Method for matching people

Abstract

It is provided a method of matching pairs of persons. The method includes receiving from the persons personal opinions on other persons, and based on a collaborative filtering algorithm, calculating from the personal opinions a first estimated opinion of a first person on a second person and a second estimated opinion of the second person on the first person. The method also includes matching the two persons in accordance with the estimated opinions and connecting them for a predetermined time duration. The first estimated opinions may be the estimated probability that the first person wants to be matched to the second person. The matching of the two persons is done in accordance with the product of the probabilities. Matching order is determined by a difference between a highest and a second highest product of a person in two different pairs.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A method of matching one or more pairs of persons out of a group of persons to be matched including at least four or more persons, the method comprising:
 a. receiving from the at least four or more persons three or more personal opinions, each personal opinion being an opinion of a certain person on another person of said the at least four or more persons, such that at least one personal opinion of a first person on a second person being of at least four or more persons is absent; 
 b. based on at least a collaborative filtering algorithm, calculating from the three or more personal opinions at least a first estimated opinion of a the first person on a the second person, the first estimated opinion being a likelihood that the first person will have a positive opinion on the second person, said collaborative filtering algorithm being a method of estimating an estimated opinion of a specific person on a certain object based on;: 
 (i) a first group of opinions comprising opinions of said specific person on objects other than said certain object;, and 
 (ii) a second group of opinions comprising opinions of persons other than said specific person on said certain object and some of the objects other than said certain object; and 
 
 c. facilitating an increase in a number of successful matches of persons from the group of persons to be matched by at least: 
 matching said first person and said second person in accordance with the first estimated opinion of said first person on said second person and a personal opinion or an estimated opinion of said second person on said first person, each successful match being a one-to-one match that has or is predicted to have a high likelihood of mutual positive opinion between persons in each successful match. 
 
 
     
     
       2. The method of  claim 1  further comprising connecting the first person and the second person. 
     
     
       3. The method of  claim 2 , wherein said connecting is limited to a predetermined time duration. 
     
     
       4. The method of  claim 2 , wherein said connecting is done using a communications channel selected from a group of channels consisting of text chat over internet protocol, voice over internet protocol, video over internet protocol, and electronic mail. 
     
     
       5. The method of  claim 2 , wherein subsequent to the step of: connecting the first person and the second person, the method further comprising the step of receiving a first personal opinion of the first person on the second person and a second personal opinion of the second person on the first person. 
     
     
       6. The method of  claim 5 , further comprising providing mutual communication details to said first person and to said second person in accordance with said first personal opinion and said second personal opinion. 
     
     
       7. The method of  claim 6 , wherein said communication details are selected from a group consisting of: electronic mail address, phone number, instant messaging address and physical address. 
     
     
       8. The method of  claim 1  wherein the method includes estimating a probability that the first person wants to be matched to the second person, and a probability that the second person wants to be matched to the first person. 
     
     
       9. The method of  claim 8  wherein the matching of said first person and said second person is done in accordance with the a result of a one or more multiplication of said probabilities. 
     
     
       10. The method of  claim 9  wherein order of matching is determined in accordance with a difference between a highest multiplication result of a person in a pair with any other person and the a second highest multiplication result said person has in a different pair. 
     
     
       11. A program storage device readable by a computerized apparatus, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the computerized apparatus to perform the method of  claim 1 . 
     
     
       12. A server connected to a wide area network, for matching one or more pairs of persons out of a group of persons, the group of persons comprising four or more persons, the persons communicating with the server using the wide area network, the server comprising:
 a computer; 
 wherein the computer is operated:
 (a) to divide the group of persons to be matched into smaller groups; and 
 (b) for at least one smaller group of the smaller groups: 
 to receive from the four or more persons three or more personal opinions, each personal opinion being an opinion of a certain person on another person of said four or more persons, such that at least one personal opinion of a first person on a second person being is absent; 
 (b) to calculate from the personal opinions at least a first estimated opinion of said first person on said second person, based on at least a collaborative filtering algorithm, said collaborative filtering algorithm being a method of estimating an estimated opinion of a specific person on a certain object based on;: 
 (i) a first group of opinions comprising opinions of said specific person on objects other than said certain object;, and 
 (ii) a second group of opinions comprising opinions of persons other than said specific person on said certain object and some of the objects other than said certain object; and 
 
 
 (c) to match said first person and said second person in accordance with the estimated opinion of said first person on said second person and the a personal or estimated opinion of said second person on said first person. 
 
