32 results about "Informed choice" patented technology

Systems and methods for providing energy management utilize wireless wide-area network broadcast signals and a decentralized receiver architecture to allow customers to make informed choices with regard to energy consumption and load shedding for particular appliances. A receiver assembly embedded within an appliance receives a broadcast signal, e.g., an FM subcarrier signal, including tariff data and other electrical grid data. A processor coupled with the receiver controls the appliance in accordance with the received data and in accordance with user-defined preferences. In some embodiments, a transceiver assembly is embedded in one or more appliances in a household. Each transceiver is configured to receive broadcast signals regarding grid data, and to communicate with other appliances and/or a usage meter over a wireless personal area network. Meter data from one or more households may be aggregated and uplinked back to the energy provider or other entities.

A computer system enables a business to reduce risks from phishing electronic messages. One or more original web links embedded in the electronic message may be replaced with a replacement web link. If the determined risk score for the original webpage is large enough webpage and the user clicks on the embedded web link, a user is directed to an intermediate webpage rather than to the original webpage. The intermediate webpage may provide details about the original webpage so that the user can make an informed choice whether to proceed to the original website. For example, the intermediate webpage may provide pertinent information to a user such as the actual domain of the remote site, the country the site is hosted in, how long the site has been online, and a rendered screen capture of the remote website, and/or a confidence score.

A system and method is described for managing the release of information from a personal electronic health record (EHR). A central data warehouse maintains at least a part of the HER along with at least a copy of a patient's permission plan for the release of data to others in the health care system. Requests for information may be made by addressees, each addressee possessing credentials. The system and method compares the credentials of the addressee with the personal permissions plan and releases the information permitted by the permissions plan. Where information is denied by the plan, the patient may be offered the opportunity to modify profiles of the plan so as to permit the release of information. The patient may be provided with background information on the need for release of the data, and legal aspects of the release of the data so as to make an informed choice.

Disclosed is a method of comparing the relative lateral stability among drill bits (that is, the tendency for a bit to whirl). This allows improved bit selection in applications where whirl is apparent. Because there will likely be many different acceptable bit designs produced by the above method, the comparison of the regenerative forces among these bits allows a customer to make a more informed choice between stability and other performance features among a range of bit designs.

Briefly stated, a pool to be assembled and emplaced in a slightly concaved location is available in a container. Similarly, an integrated beach cart and cooler system can house the self-assembly pool, and various other articles enabling parents to travel to and from the beach. Process, products and electronic commerce methods thereby are likewise disclosed, allowing consumers to make informed choices to review and purchase the instant teachings conveniently. A customer rewards function is exchanged for data-sharing about age and size of children to allow creation of a database of children for ongoing monitoring of upcoming purchasing needs. The integrated beach cart and cooler system may comprise an outdoor umbrella including a plurality of photovoltaic cells disposed on the upper surface of the umbrella.

There is disclosed a system and method for dispensing postage or other authorization information electronically by using a portable processor containing a maximum amount of preauthorized postage which can be applied to any piece of mail or other item. A plurality of shipping service providers may utilize the portable processor to store and dispense credit value for authorization of various shipping services. Accordingly, a user is presented with information regarding various shipping service providers fees and/or services associated with particular shipping/delivery parameters desired by the user in order to make an informed choice as to a most preferable method of shipment.

Information sharing enhances the utility and effectiveness of gift-card transactions. A website enables a user to purchase or activate gift cards and compile recipient contact information to establish a gift network of the gift recipients. Information may be entered in relation to the interests or preferences of the gift recipients in the gift network. Product brands, services or merchants may be recommended to the user, and the user may be made aware of events, deals or promotions related to the interests and preferences of potential recipients in the gift network. Users are able to make a more informed choice regarding the purchase or activation of gift cards for recipients in the user's gift network, and manufacturers and merchants are provided with more effective advertising and selling tools.

The present invention creates a system for describing human experience, and creating, accessing and analyzing information that allows human experiences to be shared, compared, and analyzed. An Experience is described using Condition (C), Objective (O), and Strategy (S) attributes. Data is identified or tagged using C, O and S attributes, allowing the data to be combined to describe an experience, then making it searchable in such as way so that highly relevant information is selected, organized, and presented to the user. The system allows multiple individuals to share their experience data so that individuals can compare experiences, and make more informed choices. A system composed of experience databases, an individual's current needs, and automated computer agents, is presented to search for, select, display and update highly relevant information to the user as the user's situation changes, making information self-organizing, and automating the production of knowledge and taking actions based thereon.

The subject of debt and home mortgage financing play a critical role in consumer finance, yet its treatment within the framework of personalized financial planning has lagged in relation to breadth and complexity of debt instruments that are commonly available in the marketplace.

Consumers require a decision support system to make informed choices related to debt financing.

A strategic decision framework and a set of tools to properly assess consumer debt are lacking. Monte Carlo simulation, risk tolerance, and statistical methods are frequently in other areas of consumer finance, particularly the investment field. Similar methods have application in the debt domain.

