Richard P Janssen

US Patent:

57548501, May 19, 1998

Filed:

Dec 10, 1996

Appl. No.:

8/763168

Inventors:

Richard R. Janssen - Agoura Hills CA

Assignee:

RealSelect, Inc. - Westlake Village CA

International Classification:

G06F 1730

US Classification:

395615

Abstract:

A method and apparatus is provided for a search system based in software running on a personal computer. The personal computer is housed in a kiosk having a touch monitor and a printer. With the search system, selection features are selected and a search based upon these search features is performed. Each item in a database is examined to determine if an item has a given search feature. These search features are categorized into primary and non-primary search features. Items neither satisfying nor closely satisfying a given primary search feature are eliminated from the search. In contrast, items not satisfying a given non-primary feature may remain in a search pool. For both primary and non-primary features, if an item in a database is an exact match to a given search feature, then that item is assigned full points. If an item closely satisfies the search feature then that item is assigned full or partial points. After completion of comparing each primary and non-primary search features with each item in the search pool, predetermined number of items remaining in the search pool with the highest total points are displayed to the user of the search system.