Patent Application
20050130112
Today, computer technology has advanced to a great extent and continues to develop in giant steps. Powerful computer systems are available to consumers at reasonable prices. Computer networks, examples of which are the Internet and America Online™, are accessible at reasonable cost to all. Digital graphics, images, audio, video, and multimedia are widely available on discs and over networks. Software tools and languages, C++ and Java™, for example, are now powerful enough to allow software developers to build sophisticated applications, including distributed applications running on networks.
The processing, storage, multimedia, and networking capabilities of modern computers, such as personal computers, are perfectly suited for presenting educational and cultural content in an interactive, creative, and interesting fashion. However, educational and cultural applications of computers have not reached their full capacity and there is a need to develop computer technology that facilitates more extensive use of computers for educational and cultural purposes.
Furthermore, although certain reward-based systems have been disclosed, there is a need to provide a reward-based system that effectively encourages education and, as well, is applicable to other environments, such as commerce. In addition, advancement in education ought to result in admission to an appropriate college, graduate or professional school, or another institution; or in satisfactory employment. Yet, techniques for identifying appropriate educational institutions or appropriate jobs using computer technology (e.g., the Internet) are limited. They are typically limited to Web searches directed to finding the sites of appropriate institutions or classified on-line advertisements for employment. It is equally difficult for an educational institution to find appropriate applicants or for an employer to find appropriate employees. Thus, in general, there is a need for a system and method that enables a person to locate an organization and enables an organization to locate individuals.
This invention relates to computer technology, including computer networks, and the preferred embodiments are directed to the implementation of computer technology for educational and cultural enrichment, the college application process, as well as to certain commercial applications.
The computer system and method of one preferred embodiment uses computer technology in a unique way to motivate children to devote more time to educational and cultural enrichment. It should be noted that although the preferred system is aimed at the education of children, as understood by persons skilled in the art, other applications of the disclosed system are also envisioned here.
In general, in the preferred embodiment, educational material is provided at a child's local computer (also referred to as a “user's computer”) under control of a central computer system. Children's local computer and a central computer are connected over a computer network. On completing a particular educational task, a child is rewarded with a certain number of points. Children's accumulated points are stored centrally. Points are based on criteria consistent with the educational material and, for example, are awarded based on the level of difficulty of a given task, the child's level of performance, and other considerations, such as progress demonstrated in a certain discipline over time. Points can be measured in any units, as understood by a person skilled in the art, including monitory units (e.g., dollars or fractions thereof.
Points that a child accumulates by completing educational exercises can be redeemed towards the purchase of goods and services offered through the system of the preferred embodiment by its commercial participants. Purchasing transactions are also administered by the central computer and can proceed in a variety of ways. For example, the child may order goods and services by selecting from menus presented by the central computer, which, in turn, orders the selected items by telephone, e-mail, mail, or otherwise from a vendor or distributor for delivery. As understood by a person skilled in the art, this includes arrangements with on-line shopping offerings of others (e.g., on-line catalogs of third parties), whereby the present system allows spending under a certain limit at such one or more on-line offerings. The central computer may also send a message to the local computer to print out certificates redeemable at participating vendors of goods and services. Also, points may be redeemed by downloading requested goods available in electronic form, such as software, games, music, and video. It is preferred that the offered goods and services be items desirable by the children so that the prospect of obtaining these items is a motivation for the children to diligently pursue the educational materials available in the system.
Parents have their own way of accessing the system of the preferred embodiment, and it is preferred that the parents' password not be given to a child, who has his own, usually different password. Parents preferably use the system for several purposes. First, parents support their children's purchasing activity financially. Preferably, the parent authorizes the system to periodically (e.g. monthly) allow purchases to be made through the redemption of the child's points, up to a certain limit, using the parents' credit card account, or makes other payment arrangements (e.g., though the use of electronic cash or direct account withdrawal). Preferably, part of the parents' payment is used as a periodic service fee for this service, while the rest is used for financing the redemption of points by the child for goods and services. Moreover, the parent can authorize a system-initiated increase in the purchasing power of the child—a “bonus”—by, for example, permitting certain advertising messages to be displayed to the child as the child uses the system.
In the preferred embodiment, the parent controls the content of the material available for presentation to the child. For example, the parent may limit the difficulty of educational presentations to be made to the child by specifying the age of the child, or by indicating an explicit desired level of difficulty. Also, other considerations, such as whether to emphasize mathematics, science, literature, music, art, etc., can be under the control of the patent. Furthermore, the parent may exclude certain categories of goods from being made available to the child for exchange of earned points by the child. The parent may also restrict the available materials with a goal towards child's acceptance to desired colleges or universities.
In this consumer-oriented society there are desirable commercial items—deemed “cool”—that children of various ages want, such as popular games, toys, movies, clothing, admission tickets to arcade games and sporting events, etc. Parents typically spend money to purchase these items for their children. These items, though usually innocent, frequently do not bring intellectual, cultural, or developmental benefits to the children. Often, such items are advertised and promoted through mass media that are not designed to educate, enlighten or develop, such as television, which at best serve as passive entertainment. Parents, on the other hand, usually prefer spending money on educational, cultural, and developmental products that facilitate the intellectual and emotional growth of their children.
One aspect of the present invention uniquely fulfills the desires of parents to facilitate their children's intellectual development, and, at the same time, provides children with access to the goods and services they most desire. Although this goal is accomplished by the preferred system, other useful applications with different goals can be built by persons skilled in the art on the basis of this disclosure.
Because one of the benefits of better education is the greater possibility of attending a better college or other educational institution, the preferred embodiment also provides an interface between its users and school administrators. It permits rewards (e.g., points) received in connection with the educational exercises discussed above to be applied towards college or other school applications, and it also allows a college or school administrator to credit points, including monetary credit, to users' accounts to encourage selected students to apply to their particular institution. The preferred embodiment, in addition, then, provides a comprehensive system for potential applicants and administrators to ascertain admission-related information. The system is also useful for potential job applicants and employers, as well as for an individual, in general, to select an organization and for an organization to find and select individuals. Although, preferably, this service is integrated with the service discussed above, in other preferred embodiments it can be implemented as a stand-alone service uncoupled from the service discussed above, as understood by a person skilled in the art. And, as noted, it can also be used for purposes that are marginally or totally unrelated to education.
