WO2000057331A9 - Offline system and method for determining non-obvious savings in the purchase of goods and services - Google Patents
Offline system and method for determining non-obvious savings in the purchase of goods and servicesInfo
- Publication number
- WO2000057331A9 WO2000057331A9 PCT/US2000/007447 US0007447W WO0057331A9 WO 2000057331 A9 WO2000057331 A9 WO 2000057331A9 US 0007447 W US0007447 W US 0007447W WO 0057331 A9 WO0057331 A9 WO 0057331A9
- Authority
- WO
- WIPO (PCT)
- Prior art keywords
- travel
- destination
- city
- choice
- request
- Prior art date
Links
Classifications
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G06Q30/00—Commerce
- G06Q30/06—Buying, selling or leasing transactions
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
- G06Q10/04—Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem"
- G06Q10/047—Optimisation of routes or paths, e.g. travelling salesman problem
Definitions
- This invention relates to electronic commerce and, more particularly, to an apparatus and methods for determining non-obvious savings in the purchase of goods
- a program called a browser such as the Netscape Navigator
- the architecture of the Web follows a conventional client-server model.
- client and “server” are used to refer to a computer's general role as a requester
- Web browsers reside in clients and specially formatted "Web documents" reside on Internet
- Web servers Web clients and Web servers communicate using a protocol called
- HTTP HyperText Transfer Protocol
- the server delivers the requested document, typically in the form
- HTML HyperText Markup Language
- Electronic commerce or "e-commerce” is the term often
- E-commerce is a unique
- server having information on the company's product offerings and the customer
- the company can track visits, sales,
- the company can
- Web server by delivering on a claim that the merchant offers the best available price
- a method consistent with the present invention determines a lowest airfare for travel between cities located within a
- the system includes a memory that includes an
- system further includes a display device for displaying the lowest airfare for travel between the first choice origination and destination cities, and for travel between the
- FIG. 1 is a pictorial diagram of a computer network in which systems consistent with the present invention may be implemented;
- FIG. 2 shows a computer network containing a client system and a server system
- FIG. 3 illustrates the retrieval of remote image and text and their integration in a document
- FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the architecture of a savings discovery server in a
- FIG. 5 illustrates a savings discovery server and its relationship to other
- FIG. 6 is a flow chart of the steps performed by a savings discovery server in a
- FIG. 7 is an exemplary map showing an alternative travel itinerary offering a
- FIG. 8 depicts a flow chart of the operations performed by a server in a manner
- Systems consistent with the present invention permit a buyer, seasoned or
- a non-obvious product re-configuration would include: 1)
- travel, non-obvious suppliers would include: 1) travel consolidators / wholesalers; and
- a network accessible system such as
- the Internet can be used for consumers, to access and retrieve information in a manner consistent with the
- breakfast may be a lower priority requirement than having an indoor swimming pool.
- Figure I illustrates a conceptual diagram of a computer network 100, such as
- Computer network 100 comprises small computers (such as computers
- small computers are "personal computers” or workstations and are the sites
- client and “server” are used to refer to a
- each computer may request
- a client such as computer 102, may request a file from server A 120. Since
- server A 120 is directly connected to server A 120, for example, through a local area
- network 100 shown as "network 100" of FIG. 1.
- the "network 100" of FIG. I represents, for example, the Internet, which is an interconnection of networks. A different request
- from computer 102 may be for a file that resides in server B 122.
- the data is transferred from server B 122 through the network 100 to server A 120 and,
- server A 120 and server B 122 may be
- the data in traversing the network the data may be transferred through several intermediate servers and many routing devices, such as bridges and routers.
- FIG. 2 shows, in more detail, an example of a client-server system
- a remote server system 222 is
- Client system 220 includes conventional components such as a processor 224, memory 225 (e. g. RAM), a bus
- a mass storage device 227 (e. g. a
- Server system 222 also includes conventional components such as a processor
- memory 235 e. g. RAM
- bus 236 which couples processor 234 and memory
- a mass storage device 237 (e. g. a magnetic or optical disk) coupled to processor
- present invention may be implemented in software which is stored as executable
- the Internet consists of a worldwide computer network that communicates
- IP Internet Protocol
- the "resource-type” defines the type of Internet resource. Web documents, for example, are identified by the resource type "http”, which indicates the protocol used to access
- the Web browser then sends a request in accordance with the HTTP
- the Web server responds to the request by transmitting the requested object to the client.
