Patent Abstract:
A system that utilizes peer influences to help advertisers to reach target audiences. This system used peer recommendations through Widgets and comments to influence consumer behavior. This is a system for placing advertising on Influencer websites or pages includes determining the audience of the Influencer and setting tags to characterize the audience. An advertiser chooses tags to characterize an advertising campaign or offer and the system determines which of the influences provide matches or partial matches to the advertising campaigns or offers. Influencers pick which campaigns they wish to offer to their audience and install a Widget on their website or page(s) that is used to display ads and process click-throughs. Influencers are rewarded with payments or reward incentives for placing the campaigns or offers and/or if the campaigns are successful. A web system is configured to provide the necessary functions to support the ad placement and rewards process.

Full Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
       [0001]    This application relates generally to computer networks and more particular to a system for electronic commerce. 
       BACKGROUND 
       [0002]    Electronic commerce has grown rapidly in recent years and now is fundamental to the world economy. The ability to effectively target consumers in this medium is therefore increasingly important to businesses. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0003]      FIG. 1  illustrates an example functional block diagram of an online system for placement and monitoring of online advertising. 
           [0004]      FIGS. 2-5  illustrate example flow charts for setting up accounts, creating campaigns and selecting offers from those campaigns among advertisers and Influencers. 
           [0005]      FIGS. 6A ,  6 B,  7  and  8  illustrate example methods for creating tags and matching tags between Influencers and advertisers. 
           [0006]      FIG. 9  illustrates an example method for creating an Influencer Quotient for an Influencer. 
           [0007]      FIGS. 10 through 22  illustrate various example processes and functions used by Influencers, and end viewers. 
           [0008]      FIG. 23  illustrates an example of different configurations of Widgets available to an Influencer. 
           [0009]      FIG. 24  illustrates commenting and feedback on offers by Influencers. 
           [0010]      FIG. 25  a method of aggregating comments from  FIG. 25  and analyzing the breakdown of the user feedback as well as reporting the data to Advertisers in various forms. 
           [0011]      FIG. 26  illustrates an automated method of setting up offers without human intervention. 
           [0012]      FIG. 27  illustrates a user&#39;s ability to select between better offers or a larger quantity of offers, based on their preferences. 
           [0013]      FIG. 28  illustrates a system according to an example embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0014]      FIG. 29  illustrates a block diagram of a machine in the example form of a computer system within which a set of instructions, for causing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, may be executed. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       [0015]    In the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments of the invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which is shown, by way of illustration, specific exemplary embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that logical, mechanical, electrical, and other changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. 
         [0016]    According to one example embodiment, the system described herein supports online marketing programs designed to leverage the power of peer-recommendations to promote actions desired by advertisers. The system provides that influential bloggers, website operators, and social networker users (collectively called Influencers) can review, select and recommend pre-screened, valuable offers from advertisers for their friends and viewers (Viewers). Using Widget and tagging technologies, the system allows advertisers to direct their offers to the Influencers where Viewers are in the target market. Influencers with the largest communities or communities that generate the best “take rates” may, in one example embodiment, receive a higher “The Influencer Quotient (IQ)” than Influencers with smaller communities and lower “take rates”. The IQ is a value that may represent the combination of community size and community responsiveness. The Influencers with the highest IQ scores may, in one example embodiment, receive the right to view and select from advertisers&#39; most valuable offers. In another example embodiment, Influencers use their IQ to select offers whose sum IQ value is equal to or less than that of the Influencer&#39;s IQ. 
         [0017]    The system, thus, can create a virtuous-circle. Influencers who are able to offer their communities the most valuable advertiser-offers will likely see their online reputations or status enhanced and their Viewer communities grow. Influencer&#39;s IQ score will increase and as a result, they will receive the right to view and select even more valuable offers for their Viewers. 
         [0018]    Thus, using the system described herein, advertisers can follow the trail of blogs and social networking sites to find and recruit customers all over the world through peer endorsements. 
         [0019]    Unlike traditional keyword advertising, the Influencers may, in some embodiments, have say over which ads and offers are shown to their Viewers and which are not. The preexisting loyalty between the Influencer and his or her Viewers may make the message more powerful for the consumer and more effective for the advertiser. 
