SYSTEM AND METHODS FOR GENERATING QUALITY, VERIFIED, AND SYNTHESIZED INFORMATION

Abstract

An improved system and methods for identifying, assessing, obtaining, evaluating, processing and displaying information about specific topics of interest. In certain embodiments, information is processed with advanced computation and analytical techniques in which detailed statistical data is generated and refined to produce meaningful quantitative and qualitative information that may be useful in analyzing the economic performance of specific businesses or geographical regions of interest.

Claims

1. A computer system for determining an economic performance of a retail location comprising the steps of: a recording device capturing one or more visual recordings of a parking lot of the retail location; a processor in communication with the recording device, the processor including instructions that when executed cause the processor to: receive the one or more visual recordings and generate one or more representations from the one or more visual recordings, determine whether a threshold value of a selected criteria is met by each of the one or more representations, wherein the selected criteria is cloud cover; remove the one or more representations that do not meet the threshold value; extract content for evaluation from the one or more refined representations; refine content, wherein the content is refined using cloud cover criteria by overlaying coordinate units on the content to detect the coordinate units that intersect with the cloud cover criteria and removal of the content with the coordinate units that do not intersect with the cloud cover criteria; evaluate the content to obtain a traffic result; and a display displaying the traffic result of the retail location.

2. The computer system or determining economic performance of a retail location according to claim 1, wherein the traffic result is one or more selected from the group comprising: a fill rate of a parking lot, a market share percentage of a particular retail location in geographic location, a trend in retail location revenues over time or over a geographic region, a value of sales of one or more retail locations, a value of the share of cars over a specific time period, a close rate of cars in a parking lot of a retail location versus actual transactions measured by the retail location.

3. The computer system for determining economic performance of a retail location according to claim 1, wherein the processor further compares two or more representations to obtain the traffic result.

4. The computer system for determining economic performance of a retail location according to claim 1, wherein the recording device is one or more selected from the group comprising a camera, a satellite camera, an aerial mapping camera.

6. The computer system for determining economic performance of a retail location according to claim 1, wherein the processor combines the traffic result with one or more second traffic results to obtain an index of traffic results.

7. The computer system for determining economic performance of a retail location according to claim 1, wherein the processor weights the traffic result to correlate with the Bureau of Economic Analysis Consumer Spending Index,

8. The computer system for determining economic performance of a retail location according to claim 1, wherein the selected criteria further includes resolution and the processor determines whether the threshold value is met by each of the one or more representations and further removes the one or more representations that do not meet the threshold value.

9. The computer system for determining economic performance of a retail location according to claim 1, wherein the selected criteria further includes pixilation and the processor determines whether the threshold value is met by each of the one or more representations and further removes the one or more representations that do not meet the threshold value.

10. The computer system for determining economic performance of a retail location according to claim 8, wherein the one or more representations that have less than 0.95 panchromatic resolution are removed.

11. The computer system for determining economic performance of a retail location according to claim 9, wherein the one or more representations that have less than 0.85 centimeters per pixel are removed.

12. The computer system for determining economic performance of a retail location according to claim 1, wherein the one or more representations that have more than 95% cloud cover are removed.

13. A computer method for determining an economic performance of a retail location comprising the steps of: capturing by a recording device one or more visual recordings of a geographic location, wherein the geographic location is a parking lot; sending by the recording device to a processor the one or more visual recordings; generating by the processor one or more representations from the one or more visual recordings; refining by the processor the one or more representations based on one or more criteria; extracting by the processor content for evaluation from the one or more refined representations; evaluating by the processor the content to obtain a result, wherein the evaluating step further comprises the steps of: converting the content into a first array; calculating one or more statistics using the first array; displaying the one or more statistics on a display, wherein the one or more statistics is the economic performance of the retail location.

14. The computer method for determining economic performance of a retail location according to claim 13, wherein the evaluating step further comprises one or more steps selected from the group: eliminating one or more outliers of the content, correcting over sampling or under sampling of the content, procuring an appropriate sample size of the content, removing randomly an imbalance of the content, weighting the content according to relevance.

15. The computer method for determining economic performance of a retail location according to claim 13, wherein the calculating step further comprises the step of balancing the array using a statistical method to split the array into an outlier array and a non-outlier array.

16. The computer method for determining economic performance of a retail location according to claim 15, wherein the statistical method is one selected from the group of: a quartile method, a z-score method, and a coarsened exact matching method.

