Patent ID: 8166044

Claim:
A method for selecting one or more items from a collection of items, the method comprising the acts of: providing a system comprising a memory and at least one processor: providing by the at least one processor an interface adapted to allow a user to assign one or more weights corresponding to one of a plurality of criteria associated with at least one of the items, one or more of the weights defining a similarity function; applying the similarity function to the plurality of criteria and to each of the items in order to select one or more items from the collection of items; providing an interface region comprising at least two movable markers movable by the user; determining a location for each of the at least two movable markers on the interface region comprising two or more dimensions, each movable marker corresponding to one of the plurality of criteria, wherein a first movable marker corresponds to a first criterion for changing a weight of the similarity function based on a location of the first movable marker, wherein a first marker of the at least two movable markers is movable in a first direction and a second marker of the at least two movable markers is movable in a second direction, wherein the first direction is not parallel to the second direction; assigning, based on a first location of the first movable marker, the weight for the similarity function corresponding to the first location; selecting the one or more items from the collection of items based on the weight of the similarity function as determined from the first location of the first movable marker.