Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system – Display driving control circuitry – Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-10
2003-12-09
Nguyen, Phu K. (Department: 2671)
Computer graphics processing and selective visual display system
Display driving control circuitry
Controlling the condition of display elements
Reexamination Certificate
active
06661431
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to methods and systems for representing data. More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved method and system for collecting information corresponding to a plurality of desired parameters, correlating and interpretation the information in accordance with specified criteria and, thereafter, graphically presenting the information in a specified format.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In today's fast-paced, dynamic and high-tech business environment, it has become more important than ever to understand the multitude of factors that may effect the performance, operation and/or profitability of a business. Such factors may include, for example, industry trends, consumer habits and behavior, the variance in behavior (e.g, purchasing behavior) between different consumer groups or geographic regions, the effectiveness of a particular marketing tool, and the efficiency of a particular system, subsystem or process, just to name a few. The better a business understands these factors, the more effective it will be in implementing change to optimize its operations and meet consumer demands, expectations and desires. Of course, the ability to understand and document the effectiveness of a particular change (e.g., a price change) is also important for a company to implement the correct changes.
Although the discussion below focuses on Internet businesses and technologies, it is understood that such discussion is exemplary only. Many other types of businesses and technologies such as the shipping industry or telecommunications industry, for example, face similar challenges in understanding the multitude of factors that effect their operation, efficiency and profitability. Thus the discussion provided herein is not intended to limit the field of the invention to only the Internet domain. However, for efficacy purposes, the present invention and some of the problems solved by the invention are described in the context of Internet businesses.
As one example of how technology has impacted the way companies do business, the Internet has revolutionized how businesses operate, perform transactions and provide information to their customers and to other businesses. For example, via the Internet, businesses can use electronic commerce technology to more quickly react to customer needs and perform sales transactions. The proliferation of electronic commerce has enabled businesses to not only attract customers and other businesses, but to engage in transactions with them irrespective of their geographic locations. Through the Internet, a small business can attract and interact with clients anywhere in the world. This same small business can also use the Internet to purchase its supplies or services from other businesses anywhere in the world. Thus, the Internet has enabled a global marketplace.
Unfortunately, the availability of information analysis tools has not kept pace with the proliferation of the Internet. For example, business managers are not able to fully understand how customers enter a web site, navigate the web site, and make a decision to purchase a product or service in the web site. Without this basic understanding, a business manager can only implement change with incomplete information, and typically is unable to efficiently gauge the effectiveness of the change. Further adding to the frustration, many systems and networks that are connected to the Internet are collecting huge quantities of raw data, but there is no facility or tool that easily and efficiently allows the business manager to correlate this vast amount of data and perceive important relationships in the raw data.
To establish a presence on the Internet, a business typically develops a web site for visitors to access. A web site operates on a server, with the server connected into the Internet system. The web site consists of individual pages, or web pages, which can be communicated to a visitor's computing device, where they are sequentially displayed. For example, when a visitor enters a web site, the web site communicates a “home” web page to the visitor. Accordingly, the visitor is presented a display offering general information, such as an index. The visitor then proceeds to navigate the web site by selecting hypertext links which cause the web site server to communicate other pages to the visitor. In such a manner, the visitor is able to navigate through a web site, receiving and viewing selected web pages in a sequential manner.
The web site may be constructed with predefined web pages, or web pages may be dynamically assembled with variable content by the web site server. For example, price and availability information may be extracted from a sales database and inserted into an assembled web page on an as-needed basis. A typical web site may have hundreds or even thousands of web pages which may be selected and viewed by a visitor. A primary goal of many of these web sites is to present the visitor with sufficient information and to entice the user to purchase a good or service. Accordingly, it is desirable that the visitor navigate through the web site in an efficient manner whereby the visitor can obtain information and be presented an opportunity to easily purchase a good or service. In a particularly popular paradigm, a visitor has an electronic “shopping cart” in which the visitor can place selected items for purchase. At the conclusion of the web shopping experience, ideally the visitor proceeds to an electronic “checkout” where the visitor authorizes payment and identifies delivery information. However, due to various reasons, a visitor may place items in a shopping cart and then exit the web site prior to consummating the purchase. Such abandoned shopping carts are of particular interest as these abandoned carts represent a strong consumer interest, although no sale was completed.
To assist the operator of a web site in understanding the effectiveness of the site, several tools currently exist to present basic data about how visitors interact with the web site. For example, tools presently exist that can present how often a particular web page is visited. A graphical representation in the form of a bar chart, for example, can illustrate how many times particular web pages were visited by users. By reviewing the bar chart, the web site operator can obtain a general understanding of the popularity of various web pages. Further, the tool may permit a web operator to view how a particular page was visited over a period of time. For example, the bar chart may indicate that a particular page is very busy early in the morning, but receives less business after normal work hours. Although such graphical information presents a particular view of one aspect of web site utilization, it is not well-suited to simultaneously and comprehensively represent the many dynamic properties of web site utilization information such as, for example, traffic volumes during a specified period of time, visitor demographics, how visitors navigate through the web site, duration of stay at each web page, visitor purchasing information, the correlation between visitor demographic and visitor navigation information, the correlation between visitor purchasing information and visitor navigation information, etc. As one can readily discern, the data contained in this type of information is diverse and voluminous. This type of information which may contain, for example, static and/or dynamic parameters, single or multi-variable parameters, vector data or cluster data (e.g., data representing relationships between objects or entities), as well as other types of data, is referred to herein as “high-dimensional information.” For example, it is especially difficult to represent the characteristics of, and change in, paths and characteristics of paths traversed by visitors to a site, and how such traversals are affected by changes in web site design and promotion. Such “event-sequence” information is critical to analyzing web site effectiveness. Thus far, prior systems an
Caffrey Andrew John
Hahn Robert Allen
Joiner-Congleton Karen Christiana
Paye Bradley Steele
Persichilli Ryan Duane
Morrison & Foerster / LLP
Nguyen Phu K.
Stone Analytica, Inc.
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