17. A computer method for determining an economic performance of a retail location comprising the steps of: capturing by a recording device during a selected date range both a first visual recording of the retail location and one or more second visual recordings of other retail locations, each visual recording of a geographic location; sending by the recording device to a processor the first visual recording and the one or more second visual recordings; generating by the processor one or more representations from the first visual recording and the one or more second visual recordings; refining by the processor the one or more representations based on one or more criteria; extracting by the processor content for evaluation from the one or more e refined representations; evaluating by the processor the content to obtain a result, wherein the evaluating step further comprises the steps of: counting by the processor a number of cars in a parking lot of the retail location; counting by the processor a number of cars in a parking lot of each of the other retail locations; and dividing by the processor the number of cars of the retail location by a sum of both the number of cars of the retail location and the number of cars of each of the other retail locations to determine a value; and displaying the result on a display, wherein the result is the economic performance of the retail location.

18. The computer method for determining economic performance of a retail location according to claim 17, wherein the refining step further comprises the steps of: determining whether a threshold value of a selected criteria is met by each of the one or more representations, wherein the selected criteria is one or more selected from the group comprising resolution, pixilation, cloud cover; and removing the one or more representations that no not meet the threshold value.

19. The computer method for determining economic performance of a retail location according to claim 17, wherein the recording device is one or more selected from the group comprising a camera, a satellite camera, an aerial mapping camera.

20. The computer method for determining economic performance of a retail location according to claim 17, wherein the one or more representations includes renderable metadata comprising a time and a date of the capturing step.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0073] The preferred embodiments of the invention will be described in conjunction with the appended drawings provided to illustrate and not to the limit the invention, where like designations denote like elements, and in which:

[0074] FIG. 1A illustrates one embodiment of the system according to the present invention;

[0075] FIG. 1B illustrates one embodiment of he evaluation steps of the system according to the present invention;

[0076] FIG. 1C illustrates one embodiment of the processing steps of the system according to the present invention;

[0077] FIG. 1D illustrates an embodiment of additional processing steps of the system according to the present invention;

[0078] FIG. 1E illustrates an embodiment of balancing steps of the system according to the present invention;

[0079] FIG. 2A illustrates an exemplary computer system,

[0080] FIG. 2B illustrates a cloud computing system;

[0081] FIG. 3A illustrates a certain embodiment of a report according to the present invention;

[0082] FIG. 3B illustrates a certain embodiment of components of a report according to the present invention;

[0083] FIG. 3C illustrates a certain embodiment of components of a report according to the present invention;

[0084] FIG. 3D illustrates a certain embodiment of components of a report according to the present invention;

[0085] FIG. 3E illustrates a certain embodiment of components of a report according to the present invention;

[0086] FIG. 4A illustrates a certain embodiment of components of a report according to the present invention;

[0087] FIG. 4B illustrates a certain embodiment of components of a report according to the present invention;

[0088] FIG. 4C illustrates a certain embodiment of components of a report according to the present invention;

[0089] FIG. 4D illustrates a certain embodiment of components of a report according to the present invention;

[0090] FIG. 5A illustrates a certain embodiment of a representation;

[0091] FIG. 5B illustrates a certain embodiment of a representation;

[0092] FIG. 5C illustrates a certain embodiment of a representation;

[0093] FIG. 5D illustrates a certain embodiment of a representation; and

[0094] FIG. 6A illustrates a certain embodiment of a report or component of a report, as displayed as a combination of a representation and statistical information related to specific topics determined by the user input.

[0095] FIG. 6B illustrates a certain embodiment of a report or component of a report, as displayed as a combination of a representation and statistical information related to specific topics determined by the user input.

[0096] FIG. 6C illustrates a certain embodiment of a report or component of a report, as displayed as a combination of a representation and statistical information related to specific topics determined by the user input.

[0097] FIG. 6D illustrates a certain embodiment of a report or component of a report, as displayed as a combination of a representation and statistical information related to specific topics determined by the user input.

[0098] FIG. 6E illustrates a certain embodiment of a report or component of a report, as displayed as a combination of a representation and statistical information related to specific topics determined by the user input.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

[0099] FIGS. 1A through FIG. 1E illustrate certain embodiments according to the present invention.

[0100] In FIG. 1A, one of the preferred embodiments according to the present invention is illustrated. The user may first identify an objective of research 12 and assess sources of component information to achieve the research objective 14. One or more representations related to the topic may be obtained from the available component information 16. The one or more representations may then be evaluated for content information 18. The content information from the one or more representations may be processed 20. The processed content information may then be displayed to achieve the objective of the research 22.