         [0020]    Unlike traditional advertising, Influencers may, in some embodiments, be allowed to add comments (e.g.,  FIG. 24 ) and their own text to offers they provide to their end viewer audience. These comments may be displayed to end viewers and they may be aggregated and analyzed for advertisers. 
         [0021]    As used herein, the term “Influencer” is an individual who publishes messages with a personal viewpoint or opinion, wherein the message are published on a web page, website or other Internet-accessible medium, and wherein the individual has a following or audience that is influenced by the messages. The messages may include text or pictorial or other forms of communication. The Influencer may be identified by his or her real name or a pseudonym. An Influencer may be, for example a person who publishes messages on a website, including a blogger, social network participant or other website owner. The Influencer may draw many viewers to their web pages or website and influence a large number of viewers, or a small number of viewers. A “Widget” is an external component of a website which displays to viewers. “Tags” are a brief text description of a concept, generally an adjective or a noun, alternatively referred to as keywords. A “Tag Cloud” is a collection of tags that represent a larger concept—such as an Influencer or an Advertiser offer. An “Offer” is a component of a campaign, generally taking the form of a discount, promotion or ad. A “Campaign” is either a single offer or a collection of related offers. 
         [0022]    Referring now to  FIG. 1 , there is illustrated a functional block diagram of a first example embodiment of an online advertisement system according to the inventive subject matter described herein. An offer and rewards engine  110  works in conjunction with a database server  120  to provide a website  125  to support an online ad placement service. A plurality of advertising administration functions  130 , advertiser functions  140 , Influencer functions  150  and Widget functions  160  are provided. 
         [0023]      FIG. 2  illustrates an example flow chart  200  for setting up an Influencer account using the Influencer functions  150 . As illustrated, the Influencer may enter  202  the website  125  where the requirements for signing up may be checked. The user may join  204  the ad placement service in which case they enter basic contact and demographic information. The Influencer then may disclose  206  to the service his or her content as may, for example, be on the Influencer&#39;s website, web page(s) and/or blog. The website  125  may also be set to crawl the Influencer&#39;s website to determine key words and content of the Influencer&#39;s site. The Influencer may then select a Widget  208 , for example, by color, size, content and layout. The Widget may be installed  210  on the Influencer&#39;s website or page(s), either manually or automatically. The Influencer may also select  212  a preliminary set of offers for his or her community to view, through the installed Widget. This finishes  214  the Influencer&#39;s sign up, Widget installation and ad selection process. 
         [0024]      FIG. 3  illustrates an example flow chart  300  for advertisers to sign up for the ad placement service. The advertiser may enter  302  the site  125 , create an account  304 , authorize administrators and users  306 , set up billing information  308 , and reviews and approves  310  of the advertiser account. 
         [0025]      FIG. 4  illustrates an example flow chart  400  wherein an advertiser can set up a campaign/offer. An authorized advertiser representative enters  402  the website  125 . A campaign may be set up  404 , including setting a campaign budget, a campaign type and user tracking and identification. Offer set up  406  may include setting the text of offers, artwork, budget, value of the offers, redemption instructions and tag instructions. Campaign billing information may also be entered  408 , wherein the campaign billing limit may be set and the payment method selected. New offers may be submitted  410  and may or may not require approval by website  125  personnel. New campaigns and offers may then be launched  412 . 
         [0026]      FIG. 5  illustrates an example flow chart  500  of an advertiser entering  502  an ad placement website  125  and reviewing campaign/offer performance  504  reports, including which campaigns/offers are in progress, the budget/spending for them, performance by individual Influencers, and details of any given Influencer. The advertiser may create  506  customized reports, perform “what if” analyses  508  and refine campaigns/offers  510  as required. 
         [0027]    According to one example embodiment, as illustrated in  FIG. 6A , the tags between the Advertiser&#39;s campaign may be compared by server  120  with each Advertising Influencer. Users with a high overlap in tags are considered good candidates for a campaign. Influencers with low or no overlap in tags are not good candidates for a campaign. 
