1612 results about "Facilitated communication" patented technology

A method of facilitating communications and collaboration of a group of plural remote participants comprises steps of receiving information over an information communications network from a first group participant; pushing, over the network to at least one other group participant, an access via an access channel; and allowing the other group participant to access at least some of the received information via said access channel in response to selective activation of the access channel by the other group participant.

An information service provides search and notifications to inform when certain people (e.g., friends, family, business contacts, etc.) are nearby so as to facilitate communications with those people. Users may define lists of people whose locations may be tracked by positioning equipment based on personal communications / computing devices carried by the people. The information service processes this people and place data to identify those of the listed people that are in the user's vicinity, and provide notifications and user-initiated search results informing the user such as via the user's personal communications / computing device.

The present disclosure provides a computer-implemented method / system for facilitating communications between service providers and potential customers for services. The computer-implemented method / system provides a marketplace for interactions, both online and off-line, between service providers and potential customers, including purchasing groups, particularly buyer-driven service-related interactions. The marketplace advantageously allows categorization, key word searching, group purchasing, service packaging, data mining, auctions and other commercial features and functionality. The computer-implemented method / system also supports holographic imagery, e.g., in the form of virtual assistants, that facilitates marketplace-related activities. Based on the computer-implemented method / system, service providers are able to efficiently and cost effectively extend the reach of their marketing and promotional activities to a wide range of additional customers, and customers are able to initiate access service providers ideally suited to meet their needs, i.e., buyer-driven commerce, at desirable prices and according to required timeframes.

Embodiments of the invention provide systems and methods for providing trusted service management services. According to one embodiment, a system can include at least one service provider gateway operable to receive and transmit messages with multiple service providers; at least one mobile network operator gateway operable to receive and transmit messages with multiple mobile network operators; at least one provisioning gateway operable to transmit mobile device application data with multiple mobile devices and to receive messages from the plurality of mobile devices. The system can further include a processor operable to execute computer-executable instructions to: facilitate service provider communications by providing a common service provider interface for the service providers; facilitate mobile network operator communications by providing a common mobile network operator interface for the mobile network operators; facilitate provisioning multiple mobile device applications with the mobile devices; and facilitate communications with the mobile devices.

Medical and / or robotic devices, systems and methods can provide an indicator associated with each manipulator assembly of a multi-arm telerobotic or telesurgical system. The exemplary indicator comprises a multi-color light emitting diode (LED) mounted to a manipulator moving an associated surgical instrument, allowing the indicator to display any of a wide variety of signals. The invention may provide an additional user interface to facilitate communications between the telesurgical system and / or members of a telesurgical team.

An automated healthcare communication system that facilitates communications between healthcare providers and patients and provides timely data to providers to help patients self manage their diabetes. Messages are presented to patients at pre-selected times to help them learn about the disease and develop appropriate behaviors that improve their health and to prompt them for data or for answers to specific questions or surveys. The system applies advanced speech recognition technology to make the system easy for patients to use and understand via a telephone network. Data collected from the patient is presented in real-time to healthcare providers so the patients' progress can be monitored and treatment plans adjusted accordingly.

The subject invention relates to systems and methods that facilitate direct network communications between peers that operate behind Network Address Translators. In one aspect, a network communications system is provided. The system includes one or more Network Address Translators (NAT) to communicate data across a network between peers. A protocol selection component that automatically selects among a plurality of protocols according to one or more NAT types in order to determine a subset of the protocols that facilitate communications between the peers.

A method for managing the charging of an electric vehicle. The method includes receiving a request for a charge transfer for an electric vehicle over a network link between an electric vehicle charging station and a cloud server. The network link has a mobile device disposed between the electrical vehicle charging station and the cloud server for facilitating communication between the charging station and the cloud server.

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system for facilitating communication in a content centric network (CCN). During operation, the system receives at a first node from an interest owner an interest in a piece of content. The interest indicates a structured name for the content. Furthermore, the name is unique and persistent with respect to the content, and where the name includes authentication information for the content. Next, the system determines whether content available at the first node satisfies the interest. If so, the system sends the content to the interest owner. Otherwise, the system marks the interest as pending, and forwards the interest to a second node in the network based on the interest. After receiving content from the second node in response to the forwarded interest, the system un-marks the interest as pending and sends the content to the interest owner.

An information service provides search and notifications to inform when certain people (e.g., friends, family, business contacts, etc.) are nearby so as to facilitate communications with those people. Users may define lists of people whose locations may be tracked by positioning equipment based on personal communications / computing devices carried by the people. The information service processes this people and place data to identify those of the listed people that are in the user's vicinity, and provide notifications and user-initiated search results informing the user such as via the user's personal communications / computing device.