[0101] FIG. 1B illustrates one preferred embodiment according to the present invention of the one or more evaluation steps 30 of the system 10 according to the present invention. When the one or more representations may be evaluated for content information 18, specific criteria may be selected to evaluate the one or more representations 32. The selected criteria may be defined as having met or not a minimum threshold 34. The representations that do not meet a minimum threshold of selected criteria may be removed from the data set of representations 36. The remaining representations may be extracted as content information 38.

[0102] FIG. 1C illustrates one preferred embodiment of the one or more processing steps 40 of the system 10 according to the present invention. When the content information from the one or more representations is processed 20, the content information may be defined as one or more subtopics of interest 42. Statistics related to the content information subtopics is then calculated 44. The content information from the subtopics is then balanced 46. The subtopic content information is then further synthesized based on user input 48.

[0103] FIG. 1D illustrates a preferred embodiment of the one or more additional processing steps 50 of the system 10 according to the present invention. When the content information from the one or more representations is processed 20, the content information may be defined as one or more subtopics of interest 42. The content information of the subtopics may then be overlaid with coordinate units to define similar features 54. The one or more similar features of the content information may then be written into selections 56. The selections may then be quantitatively sorted and combined 58. The duplicate or undesired information may then be removed from the selections 60. The statistics of the selections, as defined by the user, are then calculated 62.

[0104] FIG. 1E illustrates a preferred embodiment of the one or more balancing method 70 from the processing step of balancing the content information 46 according to the present invention. The content information may be converted into Array 1 74. Statistics may then be calculated from Array 1 76. Array 1 statistics may then be then split into an Outlier Array and Non-outlier Array if the standard deviation balancing is selected 78. If the standard deviation balancing is not selected, then Array 1 may remain unbalanced, does not split into an Outlier Array and Non-outlier Array and is converted, as is, to Array 2 82. If Array 1 is split, the Outlier Array may be balanced year-over-year such as by region of interest 80. The Non-outlier Array may remain unbalanced. The balanced Outlier Array and Non-outlier Array may then be combined into Array 2 82. A secondary balancing step is then performed on Array 2 based on user input factors, and is transposed into Array 3 84. Such user input factors may include, but are not limited to, averaging observations per day by region. Array 3 may then be buffed based on user input factors into Output Array 4 86. Such user input factors may include, but are not limited to, year-over-year by region, week, and day of week as well as calculating the overall and regional averages of Output Array 4. Output Array 4 is then displayed for further synthesis 88.

[0105] FIG. 2A illustrates an exemplary computer system 200 that may be used to implement the methods according to the present invention. One or more computer systems 200 may carry out the methods presented herein as computer code.

[0106] Computer system 200 includes an input/output display interface 202 connected to communication infrastructure 204such as a bus, which forwards data such as graphics, text, and information, from the communication infrastructure 204 or from a frame buffer (not shown) to other components of the computer system 200. The input/output display interface 102 may be, for example, a keyboard, touch screen, joystick, trackball, mouse, monitor, speaker, printer, any other computer peripheral device, or any combination thereof, capable of entering and/or viewing data.

[0107] Computer system 200 includes one or more processors 206, which may be a special purpose or a general-purpose digital signal processor that processes certain information. Computer system 100 also includes a main memory 208, for example random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage device, or any combination of tangible, non-transitory memory. Computer system 200 may also include a secondary memory 210 such as a hard disk unit 212, a removable storage unit 214, or any combination of tangible, non-transitory memory. Computer system 200 may also include a communication interface 216, for example, a modern, a network interface (such as an Ethernet card or Ethernet cable), a communication port, a PCMCIA slot and card, wired or wireless systems (such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Infrared), local area networks, wide area networks, intranets, etc.

[0108] It is contemplated that the main memory 208, secondary memory 210, communication interface 216, or a combination thereof, function as a computer usable storage medium, otherwise referred to as a computer readable storage medium, to store and/or access computer software including computer instructions. For example, computer programs or other instructions may be loaded into the computer system 200 such as through a removable storage device, for example, a floppy disk, ZIP disks, magnetic tape, portable flash drive, optical disk such as a CD or DVD or Blu-ray, Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), nanotechnological apparatus. Specifically, computer software including computer instructions may be transferred from the removable storage unit 214 or hard disc unit 212 to the secondary memory 210 or through the communication infrastructure 204 to the main memory 208 of the computer system 200.

