
any child node can have sub-child nodes (or second level nodes) illustrated as 306-1-1 and 306-
1-2 for 304-1, 306-2-1 for 304-2 and 306-3-1 and 306-3-2 for 304-3. Likewise, there can be
many levels of nodes.
[000101] As can be appreciated, each node can have different number of child nodes and
some may not have any.
[000102] In another aspect, proposed system can receive an experience request (ER)308
from entity owner node 302. Depending upon parameters as configured for ER 308, proposed
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system can transmit ER 308 to desired/any/configured/all other nodes in the network. As
illustrated, proposed system can enable entity owner node 302 to transmit ER 308 to its child
nodes viz. 304-1, 304-2 and 304-3.
[000103] In yet another aspect, proposed system can further enable a child node to transmit
ER 308 received to its’ child nodes in turn and so on. As illustrated, child node 304-1 can
transmit received ER 308 to its sub-child nodes 306-1-1 and 306-1-2. Likewise child node 304-2
can transmit ER 308 to its sub-child node 306-2-1 and child node 304-3 can transmit ER 308 to
nodes 306-3-1 and 306-3-2.
[000104] In an aspect, upon receipt of ER 308, a child node can in turn transmit its
experience to proposed system that can aggregate such experiences to provide a ranking of
entities as elaborated above.
[000105] As illustrated, node 304-1 can send its experience (EXP) 304-1 to system 110.
Likewise, node 306-1-1 can send its experience EXP 306-1-1 system 110 and node 306-1-2 can
send its experience EXP 306-1-2 to system 110. In a similar fashion proposed system 110 can
receive different experiences from different nodes in the network and can aggregate them, as
elaborated above.
[000106] FIG. 4 illustrates an example of an entity interface, in accordance with an
exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
[000107] In an exemplary embodiment, using engine 202, an entity owner node can
configure an entity (that is, display information regarding features of the entity and likewise for a
plurality of entities) as an interface of a web platform operatively coupled to the proposed
system, such platform being made accessible to all user nodes and such interface being termed as
entity interface shown as 400. The interface 400 can carry a unique entity ID as well as
description of the entity, as shown at 402 and 404 respectively.
[000108] In another aspect, entity interface 400 can include one or more representations
406 of the entity so as to enable any user node accessing the interface to have a better idea of the
entity. In an exemplary embodiment, entity interface 400 can indicate date and time of launch
408 from which the entity may be available for purchase using proposed system. In an aspect,
interface 400 can carry expert reviews 410 as provided by the engine 210 elaborated above.
Further, interface 400 can carry, as shown at 412 some experiences as received from engine 206.
Such experiences can include, but are not limited to, up votes 414 and down votes 416 received
20
by the entity so far as well as some top liked comments 418. A link 420 can be provided on page
400 for anyone to visit experiences interface (as elaborated in FIG. 5) of the entity so that any
user node can provide its experiences there.
[000109] As can be appreciated, layout and features of interface 400as elaborated herein is
completely exemplary and many variations to same are possible. All such variations are within
the scope of the present disclosure.
[000110] FIG. 5 illustrates an example of an experiences interface for a configured/listed
entity in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
[000111] In an exemplary embodiment, experiences of different user nodes received by
engine 206 for an entity can be configured as an interface of a platform that is operatively
connected to the proposed system, such platform being made accessible to all user nodes and
such interface being termed as experiences interface shown as 500. The interface 500 can
represent any or a combination of entity ID 402, description 404, representations 406 and date
and time of launch 408, among any other information attribute/parameter.
[000112] In an aspect, using interface 500, proposed system can enable any user node to
comment on an entity and other user nodes to respond to such comments. As illustrated, a user
node 1 (502) can comment as comment_1 (504) to which a user node 2 (506) can reply as
reply_1 (508) and so on.
[000113] In another aspect, each comment can be “liked” (510) or “disliked” (512) by other
user nodes in accordance with their agreement with the comment or how useful it is. At any time,
comments with maximum number of likes can be displayed as 418 on entity interface 400.
[000114] In yet another aspect, a user node can vote on experiences interface 500 as shown
at 514, wherein up vote can be given at 516 and down vote at 518 by simply ticking the
respective boxes.
[000115] FIG. 6 illustrates a method of working of system proposed, in accordance with an
exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
[000116] In an aspect, the method can include, at step 602, configuring, by a processor of a
computing system, an entity on a platform that is accessible to one or more user nodes, wherein
the one or more user nodes form part of a network of an entity owner node that owns the entity,
and wherein the network is configured in a hierarchical tree having child nodes and parent nodes.
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[000117] In another aspect, the method can include, at step 604, requesting, from the
computing system, the one or more user nodes of the network to transmit their experience
relating to the entity.
[000118] In yet another aspect, the method can include, at step 606, receiving, at the
computing system, the experience relating to the entity from a plurality of user nodes that form
part of the one or more user nodes.
[000119] In an aspect, the method can include, at step 608 ranking the entity, at the
computing device, in a list of similar entities based on the received experience from the plurality
of user nodes.
[000120] In another aspect, the method can include at step 610, requesting at least one
expert node to be determined from the network based on at least the entity, and enabling the
determined at least one expert node to review the entity.
