1465 results about "Point counting" patented technology

The apparatus and methods described herein facilitate fair peer-to-peer gambling. Generally, the system receives bet statement(s) from authorized player(s) and/or game administrator(s). Authorized players(s) then enter whole number percentages representing their beliefs that the outcome of the bet statement will be true. The players entering the risk percentages are encouraged to be as fair as possible, because players may be forced into undesirable bet positions. The amount of points or money wagered are then automatically determined based on the risk percentage(s). Once the actual outcome is determined, the winning player is rewarded in inverse proportion to his risk percentage.

A gaming system including a central server linked to a plurality of gaming machines. The gaming system includes a point or count based system to provide one or more awards to one or more players. Such points are accumulated by a player based on one or more events associated with the player's gaming experience. The points or counts utilized in the gaming system are selectively redeemed by the player in exchange for one or more opportunities to win an award. It should be appreciated that in one embodiment, the equalizing units disclosed herein are different, separate and independent from any monetary based points or credits, any promotional based points or credits, or any player tracking points.

A method and system of receiving, storing, and delivering customer comments, including qualitative and quantitative feedback, over a communications network, such as the Internet. Also, the present invention relates to a method and system of rating and ranking companies, including individual merchants and both buyers and sellers, and their products and services based upon comments received and then awarding the companies points based upon their rating.

The present invention provides a map error information obtaining system which can promote the collection of the map error information as well as reduce the number of man-hours required for researching the site and verifying whether or not the collected map error information is accurate. The map error information obtaining system herein disclosed comprises a position detecting apparatus including image obtaining means for obtaining image data indicative of an actual condition of and in the vicinity of a current position, and a center apparatus, the position detecting apparatus being operative to transmit map error information including a position of the map information and image data where it is judged that there is a difference, to the center apparatus. The center apparatus is operative to correct the map information after verifying whether or not the difference in the map information is accurate using the image data. Furthermore, the center apparatus is operative to calculate an evaluation point for each of the position detecting apparatuses which have transmitted the map error information so that operators operating the position detecting apparatuses can be rewarded in accordance with their evaluation points.

The disclosure relates to a process for controlling body weight in which selection of food servings is based on a calculated point value and a range of allotted daily points which is adjusted for weight change. The calculated point value is a function of measured calories, total fat and dietary fiber for serving sizes specified in readily estimatable units. A range or maximum number of points allotted per day may be calculated based on current body weight, caloric reduction to be achieved, physical activity level, and physical activity duration.

Method and apparatus providing connection-oriented services for packet switched data communications networks. Directory services include distributed discovery of MAC addresses and protocol alias addresses. Topology services include a link state topology exchange among switches, which provides each switch with a complete topology graph of the network. This enables an access switch receiving a data packet to determine a complete path from a source end system to a destination end system. Another service includes resolution of broadcast frames to unicast frames, in order to reduce the amount of broadcast traffic. Policy restrictions may be applied prior to connection setup. Path determination services enable multiple paths from a source to a destination. Connection management includes source routed mapping of connections on the desired path. A distributed call rerouting service is provided wherein if a link on an active path fails, each switch receives a topology change notification and unmaps any connection involving the failed link. A broadcast/unknown service provides restricted flooding of nonresolvable packets. Furthermore, connection-oriented switching is provided based on the source and destination MAC addresses as a connection identifier. Still further, resolution of networks outside the switch domain is enabled by access switches listening for network and server route advertisements and maintaining best routes to said networks and servers. The best route metrics may be combined with best path metrics to determine a path from a first access switch to an egress switch connected to the external network.

A function approximation processing method comprises inputting and binarizing image data, extracting contour from the binarized image data, estimating tangent points in horizontal and vertical directions from the contour, and approximating contour between adjacent tangent points among the estimated tangent points with a predetermined function, thereby an input object such as a character or a figure can be processed at high speed, and outline data with high image quality can be generated with a reduced number of points.

The disclosure relates to a process for controlling body weight in which selection of food servings is based on a calculated point value and a range of allotted daily POINTS which is adjusted for weight change. The calculated POINT value is a function of measured calories, total fat and dietary fiber for serving sizes specified in readily estimatable units.

In one embodiment, the present invention is directed to an athleticism rating method for normalizing and more accurately comparing overall athletic performance of at least two athletes. Each athlete completes at least two different athletic performance tests. Each test is designed to measure a different athletic skill that is needed to compete effectively in a defined sport. The results from each test for a given athlete are normalized by comparing the test results to a database providing the distribution of test results among a similar class of athletes and then assigning each test result a point number based on that test result's percentile among the distribution of test results. Combining the point numbers derived from the at least two different athletic performance tests for an athlete produces an athleticism rating score representing the overall athleticism of each athlete.

