1390results about "Voting apparatus" patented technology

A method for entertaining individuals according to a community having similar tastes. Information derived from user accounts form the basis of a community and collateral preferences allow other subscribing individuals to enjoy the benefit of wider-ranging tastes according to the preferences expressed by the other members of the community. Additionally, assuming that individuals sharing one preference in common may be likely to share others, the present method allows those who choose to listen to the “fan station” the ability to enjoy similar music or other data streams according to preferences expressed by the fan community as a whole.

A digital downloading jukebox system including a mechanism for delivering custom services to a recognized user, including services for creating playlists, communicating with others, accessing other features, etc. is provided. In some exemplary embodiments, after a user is recognized, the jukebox system allows users to access a special front-end via an Internet-enabled device or on an actual jukebox. Then, the user may, for example, create playlists, share songs with friends, send messages to friends, and access other value-added content. Such a system preferably learns about networks of friends, and enables managers to send similar messages to regular customers and / or others known to the system. In some exemplary embodiments, changes via a first user interface on a first device are reflected on second user interface on other properly-configured devices.

System and method in tangible computer-readable media are disclosed for facilitating community interaction with a playlist. A host system communicates with a plurality of portable devices to transmit information about the items in the playlist. Users of the portable device queue additional selections or vote on media items in the playlist. Based on user voting the playlist is rearranged to accommodate the preferences of the community. Both registered and guest users participate in managing the playlist. Such a system and method can be particularly useful in a variety of social gathering situations.

The present invention generally relates to blockchain technology. Specifically, this invention relates to adapting blockchain technology for the storage of voting data in an electronic voting system. The system includes a distributed network of voting machines in communication with each other. Each voting machine has a barcode scanner, a network communications device and a computer system running a voting client. Votes are received through the barcode scanner or a voter interface system and stored securely on a blockchain. The tally for various candidates in the election is updated and stored as each vote is received and counted. This creates an auditable trail of votes and the tally which can be used to detect, correct, and prevent fraud and error in the vote counting process.

Methods and systems for creating a knowledge graph that relates terms in a corpus of literature in the form of an assertion and provides a probability of the veracity of the assertion are disclosed herein. Various aspects of the invention are directed to and / or involve knowledge graphs and structured digital abstracts (SDAs) offering a machine readable representation of statements in a corpus of literature. Various methods and systems of the invention can automatically extract, structure, and visualize the statements. Such graphs and abstracts can be useful for a variety of applications including, but not necessarily limited to, semantic-based search tools for search of electronic medical records, specific content verticals (e.g. newswire, finance, history) and general internet searches.

A system and method for authenticating votes received from a voter's mobile device. A computer is programmed with a set of computer-readable instructions and a includes database accessable by mobile device reading a durable computer readable medium stored in a computer hardware server, the database comprising a registered voter and a geographical location for the registered voter's postal mail delivery address. The system and method receive a vote in an election over a wireless carrier network, determine the geographical location of a device which transmitted the vote over the wireless network comprising cell tower triangulation, and reject the vote if the geographical location of the device which transmitted the vote is not within a predetermined distance from the geographical location for the registered voter stored in the database.

A method and system is provided for improved electronic voting. The system optionally allows paper type ballots to be utilized. A plurality of cryptographic routines are utilized in a distributed data processing system to maximize the privacy of both the voter's identity and the content of completed ballots. An authentication server is utilized to interact with a voter to issue electronic ballots and receive completed electronic ballots in a manner which determines the authenticity of the identification of the voter, while maintaining the content of the completed ballot confidential. The distributed data processing system further includes a results server which tabulates the content of completed ballots in a manner which maintains the identity of the voters associated with the particular ballots confidential. The distributed data processing system may further include a journal server which records completed ballots, in a manner which facilitates the challenge of ineligible votes and the correction of erroneous votes.

A system and method for facilitating an online collaborative community for individuals to meet each other with the assistance of third party intermediaries or matchmakers. The system provides the intermediaries with a variety of features to participate and collaborate in the process of identifying potentially compatible individuals and arranging for the introduction of those individuals. For example, the intermediaries can provide profile information about individual participants, search for potentially compatible individuals for others, or introduce individuals to each other. The introductions can be of individuals who are already participating or who are subsequently invited to participate. Introductions may also be anonymous. Other features include a rating or ranking of intermediaries based on the quality of their introductions, a polling feature whereby users are asked to vote on potential matches for certain participants, and a real time event feature whereby participants may chat, research information on other participants, and identify potential participants for introduction. Still other features of the system are described herein.

