278results about How to "Improve cooperation" patented technology

An audience surveying technique for identifying individual members of an audience listening to and/or watching a program performed from a programming signal source. A stationary apparatus is operatively arranged at a reception location with a plurality of portable devices designed to be worn by the audience members. The stationary apparatus detects and stores a surveying code transmitted with the program, and it also periodically emits a trigger signal which causes the portable devices to respond by emitting a unique identification signal pre-stored in each one. The stationary apparatus also detects and stores the identification signals. By associating the detected surveying code with the detected identification signals it is possible to quickly, accurately and reliably identify the individual audience members tuned to a particular program.

A method for improving a cooperation between a packetized data bit-rate adaptation and a data packet re-transmission transmits data packets from a server to a client with a first bit-rate; stores transmitted data packets in a server buffer; stores transmitted data packets in a client buffer; signals impairment information related to an impairment of transmitted data packets during transmitting to the server, wherein the signaled impairment information is analyzed by the server to decide if a re-transmission of data packets stored in the server buffer is required; and signals client buffer information related to a state of the client buffer to the server, wherein the client buffer information is analyzed by the server to decide if a re-transmission of data packets is required.

The invention relates to a vaginal probe, in particular for treating incontinence and comprising an external part (20), an internal part (22), a bridge (24) connecting said parts and processing electronics (28). The external part (20) is configured as a handle and has a cavity (26) and the internal part (22) is a body that is rounded on all sides. Said body: a) has sensors (44-51) on its surface, which are connected to the processing electronics (28); b) is symmetrical about a longitudinal central plane (32), which runs between the legs of a patient using said probe; c) has cross-sections that are perpendicular to said longitudinal central plane (32) and to the bridge (24), in which the measured height dimension H of said body, which runs parallel to the longitudinal central plane (32), is at maximum half its measured width B, which runs perpendicular to the longitudinal central plane (32); and d) has a front sub-section (36) that is at a distance from the external part (20), a central section (38) and a rear sub-section (40). Said central section (38) is curved, the rear sub-section (40) is connected to the bridge (24) and the front sub-section (36) and the rear sub-section (40) are interconnected in one piece by means of the central section (38) and are at an angle of between 170 DEG-100 DEG in relation to one another.

A combined wine glass and wine bottle package includes a wine glass constructed from molded plastic with an upper body defining an upwardly narrowed flume for concentrating the wine bouquet, in combination with a contoured lower base defining an annular moat surrounding a central punt. A wine bottle is sized to fit substantially, in an inverted orientation relative to the glass, into the wine glass, with a removable bottle cap nested within the central punt, and with an upper rim of the wine bottle snap-fitted into a shallow groove formed in the wine bottle near a lower end thereof. This entire package is sterile-wrapped in a sealed shrink-wrap plastic or the like. The package can be opened when desired to permit removal of the wine bottle from the wine glass, following by bottle opening and pouring of the contents into the wine glass.

An interactive and intelligent user interface for inputting a query, generating a query result including one or more matching concepts stored in a knowledgebase of one or more media types, and presenting the user with a rich personalized query result based on the user's preferences and personal information, and provides improved relevant search results.

An interface between a computer aided dispatch system and an emergency medical dispatch protocol is provided. Able to operate in either a resident or a non-resident mode, this invention coordinates the transfer of control and information between the computer aided dispatch system and the emergency medical dispatch protocol to improve the efficiency of emergency medical response resources while maintaining the certainty of the use of an established medical response and instruction protocol.

A trailer brake controller 10 for use in a passenger vehicle 12 is provided, including a control element 11 positioned within the passenger vehicle 12, a vehicle speed input 16 and a vehicle brake pressure input 14 providing speed and brake pressure data to the control element 11, and a trailer brake output 18 sending a signal to the trailer in response to the vehicle speed input 16 and the vehicle brake pressure input 14.

