Patent ID: 6721737
Filing Date: 2004-04-13
Classification: G06F,G06Q,Y10S

Abstract:
A method for ranking a plurality of items comprising the steps of:initializing a (Dâˆ’1) dimensional weight space including a feasible region, where D is equal to a number of attributes and a point in the weight space corresponds to each attribute; reducing the feasible region based upon an item selection from a k-member set of items, wherein each item is represented by at least one attribute; ranking the items according to a ranking point in a reduced feasible region; determining a hyperplane for each of at least one k-member set of items of an item set; determining a volume for each portion of the feasible region as divided by each hyperplane; and selecting the k-member set of items, the largest portion of the feasible region as divided by a hyperplane corresponding to the selected k-member set of items including the smallest volume among the plurality of largest portions corresponding to each of the at least one k-member set of items.