Intelligent Product Lifecycle Management

为了更谨慎地消费，消费者需要掌握诸如他们拥有什么产品之类的信息；产品特点；保修信息;还有转售价值。由于产品是经过多年购买的（从一个家庭的数千件商品到一个公司的数百万件商品），当需要再次购买时，这些信息可能不容易获得。“保修生命”允许用户使用结构化的输入表格，或通过向网站提交电子收据，将他们拥有的或最近购买的产品的信息输入系统，然后由人工操作员代表用户输入信息；用户以后可以访问和搜索这些信息。然而，有一些挑战阻碍了这一过程，包括：1)每个用户（例如，一个大公司）拥有的项目数量使初始信息输入过程缓慢而繁琐；2)使用不同的术语来描述类似的项目和产品（例如，笔记本电脑和笔记本电脑）会导致产品描述的模糊性，并抑制有效的产品搜索和检索。本研究项目试图解决这两个主要问题。

In order to be spending more prudently, consumers need to be equipped with information such as what products they own; the products' features; warranty information; and resale value. As products are purchased over the years (from thousands of items in a household to millions in a corporation), such information may not be easily accessible when it comes time to make another purchase. Warranty Life allows its users to enter information about the products that they own or recently purchased into the system using structured input forms or by submitting their electronic receipts to the Web site after which a human operator will input the information on behalf of the user; this information will become later accessible and searchable to/by the user. However, there are challenges that impede this process, including: 1) the numerosity of the items that each user (e.g., a large corporation) owns makes the initial information input process slow and tedious; and 2) the use of different terminologies to describe similar items and products (e.g., laptop and notebook) causes ambiguity in product description and inhibits efficient product search and retrieval. This research project attempts to address these two major issues.