It is understood that “parent” is not necessarily a biological parent, custodian, or adult authority, and can be anyone who performs the tasks identified herein with “parent.” Similarly, the “child” is not required to have a biological, subservient, or dependent relationship to the parent and can be anyone who performs the tasks identified herein with “child.” The “central computer system” (also referred to as the “central computer,” or “central facility”) may include one or more physical computers as determined by specific implementation trade-offs, given the constraints of a particular implementation, as known in the art. In some embodiments, the central computer may comprise computers loosely interconnected by a computer network.
Educational materials, presentations, and exercises refer to content used in the preferred embodiment. Preferably, this content includes a variety of educational and cultural presentations and exercises, which include standard textbook-like exercises, spelling, mathematics, history, and geography lessons, reading comprehension, reading an article on a subject and answering questions, standardized tests, scientific material and problems, and all other content used for educational purposes. Other forms of educational and cultural materials can be provided as well, such as learning about music, art, and theater—through multimedia presentations, for example—and playing chess. Competitions, in which winning participants earn points, are also included in the definition. In fact, educational materials include any and all educational and cultural exercises and material intended to educate, enlighten, train, or develop. A person skilled in the art will appreciate that in embodiments for purposes unrelated to education, other relevant content can substitute for the educational content of the preferred embodiment. For example, such embodiments may include commercial applications wherein the content relates to products or services and the points represent discounts for the products or services.
In other embodiments, terms such as “parent,” “child,” and “educational materials and presentations” can have different meaning, and can be entirely unrelated to the education of children. For example, a company's management can sponsor employee training based on the system of this invention. In such an embodiment, the company plays the role of “parent,” paying for on-line courses, and employees play the role of “children,” who earn college credit for their participation. The company finances educational courses and optionally exercises some control over the selected curriculum; employees take courses, which constitutes their participation. “Educational materials” include course lectures and materials, assignments, and examinations, while earned “points” are credits redeemable for college degrees at participating educational institutions.
Educational materials can be provided to the child in a variety of ways. They can be available on the central computer of the service of this invention, for example, or provided by third party content providers. To use them, the child may interact directly with the remote computer of the service, using Internet, cable, or another network, and they may be downloaded to the child's local computer, so that only the resultant tally of earned points is subsequently provided to the central computer for storage. Another way that the materials can be provided is on a disk, such as a CD-ROM, so that only the results of the interaction with the child are provided to the central computer.
A user's computer is any appropriate data processing device available to participants in the service provided by the preferred system. In the preferred embodiment, it is a conventional personal computer with a modem (or other network connection), a CD-ROM drive, hard-disk drive, one or more diskette drives, a central processing unit, random access memory, color monitor, keyboard, a graphical interactive input device, such as a mouse, and printing devices, such as laser and ink-jet printers. As understood by a person skilled in the art, a network may include any suitable network (e.g. telephone, cable, or wireless network) or a combination thereof. “User computers” (or “local computers”) also can be other computer devices that may be used by users of this invention, such as, computer terminals with sufficient intelligence and interfaces, computer workstations, Internet appliances and TV's, and other computer devices having sufficient processing, storage, input, and display capabilities.
The invention will be better understood when taken in conjunction with the following detailed description and accompanying drawings, in which:
Block 102 depicts the database management system (DBMS) that provides capabilities typical for such a system, including data retrieval, insertion, and modification, as well as database queries, as is known in the art. It is used in conjunction with the file system capabilities provided by the native Operating System. Preferably, some data, as described below, is not managed by the database management system but is instead handled through the Operating System's file system directly. Preferably, the database management system 102 is a relational database management system organized to support the data needs of the system disclosed herein. (In other embodiments, other data models, e.g., “hierarchical” and “network,” may be used. Direct use of the computer's file system capabilities, which are provided by the computer's native Operating System, is possible in some embodiments as well, which could obviate the need for a database management system altogether.) Preferably, database management system 102 is based on commercially available database management software. Such software is presently available, for example, as ORACLE®'s line of database management systems. Specific implementation trade-offs should be considered in selecting the database management system.
Administrative subsystem 103 manages the resources of the system and, as illustrated, is interfaced to the database management system 102. The administrative subsystem 103 is used by the system administrator(s) and management for monitoring performance; fraud detection; performance tuning adjustments; adding, deleting, and modifying content and presentations; modifying user data in the database; billing; and system backup and recovery.
The help desk subsystem 104 supports human operators who communicate with users. The operators deal with problems and concerns of users by answering questions, providing suggestions, and addressing users' concerns in any other way. The help desk subsystem is also interfaced to the data base management system 102 to obtain up-to-date information about the users and the system. The help desk subsystem software includes capabilities for querying and modifying the system database (block 101) through the database management system. Preferably, operators interact with users by voice over telephone and/or interactively through computer-to-computer communication. The operators are provided with networked personal computers interfaced to the database and with telephones. They receive telephone calls and e-mail distributed in accordance with operator queues as known in the art. (In other embodiments, other methods of communication may be used, such as mail and facsimile.)
The log-in subsystem 120 includes software supporting the log-in procedure that is used to verify passwords of users who request access to the system, as well as software for opening new user accounts, as discussed in more detail subsequently. On a successful log-in, four subsystems of the system are available to support interaction with the user after the log-in subsystem 120 hands-off control to one of the four. These four subsystems encompass: parent dialogues, block 105, for facilitating interaction with the parent, as described in more detail below; child dialogues, block 106, for facilitating interaction with the child, as described in detail below; feedback manager, block 107, for facilitating interaction between users and the system's management, as discussed in more detail below; and educational institution interaction subsystem 115 as discussed in detail below. The feedback manager 107 is available to parents, children, and educational institution administrators whereas, preferably, the parent and child dialogues subsystems are accessible, respectively, by parents only and by children only.
The payment access subsystem, block 108, is implemented using secure software, as known in the art, for handling payment transactions. Preferably, payments are handled through credit cards, so that the payment subsystem supports interactions with the credit card company of the parent. In other embodiments, however, it may support other forms of payment, such as e-cash (electronic cash), account withdrawal, ordinary payment by cash, check, or money order, and invoice billing.
The presentation of content subsystem, block 110, preferably delivers educational materials during the child dialogues. This subsystem provides educational materials to the child in response to inputs received from the child during the child's interaction with the system. In addition, the presentation of content subsystem 110 performs functions connected with the awarding of points on completing an educational assignment.