[0109] Communication interface 216 allows software, instructions and data to be transferred between the computer system 200 and external devices or external networks. Software, instructions, and/or data transferred by the communication interface 216 are typically in the form of signals that may be electronic, electromagnetic, optical or other signals capable of being sent and received by the communication interface 216. Signals may be sent and received using wire or cable, fiber optics, a phone line, a cellular phone link, a Radio Frequency (RF) link, wireless link, or other communication channels.

[0110] Computer programs, when executed, enable the computer system 200, particularly the processor 206, to implement the methods of the invention according to computer software including instructions.

[0111] The computer system 200 described herein may perform any one of, or any combination of, the steps of any of the methods described herein. It is also contemplated that the methods according to the present invention may be performed automatically, or may be accomplished by some form of manual intervention.

[0112] The computer system 200 of FIG. 2A is provided only for purposes of illustration, such that the invention is not limited to this specific embodiment. It is appreciated that a person skilled in the relevant art knows how to program and implement the invention using any computer system.

[0113] The computer system 200 may be a handheld device and include any small-sized computer device including, for example, a personal digital assistant (PDA), smart hand-held computing device, cellular telephone, or a laptop or netbook computer, hand held console or MP3 player, tablet, or similar hand held computer device, such as an iPad, iPad Touch or iPhone.

[0114] FIG. 2B illustrates an exemplary cloud computing system 220 that may be used to implement the methods according to the present invention. The cloud computing system 220 includes a plurality of interconnected computing environments. The cloud computing system 220 utilizes the resources from various networks as a collective virtual computer, where the services and applications can run independently from a particular computer or server configuration making hardware less important.

[0115] Specifically, the cloud computing system 220 includes at least one client computer 222. The client computer 222 may be any device through the use of which a distributed computing environment may be accessed to perform the methods disclosed herein, for example, a traditional computer, portable computer, mobile phone, personal digital assistant, tablet to name a few. The client computer 222 includes memory such as random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), mass storage device, or any combination thereof. The memory functions as a computer usable storage medium, otherwise referred to as a computer readable storage medium, to store and/or access computer software and/or instructions.

[0116] The client computer 222 also includes a communications interface, for example, a modem, a network interface (such as an Ethernet card), a communications port, a PCMCIA slot and card, wired or wireless systems, etc. The communications interface allows communication through transferred signals between the client computer 222 and external devices including networks such as the Internet 224 and cloud data center 226. Communication may be implemented using wireless or wired capability such as cable, fiber optics, a phone line, a cellular phone link, radio waves or other communication channels.

[0117] The client computer 222 establishes communication with the Internet 204specifically to one or more serversto, in turn, establish communication with one or more cloud data centers 226. A cloud data center 226 includes one or more networks 230a, 230b, 230c managed through a cloud management system 228. Each network 230a, 230b, 230c includes resource servers 232a, 232b, 232c, respectively. Servers 232a, 232b, 232c permit access to a collection of computing resources and components that can be invoked to instantiate a virtual computer, process, or other resource for a limited or defined duration. For example, one group of resource servers can host and serve an operating system or components thereof to deliver and instantiate a virtual computer. Another group of resource servers can accept requests to host computing cycles or processor time, to supply a defined level of processing power for a virtual computer. A further group of resource servers can host and serve applications to load on an instantiation of a virtual computer, such as an email client, a browser application, a messaging application, or other applications or software.

[0118] The cloud management system 228 can comprise a dedicated or centralized server and/or other software, hardware, and network tools to communicate with one or more networks 230a, 230b, 230c, such as the Internet or other public or private network, with all sets of resource servers 232a, 232b, 232c. The cloud management system 228 may be configured to query and identify the computing resources and components managed by the set of resource servers 232a, 232b, 232c needed and available for use in the cloud data center 226. Specifically, the cloud management system 228 may be configured to identify the hardware resources and components such as type and amount of processing power, type and amount of memory, type and amount of storage, type and amount of network bandwidth and the like, of the set of resource servers 232a, 232b, 232c needed and available for use in the cloud data center 226. Likewise, the cloud management system 228 can be configured to identify the software resources and components, such as type of Operating System (OS), application programs, and the like, of the set of resource servers 232a, 232b, 232c needed and available for use in the cloud data center 226.

[0119] The present invention is also directed to computer products, otherwise referred to as computer program products, to provide software to the cloud computing system 220. Computer products store software on any computer useable medium, known now or in the future. Such software, when executed, may implement the methods according to certain embodiments of the invention. Examples of computer useable mediums include, but are not limited to, primary storage devices (e.g., any type of random access memory), secondary storage devices (e.g., hard drives, floppy disks, CD ROMS, ZIP disks, tapes, magnetic storage devices, optical storage devices, Micro-Electra-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), nanotechnological storage device, etc.), and communication mediums (e.g., wired and wireless communications networks, local area networks, wide area networks, intranets, etc.). It is to be appreciated that the embodiments described herein may be implemented using software, hardware, firmware, or combinations thereof.