         [0028]    After a preliminary group of Influencers have been identified by tag matching, the system then may remove the influencers who do not have a sufficient IQ to show the offers to their communities. 
         [0029]    After qualified Influencers are identified, they are offered the campaign in the account profile section of Advertising. 
         [0030]    As illustrate in  FIG. 6B , multiple offers may be created. This may be done by duplicating the offer tagging clouds and ad content. Matches may be identified between tagging clouds, for example using fuzzy logic to determine an overlap between advertiser tags and Influencer tags. 
         [0031]    According to one example embodiment shown in  FIG. 7 , Influencers may describe their site to advertisers using tags. These tags help identify both the content of the site as well as the demographics and psychographics of the reader base. According to one example approach, three elements may make up the Influencer&#39;s Tag Cloud: Users self Tagging, Tags from the scraper, and tags from 3rd party sites (e.g., Technorati, Digg, etc.) These tags may not be weighted evenly. For example, user tags may take precedence and tags from the scraper may take the least priority. 
         [0032]    According to another example embodiment illustrated in  FIG. 8 , like Influencers, advertisers may describe their offer using a tagging cloud. Each offer is unique and thus, each offer has its own tag cloud. The primary source for offer tags is the Advertiser. Additionally, common product types may have a generic set of tags and Website.com may suggest related tags. These tags may be aggregated into the Advertiser Offer Tag Cloud. 
         [0033]    As illustrated in  FIG. 9 , The Influencer Quotient is a numeric value that represents how much influence the Influencer has and how large their audience is. An Influencer with a smaller, devoted reader base can still have a high IQ. An Influencer with a large reader base but less devoted fans may not have as high of an IQ as the example above. 
         [0034]    Also, in this example embodiment, the Influencer Quotient is used to limit what ads an Influencer can see. For example, if an Influencer has an IQ of 5, he will not be able to display an offer that requires and IQ of 7. The IQ allows the advertisers to select between “better” Influencers or a wider audience. Influencers use the IQ to see their peer ranking and provide incentive to select offers their community uses to increase their IQ. The Influencer Quotient may be determined in any way desired. 
         [0035]    Referring now to  FIG. 10 , there is illustrated an example overall process flow wherein the various parties to an advertising transaction use the website  125  and the advertising service to place ads and earn ad placement fees and rewards. The following steps are illustrated in  FIG. 10 : 
         [0036]    Step 1: End Viewers visit Influencer&#39;s website. 
         [0037]    Step 2: Then Influencer&#39;s website loads, it will also call code from the Website server 
         [0038]    Step 3: Website will generate and provide the Influencer&#39;s website the contents for a Widget 
         [0039]    Step 4: The Influencer&#39;s webpage, including the Website Widget will display selected offers and specials to the end viewer 
         [0040]    Step 5: Since the Website Widget is coming from Website.com, the inventive subject matter captures HTTP Header information, cookies, and other information from the End Viewers. 
         [0041]    Referring now to diagram  1100  in  FIG. 11 , it is illustrated how the website  125  may provide an advertising portal  1102 , an Influencer portal  1104  and a website administration portal  1106 . 
         [0042]    Referring now to the diagram  1200  of  FIG. 12 , there is illustrated an example process for using the system and method of the inventive subject matter wherein an advertiser begins  1202  by setting up a campaign and its offers. The campaign is placed on the website  125  for Influencers to select  1204 . Qualified Influencers may select  1206  the campaign/offer for their website/web page(s). If the Influencer has not yet placed a Widget on their site, he/she may do so at this time  1208 . Viewers then see  1210  the Widget (served by the website  125  server) on the Influencer&#39;s site/page(s). The actions of viewers viewing or interacting with the Widget may be logged by the website  125  using the Widget. The website  125  may aggregate the data on usage, redemptions, views and clicks and generate a report for advertisers  1212 . Advertisers can view and track campaign success  1214 . 