In the preferred embodiment, the educational materials delivered to the child by the presentation of content subsystem 110 can be located centrally, i.e., at the database (block 101) of the system, in which case the educational presentations subsystem retrieves and activates these materials. Preferably, the central computer retrieves software from the database (block 101) and downloads it to the user's computer, which executes it and then returns the results to the central computer. In another preferred embodiment, the educational material software can be executed by the central computer, or the execution can be interleaved between the central and local computers. In addition to being centrally located, however, educational materials can be wholly or partially resident on an appropriate storage medium, such as magnetic or optical storage, located locally at the user's computer.
In the case that the presentation of the educational materials is executed locally, the child chooses a particular presentation, which the presentation of content subsystem uses to search the database (block 101 of
As understood based on this disclosure by a person skilled in the art, one preferred implementation is the use of the Internet web pages and browser technology.
The locally running software manages the presentation of the educational material and may administer any examinations that may be associated with the presentation in order for the child to earn points. On completion, the locally executing software establishes computer communication with the central computer to transmit the results of the presentation and interaction, typically the number of points earned, if any, by the child, for correlation and aggregation with the child's accumulated point total. If the locally-running software had been downloaded from the central computer, it is preferably deleted following termination of its execution.
Other content—“educational materials” in the preferred embodiment—can be provided by third-party content providers, in which case the database 101 may contain only an indication that these presentations are available, along with the network location of such material. The third party content can either be downloaded and executed locally at user's computer or executed at the third-party computer.
The purchase subsystem 112 manages the purchase of goods and services based on the points accumulated by the child. It is responsible for presenting appropriate menus of offered goods and services that may be optionally based on the parents' preferences; taking the child's purchase requests; ordering chosen products and services from appropriate vendors, distributors, and service providers; printing a coupon that can be exchanged for the chosen goods or services if appropriate; and downloading a electronic product, or accomplishing the transaction otherwise. As understood by a person skilled in the art, this includes arrangements with on-line shopping offerings of others (e.g., on-line catalogs of third parties), whereby the present system allows spending under a certain limit at such one or more on-line offerings. In addition, the purchase subsystem 112 adjusts the number of points available for further purchases following a purchase. To bill the parents' credit card account for purchases made by the child, this subsystem is interfaced to the payment access subsystem 108. In the preferred embodiment, the purchase subsystem 112 is a software module executing wholly on a computer or computers at the central facility. (In other embodiments, some or all of this software can execute at various sites, which may include users' local computers.)
The network subsystem 111 handles computer communication with users and third party content providers by providing access to appropriate computer networks. Also, participating commercial entities may be connected to these networks for electronic ordering of goods and services. These communications can take place either on the publicly available Internet, using protocols such as TCP/IP, or on private networks. In the preferred embodiment, this subsystem interacts with complementary communication software executing on users' local computers, third party content providers' computers, participating commercial entities' computers, and computer network servers. (In other embodiments, different arrangements may be found as known in the art.)
The educational institution subsystem 115 provides users, which can include both children and parents as well college or other educational institution (or even non-educational institution) administrators, with query, searching and other capabilities as discussed subsequently relating to selecting an educational institution by a potential applicant and selecting potential applicants by an educational institution.
When a new user wants to establish an account, he is presented with a registration screen, shown as block 214, that allows him to enter necessary information, which is then stored centrally at the database (block 101 of
When the user enters the password, it is provided to the password subsystem, shown as block 212, where it is verified using known means with reference to the collection of known passwords. In the preferred embodiment, the collection of known passwords is stored centrally in the database, block 101 of
The functions performed at block 303 include giving the parent the opportunity to specify, for example, financial (e.g., credit card) information, preferences regarding educational presentations, and allowable purchases when the parent's child or children redeem points. The functions performed at block 305 include giving the parent the opportunity to modify information unrelated to educational presentation preferences that was previously presented to the system by the parent at block 303 or block 305.
At block 306, the parent can receive information regarding his child's or children's progress. Illustratively, at block 306 the system provides data to the parent about his child's or children's latest activities on the system, as well as other data, such as statistics about his child's or children's progress over time and his child's or children's strengths and weaknesses. In addition, the parent can view feedback messages sent by his child or children, and can communicate with his children, and, in other embodiments, with other users as well, using e-mail facilities as known in the art. Other useful data can include, for example, aggregate statistics (e.g., performance averages) of other children at comparable educational or age levels, and comparisons of the parent's child or children with other children. Other data presented to the parent at block 306 can include his child's or children's accumulated point totals, purchase history, educational presentation history, and schools that the child has applied to. At block 306, the parent may also view creative works of art, such as, for example, electronic drawings, music, stories, poems, and other multi-media creations, produced by his children. (In other embodiments, the parent can view creative works produced by users other than his children, and may even have the capability of contributing creative works to the system for presentation to other users or for inclusion in the library of educational presentations maintained by the system.) The information presented to the parent at block 306 is stored in the system database (block 101 of
At block 304, the parent is provided with a screen for modifying parental preferences regarding educational presentations to be made to his child or children. This includes specifying the child's level of difficulty and preferred educational materials. This may also include the parent allowing or disallowing the presentation of advertisements to the child and, if allowing advertisements, specifying categories of ads that may or may not be presented (e.g., allowing ads for toys that are only of a nonviolent nature, or prohibiting ads for candies and sweets). In some embodiments, the parent may also restrict the child's ability to apply and/or browse selected schools in the educational institution interaction subsystem 115. Conversely, parent can encourage child to view information about certain schools at the educational institution interaction subsystem by offering point rewards in exchange.
When the parent completes interaction with the system at blocks 303, 304, 305, 306, or 307 control returns to the presentation menu at block 301, where the parent may select another function or elect to exit.
If the child's response at block 402 was a request for educational material, control proceeds to block 404, where the child is given a selection of activities, which are referred to here as “educational presentations.” For example, these activities may include presentations that are followed by—or interleaved with—questions, lessons, homework, exercises, problems, reviews, assignments, projects, examinations, quizzes, puzzles, standardized tests, competitions, tournaments, and contests. The presentation material can be in the area of literature, mathematics, science, art, language, music, technology, games, such as chess, or any other field as desired in a particular embodiment. As indicated, in other contexts other suitable material would be used. In the example described above concerning corporate employees, “educational presentations” would be professional courses and associated examinations, technical or vocational training, and the like. Selection of content, which is educational in the preferred embodiment, depends on the specific embodiment of the system, and need not necessarily relate to education per se.
