Ncr Corporation

Ramin C Nakisa

Robin Mackay

The present invention relates to advertising over a communications network comprising a plurality of interactive client subscriber sites interconnected with an advertising information server site. The attributes of a plurality of customers are stored in the form of customer attribute vectors c. The attributes of one or more role models are stored in the form of one or more role model attribute vectors i. A marketing function M is defined which maps the customer attribute vectors to the one or more role model attribute vectors such that i=M(c). At the interface advertising information server site interactive advertising displays are provided incorporating the one or more role models. An interactive communication link is established from the customer subscriber sites to the advertising information server site enabling customers to access the displays and to make purchases in response to the displays. The marketing function M is updated in dependence upon the customer purchases.

Method and apparatus for advertising over a communications network

An expert system and a method of providing automated advice are described. The system is regularly updated by advice (or diagnosis, recommendation etc.) given by practitioners in the relevant field. The combination of the underlying facts and the consequent (human) advice is used to update a ruleset that is then used to provide automated advice. An example of financial advice is given. A database contains the details for the customers of a financial institution together with advice and recommendations given previously by the institution's human advisors. This database is used to derive a ruleset which is then applied to a subsequent customer's details in an automated manner, possibly at the user's own PC via the World Wide Web. Frequent updating using data from the human advisors' work means that the database (and hence the ruleset) are kept up to date. Consistent advice can thus be provided with minimum human interaction.

Expert system

Rule based expert system for consumer preference

The present invention relates to data processing apparatus, such as an automatic teller machine, comprising a manual data entry device, a data processor to process information entered by the data entry device and an output display to present output data generated by the data processor. The output display comprises the usual cathode ray tube display and an additional image projector which can be selected to display personal data which it is intended to should remain out of view of a bystander. The image projector includes a pair of light sources adapted to project beams of light focused to a view point within a prescribed field of view in front of the apparatus. Modulating devices modulate the light to convey images of the output data to the view point. The beams of light are focused so as to pass through the pupil of each eye and form images on the retina without the intermediary of a screen. In an alternative embodiment the data processing device may dispense with the cathode ray tube display.

Data processing apparatus including an output display

The present invention relates to modeling the variables of a data set by means of a robabilistic network including data nodes and causal links. The term 'probabilistic networks' includes Bayesian networks, belief networks, causal networks and knowledge maps. The variables of an input data set are registered and a population of genomes is generated each of which individually models the input data set. Each genome has a chromosome to represent the data nodes in a probabilistic network and a chromosome to represent the causal links between the data nodes. A crossover operation is performed between the chromosome data of parent genomes in the population to generate offspring genomes. The offspring genomes are then added to the genome population. A scoring operation is performed on genomes in the said population to derive scores representing the correspondence between the genomes and the input data. Genomes are selected from the population according to their scores and the crossover, scoring, addition and selecting operations for a plurality of generations of the genomes. Finally a genome is selected from the last generation according to the best score. A mutation operation may be performed on the genomes. The mutation may consist of the addition or deletion of a data node and the addition or deletion of a causal link.

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Little Chalfont, United Kingdom

Ramin C Nakisa