Patent ID: 7587380
Filing Date: 2009-09-08
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising: characterizing compatibility between one or more enumerations of one or more products using a Zero-suppressed binary Decision Diagram (ZDD) rule model including one or more Include rules and one or more Exclude rules; receiving one or more enumerations of a product selected by a user using a graphical interface; recursively creating a ZDD sub-tree by scanning the one or more Include rules and, for nodes traversed during the scanning, one or more of: determining complete paths through the ZDD sub-tree terminating at a One node to produce potentially valid combinations; excluding some of the potentially valid combinations by applying the one or more Exclude rules to the potentially valid combinations as each of the potentially valid combinations is produced; determining the one or more valid combinations of one or more enumerations of the product responsive to the excluding the some of the potentially valid combinations; and providing the one or more valid combinations as the list of product choices to the user.