Based on the child's selection at block 404, a specific presentation identified to the system at 404 is provided at block 110, as described in further detail below. This presentation can be provided by downloading software to the user's computer from the central computer, interacting locally, and then sending the results of the interaction in a summary form to the central computer; directly interacting with the central computer; accessing a third party provider's computer and then sending the results of the interaction in an summary form to the central computer; downloading software from a third party provider and then sending the summary results to the central computer; or using content that is already stored at the user's computer and then sending the results to the central computer. Other modes of remote interaction with users that are known in the art are also possible, and include combinations of the methods mentioned above. Upon completion of the given presentation at block 110, control returns to block 404 where another presentation can be selected if so desired. If none are selected control returns to block 401.
Considering another choice at block 402, the child can choose to make a purchase by redeeming points through the purchase subsystem at block 112. The purchase subsystem at 112 provides necessary information to the child, such as the number of points accumulated by him and how many points may be redeemed, in addition to giving him the capability to transact a purchase. Available products together with their prices in points are organized as lists of items, or can be provided as a virtual shopping mall as known in the art. The interaction with the child at the time of product selection and purchase is described in more detail below. The products or services can be delivered to the child in various ways: by sending e-mail to product and service providers, by printing coupons at the child's computer, by downloading to the user's computer a software, music, or art product, and the like. To determine product information, e-mail or Internet connection to vendors may be available from the purchase subsystem in some embodiments. As understood by a person skilled in the art, this includes arrangements with on-line shopping offerings (e.g., on-line catalogs), whereby the present system allows spending under a certain limit at such one or more on-line offerings.
The child may choose to communicate with other users of the system as illustrated at 406. Services such as discussion groups, electronic bulletin boards, and intra-system e-mail may be provided here as known in the art.
When the child completes interaction with a selected part of the child dialogue subsystem, control returns to the presentation menu at block 401, where the child may select another function or elect to exit.
Preferably, all displays provided to users have space available for advertisements, in order to increase the system's revenue. Alternatively, only certain displays selected by the operator of the system of a particular embodiment may contain advertisements. Schools, for example, that participate in the service of the educational institution interaction subsystem may choose to advertise. Methods and systems for including advertisements in on-line or downloaded material are known in the art, and can be implemented using appropriate programming languages and tools, such as Java. In some embodiments, a parent may control advertisers' access to displays shown to his child. Selection of advertisement based on parental preferences can be done by grouping advertisements into appropriate categories, for example, food, entertainment, toys, and the like, and precluding advertisement in those categories prohibited by the parent.
In addition to conventional electronic advertisement, advertisers can expose users to advertising materials using the technique illustrated in
At block 502, if the saved context is not found for the given child and the requested presentation, i.e., this is the first time that the child has requested this presentation, control proceeds to block 503 where the presentation is started from its beginning. If the saved context is found at block 502, the system checks at block 505 whether the child has already completed the presentation. If so, since it is not productive for the child to view the same presentation again, the system issues an appropriate message at block 506, and at block 507 control returns to block 404 of
The examination component may be a traditional test, such as a collection of mathematics problems, or can be a more interactive exercise, such as a chess game or a crossword puzzle. A person skilled in the art will be able to introduce variations on the presentations described here, such as interleaving the display and examination components, or using other known variations.
At block 508, a software timer, which provides a time limit on the educational presentation, is initialized, and at block 509 the presentation itself is provided to the child. The presentation may be written material, such as a magazine article or a chapter of a textbook, or can be graphical or musical material, such as a set of paintings or musical selections along with explanatory instruction, or it can be any other content as known in the art. Optionally, a statement specifying the goals of the presentation may be provided as part of the display component or part of the examination component, depending on the application. If the display component is to be omitted, the timer can be initialized to zero; if no time limit is to be imposed on the display component, the timer can be initialized to a very large number. Control exits block 509 when the display completes or the timer expires, whichever comes first.
Thereafter, control proceeds to block 520 from where, based on whether the child has completed viewing the display or the timer has expired, a control branch is made either to block 525 or block 521. In the case that the timer expired, a message is sent to the child indicating that time is up, and the system requests feedback from the child regarding how to proceed. If the child wants to continue with the interrupted presentation, control returns to block 508 where the child can continue the presentation; otherwise the system saves the current context in the system database and control returns to block 404 of
When the display component of a presentation is completed by the child, control transfers to block 525, where the child begins the examination component of the presentation, which is the portion of the presentation during which the child can earn “points.” At block 525, then, the child is presented with an examination menu. Optionally, the child may select the difficulty level of the examination (more difficult levels offering potentially more points). The system receives the child's response of an examination selection at block 526, and, based on the selection, an examination of appropriate difficulty is provided to the child at block 527. As is known in the art, depending on the application, the examination at block 527 may include multiple choice or true/false questions; short, written answers; essays; mathematical or scientific problems requiring a solution; standardized tests; as well as graphical or multi-media responses. Other types of examinations as known in the art can also be included. A timer arrangement as discussed above for the display component of the presentation may also be used, as understood by persons skilled in the art, in the examination portion, so that when a response is not received from the child within a certain length of time, the system saves the child's examination context and exits. Upon the completion of the examination, then, at block 528, the examination is scored and results are reported to the child. Then, the number of points accumulated by the child is updated in the database at block 529, and control returns to block 404 of
In one preferred embodiment, the central computer downloads presentation material to the user's local computer. The presentation material is then presented to the child from the child's local computer, without requiring interaction with the central is system. This downloading of material takes place after the saved context has been retrieved, as indicated by 540. Since interaction with the central computer is not required, the communications link to the user's computer may be temporarily disconnected at this point. At a timeout, the user's computer transmits the presentation context to the central system computer for storage there in the system database, and the downloaded presentation material is deleted from the user's computer. To do this, the child's communication link with the central computer is re-established at this point and communication with the child proceeds from there. If no timeout occurs and, instead, the presentation completes, i.e., after the score has been established in block 528, the downloaded presentation material is deleted from the user's computer, which then re-establishes communication with the central computer and transmits the score there. Since the number of points earned during the presentation is temporarily stored in the user's local computer, this data is preferably encrypted—and decrypted at the central server—to prevent tampering by the user.