         [0043]      FIG. 13  to  FIG. 20  illustrate various additional details of advertisers, Influencers and end users interacting with the website  125  to perform various tasks and functions and to take advantage of the service and system provided thereby.  FIGS. 13 and 14  illustrate example functions and process  1300  and  1400 , respectively, used by an advertiser to administer their account and set up and administer campaigns and offers that can be offered to Influencers.  FIG. 1500  illustrates example functions and process  1500  used by an Influencer to establish an account and privileges to run offers.  FIGS. 16 and 17  illustrate example functions and process  1600  and  1700 , respectively, performed by an Influencer to select offers to present to his or her end viewers and to have those offers displayed by a widget on the Influencer&#39;s website.  FIG. 18  illustrates example functions and processes  1800  used to present an offer to an end viewer using a widget and for the end viewer to select the offer and execute it if desired, for example by clicking on it and performing additional data entry steps. 
         [0044]      FIG. 19  illustrates an example screen display to be used by an advertiser to enter an offer, wherein the number of Influencers qualifying to run the offer is displayed  1902  based on the tags entered by the advertiser for the offer. 
         [0045]    According to one example embodiment illustrated in  FIG. 20 , a screen display of website  125  may illustrate how an advertiser may view a report generated by the website to determine, for example, the percentage or number  2002  of Influencers running or not running a campaign or offer extended by the advertiser. Click through rates, impressions, conversions and cost per conversion  2004  may also be tracked. 
         [0046]      FIG. 21  illustrates a sample screen display  2100  for an Influencer offer selection screen in website  125 . The screen shows the Influencer&#39;s Influencer Quotient, number of website points, and peer ranking. Offers  2102  may be selected. Also, some offers  2104  may not be available to be selected because the Influencer&#39;s Influencer Quotient is not high enough to gain access to the offers. In this way, for example, the Influencer is encouraged to obtain a higher Influencer Quotient. Widgets may be previewed in the left hand lower corner  2106 . 
         [0047]    According to another example embodiment, the Influencer is offered rewards for selecting offers and successfully obtaining takers for those offers.  FIG. 22  illustrates an example screen display showing the number of points earned for each offer  2202  and the total points. At the bottom of the screen is a viewing area  2204  to show gifts or rewards the Influencer can purchase with the earned reward points. 
         [0048]    According to one example embodiment shown in  FIG. 23 , a variety of Widget configurations may be offered to Influencers, such as vertical Widgets  2302 , or horizontal Widgets  2304  or  2306 . 
         [0049]    According to one example embodiment  2400  shown in  FIG. 24 , Influencers may be able to place comments, text or other messages  2402  in, on, or near the actual offers  2404  they have selected. Those comments, text or other messages  2402  may be displayed adjacent an offer  2404  when it is displayed using a widget on the Influencer&#39;s site. In one embodiment, to add comments, the user may click on an icon to the left of the selected offers  2404  and add comments in a process  2410  that results in the comments being stored on the server  120  and ultimately adjacent an offer in the display presented to an end-viewer using a widget. 
         [0050]    According to one example embodiment  2500  shown in  FIG. 25 , comments  2502  from all influencers may be aggregated  2504  and stored for analysis. These comments may be analyzed for general tone, positive/negative messages, length or other metrics. This can be done using human input or the server may use fuzzy logic  2506 . These comments may be analyzed and the results provided  2508  to an Advertiser on a per-offer or per-campaign basis  2510 . The full text of the comments may also be available to the Advertiser  2512 . 
         [0051]    According to one example embodiment of the inventive subject matter, Influencers and advertisers are matched using various approaches, including searches on demographics or other parameters other than or in combination with demographics. One approach as noted above is such that after an advertiser sets up a new campaign, the advertiser assigns the campaign “tags” which will best reach their audience. Website  125  may return the possible number of Influencers and audience size based on historical data, wherein fuzzy matches may be used, such as “nerd”=“geek”. Advertisers will then be able to see sample Influencers based on the keywords they enter. Psychographics and interests will be used, for example, to help identify Influencers based on the tags entered by the advertiser. 
         [0052]    According to another example embodiment, there may be three sources for Tags used. A preliminary set of tags will be generated based on content of the page and who links to the site. For example, a link from Slashdot will assign tags such as “technology” “society” “nerd.” A crawler will crawl the site and break down the content into major tags and keywords useful in identifying the content of the page. User-defined self-tags may also be used. Presumably, a user can identify their site and their audience better than a crawler or other non-human mechanism. These tags may take precedence over automatically assigned tags. They may be editable any time for the Influencer. Third party sites may also be referenced, such as tags from Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, etc. These tags may be used to provide an objective evaluation of sites. 
