593results about How to "Simple task" patented technology

A system and method for providing automatic and coordinated sharing of conversational resources, e.g., functions and arguments, between network-connected servers and devices and their corresponding applications. In one aspect, a system for providing automatic and coordinated sharing of conversational resources inlcudes a network having a first and second network device, the first and second network device each comprising a set of conversational resources, a dialog manager for managing a conversation and executing calls requesting a conversational service, and a communication stack for communicating messages over the network using conversational protocols, wherein the conversational protocols establish coordinated network communication between the dialog managers of the first and second network device to automatically share the set of conversational resources of the first and second network device, when necessary, to perform their respective requested conversational service.

An input / output processor for speeding the input / output and memory access operations for a processor is presented. The key idea of an input / output processor is to functionally divide input / output and memory access operations tasks into a compute intensive part that is handled by the processor and an I / O or memory intensive part that is then handled by the input / output processor. An input / output processor is designed by analyzing common input / output and memory access patterns and implementing methods tailored to efficiently handle those commonly occurring patterns. One technique that an input / output processor may use is to divide memory tasks into high frequency or high-availability components and low frequency or low-availability components. After dividing a memory task in such a manner, the input / output processor then uses high-speed memory (such as SRAM) to store the high frequency and high-availability components and a slower-speed memory (such as commodity DRAM) to store the low frequency and low-availability components. Another technique used by the input / output processor is to allocate memory in such a manner that all memory bank conflicts are eliminated. By eliminating any possible memory bank conflicts, the maximum random access performance of DRAM memory technology can be achieved.

A system PDA-based on line diagnostics for automatically discovering a thermostat configuration, turning off normal controller delays, temporary overriding sensor inputs and set points, and verifying proper output action including the monitoring the discharge air temperature for the resulting temperature behavior based on the equipment stages activated. The diagnosis may include the testing of sensors, set points, the fan, cooling equipment, heating equipment and the wiring connecting the controls with the fan, and the cooling and heating equipment. Problems discovered may be reported, automatically recorded and the original operating parameters may be restored.

A device and method that may be used at nearly any place to set and adjust a control system such as a thermostat, controller or computer having numerous parameters and options that may be selected for desired operation of an air management system. One may remotely, via a personal digital assistant or computer, configure, commission, select, set or adjust the parameters and options of a control system. The configuration information may be shared with other personal digital assistants in a wireless or non-wireless manner. Further, enhanced diagnostics and repair may be achieved with the sending of configuration information from one PDA or computer to a PDA or computer at a diagnostic and repair facility. New modifications and calibration may be provided for the configuration. Such added information and configuring may be sent back to the originating PDA or computer for the providing to the controller or thermostat.

A monitor for an electric arc welder as the welder performs a selected arc welding process by creating actual welding parameters, such as arc current and arc voltage, between an advancing welding wire and a workpiece, where the process involves an arc and is defined by a series of rapidly repeating wave shapes constituting a weld cycle with a cycle time, the wave shapes are each segmented into time states having command signals corresponding to the actual parameters and a time duration. The monitor selects a specific wave shape state, reads one of the actual parameters, compares the actual read parameter with a function of the command signal corresponding to the actual parameter, and uses-the comparison to generate a characteristic of the welding process during the selected state.

A method and system for personal authentication using sequences of partial fingerprint signatures provides a high security capability to various processes requiring positive identification of individuals. In a baseline usage, the sequential partial fingerprint sequence techniques augments sentinel systems for gaining access to restricted areas, and when used in combination with financial cards, offer a unique and greatly simplified means for authenticating or identifying individuals. A highly automated technique initially obtains eight (illustratively) linear partial fingerprint signatures which serve as reference data against which later proffered candidate data in the form of at least two linear partial fingerprint signatures are compared for authentication. The particular two candidate signatures used and the sequence in which they are submitted are selected with the user's consent and serve as a PIN-like unique personal code. The use of only partial fingerprint data greatly allays the concerns of widespread fingerprint dissemination by many individuals.

Agricultural operations by applying flexible manufacturing software, robotics and sensing techniques to agriculture. In manufacturing operations utilizing flexible machining and flexible assembly robots, work pieces flow through a fixed set of workstations on an assembly line. At different stations are located machine vision systems, laser based raster devices, radar, touch, photocell, and other methods of sensing; flexible robot armatures and the like are used to operate on them. This flexible agricultural automation turns that concept inside out, moving software programmable workstations through farm fields on mobile robots that can sense their environment and respond to it flexibly. The agricultural automation will make it possible for large scale farming to take up labor intensive farming practices which are currently only practical for small scale farming, improving land utilization efficiency, while lowering manpower costs dramatically.

In a system and method for arranging a graph according to a Force-Directed Layout algorithm, a node-set transition in the graph may be animated by iteratively reducing or increasing an impact value of one node on another node, and a velocity of a node may be reduced in proportion the to the degree of its non-directional movement.