- the object is a plain text document containing text (in ASCII) that is
- the Web browser displays the HTML document on the screen for the user and the hyperlinks to other Web documents are emphasized in some fashion such that the user can selected the hyperlink.
- the HTML document may contain data from more than one
- FIG. 3 illustrates the retrieval of remote text and images
- server A 310 contains an image 315
- server B 320 contains a combination of text and image data 325
- server C 330 contains text data 335.
- Each of these servers is remotely located
- the client may combine data from the various servers referenced in a selected Web document and transmit the composite Web document to the client.
- the various servers referenced in a selected Web document may combine data from the various servers referenced in a selected Web document and transmit the composite Web document to the client.
- client may utilize a program called an applet, which may be transmitted to the client
- Server 400 for example, the server 400 shown in FIG. 4.
- Server 400 is connected to a
- Server 400 includes a number of components, savings
- processor 440 The operation of each of these components will be explained below with reference to FIGs. 5 and 6.
- Figure 5 shows a savings discovery server 400 and machines distributed in the
- network having facilities such as interfaces for a buyer, trader, and supplier to
- FIG. 5 illustrates an example of this configuration with buyer interface 510, trader interface 520, and supplier interface 530 communicably
- server 400 receives requests from buyers for travel resources
- Underlying capabilities include geographic data encoding (geocoding),
- Buyer interface 510 allows each buyer to input product and service
- buyers' requests datastore 425 persistently stores buyers' requests for subsequent
- Trader interface 520 and supplier interface 530 allow product and service traders and suppliers to input, configure, target, and maintain products, including
- This datastore contains
- Savings response 101 is transmitted back to buyer interface 510 via
- FIG. 6 is a flow chart of the operations performed by server 400. At step 600,
- Buyer request 201 is generally composed of
- Buyer's request 201 is also stored in buyer's request
- savings business logic processor 405 calls upon the
- geocoding processor 415 services of geocoding processor 415 to attach geocodes (for example, latitude and
- search processor 420 in conjunction with component supplier system interface 410, to communicate with supplier interface 530 for airports and lodgings within the
- savings business logic processor 405 uses search constraint relaxation processor 435 to "relax"
- constraints of the buyer's request 201 such as the lodging amenities constraint
- savings business logic processor 405 checks the air itinerary of
- savings business logic processor 405 searches traders' datastore
- savings business logic processor 405 checks the price and availability of the components of the requested itinerary and all alternative travel
- server 400 to supplier interface 530.
- the response to availability/price request 103 is illustrated in FIG. 5 as the arrow 150 from supplier interface 530 to savings discovery
- savings business logic processor 405 determines the lowest price
- savings business logic processor 405 re-prices the re-configured
- savings business logic processor 405 identifies and sorts the
- processor 440 to portray savings response 101 geographically on a map. Such a map
- FIG. 7 of an alternative hotel (staying at a hotel inside or outside a destination city).
- Travel routes 710 and 720 show two alternative routes along with their respective prices.
- a buyer requesting an itinerary from Jefferson City to Dallas could save
- splitting tickets may offer cost savings in travel.
- a traveler can save money by converting a ticket with a connecting itinerary
- a specified distance of a first choice origination city and destination city e.g. 100 miles.
- Lexington is a sister city to Cincinnati. Cincinnati may be a sister city to Lexington, if Lexington were a traveler's first choice origination or destination city.
- destination airport i.e., sister city airports that could be used to conveniently
- a sister city pair refers to a potential alternative travel
- the sister city information also includes airline flight schedule information for travel between sister city pairs. For example, airline flight schedule information for travel between sister city pairs.
- this alternative embodiment of the present invention automatically provides sister city information to the user via, for example, a
- This information includes airfare prices, airlines, and, if a user
- an apparatus that includes a
- memory that includes an application for determining a lowest airfare for travel between sister city pairs associated with a first choice origination city and or a first
- processor for executing the application.
- Fig. 2 The software system necessary for
- determining the lowest airfare and sister city information may be maintained in a
- Fig. 8 depicts a flow chart, indicating a logical order of operations performed
- the system does not necessarily perform all of the operations listed below each time a
- the pre-processing and processing steps are not necessarily performed in their listed order.