The technique described above of downloading educational material to the user's computer for local interaction is only one way of providing the child with the presentation. Based on this disclosure, a person skilled in the art may provide educational material or another content in other ways. In another preferred embodiment, instead of downloading the presentation to the user's computer, the interaction can proceed continuously with the central system computer over the network, the user's local computer functioning merely as an intelligent terminal. Intermediate situations, i.e., where the interaction proceeds directly with the central server, but, over the course of the presentation, various pieces are downloaded and executed locally, also may be used in yet another preferred embodiment. In the case that all interaction proceeds continuously with the central computer, the user's computer need not store earned points since examinations are scored centrally at the central computer. Also, as noted, content may be available at the user's computer, in which case the central computer transfers control to the local computer's software and on completion receives the earned points. As understood by a person skilled in the art based on this disclosure, known web site and browser technology can be employed for the preferred interaction with content (e.g., educational materials).
If a particular presentation is to be made by an authorized third party content provider, the sequence of steps that are carried out to provide the child with the presentation is as follows, as shown in blocks 510-513. The central system computer sends a message to the user's computer identifying the electronic address (e.g., Internet address, or URL) of the third party provider's presentation. The user's computer connects to the third party provider and participates in the educational presentation by: interacting directly with the third party; downloading software from the third party; or an intermediate situation as discussed above. On completion of the presentation, the number of earned points is transmitted from the user's computer to the central computer, or directly from the third party's computer to the central system computer, or from the third party's computer to the user's computer, which then transmits it to the central system computer. The route of transmittal depends on the chosen application. The central system computer should validate the third party's activities to ensure, for example, that the provider does not award an excessive number of points.
At block 604, the system receives the child's selection(s), and at block 605 initiates and logs the order. Orders can be communicated to suppliers of goods and/or services by e-mail, postal mail, voice telephone, or any other means known in the art, and in the preferred embodiment must specify the item(s) that are ordered along with any required features (size, color, model number, catalog number, etc.), the child's name, and the child's address. As understood by a person skilled in the art, the items to be purchased may be ordered from on-line catalogs maintained by third parties. Also, depending on the choice, coupons for store credit or entertainment events, for example, can be printed at the user's computer. In some situations, electronic goods can be downloaded to the child's computer (a computer game, for example.). At block 606, the parent's credit card account is debited by the appropriated amount, based on the selected item(s). Alternatively, the credit card may be credited regularly on a periodic basis (e.g. monthly). In this case, the purchase total would be deducted from the total accumulated monetary amount, which is stored in the system's database. Finally, at block 607 the child's accumulated point total is reduced by an amount consistent with the child's purchase, and control returns to the child dialogues high-level menu, block 401 of
Based on the specified child's name, parental preference data for the specified child is retrieved from the database (block 101 of
Preferably, the information is stored in the system database in a separate child log table associated with each child. Each event concerning a child, e.g., participation in a particular educational presentation or a purchase, is recorded in the child's log table by the system. It is retrieved with an appropriate query expressed in a query language, such as SQL, supported by the database management system (block 102 of
At block 650 of
At block 651 the completed form is input by the system, and at block 652 its contents are appended to the feedback file, as discussed above. The administrative subsystem (block 103 of
The system database (block 101 of
Based on the database model shown in
In the illustrative embodiment, entity set attributes are defined to include, but are not limited to, the following, as shown in
In the illustrative embodiment, relationship set attributes (termed “descriptive” attributes in the art—see above mentioned text by Silberschatz, Korth, and Sudarshan, p. 28) are defined to include, but are not limited to, the following, as shown in
Although
Block 170 is the billing system, which is the software responsible for billing users and other parties for monies owed. It is composed of software components known in the art. Block 171 is the educational content manager, which is a software module responsible for inserting, modifying, and deleting content into/from the system. Block 172 is the feedback message manager, which retrieves, presents, and deletes feedback messages from the feedback file, as described above in conjunction with
Block 910 of
In addition to the central computing facility 910, other facilities may also be connected to the communications network 911. They include regional servers, two of which are shown as blocks 912 and 913, and also one or more secure networks for communicating with credit card companies, one of which is illustrated as 914. Such secure networks used for electronic communication with credit card companies are known in the art. Alternatively, the credit card companies, shown as 923 and 924, can be connected directly to the communications network 911 in some embodiments.
Regional servers 912 and 913 support local communication with local computers (915, 916, 917, and 918), vendors' computers (919 and 920), and/or third party content providers' computers (921 and 922). Though only two regional servers are shown for illustrative purposes, a person skilled in the art will appreciate that many such regional servers can be present in a particular application.
In the preferred embodiment, users' computers 915, 916, 917, and 918 are connected to regional servers 912 and 913 by telephone dialing through modems. Preferably, the telephone calls are local calls, or they can use available “800” number services as provided by one or more of the telephone companies. Such arrangements whereby users have a choice of making either a local call or an “800” call are known in the art. Other arrangements are also possible, such as dedicated communication lines (telephone or otherwise) between the users and regional servers 912 and 913. In some embodiments, communications services can be provided to the users by organizations other than the telephone companies, and in other embodiments wireless communications (satellite, optical, or radio, for example) can be used. Combinations of these methods can also appear, as is known in the art.
Vendors' computers 919 and 920 connect to regional servers 912 and 913, which may or may not themselves also be used to provide communications to users' computers 915, 916, 917, and 918.
Various embodiments can be implemented based on this disclosure. For example, a simplified version of the system, in which all parents pay the same set fee, can be implemented. Another possibility is for points to be financed by advertisers, who provide advertisement displayed in conjunction with educational content. The advertiser providing advertisement with particular materials finances points when that material is used and the user is exposed to the advertisement. In yet another alternative, it is not necessary for the parent to control content. Instead, based on the difficulty level of the content, different categories of points are awarded, that is, presentations for different ages (or different types of audiences) will award different categories of points, corresponding to the age category of the content. The products available for purchase are also categorized according to different categories of points, so that older children are not able to “cheat” by completing easy, lower-level exercises and thereby gain access to products that they want without completing an appropriately difficult educational presentation. More sophisticated products can be purchased only with points in an advanced category. In another embodiment, vendors of products can give rebates, for example, to encourage purchasing of their products.
