1306 results about "Central management" patented technology

A distributed electronic entertainment method and apparatus are described. In one embodiment, a central management resource is coupled to multiple out-of-home venues through a wide area network (WAN). The central management resource stores content and performs management, monitoring and entertainment content delivery functions. At each venue at least one entertainment unit is coupled to the WAN. Multiple entertainment units in a venue are coupled to each other through a local area network (LAN). In one embodiment, an entertainment unit includes a user interface that comprises at least one graphical user interface (GUI). The entertainment unit further comprises a local memory device that stores entertainment content comprising music, a peripheral interface, and a user input device. A plurality of peripheral devices are coupled to the at least one entertainment unit via the peripheral interface, wherein a user, through the user input device and the user interface, performs at least one activity from a group comprising, playing music, playing electronic games, viewing television content, and browsing the Internet.

A network monitoring architecture for multiple computer network systems is disclosed. In particular, the network monitoring architecture includes an agent system installed within each computer network and a remote central management unit in communication with the agent system of each computer network. The agent systems collect data from key network devices that reside on the corresponding computer network, and send the collected data to the remote central management unit as a message through the Internet. The data from the computer networks are processed at the remote central management unit to determine imminent or actual failure of the monitored network devices. The appropriate technicians can be immediately notified by the central management unit through automatically generated messages.

An intelligent database infrastructure wherein the management of all database components is performed by and within the database itself by integrating management of various components with a central management control. Each individual database component, as well as the central management control, is self-managing. A central management control module integrates and interacts with the various database components. The database is configured to automatically tune to varying workloads and configurations, correct or alert about bad conditions, and advise on ways to improve overall system performance.

In a method of administering a rebate system, rebate-related information is electronically transmitted from a rebate issuing entity and is received by a central processing authority. The rebate-related information includes information identifying a consumer and information relating to a purchase made by the consumer from the rebate issuing entity. The central authority determines an amount of a rebate that is to be credited to the consumer, based on information previously provided by the rebate issuing entity. The rebate issuing entity is invoiced for the amount of the rebate, wherein the amount is payable to an omnibus trust account, wherein a trustee has exclusive control over the omnibus trust account and the trustee is authorized to transfer a credit from the omnibus trust account to the consumer.

An electronically-controlled locker system that utilizes distributing processing to control access to, and assignment of, a plurality of lockers in a school, workplace, fitness center, etc. The system uses a plurality of locker control units that control access to a corresponding set of lockers based on user inputs and on user / locker authorization data that is provided from a central administrator workstation. This administrator workstation communicates with a system control unit that is in communication with every locker control unit and which allows cross-communication between locker control units.

This present pari-mutuel invention provides for a network of table games and real time electronic devices operating slots, poker, keno, bingo and other games. Players compete against other players for non-banked prizes which are paid only from player pools. Player pools start with a balance of zero. The player pool receives one hundred percent (100%) of player bets, less appropriate rental fees. Posted prizes cannot exceed the player pool. The player receives dynamic displays of the pool balance and corresponding posted prizes. A top prize feature prevents the pool from dropping back to zero. The house receives a fee from players who rent a pari-mutuel device. The house does not seed the pool with money, nor take any money from it. The devices can operate in a stand-alone-mode with local player pools under local control. However, they have linked access to a network controlled by a central management system to receive the benefit of centralized Player pools. Pari-mutuel devices can switch to a "stand-alone-mode" using the local pool. This may be desirable when the central pool becomes unavailable for any reason, or simply if stand-alone-mode is preferred.

A file system (i) permits storage capacity to be added easily, (ii) can be expanded beyond a given unit, (iii) is easy to administer and manage, (iv) permits data sharing, and (v) is able to perform effectively with very large storage capacity and client loads. State information from a newly added unit is communicated (e.g., automatically and transparently) to central administration and management operations. Configuration and control information from such operations is communicated (e.g., automatically) back down to the newly added units, as well as existing units. In this way, a file system can span both local storage devices (like disk drives) and networked computational devices transparently to clients. Such state and configuration and control information can include globally managed segments as the building blocks of the file system, and a fixed mapping of globally unique file identifiers (e.g., Inode numbers) and / or ranges thereof, to such segments.

The present invention leverages a co-located communication component to provide remote management of a portable construction device. This enables monitoring and / or controlling the portable construction device from a central management site. The communication component allows the central site, or another communication component, to interact with the portable construction device to retrieve information such as, for example, usage information and / or status information. The communication component also allows remote control of the devices such as, for example, remote power control and / or control of auxiliary devices that facilitate the functionality of the portable construction devices. The present invention can also incorporate global positioning systems and / or location indicating systems to facilitate in determining where the portable construction devices are located and / or when the devices are properly positioned. The systems themselves can be distributed to form a communication network with bi-directional communication capabilities.