[000121] Although the proposed system has been elaborated as above to include all the
main modules, it is completely possible that actual implementations may include only a part of
the proposed modules or a combination of those or a division of those into sub-modules in
various combinations across multiple devices that can be operatively coupled with each other,
including in the cloud. Further the modules can be configured in any sequence to achieve
objectives elaborated. Also, it can be appreciated that proposed system can be configured in a
computing device or across a plurality of computing devices operatively connected with each
other, wherein the computing devices can be any of a computer, a laptop, a smartphone, an
Internet enabled mobile device and the like. All such modifications and embodiments are
completely within the scope of the present disclosure.
[000122] As used herein, and unless the context dictates otherwise, the term “coupled to” is
intended to include both direct coupling (in which two elements that are coupled to each other or
in contact each other) and indirect coupling (in which at least one additional element is located
between the two elements). Therefore, the terms “coupled to” and “coupled with” are used
synonymously. Within the context of this document terms “coupled to” and “coupled with” are
also used euphemistically to mean “communicatively coupled with” over a network, where two
or more devices are able to exchange data with each other over the network, possibly via one or
more intermediary device.
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[000123] Moreover, in interpreting both the specification and the claims, all terms should
be interpreted in the broadest possible manner consistent with the context. In particular, the
terms “comprises” and “comprising” should be interpreted as referring to elements, components,
or steps in a non-exclusive manner, indicating that the referenced elements, components, or steps
may be present, or utilized, or combined with other elements, components, or steps that are not
expressly referenced. Where the specification claims refers to at least one of something selected
from the group consisting of A, B, C ….and N, the text should be interpreted as requiring only
one element from the group, not A plus N, or B plus N, etc.
[000124] While some embodiments of the present disclosure have been illustrated and
described, those are completely exemplary in nature. The disclosure is not limited to the
embodiments as elaborated herein only and it would be apparent to those skilled in the art that
numerous modifications besides those already described are possible without departing from the
inventive concepts herein. All such modifications, changes, variations, substitutions, and
equivalents are completely within the scope of the present disclosure. The inventive subject
matter, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims.
ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION
[000125] The present disclosure provides for a system and a method that determines
desirability of an entity based on experiences of different user nodes that are part of a trusted
network of the owner (i.e. the user node that has listed/or owns/distributes the entity) of the
entity.
[000126] The present disclosure provides for a system and a method that integrates reviews
of expert user nodes to determine desirability of an entity.
[000127] The present disclosure provides for a system and a method that provides for
ongoing engagement with prospective customer user nodes of an entity.

We Claim:
1. A system comprising:
a non-transitory storage device having embodied therein one or more routines
operable to receive and process experiences of one or more user nodes of a
network for an entity of an entity owner node; and one or more processors
coupled to the non-transitory storage device and operable to execute the one or
more routines, wherein the one or more routines include:
an entity configuration module, which when executed by the one or more
processors, configures the entity on a platform that is accessible to the one or
more user nodes, wherein the one or more user nodes form part of the network of
the entity owner node, and wherein the network is configured in a hierarchical
tree having child nodes and parent nodes;
a user network based entity experience request engine, which when
executed by the one or more processors, requests the one or more user nodes of
the network to transmit their experience relating to the entity;
a network nodes based entity experience receive engine, which when
executed by the one or more processors, receives the experience relating to the
entity from a plurality of user nodes that form part of the one or more user nodes;
and
an aggregate experience processing based entity ranking engine, which
when executed by the one or more processors, ranks the entity in a list of similar
entities based on the received experience from the plurality of user nodes.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein the request transmitted from the user network based
entity experience request engine is initially sent to immediate child nodes of the entity owner
node.
3. The system of claim 2, wherein the immediate child nodes further transmit the request to
their respective child nodes.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the system further comprises an entity based expert
determination and review engine, which when executed by the one or more processors, requests
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at least one expert node to be determined from the network based on at least the entity, and
enables the determined at least one expert node to review the entity.
5. The system of claim 4, wherein the aggregate experience processing based entity ranking
engine ranks the entity based on the review.
6. The system of claim 1, wherein the entity is any or a combination of a product and a
service.
7. The system of claim 1, wherein the network is a social network.
8. The system of claim 1, wherein the experience is any or a combination of a vote for the
entity, comment on the entity, experience after using/interacting with the entity, and feedback on
the entity.
9. A method comprising the steps of:
configuring, by a processor of a computing system, an entity on a platform
that is accessible to one or more user nodes, wherein the one or more user nodes
form part of a network of an entity owner node that owns the entity, and wherein
the network is configured in a hierarchical tree having child nodes and parent
nodes;
requesting, from the computing system, the one or more user nodes of the
network to transmit their experience relating to the entity;
receiving, at the computing system, the experience relating to the entity
from a plurality of user nodes that form part of the one or more user nodes; and
ranking the entity, at the computing device, in a list of similar entities
based on the received experience from the plurality of user nodes.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises the step of requesting at
least one expert node to be determined from the network based on at least the entity, and
enabling the determined at least one expert node to review the entity.