A discard rack moves and reads suit and rank of individual cards. The cards are provided to a card in-feed area and moved to a card collection area. Both suit and rank of each card is read in the card in-feed area or between the card in-feed area and the card collection area. The discard rack comprises a) a card in-feed area with card moving elements that move only a bottom card from a set of cards in the card in-feed area, b) a card collection area that receives cards from the card moving area in the same sense as cards are received in the card in-feed area, c) an image capture device that captures data from a card while the card is between the card in-feed area and the card collection area, d) preferably a communication port to send out captured data to a processor, and e) an elevator that lowers to maintain a level at which cards are received in the card collection area.

A system and method allows a consumer to purchase goods and services from merchants and redeem offers made by a merchant with a digital transaction on a smart phone. The merchant receives and enters the consumer's telephone number into an application. The consumer's telephone number is sent to a server, which checks for electronic coupons and loyalty points. Accounting for the value of any coupon/accumulated loyalty points, the merchant enters the payment amount into the application. which. in turn sends it back to the server. The server then sends the payment amount, any coupon details and the merchant's name to the consumer's phone. The consumer can choose to accept or decline the sale with or without using the coupon/loyalty points. A PIN number confirms the sale, which transmits to the server and then to the merchant. A digital sales receipt is sent to the merchant and consumer.

The invention provides an identifying method for a battery capacity fading mechanism. The method comprises the steps of sampling and recording the charging capacity C and voltage V of a battery in the constant current charging process with a preset frequency to obtain a C-V curve; counting to obtain a V-dQ/dV curve by using a point counting method according to the C-V curve; comparing the V-dQ/dV curves corresponding to different circular charging and discharging times of the battery and analyzing the battery capacity fading mechanism. By using the constant current charging voltage curve, the capacity increment curve of the battery is obtained by fast calculating through a counting method, the internal condition of the battery is obtained in a non-damage mode, the capacity fading condition of the battery is more comprehensively learned, and the internal mechanism of the battery capacity fading is identified. The invention also provides an identifying system for the battery capacity fading mechanism.

The invention provides a rapid extraction and reconstruction method for a data power line of an airborne LIDAR. The method comprises the following steps of: acquiring a large amount of laser point cloud data by using an airborne laser radar measurement system, and filtering the laser point cloud data by properly setting an elevation threshold value to reject point cloud data not formed by a power line; after the filtration of the point cloud data is finished, rejecting a pylon according to the variation characteristics of point cloud density on the two sides of the pylon; counting the point number of each layer of power line in the point cloud data of the power line by adopting a histogram counting analysis method, layering the power line, and fitting the power line in the same layer, thereby separating point cloud data on a single power line; and fitting the power lines by utilizing a catenary equation, estimating a catenary equation parameter, and finally realizing the vectorization of the power line. By the method, automatic power line extraction and pylon extraction between a plurality of spans can be rapidly realized, and extraction efficiency is high; and the method can be used for the transmission line safety inspection of a power sector, and transmission line inspection efficiency is greatly improved.

The invention discloses a method for detecting lane change of a vehicle based on a vehicle-mounted camera. The method comprises the following steps: firstly, initializing a read-in image, and converting the read-in image to a gray space; secondly, segmenting an sky region and a ground region of the image, and acquiring the image of the ground region; thirdly, carrying out edge detection by utilizing the sobel operator; fourthly, carrying out binaryzation by utilizing an Otsu's method; fifthly, restricting a fitting range, wherein hough transformation is restricted by the minimum fitting points, and extracting a lane line equation; sixthly, determining the type of a lane line; seventhly, classifying lane line treatment results; and eighthly, determining the current lane change situation ofthe vehicle. According to the invention, the current lane change situation of the vehicle is detected by adopting the mode of images, the existing vehicle-mounted camera of a driving school is utilized, has low cost, high practicability, diversity detection data, and has accurate and objective evaluations of lane change level for students, the equipment is simple to install, and has wide applications.

A computer-enabled method and related system for allowing market survey contributors to provide their relevant market information and to access that information and the information of others in the same market. Each contributor is permitted to view its own specific private information and to view summary information of the entire market and aspects of the entire market but without being able to identify the other contributors. The system includes an information database, a query library and a computer program to query the database and evaluate and report on the database information in response to a query. Rules are set to deny access to information not provided by a contributor and to deny access to information with an insufficient number of contributors and/or number of points of data.

The invention relates to a WLAN indoor KNN positioning method based on near-neighbor point number optimization, which relates to the field of mode identification and solves the problem of reduced positioning precision caused by improper near-neighbor point number selection in the traditional WLAN indoor KNN positioning method. The WLAN indoor KNN positioning method comprises the following steps of: firstly establishing a complete WLAN positioning scene and a position fingerprint database; then, pre-estimating the position of a testing point according to the collected signal intensity at the testing point and the pre-stored position fingerprint data by utilizing a KNN positioning method with the near-neighbor number as 2; then obtaining the theoretical expected error of the testing point at a pre-estimated position by the KNN positioning method when the near-neighbor point numbers are 1 and 2, and selecting the near-neighbor point number corresponding to the KNN positioning method with higher theoretical precision as the optimum near-neighbor point number for estimating the position of the testing point; and finally realizing WLAN indoor KNN positioning by utilizing the KNN positioning method under the optimum near-neighbor point number. The invention is applicable to indoor positioning.

