Patent Document ID: 20080306895
Application ID: 11758877
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method of developing a model predictive of preferences of people among decision objects having one or more attributes, the method comprising the steps of: a. obtaining a data set indicative of characteristics and expressed affinity for attributes of the decision objects pertaining to a plurality of people; b. obtaining sets of predictive models based at least in part on the data set, wherein a first set comprises predictive models based on segmenting the data set by said demographic characteristics and a second set comprises predictive models based on segmenting the data set by said affinity for the attributes; c. selecting a predictive model from each of the first and second sets for a person based on the person's characteristics and the person's expressed affinity for the attributes of the decision objects; d. calculating the person's predicted affinity for the attributes of the decision objects using each of the selected models; e. calculating a weighting factor for each of the selected models; and f. combining the calculated predicted affinities for the attributes of the decision objects based on the weighting factors to produce a predictive model for the person's affinity for the attributes of the decision objects.