The present invention provides a bar-code driven, completely automated, microplate-based analyzer system for performing chemical, biochemical or biological assays. The analyzer is a modular, bench-top instrument that compactly integrates subsystems for sample dispensing, liquid handling, microplate transport, thermal incubation, vortexing, solid phase separation and optical reading. An internal processor is included for automating the instrument, and a user interface to facilitate communication with the operator via a touch-sensitive liquid-crystal display (LCD), and communicating with a remote network via multiple protocols. The analyzer includes firmware resident within the processing system and the user interface allows the operator to select pre-defined assay batch protocols and the user interface is configured in such as way so as to restrict an operator from programming the firmware.

An interactive marketing communication and transaction services platform for managing personalized customer relationships. The platform facilitates communication and transactions between consumers, retailers and manufacturers, by helping suppliers customize product / service offerings, presentations and advertising messages to reflect individual consumers' needs, while providing portals with premium advertising messages for personal interactive info / news / entertainment services. The core of the platform consists of i) a central database system with ‘product / retail information’ and ‘holistic purchase-behavior specific consumer profiles’, generated by registering on-line product / retail information retrieved by consumers, as well as purchases made both on-line and in-store, using a loyalty card; ii) software applications, that create ‘market intelligence’ on manufacturer / retailer offers, consumer purchase needs, market performance of products / retailers and impact of brand / retailer presentations and ads on consumer purchase behavior; and iii) standard performance indicators, that make it possible to benchmark individual consumer communication programs against each other.

Apparatus, systems, methods, and related computer program products for synchronizing distributed states amongst a plurality of entities and authenticating devices to access information and / or services provided by a remote server. Synchronization techniques include client devices and remote servers storing buckets of information. The client device sends a subscription request to the remote serve identifying a bucket of information and, when that bucket changes, the remote server sends the change to the client device. Authentication techniques include client devices including unique default credentials that, when presented to a remote server, provide limited access to the server. The client device may obtain assigned credentials that, when presented to the remote server, provide less limited access to the server.

A mobile terminal is enabled to conduct an EMV transaction. A wireless access node in the EMV card-reader terminal is provided for connecting a mobile terminal to the card-reader terminal. An EMV-proxy module executing in the card-reader terminal facilitates communication between the mobile terminal and the card-reader terminal. The EMV-proxy module lets the mobile terminal function in essentially the same way as a regular EMV chip card with respect to the card-reader terminal. The card-reader terminal may then conduct EMV transactions on behalf of the mobile terminal without requiring new software and / or hardware at the EMV issuer. EMV data is stored in the mobile terminal in the form of secure dynamic data objects. This Abstract is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. 37 CFR 1.72(b).

A real-time modular video processing system (VPS) which can be scaled smoothly from relatively small systems with modest amounts of hardware to very large, very powerful systems with significantly more hardware. The modular video processing system includes a processing module containing at least one general purpose microprocessor which controls hardware and software operation of the video processing system using control data and which also facilitates communications with external devices. One or more video processing modules are also provided, each containing parallel pipelined video hardware which is programmable by the control data to provide different video processing operations on an input stream of video data. Each video processing module also contains one or more connections for accepting one or more daughterboards which each perform a particular image processing task. A global video bus routes video data between the processing module and each video processing module and between respective processing modules, while a global control bus provides the control data to / from the processing module from / to the video processing modules separate from the video data on the global video bus. A hardware control library loaded on the processing module provides an application programming interface including high level C-callable functions which allow programming of the video hardware as components are added and subtracted from the video processing system for different applications.

Interactive geographic information systems (GIS) and techniques are disclosed that provide users with a greater degree of flexibility, utility, and information. A markup language is provided that facilitates communication between servers and clients of the interactive GIS, which enables a number of GIS features, such as network links (time-based and view-dependent dynamic data layers), ground overlays, screen overlays, placemarks, 3D models, and stylized GIS elements, such as geometry, icons, description balloons, polygons, and labels in the viewer by which the user sees the target area. The markup language is used to describe a virtual camera view of a geographic feature. A compressed file format holds multiple files utilized to display a geographic feature in a single file.

Methods and apparatus are described for facilitating communication among a plurality of entities via an interoperability network. Each entity has policy data corresponding thereto governing interaction with the entity via the interoperability network. A message is transmitted from a first one of the entities to a second one of the entities. The first entity has first policy data corresponding thereto and the second entity has second policy data corresponding thereto. The transmitted message was handled in the network according to combined policy data representing a combination of the first and second policy data.

A computer-implemented process facilitates communication with an entity over a network. A static HTTP URL is associated with the entity. Communications information reflecting the entity's current online presence including the entity's dynamic session information as determined using the HTTP protocol is linked with the URL. Communication with the entity is facilitated using the URL and the communications information. The forms of communication facilitated include type chat / instant messaging, voice communication over a computer network, video communication over a computer network, voice communication from a computer network to a telephone network and two-way text messaging to Internet enabled wireless devices.