A method is disclosed for providing advertising content for display in a page over a network. A plurality of advertisements are determined that are qualified for display at a location in the page. When an advertiser has stores located at a plurality of geographic sites, only one advertisement for a store located at a first geographic site may be displayed. Thereafter, the advertisement for a store located at a second geographic site different from the first geographic site may be displayed.

A system and method provide content review, distribution, ranking and access and automate creation and performance of contests among sets of content-based contestants. The system and method provide customizable interactive, ongoing, multi-level, multi-round contests with expert review of and filtered submission of content-based contestants. Among other advantages, providers may use the system and method to obtain expert and consumer review and ranking of their content.

A method for collectively purchasing a gift in a social network environment is described. A request is received to establish a gift account, a recipient user of the social network environment is designated to receive the gift, and the gift is selected. Money is received from a plurality of contributing users for deposit into the gift account, and the selected gift is purchased using the money deposited in the gift account. The purchased gift is then provided to the recipient user.

A method for conducting transaction between first user and a remote second user interlinked through a communication network, by utilizing also a clearing office interlinked to the network. The clearing office storing the user privileged information. The method including the steps of the user and the clearing office establishing a cryptographic secured session, the user transmitting, via the session, a user privileged information and transaction specific data, the transaction specific data being indicative of a transaction identification data. The clearing office activating transaction validity checking procedure by utilizing a user privileged information and the transaction specific data. In response to affirmative result of the transaction validity checking, the clearing office producing a transaction validity indication being indicative of the transaction identification code. The clearing office and the user establishing a communication session and the clearing office transmitting, via the session, the transaction validity indication.

A system and method are provided for creating a social-networking community and enabling the social-networking community to interoperate with other social-networking communities within a network of social-networking communities. The method includes creating a core profile that links a user member's identify to plurality of social-networking communities of the network. The system enables user identity information, content, and friend information to be shared across social-networking communities of the network. The system also enables community content to be shared and tracked across social-networking communities of the network.

A system and method for interactively affecting the course of a program or programming content. Viewer purchase electronic tokens which can be used to vote on the sequence of content in a broadcast whether it be audio, video or a combination thereof. Users are periodically polled by a server to vote on the direction that a broadcast is taking. The broadcast is then modified with real-time or stored content based upon the polling results from the viewers. Thus communities of voters have a chance to vote on the direction of content. The invention also allows sub-communities to be formed to pre-vote on a broadcast so that the sub-community can possible vote as a bloc on the direction and content of programming that is presented.

The method employs interrelated cryptographic processes and protocols to provide reliability to vote casting, ballots recount, and verification of vote or poll results. These cryptographic processes and protocols jointly constitute a cryptographic voting scheme capable of meeting the specific reliability requirements of an electronic voting where voters remotely cast their votes. These reliability requirements include voter authentication and privacy; accurate results, the impossibility of coercion and sale of votes, verifying the final results and, if necessary, the secrecy of intermediate results before completing the vote or poll. The cryptographic voting method minimizes the confidence level to be placed on any of the electronic voting individual party and participants.

A computer-implemented transmission scheme is provided to control client-server interchanges within a distributed communications network, such as a real time opinion research system. Interchanges include transmitting media streams between one or more clients to a server over a computer network, including the global Internet. A polling management unit sets and manages the transmission mode that includes event-driven and periodic interchanges. Periodic interchanges can be simultaneously or staggeredly transmitted to a sampling pool of active clients. A transmission mode unit implements the transmission scheme set by the polling management unit. A parameter selector establishes the transmission interval and transmission period which are used to trigger each communication interchange. A client assignor creates one or more sampling classes from the sampling pool by applying a sampling quotient that is generated by the parameter selector. A schedule editor produces a transmission schedule for the active clients. If more than one sampling class has been created, each sampling class would receive a separate transmission schedule for providing staggered transmissions at designated transmission intervals. The transmission schedule can include other data preparation and formatting instructions for compression, aggregation and packetization.

Methods and apparatus are provided to locate a terminal within a workspace. Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are provided in known locations, preferably in, on or adjacent the light fixtures or other workspace infrastructure. The terminal comprises an RFID tag interrogation transceiver, processor and memory. The transceiver interrogates the tags which respond with information correlatable with their unique locations. The terminal determines its locations relative to the known locations of responding tags by, for example, varying its transmit power and / or receiver sensitivity and / or by trilateration using, for example, phase or time difference of arrival measurements on the tag response signals. Once it has determined its own location it may transmit or otherwise announce its location as desired by the user. In a preferred embodiment, the natural electromagnetic radiation and / or RADAR cross section backscatter from fluorescent type fixtures, modulated with their position information, acts as the RFID infrastructure beacon.