Fertility problems affect (1 in 10) couples in Western society, making it one of the most common serious health issues. Despite this, little is known about the causes of infertility, and thus patient counseling and treatment are suboptimal. With infertility being such a common problem, identification of any cause would impact on a large number of patients, allowing better counseling, clearer diagnoses and the possibility of making more informed choices (e.g. adoption vs. IVF treatment). The present invention provides methods to identify a cause of infertility in a subject based on the genotype of the subject, in particular, by evaluating the status of the gene encoding FK506 binding protein-like (FKBPL). In particular, the present invention relates to use of the status of the gene encoding FK506 binding protein-like for identification of a cause of an infertile phenotype in a subject. Also provided, are methods method for identifying an infertile phenotype in a subject, and identifying a cause of an infertile phenotype in a subject. This diagnostic tool finds wide clinical utility in the identification of a cause of infertility, resultantly impacting on a large number of patients. Further aspects of the present invention relate to the targeting of FKBPL in order to temporarily and reversibly induce infertility in a subject. Such aspects of the present invention find utility in the development of a male contraceptive pill. Moreover, due to the high degree of homology between the human and mouse FKBPL gene, FKBPL can be targeted in order to induce infertility in mice (or other species) as a form of pest control or animal husbandry.

Methods and apparatus are provided for a context-sensitive dynamic bloat detection system. A profiling tool is disclosed that selects an appropriate collection implementation for a given application. The disclosed profiling tool uses semantic profiling together with a set of collection selection rules to make an informed choice. A collection implementation, such as an abstract data entity, is selected for a given program by obtaining collection usage statistics from the program. The collection implementation is selected based on the collection usage statistics using a set of collection selection rules. The collection implementation is one of a plurality of interchangeable collection implementations having a substantially similar logical behavior for substantially all collection types. The collection usage statistics indicate how the collection implementation is used in the given program. One or more suggestions can be generated for improving the collection allocated at a particular allocation context.

Systems, methods and articles of manufacture for rendering three-dimensional virtual environments using reversible jumps are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, mappings from random numbers to light paths are modeled as an explicit iterative random walk. Inverses of path construction techniques are employed to turn light transport paths back into the random numbers that produced them. In particular, such inverses may be used to extend the Multiplexed Metropolis Light Transport (MMLT) technique to perform path-invariant perturbations that produce a new path sample using a different path construction technique but preserve the path's geometry. To render an image, a rendering application in one embodiment may trace light paths through a virtual scene, with some path samples being generated by probabilistically selecting one or more techniques through technique perturbation and using inverses of the selected technique(s) to invert existing path(s), and with new paths being obtained by mutating or perturbing existing paths.

The present invention relates to a method, system and apparatus for rating risk and in particular to a system for rating public health and safety risks, including monitoring and reviewing compliance with such risks, among Suppliers in goods and services industries. The invention has been developed primarily for use as a means for food providers and consumers to review standardised results of compliance testing and risk rating in goods and services industries such as the food supply industry and to assist consumers to make informed choices about Suppliers such as food Suppliers.

Structured comprehensive polls are comprised of question and answer options and are supported by expert opinions and data points (subjective and objective information). Structured polls enable interested parties to conduct social research and obtain and analyze information about public opinion based on informed choices and crowd-sourcing applied to information collection and research based on 2-way communication with the target audience.

Methods and systems for providing an information-conveying layout based on tangential categories of products for sale in a retail location are applicable to any product for which there are multiple complex criteria for determining an appropriate selection. By providing customers with an intuitive and systematic approach to selecting a desired product, such as wine, the present disclosure provides customers the rare satisfaction of quickly making a precise and intelligent decision based on informed choice, rather than choosing only based on a direct category or relying on the suggestions of a salesperson.

A branding sub-file is associated with one or more SSID's. A user interface which displays available networks takes the available branding sub-files into account when displaying the names of networks within range. If branding is available for a given SSID, it shows a rich view of the network, using the branding information, allowing the user to make a more informed choice. A sign-up sub-file is also provided. The sign-up sub-file includes information, such as a list of items, that a network desires from a user to allow the user to access the network.

A branding sub-file is associated with one or more SSID's. A user interface which displays available networks takes the available branding sub-files into account when displaying the names of networks within range. If branding is available for a given SSID, it shows a rich view of the network, using the branding information, allowing the user to make a more informed choice. A sign-up sub-file is also provided. The sign-up sub-file includes information, such as a list of items, that a network desires from a user to allow the user to access the network.

The invention discloses an informed choice timing belt. A traditional multi-purposed belt cannot accommodate enough water, thereby failing to provide required water for long-distance running. The informed choice timing belt comprises a transparent hollow sealing belt. The transparent hollow sealing belt comprises a belt tail and a head part, wherein the head part is provided with a belt head; the belt head is equipped with a window; a pedometer is embedded into the belt head; the transparent hollow sealing belt is provided with N bonding buckles; and the transparent hollow sealing belt is divided into N+1 segments at equal length by the bonding buckles. The informed choice timing belt is simply structured; a water container can be changed into a wrist belt in a smart way; the length of the belt can be adjusted as needed via the bonding buckles; the belt can work as a belt for trousers and can carry enough water, so sportsmen can conveniently acquire water.