 
     
     
       13. The server of claim 12, wherein dividing the group of persons to be matched into smaller groups includes putting at least one person of the group of persons into two or more different smaller groups to be processed separately, wherein a processing time for matching pairs of persons for the two or more smaller groups is less than a comparative processing time required for matching the pairs of persons for the group of persons to be matched without first dividing the group of persons into the smaller groups.  
     
     
       14. The server of claim 12, wherein the dividing the group of persons into the smaller groups is based on age such that the at least one smaller group comprises one or more persons of similar age.  
     
     
       15. The server of claim 12, wherein the dividing the group of persons into the smaller groups is based on location such that the at least one smaller group comprises one or more persons of similar location.  
     
     
       16. The method of claim 1, wherein facilitating the increase in the number of successful matches of persons from the group of persons to be matched further comprises removing at least one person in a successful match from the group of persons to be matched and making one or more additional successful matches from the group of persons to be matched until it is determined that there are no additional successful matches to be found in the group of persons to be matched.  
     
     
       17. The method of claim 1, wherein facilitating the increase in the number of successful matches of persons from the group of persons to be matched further comprises removing each person in a successful match from the group of persons to be matched and making one or more additional successful matches from the group of persons to be matched.  
     
     
       18. A method implemented by a server connected to a wide area network, for matching one or more pairs of persons out of a group of persons, the group of persons comprising four or more persons, the persons communicating with the server using the wide area network, the method comprising the server performing the following:
 (a) dividing the group of persons to be matched into smaller groups; and   (b) for at least one smaller group of the smaller groups:
 receiving from the four or more persons three or more personal opinions, each personal opinion being an opinion of a certain person on another person of said four or more persons, such that at least one personal opinion of a first person on a second person being absent; 
 calculating from the personal opinions at least a first estimated opinion of said first person on said second person, based on at least a collaborative filtering algorithm, said collaborative filtering algorithm being a method of estimating an estimated opinion of a specific person on a certain object based on:
 (i) a first group of opinions comprising opinions of said specific person on objects other than said certain object, and 
 (ii) a second group of opinions comprising opinions of persons other than said specific person on said certain object and some of the objects other than said certain object; and 
 
 matching said first person and said second person in accordance with the estimated opinion of said first person on said second person and a personal or estimated opinion of said second person on said first person.  
   
     
     
       19. The method of claim 18, wherein dividing the group of persons to be matched into two or more smaller groups includes putting at least one person of the group of persons into two or more different smaller groups and performing a process that includes the collaborative filtering for each of the smaller groups, wherein a processing time for matching pairs of persons for the smaller groups is less than a comparative processing time required for matching the pairs of persons for the group of persons to be matched without first dividing the group of persons into the smaller groups.  
     
     
       20. The method of claim 18, further comprising:
 removing at least one person in a successful match from the group of persons to be matched and making one or more additional successful matches from the group of persons to be matched until it is determined that there are no additional successful matches to be found in the group of persons to be matched.    
     
     
       21. The method of claim 20, wherein removing the at least one person in the successful match from the group of persons to be matched comprises removing each person in the successful match from the group of persons to be matched.  
     
     
       22. The method of claim 18, wherein prior to matching said first person and said second person, the method further comprises:
 calculating a likelihood that the first person and second person have a mutual positive opinion on each other; and   determining that the second person is a first most likely match out for the first person of the group of persons based on a first calculated likelihood match between the first person and the second person and a determined difference between a second most likely match out of the group of persons for the first person based on a second calculated likelihood match between the first person and another person of the group of persons;   wherein matching the first person and second person is performed in response to determining that the second person is a most likely match out of the group of persons for the first person.