Patents by Inventor Michael D. Houle

Michael D. Houle has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Publication number: 20240078586
    Abstract: In selected embodiments a recommendation generator builds a network of interrelationships between venues, reviewers and users based on their attributes and reviewer and user reviews of the venues. Each interrelationship or link may be positive or negative and may accumulate with other links (or anti-links) to provide nodal links the strength of which are based on commonality of attributes among the linked nodes and/or common preferences that one node, such as a reviewer, expresses for other nodes, such as venues. The links may be first order (based on a direct relationship between, for instance, a reviewer and a venue) or higher order (based on, for instance, the fact that two venue are both liked by a given reviewer). The recommendation engine in certain embodiments determines recommended venues based on user attributes and venue preferences by aggregating the link matrices and determining the venues which are most strongly coupled to the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 4, 2023
    Publication date: March 7, 2024
    Applicant: NARA LOGICS, INC.
    Inventors: Nathan R. WILSON, Emily A. HUESKE, Thomas C. COPEMAN, Evan Favermann EISERT, Jana B. EGGERS, Raymond J. PLANTE, Michael D. HOULE
  • Patent number: 11651412
    Abstract: In selected embodiments a recommendation generator builds a network of interrelationships between venues, reviewers and users based on their attributes and reviewer and user reviews of the venues. Each interrelationship or link may be positive or negative and may accumulate with other links (or anti-links) to provide nodal links the strength of which are based on commonality of attributes among the linked nodes and/or common preferences that one node, such as a reviewer, expresses for other nodes, such as venues. The links may be first order (based on a direct relationship between, for instance, a reviewer and a venue) or higher order (based on, for instance, the fact that two venue are both liked by a given reviewer). The recommendation engine in certain embodiments determines recommended venues based on user attributes and venue preferences by aggregating the link matrices and determining the venues which are most strongly coupled to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2023
    Assignee: Nara Logics, Inc.
    Inventors: Nathan R. Wilson, Emily A. Hueske, Thomas C. Copeman, Evan Favermann Eisert, Jana B. Eggers, Raymond J. Plante, Michael D. Houle
  • Publication number: 20200184538
    Abstract: In selected embodiments a recommendation generator builds a network of interrelationships between venues, reviewers and users based on their attributes and reviewer and user reviews of the venues. Each interrelationship or link may be positive or negative and may accumulate with other links (or anti-links) to provide nodal links the strength of which are based on commonality of attributes among the linked nodes and/or common preferences that one node, such as a reviewer, expresses for other nodes, such as venues. The links may be first order (based on a direct relationship between, for instance, a reviewer and a venue) or higher order (based on, for instance, the fact that two venue are both liked by a given reviewer). The recommendation engine in certain embodiments determines recommended venues based on user attributes and venue preferences by aggregating the link matrices and determining the venues which are most strongly coupled to the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 15, 2019
    Publication date: June 11, 2020
    Applicant: NARA LOGICS, INC.
    Inventors: Nathan R. WILSON, Emily A. HUESKE, Thomas C. COPEMAN, Evan Favermann EISERT, Jana B. EGGERS, Raymond J. PLANTE, Michael D. HOULE
  • Patent number: 10467677
    Abstract: In selected embodiments a recommendation generator builds a network of interrelationships between venues, reviewers and users based on their attributes and reviewer and user reviews of the venues. Each interrelationship or link may be positive or negative and may accumulate with other links (or anti-links) to provide nodal links the strength of which are based on commonality of attributes among the linked nodes and/or common preferences that one node, such as a reviewer, expresses for other nodes, such as venues. The links may be first order (based on a direct relationship between, for instance, a reviewer and a venue) or higher order (based on, for instance, the fact that two venue are both liked by a given reviewer). The recommendation engine in certain embodiments determines recommended venues based on user attributes and venue preferences by aggregating the link matrices and determining the venues which are most strongly coupled to the user.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2015
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2019
    Assignee: Nara Logics, Inc.
    Inventors: Nathan R. Wilson, Emily A. Hueske, Thomas C. Copeman, Evan Favermann Eisert, Jana B. Eggers, Raymond J. Plante, Michael D. Houle
  • Publication number: 20190286998
    Abstract: In selected embodiments a recommendation generator builds a network of interrelationships between venues, reviewers and users based on their attributes and reviewer and user reviews of the venues. Each interrelationship or link may be positive or negative and may accumulate with other links (or anti-links) to provide nodal links the strength of which are based on commonality of attributes among the linked nodes and/or common preferences that one node, such as a reviewer, expresses for other nodes, such as venues. The links may be first order (based on a direct relationship between, for instance, a reviewer and a venue) or higher order (based on, for instance, the fact that two venue are both liked by a given reviewer). The recommendation engine in certain embodiments determines recommended venues based on user attributes and venue preferences by aggregating the link matrices and determining the venues which are most strongly coupled to the user.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 15, 2015
    Publication date: September 19, 2019
    Applicant: NARA LOGICS, INC.
    Inventors: Nathan R. Wilson, Emily A. Hueske, Thomas C. Copeman, Evan Favermann Eisert, Jana B. Eggers, Raymond J. Plante, Michael D. Houle
  • Publication number: 20140279196
    Abstract: In certain implementations, data is spatially segmented into a variety of grids having particular keyed location data. Items of interest located within the boundaries of each grid are identified and stored in association with the grid location information. Data with respect to venue attributes is encoded and stored in association with corresponding grid location data. The system will identify a grid location based on a recommendation request or based on the user location and will generate a list of items of interest in that location and neighboring locations. This information is filtered based on the particularities of the user request to form a final filter set. User attribute weights are then applied to the final filter set to determine an overall score for each item of interest. Items of interest are then recommended to the user based on their overall score.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 15, 2013
    Publication date: September 18, 2014
    Applicant: Nara Logics, Inc.
    Inventors: Nathan R. WILSON, Michael D. Houle, Joakim A. Sternberg, Thomas C. Copeman