A peer-to-peer storage system includes a storage coordinator that centrally manages distributed storage resources in accordance with system policies administered through a central administrative console. The storage resources, or “nodes,” are otherwise unused portions of storage media, e.g., hard disks, that are included in the devices such as personal computers, workstations, laptops, file servers, and so forth, that are connected to a corporate computer network, and are thus otherwise available only individually to the respective devices. The storage coordinator assigns the nodes to various “replication groups” and allocates the storage resources on each of the nodes in a given group to maintaining dynamically replicated versions of the group files. The storage nodes in a given group perform dynamic file replication and synchronization operations by communicating directly, that is, peer-to-peer, using a message-based protocol. The storage coordinator also manages distributed searches of file content on the network by selecting one node from each group to search through the associated group files. The selected nodes report the search results back to the storage coordinator, which organizes the results and provides them to the user. Thereafter, in response to a request for various files by the user, the storage coordinator instructs the nodes that are near neighbors of the user to provide the requested files. The storage coordinator thus ensures that the amount of the network bandwidth consumed by the search operation is minimized.

A file system (i) permits storage capacity to be added easily, (ii) can be expanded beyond a given unit, (iii) is easy to administer and manage, (iv) permits data sharing, and (v) is able to perform effectively with very large storage capacity and client loads. State information from a newly added unit is communicated (e.g., automatically and transparently) to central administration and management operations. Configuration and control information from such operations is communicated (e.g., automatically) back down to the newly added units, as well as existing units. In this way, a file system can span both local storage devices (like disk drives) and networked computational devices transparently to clients. Such state and configuration and control information can include globally managed segments as the building blocks of the file system, and a fixed mapping of globally unique file identifiers (e.g., Inode numbers) and / or ranges thereof, to such segments.

Anomalous behavior in a distributed system is automatically detected. Metrics are gathered for transactions, subsystems and / or components of the subsystems. The metrics can identify response times, error counts and / or CPU loads, for instance. Baseline metrics and associated deviation ranges are automatically determined and can be periodically updated. Metrics from specific transactions are compared to the baseline metrics to determine if an anomaly has occurred. A drill down approach can be used so that metrics for a subsystem are not examined unless the metrics for an associated transaction indicate an anomaly. Further, metrics for a component, application which includes one or more components, or process which includes one or more applications, are not examined unless the metrics for an associated subsystem indicate an anomaly. Multiple subsystems can report the metrics to a central manager, which can correlate the metrics to transactions using transaction identifiers or other transaction context data.

A method for managing a card game supported by a poker dealing device and central management unit, a computerized-information-processing center includes the following steps. Read the playing card that is being dispensed from the poker dealing device to generate a card signal representing a card value of the playing card in such a manner that the other playing cards, which have not been dispensed from the poker dealing device, remain in secret. Send the card signal to the central management unit by means of remote communication. Receive the card signal with a signal receiving link of the central management unit. Process the card signal to record the card values of the playing cards that have been dispensed from the poker dealing device with the central management unit, such that the central management unit is capable of tracking the card values of each hand for a card game, thereby reducing a risking of cheating with reference to the recorded card values.

Techniques are described for managing one or more electronic devices connected on a network. A central management system may be configured to control firmware rollback activity for the devices. The central management system may in some embodiments also rollback configuration settings. In another embodiment, a central management system may perform device cloning activities.

A financial activity network includes a central managing system connected to a plurality of participant terminals. Rules governing operation of the financial activity are stored for future reference. A participant provides investment information such as a map location for the predicted strike by the natural event and, optionally, one or more secondary parameters relating to the natural event, such as the time interval between the time of investment and the time of an event strike and / or the severity of the event strike according to an established scale. In one example, an external objective independent information source is consulted, with the external objective independent information source providing monitoring, interpretation and derived determination of parameters pertaining to the natural event. Methods and articles of manufacture are also disclosed.

A system and method is disclosed for collecting, storing and reporting raw log data from log-producing devices such as firewalls and routers. The log-producing devices may be both local and remote—i.e., linked to a raw log server via a LAN and / or a WAN. A log data analyzer at a remote location gathers log data from devices at that remote location into time-defined sets and then sends those sets over a WAN (which may be the Internet) to a raw log server using a first protocol. Local log-producing devices may send their log data to the log data analyzer via a LAN using a second protocol. The log data analyzer forwards the raw log data local devices to an appropriate log data analyzer for parsing, summarizing and storage in one or more databases. The raw log server combines local and remote sets of raw log data for a given time period and stores them in a storage area of raw log data. A central management station is used to query the various databases in the system and to merge database reports into a single report for display.

