Patent Document ID: 9798700
Application ID: 14458209
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer-aided decision making system, comprising: (a) a user input device; (b) a user output device; and (c) a processor programmed to evaluate decision problems available to a user, the programmed processor; (A) facilitating input of information from the user via the user input device, the information including (i) the decision problem to be solved to maximize a reward received by the user, (ii) an action set, the action set has elements representing actions available to the user, each element in the action set having a corresponding action cost, the corresponding action costs forming an action cost set, (iii) at least two state dimensions, each state dimension has elements representing values of a condition relevant to the decision problem, (iv) each state dimension having a corresponding reward vector, the corresponding reward vector has reward elements representing the reward to the user associated with each of the elements of the corresponding state dimension, (v) each state dimension having a corresponding transition matrix, the corresponding transition matrix containing, for each element in the state dimension, a probability of moving from each state in the state dimension to each state in the state dimension for each action in the action set, and (vi) a time index, the time index containing decision points available to the user, each decision point representing a point in time when the user selects from the action set; (B) the programmed processor combining the reward vectors with the action cost set to form a reward matrix and the programmed processor combining the transition matrices with the action set to form a total transition matrix; (C) the programmed processor forming a functional equation from the state dimensions, the reward matrix, the total transition matrix, and all remaining inputs; (D) the programmed processor evaluating the functional equation; and (E) the programmed processor presenting the user with decision-making advice.