Patent ID: 8175902

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of generating an interest value for a first input situation, comprising: obtaining a first input situation represented by at least a first context variable of a plurality of context variables; obtaining data including interest values for said plurality of context variables, wherein said data includes first data pertaining to the first input situation and other data pertaining to one or more other situations; (a) determining whether the first context variable is associated with a discrete range of values or a continuous range of values; (b) determining at least a portion of said other data pertaining to one or more other situations to be proximate data proximate to said first input situation when said determining (a) determines that said first context variable is associated with a continuous range of values; and generating, based on said proximate data pertaining to said one or more other situations and said first data pertaining to the first input situation, an interest value for said first input situation wherein: said first context variable of said first input situation has a first input situation context value from a range of possible context values; said data includes a plurality of data associations, each data association including a first data association context variable and a data association interest value, said first data association context variable having a value from said range of possible context values; said proximate data includes a proximate data association subset of the plurality of data associations, each data association in said proximate data association subset having a value for said first data association context variable that is in close proximity to said first input situation context value along the range of possible context values; and the interest value for said first input situation is based on the data association interest values of the data associations in said proximate data association subset.