EzSeer computer can predict actions 

EzSeer’s behavioural recommender system can help your computer predict your actions based on your past

Your computer has a photographic memory, perfect pitch, and with its flat-screen monitor, it’s pretty good looking.

But for all its fancy features, your computer is quite limited in how it interacts with you, responding literally to every command you enter.

An Edmonton company is hoping to change this. EzSeer Inc. has created behavioural recommender software that will allow your computer to passively observe your behaviour patterns to interpret or predict your current interests or intentions. The software calculates the user's wants, needs, and desires based on their computer activity, using machine learning algorithms.

EzSeer could, for instance, yield more effective search results. Right now, search engines like Google will turn up a million pages on Paris Hilton when you plug in “Hilton,” even if you’ve searched for the hotel chain just prior.

EzSeer ensures that your computer knows you’re not searching for the celebrity, explains Chief Operating Officer James Ortlieb.

He explains that there are a wide range of exciting applications for the technology, like online advertising and social networking sites.

“Once we know what your interests are, we can find ads that appeal to you, as well. And then there are social networks. If we know what your interests are, and those of others, we could introduce you,” he says.

EzSeer is the product of research conducted at the University of Alberta in coordination with Dr. Tingshao Zhu, a computing science professor in China. While the technology has been in the works for six years, the EzSeer Corporation formed less than a year ago with help from TEC Edmonton, which is assisting the firm solidify itself, as a company, and seeking out licensing deals.

Ortlieb explains that the first step is sorting out proof-of-concept, to demonstrate feasibility.

“Basically, we know the technology works, but we don’t know its commercial value in the market in terms of dollars and cents.”

After this, TEC Edmonton will help the company license some or all of the software, and ultimately connect with an angel customer who can help the company develop the product further, says Ortlieb. “It’s more of a collaborative process than just a sale.”