Patent ID: 11900486
Assignee: nan
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 13:
14. An improved automated method for grouping items, the method, performed exclusively by a programmable computer processing system, comprising:
receiving, via a data network, identification data for each of a plurality of items to be grouped, the identification data comprising at least first attributes and second attributes corresponding to each item;
storing the identification data for each of the plurality of items maintained in an electronic memory;
establishing a number of optimized groups to be generated from the plurality of items, where each group of the number of optimized groups is a subset of the plurality of items, and where no item from the plurality of items is placed in more than one group;
establishing a first mathematical weight value to be applied to the first attribute of each item, wherein the first mathematical weight value is selected from a programmed range of numerical values based on a determined importance of the first attribute;
establishing a second mathematical weight value to be applied to the second attribute of each item, wherein the second mathematical weight value is selected from the programmed range of numerical values based on a determined importance of the second attribute;
selecting a first item from the plurality of items;
retrieving, from the identification data in the electronic memory, a first value for a first attribute of the first item and a second value for a second attribute of the first item;
comparing the first value and the second value, to corresponding first and second values for each pair of each remaining item from the plurality of items;
generating first pair comparison scores based on said comparing, each first pair comparison score determined by multiplying the first value for the first item and the first value for another item, and then assigning a first score to the first values for each pair based on the multiplying and the corresponding first mathematical weight value;
generating second pair comparison scores based on said comparing, each second pair comparison score determined by multiplying the second value for the first item and the second value for another item, and then assigning a second score to the second values for each pair based on the multiplying and the corresponding second mathematical weight value;
calculating raw match scores for the first item and each of the remaining items based on an addition of the first pair comparison scores and the second pair comparison scores;
recursively performing said retrieving, comparing, generating and calculating steps for each remaining item from the plurality of items in place of the first item;
storing the raw match scores in a matrix having each slot on a main diagonal, each corresponding row and each corresponding column dedicated to one separate item of the plurality of items;
grouping the raw match scores from the matrix according to their numerical order;
generating the number of optimized groups based on a desired group size;
transmitting electronic instructions that cause the plurality of items to be sorted into the number of optimized groups; and
executing a plurality of rounds of said establishing the number of optimized groups of the plurality of items using other attributes until each of the plurality of items has been grouped at least once with each remaining plurality of items, wherein an optimized group generated in any of the plurality of rounds is not repeated in any other round.