A thermostat providing modulated or analog control of valves or dampers of an air management system. This permits operating a single cooling or heating stage with partially open valves or dampers as needed, since one full stage that is either fully on or off may not be easy to manage for effective air management of a particular type of building, zone or facility. The thermostat may also provide non-modulated control of multi-stage cooling and heating systems. The thermostat may even be used to control a modulated system having more than one stage of cooling or heating.

A method for monitoring the health of a system comprises performing at each of a plurality of times the steps of:constructing a condition signature from a plurality of condition indicators including (a) a plurality of vibration measurements acquired from the system or (b) one or more vibration measurements and one or more performance parameter measurements acquired from the system;predicting a normal signature from a model defining one or more inter-dependencies between said condition indicators, the normal signature corresponding to the condition signature for a healthy system;comparing the condition signature with the normal signature; andregistering an event if the condition signature differs from the normal signature by more than a predetermined threshold.

A predictive modeling method may include determining a time interval of time-series data; identifying one or more variables of the data as targets; determining a forecast range and a skip range associated with a prediction problem represented by the data; generating training data and testing data from the time-series data; fitting a predictive model to the training data; and testing the fitted model on the testing data. The forecast range may indicate a duration of a period for which values of the targets are to be predicted. The skip range may indicate a temporal lag between the time period corresponding to the data used to make predictions and the time period corresponding to the predictions. The skip range may separate input data subsets representing model inputs from subsets representing model outputs, and separate test data subsets representing model inputs from subsets representing validation data.

A system and method for programmatically generating a graphical program or a portion of a graphical program in response to receiving program information is disclosed. During execution of a graphical program generation (GPG) program, the GPG program receives program information specifying functionality of the graphical program to be generated. In one embodiment the program information does not specify specific nodes in the graphical program or connections among the nodes. In response to the program information, the GPG program programmatically generates a graphical program (or graphical program portion) that implements the specified functionality.

An apparatus and method for receiving daily data feeds of news article text and news images, extracting from the articles both the text content and the formatting directives used in the newspaper layout, restructuring the formatting directives into organizing directives for Web pages, storing the text content and the organizing directives in a database, storing the news images in an image library, retrieving the text content and organizing directives from the database in a pattern which may be made significantly different from the pattern in which they were stored, and combining them with Web page templates to produce a Web-readable news publication. The Web-readable publication appears each day in synchronization with the daily paper news publication, and may be delivered on any schedule or cycle of news publication. Editorial maintenance programs facilitate skilled modification and enhancement of the content and appearance of the Web-readable publication. Classified advertisements and death notices are accommodated in the Web-readable publication. Customized electronic mail summaries of news are delivered to subscribers. The cost of news delivery and software maintenance is low.

The present invention is directed towards systems and methods for more efficiently managing installation of a plurality of application plug-ins for a client device. A client device executes, upon startup, a receiver application. The receiver application may manage installations of application plug-ins for a user of the client device. The receiver application may receive from an update server a delivery of application plug-ins to install on the client device. Upon receipt of the delivery, the receiver application may automatically install each of the application plug-ins on the client device transparently to the user of the client device. The receiver application may automatically start each of the application plug-ins.

A method is disclosed whereby consumers enrolled in a prescription benefit plan can obtain prescription medication fulfillment at any participating pharmacy of their choice, regardless of whether the fulfillment is by a retail pharmacy or a mail order pharmacy, and whether the quantity of medication prescribed is for administration over a short period (acute care) or a prolonged period (maintenance). The plan of this invention operates by having the plan manager substantially equalize the financial effects of the discounts and services fees allowed to participating pharmacies such that both retail and mail order pharmacies are compensated in a manner which encourages them to accept all consumers and fill all prescriptions. Compensation is preferably adjusted periodically by the manager to retain pharmacy incentives. Consumers obtain choice of pharmacies, plan payers have pleased employees and members and pharmacies obtain income from the entire spectrum of consumers.

A device and method that may be used at nearly any place to set and adjust a control system such as a thermostat, controller or computer having numerous parameters and options that may be selected for desired operation of an air management system. One may remotely, via a personal digital assistant, configure, commission, select, set or adjust the parameters and options of a control system, which may include, but not be limited to, temperatures, humidity, sensors, volume of air movement, fan or air mover behavior, the percentage of added fresh air, modulated and non-modulated control of valves and dampers, stages of cooling and heating at various zones, control of heat pumps, heaters and air conditioners, modes of occupied, unoccupied or standby of respective spaces in a building, for day and night, at selected times, on certain days, for specific buildings at particular locations.

A system and method for delivering packages using a vehicle such as a truck. The packages contain RFIDs that can be electronically queried when the truck is at a destination. A computer communicates to the driver which packages are to be provided at the destination, and the RFIDs can be electronically queried so that the driver can identify those packages. The truck can have an RFID affixed thereto, so that when the driver arrives at the destination, a computer system is informed and can communicate said instructions to the driver. The instructions can be generated using a data base at a remote location coupled to a system within the truck (or within the destination).