A system and method for authenticating votes received from a voter's mobile device comprising a computer programmed with a set of computer-readable instructions and a database accessed by mobile device reading a durable computer readable medium stored in a computer server, the database comprising a registered voter and a geographical location for the registered voter's postal mail delivery address, means to receive a vote in an election over a wireless carrier network, means to determine the geographical location of a device which transmitted the vote over the wireless network comprising cell tower triangulation, and means to reject the vote if the geographical location of the device which transmitted the vote is not within a predetermined distance from the geographical location for the registered voter stored in the database.

Computer-aided methods (making and using), along with a corresponding machine, article of manufacture, and data structures, is provided for conducting a poll with high reliability to produce a demographic profile corresponding to an accumulation of response data from encrypted identities. The method includes: for each one of a plurality of local computers, carrying out registration substeps of: (i.) receiving an application for Participant registration, the application including Participant identification data and Participant demographic data; and (ii.) if the application is accepted, then issuing respective registration data, including encrypted Participant identification data; thereafter, for a portion of the local computers, carrying out polling substeps of: (iii.) receiving digital signals over the Internet including the encrypted Participant identification data and poll response data for a first question in a poll; and (iv.) responsive to said receiving of said encrypted Participant identification data, preventing more than one respective response to the first question; and associating the encrypted Participant identification data, the response data, and the demographic data, respectively, to produce a demographic profile corresponding to an accumulation of the response data from encrypted identities.

Systems and methods for enabling the formation and analysis of social structures, such as groups, in real-time among a number of participants. Embodiments of the invention are also directed to systems and methods for enabling an understanding of the responses, opinions, or decisions of individual members of a group and how those may change and coalesce into one or more consensus views of a majority of the group. Embodiments of the invention may be applied to better understand the opinions and dynamically changing membership and characteristics of social structures in a variety of settings, including but not limited to educational, business, political, marketing and related environments.

System and method may use assessment information obtained by assessing original content items or creators of the original content items in accordance with a hierarchical talent assessment process, to return search results responsive to a search for talented original content creators. The assessments of the creators and the content items by talent assessors may be monitored to increase the objectivity of the search results returned responsive to a search for talented original content creators.

Systems, processes, user interfaces, and computer readable media are described for scoring political entities on one or more political issues. In one example, the scoring is based on text data and political contribution data associated with the political entity. For example, a process may access or determine text data and financial contribution data associated with a political entity and then score the political entity to provide a measure of the political entity's ideology or position on one or more issues. Various graphical elements and interactive user interfaces can be generated based on various information derived therefrom. Users may search various political entities to view political entity scores, text data, financial data, issues, and the like, as well as enter their own political scores and / or issues to assist in identifying political entities.

Systems and methods are provided for ranking points of interest (POIs). According to one implementation, a computer-implemented method may be provided that includes receiving geographic information from a user device, and selecting a plurality of points of interest within the geographic region. The method may also include generating an initial ranking of the selected points of interest based on voting information received from the user device, viral input from a user's social network, and / or additional input based on searches for maps and travel directions for traversing a route. In addition, the method may include calculating a modified ranking of the selected points of interest.

A cryptographic process permits one to verifiably shuffle a series of input data elements. One or more authorities or individuals “shuffle,” or “anonymize” the input data (e.g. public keys in discrete log form or ElGamal encrypted ballot data). The process includes a validity construction that prevents any one or more of the authorities or individuals from making any changes to the original data without being discovered by anyone auditing a resulting proof transcript. The shuffling may be performed at various times. In the election example, the shuffling may be performed, e.g., after ballots are collected or during the registration, or ballot request phase of the election, thereby anonymizing the identities of the voters.

A “URLIT” identifier is assigned to a URL and embedded in an HTML document located at the URL. The URLIT and other data are described using a Universal Advertisement Markup Language such that high-precision searching of the World Wide Web is possible. URLIT-enabled transactions are conducted through a Universal Toolbar Utility. A search method allows user-definition of search algorithms and includes a ranking method that assigns relevancy scores to documents by polling users. Transaction reliability is enhanced by user participation in a Universal Terms of Use system and a Universal Arbitration system.

A system and method for establishing persistent collaborative on-line meeting spaces for a plurality of participants located at a plurality of different locations using computing devices across a communication network. The system includes sending invitations to the plurality of participants, and establishing the identity of potential attendees and only allowing authorized participants to enter the meeting space. The system also includes creating a virtual workspace on a workspace computer wherein the participants can interact. The interaction can include creating, adding, organizing, and deleting meeting content. The system also records status, movement and modification of the meeting content and participant activities during the meeting for later playback. The system can use user contributed objects and content, virtual sticky notes, organizer tools and other items, and can support multiple security levels.