The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 30, 2004
Filed:
Nov. 04, 1999
Joseph W. Marks, Belmont, MA (US);
Neal B. Lesh, Cambridge, MA (US);
David Ratajczak, Atlanta, GA (US);
Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc., Cambridge, MA (US);
Abstract
A system enables an interactively guided heuristic search for solving a combinatorial optimization problem. The system initially performs a hill-climbing search on the combinatorial optimization problem to obtain a solution using initial default parameters. The current solution and the combinatorial optimization problem are visualized on an optimization table, a table-top display device. The parameters are altered based on the visualization of the combinatorial optimization problem and the current solution. Then, the searching, visualizing, and setting are repeated until the solution is selected as an acceptable solution of the combinatorial optimization problem. During the repeating, the parameters can be a set of probabilities, and in which case the search is a random perturbation-based search. Alternatively, the parameters can be a set of priorities, in which case the search is an exhaustive local search.