A system and method for consistently, reliably and equitably discounting medical bills of self-pay patients includes a networked discounting engine operably coupled to a plurality of databases. The discounting engine is adapted to receive patient account data from one or more patient registration systems. Based upon the patient account data received, the discounting engine accesses the plurality of databases to determine financial, asset and demographic attributes for a patient or responsible party. Based upon the patient account data received, and the determined financial, asset and demographic variable values, the discounting engine determines weights and points. Weights and points are then combined by the discounting engine to determine a weighted discount percentage to be applied against the patient's outstanding account balance. The discounting engine then generates and sends to the patient registration system an output file containing the discount percentage and other patient information. This information along with other billing information is communicated to a patient accounting system for preparing a discounted bill.

An activity-area/time-frame weighting table indicates the likelihood of where a user is most likely to be in a certain time frame, and weighting (the number of points) is set depending on times frames, which are divided into weekdays and weekends. The activity pattern may be obtained through the user's application at the time of registration, or may be obtained by detecting the locations of the user for a predetermined period, such as for one week, using a GPS or PHS. For example, when a user is mostly likely to be on the route to the company from home in the time frame of commuting hours on a weekday, the weighting is set low. Based on an area and time frame in which a corresponding credit card or the like is used, the number of points is determined, and is then used to set an authentication level.

A user selects a product to be liquidated from a product provider and then designates to the transacting entity that reward points are to be used towards the purchase of the liquidated product. The transacting entity acts to decrease the number of reward points in the user's reward account by the required number of points. The reward account holder conveys consideration to the transacting entity equivalent to the par value of the reward points. The consumer obtains the product in exchange for reward points having a retail value equivalent to what he would have otherwise paid for the product, while the reward account holder is required to convey only the par value of the points. The product provider is able to liquidate the product and obtain payment equivalent to what it would otherwise have obtained in a prior art liquidation process, auction or trading environment.

A (50) method and apparatus (110) for determining a scanning format of a frame of a video signal determines (52) if any interfield motion exists within the frame; and indicates (53) that the frame is interlaced scanned if interfield motion is detected and indicates (54) that the frame is progressive scanned if interfield motion is not detected. The determination is based on spatial correlation within and around one or more edges of one or more objects in the frame. This can be accomplished by identifying zig-zag or zipper effects near one or more edges of one or more objects in the frame, identifying motion between fields or identifying motion near one or more edges of one or more objects. A method (100) for determining a field order of two interlaced frames of a video sequence of frames assigns (101) one of the two interlaced frames to be a first frame and the other of the two interlaced frames to be a second frame and assembles (102) two new frames from the two interlaced frames by combining a bottom field of the first frame with the top field of the second frame and by combining a top field of the first frame with a bottom field of the second frame. The number of zipper points in each of the two new frames is then determined and compared. If the number of zipper points in the first frame is smaller than the number of zipper points in the second frame, that the field order of the two frames is top field first, otherwise the field order is bottom field first.

Disclosed is a non-equal probability constellation labeling method based on an absolute phase shift keying (APSK) constellation diagram. The non-equal probability constellation labeling method based on the APSK constellation diagram is characterized by comprising the steps that: the APSK constellation diagram is constructed, number of steps of the constellation labeling is M, M=2m, and m is a positive integer, numbers of constellation points on each ring is the same, phase deviations of each ring are also the same; a constellation labeling mode of the APSK constellation diagram is designed, and the constellation labeling mode is enabled to be a gray labeling; the constellation points are grouped, and constellation points on the same ring are combined to be a new constellation point; labeling bits of the prior constellation points on the same ring are distributed to the new constellation point in sequence. According to the non-equal probability constellation labeling method based on the APSK constellation diagram, the inhomogeneous constellation diagram and a non-equal probability labeling technology are adopted, distribution of output signals of the constellation labeling is enabled to be close to Gaussian distribution, shaping gain is achieved, performance of a coded modulation system is improved, and signal to noise ratio in a modulation process is reduced.

The object of the present invention is a method of awarding prizes, also known as progressive jackpots, in association with a wagering game such as a Poker game. A particular application of this method is in association with a Poker game on an electronic gaming device. For awarding the progressive jackpot, players must accumulate in a counter a number of point corresponding exactly to one of the predetermined criteria. To obtain points, players have only to play the Poker game as on any other Poker machine. The points are added in the counter along with the winning outcomes in the game. A particular embodiment consists of awarding two kinds of points: win points and no-win points. With this embodiment, only win points are effective to win the progressive jackpot. The no-win points increase the counter values but can not lead to winning the jackpot.