A data entry system, having an input interface adapted to identify a plurality of user interactions. The system includes a processor adapted to associate user interactions identified by the input interface with a plurality of letters of the alphabet, such that all the letters of the alphabet are assigned to at most eight user interactions. Most of the letters are assigned to specific user interactions according to one or more features of their shape in their printed form, such that most of the letters assigned to each user interaction have the same shape feature.

A syndicator for disseminating Web services and other resources from service and content providers to service consumers and for establishing and implementing subscription agreements specifying the terms upon which digital assets are provided to subscribers. A registration database stores a service description for each of a plurality of different Web services and other resources. Each stored service description contains an input processing specification, an output processing specification, and the specification of the business terms upon which the described service or resource is offered by its provider to subscribers. A subscription manager conducts a negotiation with a prospective subscriber and receives from the subscriber an acceptance of the business terms upon which a specified Web service or resource is offered to establish a subscription agreement. Event tracking records information describing the performance of each service on behalf of each subscriber to perform subscription accounting functions.

A system and method for programmatically generating and modifying graphical programs, in response to receiving program information. The program information may specify functionality of the graphical program or graphical program portion. During execution of a graphical program generation (GPG) program, the GPG program may be operable to receive the program information. In response to the program information, the GPG program may programmatically generate a graphical program (or graphical program portion) that implements the specified functionality. Thus, the GPG program may generate different graphical programs, depending on the program information received. The GPG program may have any of various purposes or applications. In some embodiments, the GPG program may be a program or application which a user utilizes to construct or characterize a computational process. In response to the specified computational process, the GPG program may programmatically generate a graphical program to implement the computational process. In other embodiments, the GPG program may be a program or application that directly aids the user in creating a graphical program. In addition to these examples, a GPG program may receive any other type of information and programmatically generate a graphical program based on the received information. After programmatically generating the graphical program, the GPG program may receive subsequent program information specifying a modification to the graphical program and may programmatically modify the graphical program based on the program information.

Events in a first data stream are correlated with events in a second data stream based on a method of indexing. As information of a first and second data stream are stored to a data file, the data streams are monitored for certain trigger events. An informational data set is generated and stored in an index file for each detected trigger event. Preferably, each informational data set includes the type of detected event, a time-stamp indicating when the event occurred and a data pointer indicating where the data associated with the event is stored in a corresponding data file. When time-stamps of detected trigger events in both data streams are generated based on a common system clock, data in one data stream is correlated with data in another data stream based on the time-stamps.

A system PDA-based on line diagnostics for automatically discovering a thermostat configuration, turning off normal controller delays, temporary overriding sensor inputs and set points, and verifying proper output action including the monitoring the discharge air temperature for the resulting temperature behavior based on the equipment stages activated. The diagnosis may include the testing of sensors, set points, the fan, cooling equipment, heating equipment and the wiring connecting the controls with the fan, and the cooling and heating equipment. Problems discovered may be reported, automatically recorded and the original operating parameters may be restored.

A computer research tool for indexing, searching and displaying data is disclosed. Specifically, a computer research tool for performing computerized research of data including textual objects in a database or a network and for providing a user interface that significantly enhances data presentation is described. Textual objects and other data in a database or network is indexed by creating a numerical representation of the data. The indexing technique called proximity indexing generates a quick-reference of the relations, patterns and similarity found among the data in the database. Proximity indexing indexes the data by using statistical techniques and empirically developed algorithms. Using this proximity index, an efficient search for pools of data having a particular relation, pattern or characteristic can be effectuated. The Computer Search program, called the Computer Search Program for Data represented in Matrices (CSPDM), provides efficient computer search methods. The CSPDM rank orders data in accordance with the data's relationship to time, a paradigm datum, or any similar reference. An alternative embodiment of the invention employs a cluster link generation algorithm which uses links and nodes to index and search a database or network. The algorithm searches for direct and indirect links to a search node and retrieves the nodes which are most closely related to the search node. The user interface program, called the Graphical User Interface (GUI), provides a user friendly method of interacting with the CSPDM program and prepares and presents a visual graphical display. The graphical display provides the user with a two or three dimensional spatial orientation of the data.

A computing entity comprises a trusted monitoring component having a first processing means and a first memory means, the trusted monitoring component being a self-contained autonomous data processing unit, and a computer platform having a main processing means and a main memory area, along with a plurality of associated physical and logical resources such as peripheral devices including printers, modems, application programs, operating systems and the like. The computer platform is capable of entering a plurality of different states of operation, each state of operation having a different level of security and trustworthiness. Selected ones of the states comprise trusted states in which a user can enter sensitive confidential information with a high degree of certainty that the computer platform has not been compromised by external influences such as viruses, hackers or hostile attacks. To enter a trusted state, references made automatically to the trusted component, and to exit a trusted state reference must be made to the trusted component. On exiting the trusted state, all references to the trusted state are deleted from the computer platform. On entering the trusted state, the state is entered in a reproducible and known manner, having a reproducible and known configuration which is confirmed by the trusted component.