         [0053]    Offers, in one example embodiment, may have comments attached by Influencers. Influencers may be free to leave any sort of comment with the possibility intent that they leave endorsements for a specific offer. 
         [0054]    Further, according to one example embodiment, instead of Influencers only, any web-based proprietor may be offered an opportunity to sign up and select offers to offer to their readership. Accordingly, in this embodiment, the web-based proprietor need not espouse any personal viewpoints or opinions or have any following or audience as an Influencer may, but instead may simply have customers that visit the web-based proprietor&#39;s website or pages to access factual information or conduct commerce or for any other purpose. The web-based proprietor may, like Influencers described above, nonetheless characterize their end viewers and be offered offers to present to their end viewers to the same extent possible as Influencers. 
         [0055]    In the above example embodiment, these comments may be analyzed by the inventive subject matter and reported to Advertisers. These comments may be used to help refine message strategies or to better target receptive audiences. 
         [0056]    According to another example embodiment  26 , advertisers may not directly create offers for the subject matter. Content sources, such as established online retailers, may explicitly or unknowingly provide offers to the system described. The system may either explicitly take product information, through a data feed  2602  or the target site  2604  may be scraped and analyzed by the system  2606 . Offers are generated using an automated or semi-automated process  2608  and added to the offer queue  2610  for Influencers to select. Alternatively, a non-web system may be arranged where a content provider provides offers to Influencers through some other mechanism, electronic or offline  2612 . 
         [0057]    In one example embodiment, as illustrated in  FIG. 27 , users may choose between better offers or a larger quantity of offers  2702  based on their Influencer Quotient  2706 . In an embodiment, each offer is assigned an IQ value  2704 . Offer IQ&#39;s  2704  may be assigned based on product price, discount value, or other arbitrary measure. An influencer&#39;s IQ  2706  may allow them to select individual offers (e.g.,  2708 ,  2710 ,  2712 , and  2714 ) that sum up to their IQ or lower. For example, if an influencer chooses sample offer  2708  with an IQ value of two and sample offer  2710  with an IQ value of two, the sum would be lower than the influencer&#39;s quotient of ten and thus allowed. However, if the influencer selects sample offer  2712  with an IQ of seven and same offer  2714  with an IQ of six, the sum would be greater then the allowed influencer quotient. Once an offer expires or is removed from the widget, the points it occupied may be recycled and may be used to select other offers. 
         [0058]    According to another example embodiment, the user interactions may not take place on a website owed or operated by the Influencer. 3rd party websites may be used, such as social networks, to facilitate the user interactions or to allow quick adoption of the subject matter. In this potential embodiment, Influencers may use tools from their existing platform to install the subject matter. 
         [0059]      FIG. 28  is a network diagram depicting a system  2800 , according to one example embodiment of the invention, using a client-server architecture. An online advertisement system  2808  (e.g., a network-based online advertisement system facilitating advertisements and offers between multiple influencers, viewers, and advertisers) provides server-side functionality via a network  2810  (e.g., the Internet) to one or more clients, such as a web client  2812  (e.g., a browser, such as the Internet Explorer browser developed by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. or the FireFox browser provided by Mozilla Corporation of Mountain View, Calif., or a wireless browser, as is used in the case of certain cellular telephones). Communicatively coupled to the network  2810  is one or more of an advertiser machine  2802 , an influencer machine  2804 , and a viewer machine  2812 . Each of the machines  2802 ,  2804 , and  2806  may further include (or provide access to) communications applications (e.g., email, instant messaging, text chat, or Voice over IP (VoIP) applications), enabling users of the online advertisement system  2808  to communicate. 
         [0060]    An Application Program Interface (API) server  2814  and a web server  2816  may be coupled, and provide program and web interfaces respectively, to one or more application servers  2818 . The application servers  2818  may host one or more offer and reward applications  2820  and online ad placement applications  2822 . The application servers  2818  may, in turn, be coupled to one or more databases servers  2824  that facilitate access to one or more databases  2826 . The web client  2812  may access the offer and reward applications  2820  and online ad placement applications  2822  via the web interface supported by the web server  2816 . 