A fingerprint reading mechanism is utilized so as to determine which audience members are present during various stages of an audio, visual, or audiovisual program. The fingerprint reading mechanism is associated with a processing mechanism, an “enter” button, an “exit” button, a clock, memory, an output indicator, and a code receiver. As an audience member enters or exits the program performance area, the audience member places a hand, or portion thereof, in proximity to the fingerprint reading mechanism, and also presses the “enter” or “exit” button as appropriate. Optionally, the functionalities of the “enter” button and the fingerprint reading mechanism may be combined into a single automatically activated enter/fingerprint reading mechanism, and the functionalities of the “exit” button and the fingerprint reading mechanism may be combined into a single automatically activated exit/fingerprint reading mechanism. The fingerprint reading mechanism generates a fingerprint data record in response to a human hand, or portion thereof, held in proximity thereto. The processing mechanism compares the generated fingerprint data record with each of a plurality of stored fingerprint data records accessed from memory so as to permit retrieval of an audience member identifier corresponding to the generated fingerprint data record. An audience log entry associates the retrieved audience member identifier with a corresponding clock time parameter and a corresponding enter/exit parameter. In response to retrieving an audience member identifier from a generated set of fingerprint data, the processing mechanism creates and stores an audience log entry by loading the current value of the clock as the clock time parameter.

An insurance entity, organized as a stock, mutual or reciprocal company, offers claims paid property and causality insurance. This organization offers improvements over a risk-sharing vehicle such as MPT by removing unlimited liability and by capping annual assessments, while retaining the lower cost achievable by a claims-paid policy.

The present invention relates to the magnetic apparatus for magnetic resonance imaging system and method for forming uniform magnetic field. The magnetic apparatus comprises a field yoke for forming flux path, a first member of permanent magnet, provided on one end of the field yoke, free end of which is inclined inwardly, a second member of permanent magnet, provided on the other end of the field yoke in symmetry with the first member of permanent magnet, having reverse polarity with the first member of permanent magnet, an adjusting block, provided on the center of the field yoke for extruding magnetic field formed by the first and second members of permanent magnet. The adjusting block in the present invention can form a magnetic field for adjusting to extrude the basic magnetic field in order to provide a parallel magnetic field. The present invention can be applied in the MRI system and make the system have a high open degree for operations. The MRI system can be made compact, movable and inexpensive.

A process allowing communication between a java code and an executable software file which permits the java code to receive an access to the internal system resources of the user's computer. The java code is arranged to be configured as a server in the client's configuration, by means of the establishment of a server socket communication channel. Once established, that socket communication channel is used for allowing a full ordered, error-free communication between the java code and the local executable file, thereby allowing the java code to take profit of the internal system resources of the user's computer. Preferably, the java code is received by the user through an Internet/Intranet network as an applet which thus receives an effective and powerful access to the system resources of the user's machine.

Optional commitments may be provided to players within a videogame. The optional commitments commit players to perform and/or abstain from certain actions within the videogame. The players may be rewarded for accepting commitments. The players may be penalized for failing to fulfill commitments. This model for rewarding optional behaviors may provide an alternative for incenting actions within a videogame to conventional models in which players are rewarded and/or penalized only after attempting an activity or activities.

The present invention is based on the finding that the evaluation of the sensor signals of a position sensor with a mechanical period or, in general terms, the cooperation between position sensors and evaluation units, can be improved by eliminating divergence between the electrically optimal period and the mechanically optimal period. According to the present invention this is achieved in that the position sensor signal, which has a period which depends on the mechanical period of the scale of the position sensor, is translated into a translated signal with a period which corresponds to a second mechanical period, which e.g. has been set to the electrically optimal period, prior to—or for the purpose of—transmitting it to an evaluation unit, whereby not only can transmission errors be minimized and the evaluability improved but a complicated mechanical adjustment of the scale of the position sensor relative to the evaluation unit is avoided.

A centrifuge is provided, which includes a drive shaft and a rotor intended to be removably mounted on the drive shaft in a mounting position. The drive shaft and the rotor are rotatably linked. The centrifuge also includes an axial locking device, which locks the rotor on the drive shaft and includes at least one male element supported by the rotor, resiliently biased and able to engage with a female element on the drive shaft. The male element(s) is(are) linked to a visual and/or tactile indicator, providing a visual and/or tactile indication of the engagement of the male element(s) with the female element.