A signal conditioner (SC) and method for performing communications via a shared transport medium between a base transceiver station (BTS) and a remote antenna entity (RAE). A first SC is connected to the BTS and a second SC is connected to the RAE. Each SC interfaces to the transport medium. The first SC receives an RF signal representing a combined digital signal (CDS) from the BTS. The first SC recovers and conditions the CDS, and then transmits the conditioned CDS to the second SC via the transport medium. The second SC receives the conditioned CDS, recovers the CDS, produces an RF signal representing the CDS, and transmits this RF signal to the RAE. The RAE sends this RF signal to an antenna of the RAE for transmission of this RF signal via the antenna. First SC and second SC also facilitate communication of a CDS from RAE to BTS.

A computer network system establishes an instant messaging (IM) session between a first user registered with a first ISP (ISP) and at least one user registered with a second ISP when the two ISPs operate using different IM protocols. The ISPs each contain a Local IM server connected to each registered user. Each ISP also contains a Universal IM server that is connected to the distributed network. The Universal IM server includes a database that stores routing information and Presence information for each user registered with the second ISPs and facilitates communications between the first and second user using a universal format, such as XML.

Doorbell systems can include a doorbell and a chime. In some embodiments, the chime can be communicatively coupled to a wireless network of a building, to the doorbell, and to a remote computing device. In several embodiments, the chime facilitates communication with at least one of the doorbell, the remote computing device, and a remote sensor.

A power line communication device configured to facilitate communications over a low voltage power line between a downstream user device and an external power line communication device is provided. In one embodiment, the device may include a communication module configured to communicate over a low voltage power line and a controller configured to control the module. The controller is configured to operate the module in a first configuration in which all repeating is disabled; and a second configuration wherein upstream repeating is enabled and downstream repeating is disabled. The controller may transition from the first configuration to the second configuration in response to a command received via the low voltage power line or upon determining that a triggering event has been detected such as an unacceptable data rate, error rate, or noise detection. In some embodiments, the device may form part of a utility meter and also transmit utility data to the power line communication device.

A converged call center is provided. The converged call center provides a switch connectable to a customer through a telephone network. The switch connects to a converged container comprising a plurality of applications necessary for the call center functionality. The converged container is connected to a voice platform to facilitate communication between the applications, the customer, and a customer service representative.

An intelligent antenna system for extending the effective communication range of a machine-readable passive tag. The system includes intelligence that allows one of a plurality of extension antennas to be active at any given time in order to both facilitate communications and safeguard the system. The machine-readable tag and antenna system may be embedded in a structure. In a further embodiment, the system may include multiple passive tags that are active in correspondence to a display or advertisement currently being exhibited. The system includes means for operatively coupling a designated machine-readable tag to the embedded antenna network previously described. In a further embodiment of the invention, the machine-readable tag includes combined RFID and NFC functionality where both RFID listening functions and NFC read-write functions are to be available in the same NFC communications logic, where different RFID listening applications require different minimum separation distances between the reader and the NFC communications logic. The NFC communications logic chip is selectively connected to at least three antenna coils, the first antenna coil for operating with a first minimum separation distance between the reader and the NFC communications logic, the second antenna coil for operating with a second minimum separation distance between the reader and the NFC communications logic, and the third antenna coil for reading and writing. In a further embodiment of the invention, matching circuits are included with the respective antenna coils to tune the resonant frequency of the RLC oscillator circuit for each antenna coil in the NFC communications logic.

A system, method and apparatus for facilitating communication among a number of distributed clients in a distributed network is disclosed. A user, such as through a personal digital assistant device, may select one or more instant messages for transmission to one or more other users in the network. The instant messages may be sound instant message and / or text instant messages. During messaging, message status indicators provide users with the status of their respective messages. In one embodiment, the messages may be deemed to be either pending or received as distinguished by a pending status indicator and a received status indicator.

An improved device for use in authorizing transactions and performing applications is provided by the present invention. The device uses a local processor and secure data storage in conjunction with a variety of sensors to perform authentication processes that establish an individual's identity and provide authority to perform a desired transaction. The sensors allow the device to directly scan biometric identifying information from an individual. A card swipe interface and a proximity antenna are provided to facilitate communication between the device and remote interface devices such as magnetic swipe card readers, smart card readers, infrared communications ports and proximity and long range radio scanners. In addition, the local processor, memory, display and user inputs allow the device to run applications such as those performed by a traditional computer, gaming device or personal data assistant.

A method, system and program product comprise processing a sender's inputted text message. The text message is combined with a selected avatar representing the sender. The avatar is combined with a selected state of mind. The selected state of mind is modified with a selected intensity. At least the text message and the combined avatar are ordered into a scene of a sender's message in an order specified by the sender. The sender's message is transmitted to a receiver's device where the sender's message is operable to be viewed by the receiver in the order specified by the sender.