- the system receives a list of airports and geographical
- system may include every airport in the world, it will prove most useful in the
- This geographical information includes latitude and longitude information, and is updated regularly to ensure accuracy.
- the system After receiving geographical information for each airport, the system develops a list of sister cities for each airport (step 810). To develop the list of sister cities, the geographical data for each airport is compared with the geographical data for all other
- airports and airports within a specified distance of one another, e.g. 100 miles, are
- the last step of pre-processing includes receiving airline flight schedule
- Flight schedule updates may also be performed manually.
- step 825 Each time the system receives a lowest airfare inquiry (step 825), including an
- the system determines the airfare for travel between the origination and destination cities (step 830).
- a user is not required to specify times of day, or
- the system determines the sister city pairs associated with the travel inquiry (step 835). To determine the sister city pairs,
- each sister city for the first choice origination city is matched to each of the sister city
- each sister city for the first choice destination city is
- This matching step yields a set of
- step 835 displays a list of the sister city pairs and associated airfares (step 840),
- the display also provides information indicating the distance of a sister city from a first choice city.
- This alternative embodiment of the present invention automatically provides information indicating a lowest airfare for travel between sister cities.
- invention may be implemented with both object-oriented and non-object-oriented
- aspects can also be stored on other types of computer-readable media, such as
Landscapes
- Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
- Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
- Human Resources & Organizations (AREA)
- Strategic Management (AREA)
- Economics (AREA)
- Marketing (AREA)
- Accounting & Taxation (AREA)
- Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- General Business, Economics & Management (AREA)
- General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
- Finance (AREA)
- Theoretical Computer Science (AREA)
- Development Economics (AREA)
- Game Theory and Decision Science (AREA)
- Entrepreneurship & Innovation (AREA)
- Operations Research (AREA)
- Quality & Reliability (AREA)
- Tourism & Hospitality (AREA)
- Management, Administration, Business Operations System, And Electronic Commerce (AREA)
- Navigation (AREA)
Abstract
Description
Claims
Priority Applications (1)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
AU39051/00A AU3905100A (en) | 1999-03-25 | 2000-03-22 | Offline system and method for determining non-obvious savings in the purchase ofgoods and services |
Applications Claiming Priority (4)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
US09/275,887 US7742934B2 (en) | 1999-03-25 | 1999-03-25 | Methods and apparatus for determining non-obvious savings in the purchase of goods and services |
US09/275,887 | 1999-03-25 | ||
US47101299A | 1999-12-23 | 1999-12-23 | |
US09/471,012 | 1999-12-23 |
Publications (3)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
WO2000057331A2 WO2000057331A2 (en) | 2000-09-28 |
WO2000057331A9 true WO2000057331A9 (en) | 2002-04-04 |
WO2000057331A8 WO2000057331A8 (en) | 2002-07-25 |
Family
ID=26957650
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/US2000/007447 WO2000057331A2 (en) | 1999-03-25 | 2000-03-22 | Offline system and method for determining non-obvious savings in the purchase of goods and services |
Country Status (2)
Country | Link |
---|---|
AU (1) | AU3905100A (en) |
WO (1) | WO2000057331A2 (en) |
Families Citing this family (4)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US7668744B2 (en) | 2003-07-31 | 2010-02-23 | The Boeing Company | Method and system for conducting fleet operations |
US8200514B1 (en) | 2006-02-17 | 2012-06-12 | Farecast, Inc. | Travel-related prediction system |
US8392224B2 (en) * | 2006-02-17 | 2013-03-05 | Microsoft Corporation | Travel information fare history graph |
EP2264655A1 (en) * | 2009-05-18 | 2010-12-22 | Amadeus S.A.S. | Method and system for determining an optimal low fare for a trip |
-
2000
- 2000-03-22 AU AU39051/00A patent/AU3905100A/en not_active Abandoned
- 2000-03-22 WO PCT/US2000/007447 patent/WO2000057331A2/en active Application Filing
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
WO2000057331A2 (en) | 2000-09-28 |
AU3905100A (en) | 2000-10-09 |
WO2000057331A8 (en) | 2002-07-25 |
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