A computer graphics system is described in which a new type of entity, referred to as a “phenomenon,” can be created, instantiated and used in rendering an image of a scene. A phenomenon is an encapsulated shader DAG comprising one or more nodes each comprising a shader, or an encapsulated set of such DAGs which are interconnected so as to cooperate, which are instantiated and attached to entities in the scene which are created during the scene definition process to define diverse types of features of a scene, including color and textural features of surfaces of objects in the scene, characteristics of volumes and geometries in the scene, features of light sources illuminating the scene, features of simulated cameras will be simulated during rendering, and numerous other features which are useful in rendering. Phenomena selected for use by an operator in connection with a scene may be predefined, or they may be constructed from base shader nodes by an operator using a phenomenon creator. The phenomenon creator ensures that phenomena are constructed so that the shaders in the DAG or cooperating DAGs can correctly cooperate during rendering of an image of the scene. Prior to being attached to a scene, a phenomenon is instantiated by providing values, or functions which are used to define the values, for each of the phenomenon's parameters, using a phenomenon editor. The phenomenon editor allows the operator to view the effects produced by various settings for the parameter values which are selected. During scene image generation, a scene image generator operates in a series of phases, including a including a preprocessing phase, a rendering phase and a post-processing phase. During a pre-processing phase, the scene image generator can perform pre-processing operations, such as shadow and photon mapping, multiple inheritance resolution, and the like. The scene image generator may perform pre-processing operations if, for example, a phenomenon attached to the scene includes a geometry shader to generate geometry defined thereby for the scene. During the rendering phase, the scene image generator renders the image. During the post-processing phase, the scene image generator may perform post-processing operations if, for example, a phenomenon attached to the scene includes a shader that defines post-processing operations.

The invention discloses low-fat and high-protein milk drunk after exercise. The milk is prepared from, by mass, 0.3-2.0% of whey protein powder, 2.5-5.0% of concentrated milk protein, 0-0.2% of a milk emulsifying stabilizing agent and the balance raw milk. According to the low-fat and high-protein milk drunk after exercise, a high-quality milk source serves as a carrier of a nutrient substance, whey protein and milk concentrated protein are used for increasing the protein content, a milk emulsifying stabilizing agent is added or not added, meanwhile, glucose and food flavor for improving taste are added for preparing the low-fat and high-protein milk, and the low-fat and high-protein milk is suitable for improving the body basic metabolism and fatigue recovery functions after exercise.

The invention discloses an image pickup lens group. The image pickup lens group is of a seven-piece lens structure. The first lens and the seventh lens both have negative refractive power; the secondlens and the sixth lens both have positive refractive power; the object side surface of the first lens is a convex surface near the optical axis of the image pickup lens group; the image side surfaceof the fourth lens is a concave surface the near optical axis; the object side surface of the fifth lens is a concave surface near the optical axis; and the image side surface of the seventh lens is aconcave surface near the optical axis. The ratio of a distance between the first lens and the second lens on the optical axis and a distance between the fifth lens and the sixth lens on the optical axis is reasonably defined, so that the spatial arrangement of each lens can be balanced, and therefore, the degree of matching between the object side end lenses of the image pickup lens group can beimproved, and sufficient intervals are left between the image side end lenses of the image pickup lens group so as to reconcile aberrations. The image pickup lens group has the advantages of large aperture, high pixel, high resolution, and excellent field angle, and the like. The image pickup lens group can realize good imaging quality and meet application requirements. The invention also discloses an electronic device.

A business method and process directed to enabling an employer who contracts with one or more government agency or with concurrent private and public works activities to process payroll on contract-specific bases in order to: generate certified payroll records for predetermined intervals; provide alerts and reports allowing said contractor to anticipate compliance vulnerability and choose real time manpower adjustments; provide evidence of meeting and exceeding government objectives as well as managing the assignment of personnel to enhance worker cooperation, spirit, and hence, morale.

A multilayer electrode sensor assembly for electroretinography and pattern electroretinography formed as a thin strip to fit under a lower eyelid and contain an electrode in line with the pupil of an eye with signals detected carried through an integrally formed thin conductive strip to a terminal to be connected to an electrical conductor for carrying such signals to an analyzer.