A person skilled in the art will appreciate that a variety of diverse applications may be built based on this description. For example, vendors of software products may use the disclosed system to give potential buyers an opportunity to preview and explore their products. If, for example, the products are computer games, then in such an embodiment the content would be versions of the game available for purchase. Users would play the games for a limited amount of time and accumulate some points. These points, up to the limit established by each vendor, will then be used to provide discounts to users who decide to purchase, in this example, a game available through the purchase subsystem (block 112 of
For example, application of the disclosed systems and methods to uses unrelated to education and cultural enrichment as discussed above is illustrated in FIG. 16A. First, a user enters an Internet Web site that includes an on-line shopping application, e.g., an on-line shopping catalog as known in the art. Based on this disclosure and as understood by a person skilled in the art, the central computing facility of the preferred embodiment can be configured to support such a shopping application. Various on-line shopping systems are well-known. In the example of
At 1602 the user, e.g., a customer, interactively selects such a product and the system supporting the shopping application enables the customer to interact with a sample of the product, as known in the art. For example, it is known in the art how to play an on-line computer game free on a trial basis, e.g., up to a certain difficulty level or for a limited time, but to play further the user must purchase something, preferably, the product he/she is trying out. Of course such free trial periods are known for other software as well, not only for games. At 1604, the user interacts with the product, e.g., plays the game and at 1606, the system computes a measure of the user's interaction, which can be expressed in points, such as the points earned when playing a game. If a maximum number of points for earning a discount for the selected product has been specified, the central system checks for such a maximum at 1608, and at 1610 the system check if the maximum time allowed for the user to interact with the product on the trial basis has expired, if such a limit has been specified. If at least one of the answers is yes, the total number of points earned is stored in association with the user and the product, and the user can select another product for interaction. (See 1614.) Otherwise, the user can continue interacting with the same product. (See 1612.) Of course, the imposed limitations as discussed above can be: earning a maximum number of points, reaching a time limit, some other limitation or limitations, or some combination of these.
If the user does not want to continue interacting with products on this trial basis, he/she can purchase one or more of the products. (See 1618.) The user interactively selects the desired product at 1620 and at 1622 the central computer computes the discounts based on a measure of the previous interaction with the selected product, e.g., based on the points earned as a result of playing a game or time spent interacting with software. Next, at 1624 the price to the user is computed based on the discount by, for example, subtracting the discount from the listed price or using another formula, e.g., by taking into account other available discounts. The price is then displayed to the user (1626). If the user still wishes to purchase the product, he/she authorizes an appropriate payment method and, at 1628, the payment is made as known in the art, e.g., using a known credit card transaction. (The user can also cancel before authorizing the payment, in which case control returns to 1618 without the purchase transaction completing.) Then, if another purchase is desired flow returns to 1620. (See 1630). Otherwise, the user exits this service. On exiting, discounts (e.g., points) earned in connection with the examined products that have not been purchased are withdrawn. (See 1632.) Alternatively, not all discounts (points) may be lost, but only a portion of the discounts (points). For example, if the user purchases many products at a given time, a portion of the discounts (e.g., points) could be retained until such time that the user reenters the site.
Of course, as understood by a person skilled in the art, the steps presented in
Of course, this methodology may also be applicable to other shopping environments, as understood by a person skilled in the art based on this disclosure. As illustrated in
As discussed, various preferred configurations and architectures may support the disclosed systems and methods and the choice depends on the trade-offs of a specific implementation, as understood by a person skilled in the art. Namely, as described above, software can be executed both at the central facility and at the user computer, the reason being to enhance performance given present hardware and communications constraints. It is also preferred that software primarily executes at central facility remote to the user, with the user computer running only a communication interface and Internet browser, that is, the present services may be accomplished as an Internet services, where the only software executing on the user's machine is a conventional Internet browser, such as those available from Microsoft® and Netscape®. An Internet TV appliance, where the user interacts, essentially, using a remote control for selection and response, can also be used.
In some implementations most of the functions can be performed in the local computers. Parental preference information would be stored at the local computer as well as the accumulated number of points earned by the child. The educational materials also would be provided locally, e.g. on CD-ROMs, and the results of the interaction would be stored locally. In such an implementation, central access can be simplified and used less frequently. It might be used, for example, only to make a purchase transaction.
In a further embodiment, all central interaction may be eliminated. In such an embodiment, educational materials are provided on disks, e.g. CD-ROMS, or as content downloaded from remote sources. All interaction with the user takes place is locally. The local computer scores responses and provides awards as an electronic equivalent of cash, securely stored in the local computer, and subsequently usable for Internet shopping. When all the available awards have been provided the user, the user may continue using the materials without receiving rewards, or interaction with educational materials could be disabled.
Also, the fact that the system owes the user a particular reward can be stored on the same medium as the educational materials, e.g. on the same disk, in encrypted format. The reward would be redeemable by a user bringing the medium, e.g. disk, to a vendor, who, using decoding equipment, decodes the reward-related information, thereby enabling the user to receive his reward. In addition, the reward can be stored as money on a “smart card” or, for example, on a card provided by a transportation department authority, as a value redeemable for transportation rides. In a further stand-alone embodiment, the content can be recorded on a smart card and the rewards would be stored as money available through the use of the smart card.
At block 754, the score representing the results of the interaction is determined, and is then aggregated with the accumulated point value at block 755. At block 756, the system determines if further rewards are available, and if, all the rewards have been used, control returns to 750. In some embodiments, when all the rewards have been depleted, the program becomes disabled. If rewards are still available, at block 757 the menu of such rewards is presented. After a selection has been made at block 759, the user is provided with the chosen reward using an appropriate method as discussed above. Subsequently, at block 760 the point value and at block 761 the reward value are decreased consistent with the chosen reward. Finally, control returns to block 750, where the user is given an option to continue or to terminate the program.
It should be noted that this stand-alone embodiment is also applicable to uses outside of the field of education. For example, an interesting gift may be created through a collection of games accompanied by redeemable rewards earned as a result of playing the games. For example, a telephone company may distribute such disks as promotions, where the earned points are translated into certificates redeemable for telephone service. Also, smart-cards that combine content and monitory value related to content can be used as such gifts.
