The present invention is directed towards automated assessment and evaluation of items and, more particularly to automatically creating consistent, objective condition assessment information for items to form a basis for making a decision regarding the item, such as a purchase decision, that is made without having direct access to the item.
With the rapid expansion of the Internet from a quirky computer activity engaged in by computer gurus to a common source of information, entertainment and convenience, we find that our world seems to decrease in size. Activities that once required hopping into a car and driving down the road can now be conducted in your pajamas and your favorite chair.
One of the most popular activities that are conducted using the Internet is on-line shopping. Several Internet based applications have basically created a single world store in which you can shop for any and everything through the window of your computer monitor. For used or pre-owned items, the Internet becomes the world's largest garage sale. However, there are some drawbacks in on-line shopping. One of the main concerns regarding on-line shopping is the lack of ability to adequately inspect the desired item for flaws. Being remote from the product you really can't “kick the tires” in a manner to provide you confidence in the product.
This concern is actually applicable in a variety of other settings as well, including but not limited to mail order, telephone purchases, television or the like. In fact, making any decision regarding an item that is remote from the decision maker can be plagued with this limitation. For instance, an insurance adjuster may want to determine the extent of damage to a vehicle remotely rather than traveling to the accident sight. Is a picture adequate? Sometimes the angle of a picture, the lighting, reflections or the like can easily disguise flaws or make flaws look worse than they actually are.
This concern creates an obvious need in the market. It is desirable to be able to purchase products remotely. When purchasing remotely, the buyer saves the cost as well as the time associated with travel but risks receiving an item that does not exactly match the advertised description and/or condition assessment. Various techniques have been developed that attempt to reduce this risk; however, all of these techniques either fall short of the desired results and/or require human intervention to create or define a description of an item and the condition of the item. Human intervention introduces the potential of human error as well as the subjective judgment of the inspector while increasing the seller's cost in disposing of an item. In the purchasing of high-ticket items such as automobiles, fine art, heavy/construction equipment, etc., the seller's cost and the buyer's risks associated with the remote purchase severely impacts the market for used or pre-owned high-ticket items.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a solution that can significantly reduce the time and cost of creating a consistent, objective condition assessment for items and removes the human element from the inspection of items, such as pre-owned or used items. Such a solution would enable the remote decision makers to make well informed decisions regarding the item. Thus, a person can buy an object on-line with extreme confidence, an insurance adjuster can greatly increase the number of claims he or she can process in a single day, and a museum and expand it's collection without ever leaving the gallery. Such a solution would also have application for in-person buyers by eliminating subjectivity in their own evaluation, thereby increasing their confidence in the condition of their purchases.