         [0061]    Further, while the system  2800  shown in  FIG. 28  employs a client-server architecture, embodiments of the invention are not limited to such, and may just as well utilize a distributed, or peer-to-peer, architecture. The various offer and reward applications  2820  and online ad placement applications  2822  may also be implemented as standalone software programs, with or without individual networking capabilities. 
         [0062]      FIG. 29  shows a diagrammatic representation of a machine in the exemplary form of a computer system  2900  within which a set of instructions, for causing the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein, may be executed. In alternative embodiments, the machine operates as a standalone device or may be connected (e.g., networked) to other machines. In a networked deployment, the machine may operate in the capacity of a server or a client machine in server-client network environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer (or distributed) network environment. The machine may be a server computer, a client computer, a personal computer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a web appliance, a network router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executing a set of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to be taken by that machine. Further, while only a single machine is illustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken to include any collection of machines that individually or jointly execute a set (or multiple sets) of instructions to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. 
         [0063]    The exemplary computer system  2900  includes a processor  2902  (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU) a graphics processing unit (GPU) or both), a main memory  2904  and a static memory  2906 , which communicate with each other via a bus  2908 . The computer system  2900  may further include a video display unit  2910  (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a cathode ray tube (CRT)). The computer system  2900  also includes an alphanumeric input device  2912  (e.g., a keyboard), a cursor control device  2914  (e.g., a mouse), a disk drive unit  2916 , a signal generation device  2918  (e.g., a speaker) and a network interface device  2920 . 
         [0064]    The disk drive unit  2916  includes a machine-readable medium  2922  on which is stored one or more sets of instructions (e.g., software  2924 ) embodying any one or more of the methodologies or functions described herein. The software  2924  may also reside, completely or at least partially, within the main memory  2904  and/or within the processor  2902  during execution thereof by the computer system  2900 , the main memory  2904  and the processor  2902  also constituting machine-readable media. The software  2924  may further be transmitted or received over a network  2926  via the network interface device  2920 . 
         [0065]    While the machine-readable medium  2922  is shown in an exemplary embodiment to be a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” should be taken to include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized or distributed database, and/or associated caches and servers) that store the one or more sets of instructions. The term “machine-readable medium” shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storing, encoding or carrying a set of instructions for execution by the machine and that cause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologies of the present invention. The term “machine-readable medium” shall accordingly be taken to include, but not be limited to, solid-state memories, optical and magnetic media, and carrier wave signals. 
         [0066]    Thus, as described herein, according to one example embodiment, the system described herein supports online marketing programs designed to leverage the power of peer-recommendations to promote actions desired by advertisers. The system thus may create a virtuous-circle, since Influencers that are able to offer their communities the most valuable advertiser-offers will likely see their reputations enhanced and their Viewer communities grow. Their IQ score will increase and as a result, they will receive the right to view and select even more valuable offers for their Viewers. Thus, using the system described herein, advertisers may follow the trail of blogs and social networking sites to find and recruit customers all over the world. 
         [0067]    According to other alternative embodiments, any of the systems and methods described herein above, or as set forth in the accompanying claims, may further be embodied as a computer-readable product or article of manufacture wherein instructions may be tangibly embodied to perform the systems and methods described. 
         [0068]    The above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. For example, the above-described examples (or one or more aspects thereof) may be used in combination with each other. Other embodiments can be used, such as by one of ordinary skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. The Abstract is provided to comply with 37 C.F.R. § 1.72(b), to allow the reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Also, in the above Detailed Description, various features may be grouped together to streamline the disclosure. This should not be interpreted as intending that an unclaimed disclosed feature is essential to any claim. Rather, inventive subject matter may lie in less than all features of a particular disclosed embodiment. Thus, the following claims are hereby incorporated into the Detailed Description, with each claim standing on its own as a separate embodiment. The scope of the invention should be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

Technology Classification (CPC): 6