A population activity mapping method may include detecting a plurality of wireless mobile devices within a geographic region. Individual wireless mobile devices may include a processor, a user interface, a transmitter and a receiver. The detecting operation may be performed by use of a wireless access point, a GPS satellite, and/or a base station, and may be performed at at least two different points in time. Input data may be provided based upon the detecting operation. A distance and speed at which the mobile devices travel within the geographic region may be discerned dependent upon the input data. The discerning operation is performed by at least one processor of a computer network. A time and/or location at which salable output is to be made available and/or an amount of salable output to be made available may be determined dependent upon the discerning operation.

A method and system for scheduled breaks are described. A network computer system receives provider data corresponding to a position of a computing device of a service provider. The system determines a service state of the provider between an open state, an occupied state, and a pause state, indicating the provider is unavailable for a remaining duration of time. In response to receiving a service request specifying a service location and a determination that the provider is in the pause state, the system estimates a time of arrival at the service location based at least on the remaining duration of time for the pause state and the position of the computing device. Based on the estimated time of arrival, the system selects the provider to fulfill the service request and transmits data corresponding to the service request to the computing device of the service provider.

A housing contains a plurality of motorized transport units in a stacked relationship to one another, with a bottom-most one of the plurality of motorized transport units serving as a locomotion mechanism that selectively causes movement of the housing with the plurality of motorized transport units contained therein. By one approach the aforementioned housing has a cylindrical form factor and includes a cylindrically-shaped chamber configured to receive the motorized transport units. By one approach, for example, this housing includes no lifting mechanism to lift any of the motorized transport units into itself and further has no integral locomotion mechanism by which the housing can move itself. The interior of the housing can include at least one track formed therein to receive a corresponding part of each of the plurality of motorized transport units which the motorized transport units can engage to thereby lift themselves into the interior of the housing.

A method and apparatus for a commerce platform coordinating a purchase of a product sold by a merchant system through a third party application are described. The method may include receiving a notification at the commerce platform from the third party application that a user device executing the third party application has requested to purchase a product from within the third party application, wherein the notification comprises an identifier for the product and an identifier for the merchant system that sells the product using the commerce platform. The method may also include generating a product checkout interface by the commerce platform based on the identifier for the product and the identifier for the merchant system, and transmitting the product checkout interface to the third party application to change a user interface of the third party application to include the product checkout interface within the third party application.

A method and system for scheduled breaks are described. A network computer system receives provider data corresponding to a request to initiate a pause state with the network service and also receives a position of the service provider from a computing device equipped with a location-based resource. In response to receiving the request, the network computer system selects a facility, based on a selection objective, from facilities that are associated with the pause state and at least one of the position of the service provider and a destination of a service task that is to be completed. The network computer system transmits data corresponding to the selected facility to the computing device to be displayed on a user interface of the computing device.

A computer-implemented method for online shopping is provided. The method includes providing a plurality of items for purchase, receiving a purchase order for at least one item selected by a user from among the plurality of items, and during at least part of the fulfillment of the purchase order, initiating a video conference with a user's device operated by the user.

An electronic computer-implemented and interactive platform is described, which permits the offer, sale, and distribution of diamonds by sellers to purchasers and, as a result, into the overall diamond marketplace. Each diamond is scanned in order to create a three-dimensional (3D) virtual model that can include images and/or other data that digitally identifies that diamond, providing a fingerprint of the diamond. The purchaser may have highly confidential and proprietary information that specifies the critical details of its manufacturing process for each type of cut of polished diamond, referred to as polished diamond parameters (PDPs). A planning system is used to offload time consuming and computationally expensive planning operations from the manufacturer (or other purchaser), and does so prior to a purchase. The planning system and a matching process are used by the platform to enable the data in each PDP file to be applied to the 3D virtual model of each individual diamond.

Various methods are provided for programmatically providing a platform for requesting on-demand services on a consumer device. One example method may comprise receiving a job request, the job request comprising job request parameters, the job request parameters comprising at least a type of service, a location, and a time frame, identifying one or more merchants able to provide the service in accordance with the job request parameters by determining a subset of the plurality of merchants able to provide the service, at the location, within the time frame, causing transmission of a job offer to at least a first merchant of the subset of one or more merchants identified as able to provide the service in accordance with the job request parameters, receiving at least one response, the at least one response from the first merchant from the one or more merchants, and assigning the job to the first merchant.

A contract assistance apparatus of the present invention includes a service information acquirer, a result information acquirer, an information extractor, a generator, and an outputter. The information extractor extracts, from a plurality of service plans to be provided to a consumer of electric power, a service plan which leads to maximum remuneration for the consumer on the basis of result information regarding power consumption in a target space to which electric power is supplied. The generator uses the service plan extracted by the information extractor to generate recommendation information to be provided to the consumer. The outputter outputs the recommendation information generated by the generator.

An image based consumer to business search engine is described and taught. The consumer can take a video or capture an image of an item and upload to the search engine along with an optional textual description. The returned search results are automatically contacted via email with the search information. The third party vendor can then, through a variety of channels, contact the consumer with information specific to the item, giving the consumer ample opportunity to make an informed purchasing decision. Once the consumer has decided the query is no longer necessary, the query is terminated and the offers cease. Alternatively, the search results may be presented by an analytical algorithm that mines the textual description and image(s) for data to compare to existing products and vendors to create matches for the consumer.