Methods and devices are provided for central management of licenses, particularly those relating to wagering games. A license proxy deployed in and / or dedicated to a gaming establishment may operate under the control of a central licensing manager controlled by another entity, e.g., by a game provider. The license proxy may receive requests to enable features of an electronic gaming machine of the gaming establishment (e.g., game themes, player tracking features and / or peripheral device features) and determine, based on information provided by the central licensing manager, whether to grant such requests. The license proxy may also process requests to enable features of other devices in a gaming establishment, such as server-based features.

A method for performing life cycle management of business software applications and their components across a multiple-platform, multiple-language network. The method takes advantage of the inheritance properties of object-oriented programming (OOP) by developing all components of a business application from a set of base classes, thus deploying a common set of methods across all application components. The Central Administrator then determines when a need to reconfigure one or more components of the business application has arisen. The Central Administrator then modifies or replaces existing components of the business application or installs entirely new components over the network without end user interaction. In one embodiment of the present invention, the Central Administrator is aided by a set of Distributed Administrators located on each virtual node server / host computer of a business application operating over a network.

The invention discloses a warehouse management system with a multi-guide-vehicle dispatching and distribution function. The warehouse management system comprises a central management system and guide vehicles. The central management system reads material lists to obtain the inventory and position information of materials, selects appropriate guide vehicle types and number according to task quantity and the material positions, distributes the traveling routes for the guide vehicles, and selects the guide vehicles and distributes material input and output tasks according to the shortest time principle. The guide vehicles travel in a warehouse along the routes distributed by the central management system and have functions of self-positioning and barrier avoiding. The guide vehicles complete material information scanning, map information displaying and task displaying and receiving through vehicular interaction equipment and transmit guide vehicle state information to the central management system. The warehouse management system has the advantages that the guide vehicles are dispatched according to the comprehensive material information and the state information of the guide vehicles, the guide vehicles travel along the distributed routes to target positions to complete material input and output, a traditional warehouse management manner is optimized, and warehouse management efficiency is increased.

Operation state information for each cycle of manufacturing operations of each of injection molding machines 300 is acquired by a center management terminal device 400 via a network from a plurality of controlling terminal device 400 for controlling the injection molding machines 300. Cumulative utilization of replacement parts of each injection molding machine 300 put into practical operation is recognized by the operating condition recognizing section of the center management terminal device 400 based on the parts state information for the replacement parts of each injection molding machine 300 included in the operating state information. Based on the cumulative utilization, availability of the parts is recognized with reference to lifetime information concerning lifetime of the parts previously stored in the center storage section, and situation of the availability is displayed with a different display format on the center terminal displaying section 503.

A computer network of an enterprise includes a central management computer linking at least one trusted host computer with at least one user computer. The trusted host computer is not used for normal day-to-day activities within the enterprise, and may also not be used for reading electronic mail nor for accessing the Internet and downloading Web site content. Antivirus software on the user computer screens for suspect activity or features and, if found, the suspect activity or features are compared to rules database. If a determination of malware cannot be made, then these unresolved activities or features are sent to the central management computer to be compared to the trusted, known activities and features of the trusted computer. The suspect activities may be deemed acceptable if activities are shared amongst a certain number of user computers all configured to perform the same function. A user computer may be compared against itself over time.

A method for testing an installed wiring harness is provided. The method comprises providing a signal source testing module at a first node in the wiring harness and a measurement termination testing module at a second node in the wiring harness. A central management module for controlling the testing modules coordinates the testing modules to send testing signals for performing tests and recording test measurements of the installed wiring harness. The testing modules send the test measurements to the management module.

A system and method for gathering and utilizing building energy information. A central management server communicates through a wide area network to one or more client devices. The central management server maintains a set of measured or calculated audit data for a plurality of buildings and facilities, with icons and text representing auditing and analysis tasks that may be performed in the process of auditing the structures and related energy-consuming equipment and shell characteristics. The client device communicates with the central management server through the wide area network and is operative to receive user input and display user data. The client device is operative to receive a login request from a user and in response thereto, transmit a message containing the user specified and calculated information, including any related images.

