EVALUATING TASTE PROXIMITY FROM A CLOSED LIST OF CHOICES

摘要

A system and method for estimating preferences or taste of users comprises a catalog having a closed number of items; a memory for storing distances between ratings of each pair of items; and a user interface to rate a subset of the items. The distances from the subset items to other items of the catalog give the user a preference for each item in the catalog despite never having rated these items. The catalog is ordered using the assigned preferences into a user preference vector, and is compared with vectors of other users to match up different users having similar preferences. Alternatively a distance measure can be defined between preferences of different users, with matching made between the users having the smallest difference. Initial distances may come from rating by a focus group or from application download data or other suitable sources.

主权项

1. A system for estimating preferences of users implemented using a plurality of electronic processors connected over a network, the system comprising:
a catalog having a closed number of items; a memory for storing distances between ratings of each pair of said items; a user interface configured to provide a first user over said network with a subset of said closed number of items, and to obtain ratings from said user for said subset; one of said processors configured to use respective stored distances from said subset to other items of said catalog to assign to said first user a preference for items of said catalog other than those belonging to said subset; the system further configured to use said assigned preferences for said first user to therewith associate said first user with other users having similar preferences by finding ones of said other users whose respective assigned preferences are close to said assigned preferences of said first user.