As discussed above, another application of the preferred embodiment is a system and method that assists a child in selecting a college or university and that assists colleges and universities in selecting appropriate applicants. The same technique is also applicable to selecting vocational schools, training programs, certificate programs, graduate and professional schools, academies, high schools, elementary schools, middle schools, and the like. Also, in other embodiments, as understood by a person skilled in the art, the techniques described herein can be used to find a job and by employers to find employees. In general, these techniques can be used to assist individuals in selecting an organization and by organizations in finding and selecting individuals. In addition, it can be extended to other applications as understood by a person skilled in the art. The service described herein can be financed by points earned as a result of the interaction with content (e.g., educational, cultural, or technical materials). Alternatively, this service can be paid for separately, e.g., by the parent charging an indicated amount through the payment access 108 as discussed above. It can also be sponsored by advertisers or by schools or employers or the like. It can also be sponsored by trade organizations, unions, institutions or public organizations, such as governmental or international agencies, the army, navy, and the like.
In
If, at 1714, a user selects an option to provide personal information by entering and transmitting an electronic command to the central computer, the central computer responds by returning an electronic form to the user's local computer (1716). If the user's data has already been stored in the database, the form contains information that has already been entered by the user. Otherwise, the user enters new information in the form. A given user may enter and store more than one profile. This can occur, for example, when a parent submits profiles for several children (say the parent has twin children in high school, for example), or when a child, for example, wishes to try out several profiles, each emphasizing different qualities (one emphasizing athletics, another emphasizing academics). User's name, address, and possibly other relevant data have already been provided and stored as discussed previously. At this point, the user can enter his/her information specific to the school selection process. (See 1718.) This information may include, among other items: the high school attended, classes taken and grades earned, SAT/GRE and other standardized exam scores, extra curricular activities, languages spoken, a scanned photo, a link to student's Internet Web site, honors and awards, letters of recommendation, and other relevant data. Other data can be entered in other embodiments, as understood by a person skilled in the art. This data is then stored in the data base in connection with the student at 1719. In an embodiment relating to employment, this data may include information typically appearing on a resume or curriculum vitae and multiple profiles can reflect multiple versions of the resume prepared for different positions or with different emphases.
The evaluation option can be selected at 1720. The steps of the evaluation option are illustrated in further detail in connection with
After the selection of schools is complete, profiles of the selected schools are individually matched against the profile of the user. (See 1732.) This procedure for determining the compatibility of a student profile with a school is illustrated in further detail in connection with
Preferably, a school maintains a collection of acceptance profile formulas (with an associated threshold for each formula), one for each category of students. For example, there might be a formula (and associated threshold) for academic students, where the weights are larger for grade point average and SAT score than athletic ability and leadership index, and a separate formula (and associated threshold) for athletic students, where the weights are lower for grade point average and SAT score and higher for athletic ability. Similarly, there might be a third formula (and associated threshold) for artistic students. A profile formula, as discussed further below, when executed results in an acceptance determination. It is evaluated against the student's profile, using the data found in the student's profile as values for the parameters of the profile formula. Evaluation of a profile formula yields a numerical value, normalized to the range 0-1, which is here termed the “fitness metric value.” (See box 1864 of
is the largest. (In other embodiments, other measures of the strength of compatibility are also possible, as known in the art.) Returning to 1865, the fitness metric value is compared against its threshold value and if it exceeds it, the values are saved at 1866. If not, the procedure returns to 1860 for retrieval and evaluation of the next formula. Alternatively, the procedure could return all fitness metric values and associated thresholds, regardless of whether any resulted in a determination of “compatible.” At the conclusion of the process, the central computer provides to the user's computer over the network a list of schools that are compatible with the user's profile. Also, for each such school the fitness metric values and associated thresholds can be provided to the user and displayed. Optionally, the values
may also be computed and displayed to the user so that the user can see by what fraction he/she exceeds each threshold. (In other embodiments, other measures can be computed and displayed to the user, as known in the art.) Optionally, these fractional values can be converted and displayed as percent by multiplying them by 100. Optionally, only that fitness metric value and its threshold that indicates the strongest compatibility with the school is presented to the user, i.e., the fitness metric value and associated threshold value pair that resulted in the largest value for the fraction shown above.
Returning to
In the embodiment related to seeking employment, as understood by a person skilled in the art, at step 1732, instead of identifying schools matching the profile, the system identifies employers whose requirements are met by the applicant's profile. At step 1736, the user selects such employers and at step 1738 instructs the system to forward the resume or curriculum vitae, which is stored with or as part of the user's profile, to employers. At 1742, the user may receive a request from an employer for further information, an invitation to schedule an interview, a message that the position has been canceled, or other responses.
As indicated at 1744, a user may obtain further insight into those schools that the system determined the user's profile was not compatible with. The user may electronically request a list of such schools. (See 1746.) In response to the request electronically provided to the central computer, the central computer provides a list of the schools for which the student did not meet the acceptance criteria. (See 1748.) The user can then select a specific school and request a list of those parameters that did not meet minimum values as set by the school, if the school has not blocked the release of such information. (See 1750.) In response, the central computer returns a list of those parameters that disqualified the student from the selected school. (See 1752.) Logical functions (IF) can be coded into the profile formulas to enforce minimum values for parameters. (These logical functions are described and illustrated below, in the discussion of how profile formulas are composed.) For each parameter and each profile formula, the system can indicate the differential between the student's value and the school's minimum requirement, if there is no indication in the data base that the school wishes to block release of such information.
Alternatively, the student may edit his/her profile by indicating those values that may possibly be improved, and indicating an amount of improvement in each of those values by, for example, showing a possible percentile or fractional adjustment in each. He/she may also indicate which values remain inflexible. (See 1754.) Then, this data is forwarded to the central computer, which reinvokes a procedure such as that shown in
As illustrated in
Preferably, stored in the data base associated with each school is the expert system for that school. If the student wishes to know what to do to eventually gain acceptance to a particular school, he/she will ask the system to invoke execution of the school's expert system through an appropriate menu pick or button selection. On invocation, the expert system will query the user for items of information, such as, for example, age, educational orientation (science, sports, arts, humanities, etc.), educational achievement of parents, income of parents, educational achievements of older siblings, etc. This will cause appropriate firings of rules in the expert system, causing more queries to perhaps be made by the system. This technique is well known in the art of expert systems, and possessed by those of ordinary skill in the art of knowledge engineering. It is described in the text by G. F. Luger and W. A. Stubblefield entitled Artificial Intelligence, Third Edition, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, Mass., 1998, pp. 207-516, and in the text by F. Hayes-Roth, D. Waterman, and D. Lenat entitled Building Expert Systems, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, Mass., 1984. (The cited texts are included herein by reference.) The expert system will present to the user's local computer a set of recommendations on how to plan his/her educational career to eventually gain acceptance to the school. The output to the user is advice similar or identical to what the human expert would provide to the student. Other implementations using artificial intelligence techniques other than expert systems are also possible and known in the art. Implementations of this feature of the system using techniques other than methods of artificial intelligence are also possible, and can include such things as storing the educational histories and profiles of students who were accepted for admission to the school in years past and retrieving them and perhaps-comparing them to the user's profile and history and possibly presenting these histories to the users. Preferably, they would be presented anonymously, so that the user wouldn't be presented with personal data about known individuals.