This invention relates to an integrated building control and information system with wireless networking, including the controlling and / or monitoring of various building devices or appliances such as air conditioning, lighting, temperature, humidity, etc., including practically any environmental condition or mechanical operation. Also, the invention relates to a system which includes a vendor tracking system comprising an industrial operator interface, with communication, local data processing, and data storage capabilities, which provide an efficient information resource for service and product control. Additionally, the invention relates to a system including a utility monitoring and / or control system to monitor and / or control the facilities utilities such as electricity, gas, water, steam, etc., through revenue and non-revenue rated metering devices, allowing real-time demand side utility management through the controlled equipment. Additionally, this invention incorporates a wireless interface, of any combination of sub-systems, to increase the coverage area to include remote locations, within a radius up to 10 miles, and / or large facilities which exceed the limitation of hard wired components, resulting in cost reductions for installation and maintenance. In facilities such as shopping malls, office buildings, commercial and industrial complexes, the consolidated central management of energy consumption, building equipment, lighting, environmental control, and vendor services provides a substantial savings and effective use of limited natural resources.

In one embodiment, a system is provided for managing a centrally managed master repository for core enterprise reference data associated with an enterprise. A centralized master repository contains the reference data, the reference data being associated with multiple schemas, each schema including one or more data models for reference data, each data model including one or more fields. A data management services framework coupled to the repository provides services for managing the reference data in the repository. The services framework supports a master schema including a union of multiple models and associated fields in the multiple schemas. The services framework also supports a thesaurus including, for each field in the master schema, a set of synonyms each representing a mapping between the field in the master schema and a corresponding field in a particular one of the multiple schemas. The master schema and thesaurus facilitate centralized management of the reference data in the repository across multiple heterogeneous external operational systems that have different associated data models and are provided indirect access to the reference data in the repository for operational use of the reference data according to associated business workflows.

The invention discloses a water level monitoring system based on image processing and a method, which mainly solve the problem that water level cannot be monitored automatically in the prior art. The water level monitoring system comprises a water level gauge, a water level image processing module, a wireless communication module and a central management server module. Working principle of the system is that: firstly the water level gauge is used for marking the water level, water level images marked by the water level gauge can be collected by a camera, the water level image processing module further performs automatic positioning, skew correcting and recognizing on the water level gauge in the water level images to obtain water level data and transmits the water level data to the wireless communication module through a wireless communication network, then the wireless communication module transmits the received water level data to the central management server module which stores the received water level data into a computer data base so as to draw current hydrograph in real time, when the current water level is higher than a preset water level, alarm information can be given out, and accordingly automatic monitoring of the water level can be achieved.

Data can be scanned using a network managed appliance. The network managed appliance may integrate commercial hardware elements connected through a basic or simplified operating system environment expressly developed for the appliance, thus being more malware resistant and less vulnerable to attacks from the scanned data or other sources. The network managed appliance may be a self-contained apparatus with an integrated chassis, designed and configured as “single-purpose” device. Such appliances may be connected to an appliance management network including central management servers in communication with appliances in remote locations. The central management servers may ensure that scanning software and the definitions lists for each of the appliances are current and match an enterprise-approved configuration.

A system for integrating security and access for facilities and information systems is provided including a computer server, information systems, and facility protection systems. The information systems and facility protection systems are coupled for communication to the computer server via a network. Facility protection systems represent an access control system for controlling entry / exit to areas of buildings, such as with badges or other ID Credentials and other systems, such as intrusion detection and fire systems, to provide protection in facility environments. Information systems each represent a computer system requiring user authorization, via computers or terminals capable of connecting thereto, to access information resources or network environments protected by the computer system. Information systems may also include information protection systems requiring user authorization for external access to other information systems. The computer server has a central database which stores at least information defining users and their access privileges to the information systems and to areas of facilities controlled by access control system. Each of the information systems and facility protection systems sends event data to the computer server when an event occurs on its respective system, and an event transaction processor in the computer server determines action(s), if any, to take in response to one or more received events and accordingly sends action data to other information systems and facility protection systems to instruct such systems to automatically respond to security risks representing by such events in real-time. Central management of users and their access privileges, and monitoring of events is further provided.

The invention provides an arrangement and a method with dynamic port configuration of network equipment for communication in a broadband network. A central managing database in connection with a Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server is keeping templates with recordings of network equipment parameters for their physical port settings and deployed services. Hence, enabling dynamic updating of port settings by conveying parameter recordings from the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol server. The parameter settings are updated in the intermediate means.

An electronically-controlled locker system that utilizes distributing processing to control access to, and assignment of, a plurality of lockers in a school, workplace, fitness center, etc. The system uses a plurality of locker control units that control access to a corresponding set of lockers based on user inputs and on user / locker authorization data that is provided from a central administrator workstation. This administrator workstation communicates with a system control unit that is in communication with every locker control unit and which allows cross-communication between locker control units.