[0120] The cloud computing system 220 of FIG. 2B is provided only for purposes of illustration and does not limit the invention to this specific embodiment. It is appreciated that a person skilled in the relevant art knows how to program and implement the invention using any computer system or network architecture.

[0121] FIG. 3A-FIG. 3D illustrate certain of the specific embodiments of the reports or components of reports that may be generated through the use of the present invention. FIG. 3A illustrates one embodiment of the overall Analysis Dashboard 300. Through dashboard 300, a user may input the desired minimum and maximum data range for the representations analyzed 302. The current data range may be, for example, the size of the minimum and maximum number of parking spaces contained within the sample 304. A time period may be selected by a user for the report 306. The associated statistics of the subtopic for the selected time and location indicated may be then reported 308.

[0122] FIG. 3B illustrates one of the many specific embodiments of a component of a report 320 that may be generated through the use of the present invention. The report may be configured to provide specific statistics 322, 324 that may be associated with particular subtopics of interest 326 for a given sample number or representations analyzed 323, 325.

[0123] FIG. 3C illustrates another specific embodiment of a component of a report 330 that may be generated through the use of the present invention. The component of the report 330 is another example of specific statistics 332, 334 associated with particular subtopics of interest 326.

[0124] FIG. 3D illustrates another specific embodiment of a component of a report 340 that may be generated through the use of the present invention. The component of the report 340 is another example of specific statistics 342, 344 associated with particular subtopics of interest 346.

[0125] FIG. 3E illustrates a specific embodiment of a component of a report 350. The component of the report 350 is another example of specific statistics 352, 354 associated with particular subtopics of interest 356,

[0126] FIG. 4A-FIG. 4D illustrate other embodiments of reports or components of reports that may be generated through the use of the present invention. The illustrated reports are displayed as graphical representations of information related to specific topics determined by the user input. FIG. 4A illustrates a specific embodiment of components of a report 400, as graphically displayed to show specific statistics associated with particular subtopics of interest. FIG. 4B illustrates a specific embodiment of components of a report 410, and provides specific statistics associated with particular subtopics of interest. FIG. 4C illustrates a specific embodiment of components of a report 420, and provides specific statistics associated with particular subtopics of interest. FIG. 4D illustrates a specific embodiment of components of a report 430, and provides specific statistics associated with particular subtopics of interest.

[0127] FIG. 5A-FIG. 5D illustrate some of the representations of the certain content information that may be obtained for further evaluation.

[0128] FIG. 5A illustrates an example of a representation in which content information may be obtained 500. FIG. 5B illustrates an example of a representation in which content information may be obtained 510. FIG. 5C illustrates an example of a representation in which content information may be obtained 520. FIG. 5D illustrates an example of a representation in which content information may be obtained 530.

[0129] FIG. 6A-6E illustrates example embodiments of reports or components of reports that may be generated through the use of the present invention. The illustrations show displays of a combination of representations and statistical information related to specific topics and subtopics determined by the user input.

[0130] FIG. 6A illustrates an example embodiment of a report or component of a report 600, as displayed as a combination of a representation 602 and statistical information 604 related to specific topics and subtopics determined by the user input. In the report 600, specific component information is marked 606.

[0131] FIG. 6B illustrates an example embodiment of a report or component of a report 610, as displayed as a combination of a representation 612 and statistical information 614 related to specific topics and subtopics determined by the user input. In the report 610, specific component information is marked 616.

[0132] FIG. 6C illustrates an example embodiment of a report or component of a report 620, as displayed as a combination of a representation 622 and statistical information 624 related to specific topics and subtopics determined by the user input. In the report 620, specific component information is marked 626.

[0133] FIG. 6D illustrates an example embodiment of a report or component of a report 630, as displayed as a combination of a representation 632 and statistical information 634 related to specific topics and subtopics determined by the user input.

[0134] FIG. 6E illustrates an example embodiment of a report or component of a report 640, as displayed as a representation 642 with specific component information marked 626.

[0135] While the disclosure is susceptible to various modifications and alternative forms, specific exemplary embodiments of the present invention have been shown by way of example in the drawings and have been described in detail. It should be understood, however, that there is no intent to limit the disclosure to the particular embodiments disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims.