Patent Publication Number: US-2013232139-A1

Title: Electronic device and method for generating recommendation content

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     1. Technical Field 
     The present disclosure relates to an electronic device and method for generating recommendation content. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     Products, services, subscriptions, and other offerings are available via online sites. Online sites can provide recommendations of similar or related products based on what other customers have purchased or viewed. Nonetheless, these generic recommendations may not be effective to persuade a visitor to the online site to make a purchase. For example, the use of generic recommendations can often produce lists of recommendations that are too long to be useful to the visitor. Hence, there is a need for an improved system and method of providing recommendations. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Many aspects of the embodiments can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the present disclosure. Moreover, in the drawings, like reference numerals designate corresponding parts throughout the several views. 
         FIG. 1  is a block diagram of an electronic device in accordance with an embodiment. 
         FIG. 2  is a flow chart of a method for creating a recommendation list in response to a query received by the electronic device of  FIG. 1  in accordance with an embodiment. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     Embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 1 and 2 , an electronic device  100  having recommendation capability using collaborative filtering includes a database  10 , a display  20 , and a processor  30 . The processor  30  includes a query receiving module  31 , a query analyzing module  32 , a search module  33 , a sorting module  34 , and a result presenting module  35 . 
     The query receiving module  31  receives a search query from a user. The query analyzing module  32  analyzes the received search query and determines content of interest associated with the search query and associated content associated with the content of interest. In one embodiment, the electronic device  100  is used as a server for an online store, and the query analyzing module  32  determines the content of interest based on the transaction record of the user. For example, if the transaction record of a user includes a tablet computer and a search query is “screen protector,” the query analyzing module  32  determines the content of interest is a screen protector for the tablet computer. The query analyzing module  32  also determines that the associated content related to the tablet computer includes a protective case for the tablet computer. 
     The search module  33  searches for the content of interest and associated content associated with the content of interest in the database  10 . The sorting module  34  sorts the search results retrieved by the search module  33  according to the number of times that the search has been conducted before. Alternatively or optionally, the sorting module  34  may refine the sorted search results according to the times that particular results of the search results have been clicked/selected before. The result presenting module  35  presents the sorted search results according to the screen size of the display  20 . 
     Alternatively or optionally, the search module  33  may search for the content of interest and associated content associated with the content of interest on the Internet and/or a local area network (if available). In this instance, the processor  30  may further include a data updating module  36  for adding the search results from the Internet and/or a local area network to the database  10 . 
       FIG. 2  shows a flow chart of a method implemented by the electronic device  10 . In step S 601 , the query receiving module  31  receives a search query from a user. In step S 602 , The query analyzing module  32  analyzes the received search query and determines a content of interest associated with the search query and associated content associated with the content of interest. In step S 603 , the search module  33  searches for the content of interest and associated content associated with the content of interest in the database  10 . In step S 604 , the sorting module  34  sorts the search results retrieved by the search module  33  according to the number of the times that the search has been conducted before. In step S 605 , the result presenting module  35  presents the sorted search results according to the screen size of the display  20 . 
     The method may further include the following step: the search module  33  searches for the content of interest and associated content associated with the content of interest on the Internet and/or a local area network (if available), and the data updating module  36  adds the search results from the Internet and/or a local area network to the database  10 . 
     While various embodiments have been described and illustrated, the disclosure is not to be construed as being limited thereto. Various modifications can be made to the embodiments by those skilled in the art without departing from the true spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims.