3301 results about "Decision-making" patented technology

The present invention relates to a system (10) and methodology (170, 173, 180, 400, 600, 1000) to enable a variety of information associated with one or more notification sources (26-28) to be directed to one or more notification sinks (36-38) via a notification platform architecture (10). The architecture (10) includes a context analyzer (22) for determining a user's state such as location and attentional focus, wherein the user's state is employed by a notification manager (24) to make decisions regarding what, when and how information generated by the notification sources (26-28) should be forwarded to the notification sinks (36-38), for example. These decisions can include a cost benefit analysis wherein considerations are given as to whether the benefits of notifying the user are outweighed by the costs of disrupting the user. Decision-theoretic policies (177, 180) and/or somewhat less formal heuristic policies (177) can be employed to enable the decision-making process within the notification manager (24).

A method and apparatus for strategy science methodology involving computer implementation is provided. The invention includes a well-defined set of procedures for carrying out a full range of projects to develop strategies for clients. One embodiment of the invention produces custom consulting projects that are found at one end of the full range of projects. At the other end of the range are, for example, projects developing strategies from syndicated models. The strategies developed are for single decisions or for sequences of multiple decisions. Some parts of the preferred embodiment of the invention are categorized into the following areas: Team Development, Strategy Situation Analysis, Quantifying the Objective Function, Data Request and Reception, Data Transformation and Cleansing, Decision Key and Intermediate Variable Creation, Data Exploration, Decision Model Structuring, Decision Model Quantification, An Exemplary Score Tuner, Strategy Creation, An Exemplary Strategy Optimizer, An Exemplary Uncertainty Estimator, and Strategy Testing. Each of the sub-categories are described and discussed in detail under sections of the same headings. The invention uses judgment in addition to data for developing strategies for clients.

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for syndication and management of structured and unstructured data to assist institutional healthcare delivery, healthcare providers' practices, healthcare providers' group practices, collaborative academic research and decision making in healthcare, including through the utilization of medical devices and healthcare pools.

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for syndication and management of structured and unstructured data to assist institutional healthcare delivery, healthcare providers' practices, healthcare providers' group practices, collaborative academic research and decision making in healthcare, including through the utilization of medical devices and healthcare pools.

A computer implemented method and system which provides current, reliable and accurate personal information regarding a prospective borrower and/or co-borrower. The system includes a central server which receives requests for personal information relating to proposed borrowers, which in turn parses out similar requests relating to that borrower to information sources such as, among others, the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security Administration, the Daily Banking System and the pertinent credit bureaus. Information corresponding to the respective requests is retrieved from the information sources, and then compiled into a report format and forwarded to the requested party. The requested party may be the borrower/consumer individually, or may be a mortgage broker/agent, lending institution or other party authorized to request and obtain the information. An electronic signature or signatures accompany the request to the central server, which uses same to retrieve personal information data pertaining to the signatory(ies). Various encryption schemes may be employed for security purposes. The invention permits for the retrieval, compilation and reporting of relevant, personal data to a party or parties involved in the loan decision making process without any opportunity for the information to be tampered with by the proposed borrower(s) because the information is obtained electronically and directly from the information depositories.

The invention utilizes a computer apparatus to automatically generate displays or reports containing investment security or element recommendations (FIG. 4, box 133) along with an optional summarization of the reasons (FIG. 4, box 134) for the recommendation from magazines, online sources, and broadcast programs for one specific security or element (FIG. 4, box 132) at a time or one specific recommendation source (FIG. 7, box 184) at a time. The aforementioned reports could additionally include the performance of the recommendors (FIG. 5, box 156). A report could also be provided to show the performance statistics (FIG. 8b, box 196, box 204, box 206, box 208, box 210, box 212, box 214) of a recommendation source (FIG. 8b, box 194) for predetermined date ranges (FIG. 8b, box 216) either in an aggregated and averaged format (FIG. 8b) or for each recommendation (FIG. 8c) made by the recommendation source. Additionally, a report could be provided to show the performance of elements or securities that were mentioned (FIG. 51), not just recommended, in magazines, online sources, and broadcast programs.

An apparatus, method and data structure for procuring and analyzing information, particularly information regarding the financial markets. The system provides a comprehensive combination of financial information in a format that facilitates analysis and decision-making.

A system and method for identifying ideal channels for communications based on an analysis of communication channel reliability, communicating party preferences, and communicating party contexts is provided. The system attempts to optimize the utility of a communication based on inferred or directly accessed channel reliability data, communicating party preferences and communicating party contexts. Such optimization can be achieved using reliabilities, preferences and policies concerning handling the attempted contact based on a deterministic specification or through inferring reliability, context, content and task under uncertainty by employing decision-theoretic inferences. The methods may consider channels currently available as well as channels available at later times. Thus, the service can include automated rescheduling of communications based on a consideration of forecasts of reliability and availability. The approach may include the use of forecasts about the time required for a communication and the likelihood that a connection will be dropped or will lose fidelity over this period of time. The methods may also include a consideration of metadata within a standard schema that is transmitted along with a communication attempt, the metadata representing information about attributes like the potential communication channels, the identity of the contactor, the task at hand, and the context of the communicating parties. The invocation of the communication service may be performed in a variety of ways, including single button invocations, and via a communication service that is more deeply integrated with other applications and functionalities.

An interactive communications system is provided in accordance with the present invention. The system includes a component for analyzing sequential communications including speech, gestures and other modalities related to an underlying communicative intention. The component concurrently employs at least two of the communications in determining an action to facilitate achieving the intention.

A power management controller (PMC) that interfaces with a processor comprising one or more cores. The PMC may be configured to communicate with each respective core, such that microcode executed by the respective processor core may recognize when a request is made to transition the respective core to a target power-state. For each respective core, the state monitor may monitor active-state residency, non-active-state residency, Direct Memory Access (DMA) transfer activity associated with the respective core, Input/Output (I/O) processes associated with the respective core, and the value of a timer-tick (TT) interval associated with the respective core. The status monitor may derive respective status information for the respective core based on the monitoring and indicate whether the respective core should be allowed to transition to the corresponding target power-state. The PMC may transition the respective processor core to the corresponding target power-state accordingly.

A client-server system for corporate travel planning, expense reporting and travel management that utilizes a corporate database server to enable accurate and timely pre-travel and post-travel decision making that is fed by a travel planning process and an expense reporting process, plus a SABRE data feed of all booked data and back office system data as well as a hand-off of exchange and void ticket information that comprises a Travel Planning module, a Travel Decision Maker module, and a Travel Expense Reporting module. The system uses a corporate database environment communicating with a real-time CRS data feed that enhances the Travel Planning module by offering the traveler live choices of air, car, and hotel availability based upon company travel policy as well as live access to current or company negotiated fares while also allowing the Travel Decision Maker module to make comparisons between booked information and actual current travel data.

System and method for putting control of incoming telephone calls in the hands of subscribers with the aid of computer software and the Internet. In effect, a very efficient multiplexer is provided that does not require a change in the behavior of the called party or the calling party. This system permits the called party to hear a spoken message by the calling party in real time, and the content of the spoken message permits the called party to decide how to handle the call. The system adaptively learns and captures the rules of the called party for handling calls, and learns which callers the called party always wishes to talk to. The system uses special control software on the called party's computer which is connected to the Internet. The system employs a central server in which all of the required intelligence is resident. Audio signals are exchanged via non-data channels provided by the telephone companies and by the Internet. Either a very simple Internet busy pick-up is provided, or a very complex messaging system is provided, as desired. A feature is the monitoring and screening of incoming calls before deciding how to handle them. Another feature is the capturing and storage of the decision making profile.

An computer implemented apparatus and method are disclosed for defining areas of a field in which a crop or other vegetation is grown based on their selective ability to grow such vegetation through a growing season, or some shorter preselected time period. The method includes making a number of temporally separated measurements through air borne imaging of a field, registering the data to the geography of the field and each other, normalizing the data including converting the data to a vegetative index indicative to the presence of vegetation in the field, comparing the data to identify clusters of like value, and classifying the clusters and images to learn how the different field areas responded in growing vegetation through the season. With this method, the field may be segregated into a number of like areas called crop response zones which exhibit similar vegetative growth characteristics as an aid to a grower in his decision making regarding how to maximize yield in his field.

An interactive automatic system and technique for measuring and training of mental ability. In the illustrative embodiment, the invention is implemented on a computer which automatically presents a variety of visual and auditory stimuli. The system then measures reaction to the stimuli, adjusts certain stimulus parameters, and provides scores in response thereto. The scores are tabulated and displayed for analysis. In particular embodiments, the invention tests for physical reaction time, perceptual awareness thresholds, attention level, speed, efficiency and capacity of information processing by the brain and elementary cognitive processes, including memory, memory access and decision-making speed. The invention measures, identifies and quantifies noise in the subject's brain and elementary cognitive processing system, and the information exchange rate between the subject's left and right brain hemispheres. The inventive system compiles a history of the test scores, renders an overall performance rating, and delivers comments based on the subject scores. The complexity of the tests are adjusted based on the scores to optimally challenge cognitive capacities, thereby rendering more accurate evaluations of cognitive capacity, and optimizing learning of desired improvements in perceptual, physical and mental response speeds and efficiencies.

A pipelined linecard architecture for receiving, modifying, switching, buffering, queuing and dequeuing packets for transmission in a communications network. The linecard has two paths: the receive path, which carries packets into the switch device from the network, and the transmit path, which carries packets from the switch to the network. In the receive path, received packets are processed and switched in an asynchronous, multi-stage pipeline utilizing programmable data structures for fast table lookup and linked list traversal. The pipelined switch operates on several packets in parallel while determining each packet's routing destination. Once that determination is made, each packet is modified to contain new routing information as well as additional header data to help speed it through the switch. Each packet is then buffered and enqueued for transmission over the switching fabric to the linecard attached to the proper destination port. The destination linecard may be the same physical linecard as that receiving the inbound packet or a different physical linecard. The transmit path consists of a buffer/queuing circuit similar to that used in the receive path. Both enqueuing and dequeuing of packets is accomplished using CoS-based decision making apparatus and congestion avoidance and dequeue management hardware. The architecture of the present invention has the advantages of high throughput and the ability to rapidly implement new features and capabilities.

The invention is directed to network management systems and methods that provide substantially real-time network management and control capabilities of multimedia streaming traffic in telecommunications networks. The invention provides pre-emptive and autonomous network management and control capabilities, and may include shared intelligence of embedded systems—Heterogeneous Sensor Entities (HSE) and the Sensor Service Management (SSM) system. HSEs are distributed real-time embedded systems provisioned in various network elements. HSEs performs fault, configuration, accounting, performance and security network management functions in real-time; and real-time network management control activations and removals. SSM facilitates automated decision making, rapid deployment of HSEs and real-time provisioning of network management and control services. The service communication framework amongst various HSEs and the SSM is provided by the Heterogeneous Service Creation system. The proposed network management procedure provides real-time network management and control capabilities of multimedia traffic in wireless networks and clusters of independent networks respectively.

The present invention provides a deep and reinforcement learning-based real-time online path planning method. According to the method, the high-level semantic information of an image is obtained through using a deep learning method, the path planning of the end-to-end real-time scenes of an environment can be completed through using a reinforcement learning method. In a training process, image information collected in the environment is brought into a scene analysis network as a current state, so that an analytical result can be obtained; the analytical result is inputted into a designed deep cyclic neural network; and the decision-making action of each step of an intelligent body in a specific scene can be obtained through training, so that an optimal complete path can be obtained. In an actual application process, image information collected by a camera is inputted into a trained deep and reinforcement learning network, so that the direction information of the walking of the intelligent body can be obtained. With the method of the invention, obtained image information can be utilized to the greatest extent under a premise that the robustness of the method is ensured and the method slightly depends on the environment, and real-time scene walking information path planning can be realized.

Disclosed herein are systems and methods for syndication and management of structured and unstructured data to assist institutional healthcare delivery, healthcare providers' practices, healthcare providers' group practices, collaborative academic research and decision making in healthcare, including through the utilization of medical devices and healthcare pools.

An apparatus and method are provided which use client information from a client to automatically select and present financial products appropriate for the client. The apparatus according to one aspect of the invention comprises an input device for inputting client information relevant to a need by the client for the financial products, for inputting information about the financial products, for inputting ancillary data which excludes the client information and the financial products information, and for inputting decision criteria pertaining to selection from among the financial products. The apparatus further includes a storage device for storing the client information, the financial products information, the ancillary information, and the decision criteria. The apparatus still further includes decision making logic circuitry for using the client information, the financial products information, the ancillary information, and the decision criteria to select a subset of the financial products. It further includes an output device for preparing a client communication which identifies the subset of the financial products. The output device incorporates a portion of the client information and a portion of the financial products information into the client communication. The method according to one aspect of the invention comprises inputting client information relevant to a need by the client for the financial products, inputting information about the financial products, inputting ancillary data which excludes the client information and the financial products information, and inputting decision criteria pertaining to selection from among the financial products. The method also includes storing the client information, the financial products information, the ancillary information, and the decision criteria. This method further includes using the client information, the financial products information, the ancillary information, and the decision criteria to select a subset of the financial products. It further includes preparing a client communication which identifies the subset of the financial products. This client communication preparing step includes incorporating a portion of the client information and a portion of the financial products information into the client communication.

A virtual reality (VR)-based test battery wherein various neurobehavioral performance skills, including motor skills, sensory-perceptual skills, attention, and decision-making can be measured in human subjects. The invention can be used as a screening method within a virtual environment to provide an overall measure of general brain function relating to behavioral ability. In addition, the invention provides comprehensive VR-based neurobehavioral examinations tailored to individual subjects which can automatically self-adjust during operation in accordance with the specific purpose of the assessment, or for forms of cognitive or physical rehabilitation. According to the invention, patients with neurological and psychiatric dysfunctions can be assessed with physiologic monitoring as well as with anatomical and functional neuroimaging to non-invasively map the functional neuroanatomic correlates of VR-based test performance. In a preferred embodiment, the VR-based neurobehavioral testing system is portable allowing computerized tests to be administered in a desk-top or lap-top configuration, or via the Internet for tele-assessment of human subjects who are physically inaccessible to the test administrator. In a particularly preferred embodiment, the method of the invention is used for vocational assessment and training, wherein individual test scores are combined into a final metric useful for assessing a candidate's qualifications for employment, or certification in a particular skill.

A pipelined linecard architecture for receiving, modifying, switching, buffering, queuing and dequeuing packets for transmission in a communications network. The linecard has two paths: the receive path, which carries packets into the switch device from the network, and the transmit path, which carries packets from the switch to the network. In the receive path, received packets are processed and switched in an asynchronous, multi-stage pipeline utilizing programmable data structures for fast table lookup and linked list traversal. The pipelined switch operates on several packets in parallel while determining each packet's routing destination. Once that determination is made, each packet is modified to contain new routing information as well as additional header data to help speed it through the switch. Each packet is then buffered and enqueued for transmission over the switching fabric to the linecard attached to the proper destination port. The destination linecard may be the same physical linecard as that receiving the inbound packet or a different physical linecard. The transmit path consists of a buffer/queuing circuit similar to that used in the receive path. Both enqueuing and dequeuing of packets is accomplished using CoS-based decision making apparatus and congestion avoidance and dequeue management hardware. The architecture of the present invention has the advantages of high throughput and the ability to rapidly implement new features and capabilities.

A computer program product stores computer instructions therein for instructing a computer to perform a process. The program product includes a recording medium readable by the computer, and computer instructions stored thereon instructing the computer to perform the process. The instructions and the process include determining and storing at least one enterprise attribute data, customer attribute data, shareholder attribute data and government attribute data, and implementing an enterprise computer simulation model that utilizes the attribute data and generates enterprise performance data. The enterprise simulation model evaluates the enterprise performance data with respect to the at least one of each other and predetermined criteria. The data from evaluated enterprise performance is then used for ranking, indexing, decision making, enterprise controlling and/or investment purposes, manually and/or electronically.

Computerized decision-making systems and methods are described for determining whether to provide one or more rewards, such as a coupon or instant discount, to a customer requesting to make a merchandise return at a store, and, if so, to determine the terms of the reward, such as value, expiration date/time and other terms that may be associated with a coupon. The reward determinations may be implemented in conjunction with a system for authorizing the requested merchandise return transaction. Information about the requested return may be used together with data about the customer's past purchase, return transactions, and other customer-related data. In some embodiments, the determinations are based, at least in part, on store-related information and policies. The reward may be printed with a receipt issued to the customer at the point of return and/or may be provided to the customer using a wide variety of other communications technologies.

A computer-aided decision-making system and method that is applicable to a variety of decision-making contexts and applications such as, but not limited to, automobile or home purchase decisions. The computer-aided decision-making system provides immediate, useful, and relevant information to a person in a decision-making context, overcoming common human cognitive problems that occur in decision-making, and enabling consumer purchases in an on-line sales environment. In particular, aspects of the invention that aid a person in decision-making include, but are not limited to: managing all the sub-decisions, educating the decision-maker, highlighting the most important sub-decisions, offering the most viable proposals for evaluation, distinguishing significant differences between proposals, supplying various evaluation tools, preventing blind spots, assisting the decision-maker's memory, gauging the progress of the decision process, and learning about the decision maker from the decision process.

The present invention relates to utilizing identity and context-sensitive decision-making for handling communications, including, channel selection, routing, and rescheduling operations. The systems and methods provide a service that allows users to assess preferences regarding real-time call handling and performs dynamic decision-making about the best timing and channel for interpersonal communication. This service can be based on various cost-benefit analyses (e.g., basic and extended) that consider cost of interruption and preferences of contactors and contactees to guide communications, and/or on decision-making under uncertainty. Statistical models that are learned from data are joined with user preferences to generate expected costs of interruption for office activity and over time, based on a user's activities, locations, calendar information and preference assessments. In addition, statistical forecasting provides presence and availability predictions. The foregoing can provide an enhanced interpersonal communication system that can maximize the value and minimize the cost of communication among people.

Systems and methods are provided for constructing and evaluating a story of interest. The system includes a plurality of decision algorithms. Each decision algorithm is operative to quantify at least one category of uncertainty associated with the story of interest as a set of at least one uncertainty parameter. An uncertainty management component is operative to reconcile the sets of uncertainty parameters from the plurality of decision algorithms as to produce a global uncertainty parameter for each of the plurality of uncertainty categories for the story of interest.

Methods and systems are provided for analyzing the business rules, business metrics, and decision parameters for a firm or organization, processing a subset of such data to form output, and offering access to selective views of such output including evaluation and comparative data regarding execution of such business rules, information on corresponding business metrics or sets of business metrics, information on corresponding decision parameters or sets of decision parameters or scenarios, and other useful analytic information which can help a firm or organization evaluate and modify business policies based on said rules, metrics, and parameters. In addition to said rules, metrics and/or parameters, the data for the business rule analysis can include conventional historical data or hypothetical data based on simulations which the current system and method provide based on prescribed random and non-random algorithms. The simulated or hypothetical data enables users to conduct rule analysis based on historical data, simulated data, or hybrid models. In this manner, the methods and systems described in this invention provide for both an evaluation of a firm's current policies as well as an evaluation of policy modifications not actually executed but for which hypothetical data can be provided and analyzed.

Computerized method and system for guiding personnel servicing equipment requiring repair while at an equipment work site are provided. The personnel is guided through a plurality of tasks for evaluating the health of the equipment to identify the nature and extent of service needed, and determining at least one preferred work site location for performing the services based on technical and business decision-making criteria.

A system and method which partitions a parameter estimation model, a fault detection model, and a fault classification model for a process surveillance scheme into two or more coordinated submodels together providing improved diagnostic decision making for at least one determined operating mode of an asset.

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.