Patent ID: 11941552
Assignee: AMGINE TECHNOLOGIES (US), INC.
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 14:
15. A method for facilitating travel reservations by a computer processor in communication with a database having stored thereon (a) a travel lexicon having attribute names and related attribute values for flights, hotels, origins, and destinations, and (b) a travel taxonomy comprising look-up tables having logical relations and predicates, the method comprising:
receiving a travel-related query from the user via a user device, the travel-related query comprising free text data obtained via at least one of a natural language oral exchange or a natural language typed text;
instantiating the plurality of travel attributes in terms of the travel lexicon that are relevant to the travel-related query, thereby generating a plurality of instantiated travel attributes;
indexing the plurality of instantiated travel attributes, thereby generating an attribute index comprising a plurality of indexed travel attributes defined in terms of the travel lexicon;
parsing the travel-related query to derive at least one constraint related to the travel-related query and to derive a vector function comprising at least two attribute values related to the plurality of indexed travel attributes comprised in the attribute index;
ascertaining a relevant attribute set for the travel-related query, the relevant attribute set comprising at least two attribute values for the travel-related query selected from the plurality of travel attributes based on a context of the travel-related query in the travel taxonomy;
receiving user preferences for the user from at least one of the database, the user device, or a server, the user preferences including relative importances assigned to each of the plurality of travel attributes;
ranking the at least two attribute values related to the relevant attribute set based on encoded preference information derived from the user preferences, thereby generating a ranking that represents a relative importance of each attribute in the relevant attribute set;
assigning weights to each of the at least two attribute values based on the ranking to create at least two weighted attributes for the relevant attribute set;
searching for feasible travel itineraries based on the plurality of indexed travel attributes, the feasible travel itineraries determined based on the at least two weighted attributes and the user preferences;
associating a value to each of the feasible travel itineraries based on the at least two weighted attributes and a value score corresponding to a performance of the feasible travel itinerary under each of the at least two travel attributes, thereby generating rank-order preference data for preference information that is associated with the travel-related query;
associating cost data with at least one of the at least two weighted attributes;
scoring the feasible travel itineraries based at least in part on the at least two weighted attributes for each of the feasible travel itineraries, the cost data associated with at least one of the at least two weighted attributes, and associated rank-order preference data to create the feasibility scores;
selecting from the feasible travel itineraries, based on the at least one constraint, an optimal travel itinerary to be provided to the user; and
transmitting the feasible travel itineraries including the optimal travel itinerary and the feasibility scores to the user device to present to the user via the user device.