Returning to
The user may also delete or change his/her profile; see 1769. The central computer sends to the user the list of stored profiles submitted by the user. (See 1770.) Then, at step 1772, the user may choose a particular profile and in response the central computer electronically transmits to the student the data in this profile. (See 1774.) The user then can edit the electronic form representing the profile (1775) and electronically transmit it to the central computer, which in turn replaces the profile and saves the new one in the database. (See 1776.) The user may also delete the selected profile (see 1778), for example, by pushing a delete button or selecting delete from a pull down menu. Then, the delete command and the identification of the profile are provided to the central computer at 1780, which in turn deletes the profile from the database at 1782.
Although a typical college or university is composed of several educational units, e.g., law school, engineering school, medical school, liberal arts school, etc., each with it's own standards and entrance requirements, what is depicted here in this embodiment and called a “school” may well be only one of those educational units within the overall institution. Thus, a college's law school and medical school may register in the system as two separate “schools.” This may apply to other organizations as well, such as corporations and agencies, for example.
The school administration, in the preferred implementation, can also use the system. Each participating school is provided with an ID and password and can log into the central computer. After the school administrator has requested service and properly entered log-in information, the system transmits a service page (e.g, Web page) with a list of selections (1802), including: checking statistics, adding, deleting, and modifying the school's profile, browsing students in the database, communicating with students, receiving documents on behalf of students, receiving payments, crediting points or money as discussed above to students' accounts.
If the option of providing statistics is selected at 1804, in response the system retrieves and/or computes statistics data from its database (1806) and transmits it at 1808 to the administrator. The statistics may include data such as how many students browsed this school, in which geographical locations (e.g., zip codes) these students reside, average grade point average or SAT/GRE score of students who browsed the site, and other information. These statistics are collected and computed from the students' interactions with the service and stored in the database (preferably organized using the relational model) in association with the students and schools. In another application of the preferred embodiment, e.g. employment, the statistics may include number of job seekers who browsed the employer, average number of years of education of those applicants who browsed the employer, and others.
If an administrator wishes to submit a new profile describing the school, at 1810 this option is selected and in response at 1812 the system transmits an electronic form for the school administrator to enter the profile information. At 1814, the school administrator enters the profile information and, at 1816, transmits the form to the central computer which saves it in the data base as illustrated at 1818. The profile may, for example, include the following information: data describing the school, such as location, number of students, faculty information, average grade point average of entering students, average starting salary of graduates, and other information. The profile also includes one or more profile formulas, each a computational formula that, when evaluated, yields a numerical value termed the fitness metric value and normalized to the range 0-1 (or 0-100, or other appropriate range) as discussed above in connection with
0.4*normalized—gpa+0.5*normalized—SATscore+0.1*leadership—index
, where normalized_gpa, normalized_SATscore, and leadership_index are normalized parameters whose values come from the student's profile. Another typical formula, incorporating an IF function, might be
IF (gpa>3.8, 0.4, 0.3)*normalized—gpa+0.5*normalized—SATscore+IF (gpa>3.8, 0.1, 0.2)*leadership—index
, which gives greater weight to the student's leadership index if his/her grade point average does not exceed 3.8. (In other-embodiments, profile formulas can include some or all features commonly found in more general purpose programming environments, such as, for example, loops, variables, macros, procedures, arrays, etc.) In the application relating to employment, the profile may include salary information, number of years of experience, education, and other data.
To delete a profile, the administrator selects this option at 1820, and in response the currently-stored profile is retrieved and forwarded to the administrator's computer. Then the administrator confirms the decision to delete at 1822, and if the decision has been confirmed, in response, the central computer deletes the profile from the database. (See 1824.) Also, the profile can be modified by the school administrator. In this case, in response to the administrator's request at 1826, the central computer transmits an electronic form at 1828 that includes the currently stored profile data. The administrator is provided with the capability of editing the profile (1830). After the edit has been complete, the profile is sent back to the central computer (1832), which stores the updated profile in the database. (See 1834.)
Furthermore, the administrator has the capability of browsing student profiles. At 1838, the administrator selects this option. The central computer receives the request at 1840 and, in response, executes a procedure such as that shown above in connection with
, for example, may play a part, in that the administrator could choose those students with the largest relative measure of fitness. The central computer may save the results of the search computation, if so directed by the administrator, for later retrieval by the administrator. It should be noted that a student can indicate to the service that he/she wishes to block incoming solicitations from some or all schools. In this case, such a student who has been selected for invitation to apply would not receive an invitation.
Although not shown in
An additional or alternate way for a school to select candidates is through the setting of a logical “trigger,” whereby a student profile that is compatible with one or more of the college's acceptance profile formulas is automatically sent by the system to the college, using email for example, at the time the student profile is submitted to the system, unless the student has blocked that feature if he/she does not want the profile sent automatically. This is similar, for example, to the way certain Internet based dating and matchmaking services operate, and is well known in the art.
The present invention is not to be limited in scope by the specific embodiments described herein. Indeed, various modifications of the invention in addition to those described herein will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoing description and accompanying figures. Such modifications are intended to fall within the scope of the appended claims. Doubtless numerous other embodiments can be conceived that would not depart from the teaching of the present invention whose scope is defined by the following claims.
This is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 09/294,761 filed Apr. 19, 1999, incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, which is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/826,550, filed Apr. 4, 1997, entitled COMPUTER APPARATUS AND METHODS SUPPORTING DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF USERS, which is now U.S. Pat. No. 5,907,831.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 10790991 | Mar 2004 | US |
| Child | 11045754 | Jan 2005 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 09329143 | Jun 1999 | US |
| Child | 11045754 | Jan 2005 | US |
| Parent | 08826550 | Apr 1997 | US |
| Child | 09294761 | Apr 1999 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 09294761 | Apr 1999 | US |
| Child | 10790991 | Mar 2004 | US |
