7945 results about "Program control" patented technology

A system, method, apparatus and computer program product for providing location based functions and mobile e-commerce comprising a central processing unit including a processor, a storage device, and programming stored in the storage device, a display device, an audio input device, an audio output device, a communications module, a commerce module, an image module, and a location module. The programming controls the operation of the present invention to provide functions based on location data, to facilitate commercial exchanges by wirelessly exchanging payment and product information with venders, to identify services such as venders meeting selection criteria, to wirelessly exchange select information with other users and systems, to restrict and/or monitor the use of the device based on authorized user parameters, selecting one of a plurality networks through which to communicate, detecting a trigger for performing an action based on a change in location and sensed data, storing a voice annotation with a computer data file, determining service providers and associated communication parameters, contemporaneously maintaining a wireless voice and data link, providing a system for selecting and delivering mobile advertisements, and many other functions and services that are described herein.

A novel network manager for use with a cable television system headend capable of monitoring and managing headend components and set top terminals in a television delivery system is described. The invention relates to methods and apparatus that manage and coordinate the reception of various programming and control signals at a headend. The invention manages and coordinates the storage of such signals for intelligent selection and distribution to set top terminals. The invention makes use of a receiver or set of receivers, a work station, a program control information processing component, a network management CPU, databases, control software and an instruction memory. The invention uses these components to manage and monitor certain headend components, such as signal reception equipment, an authorization component, a file server, MPEG decoders, a digital buffer with frame repeat and channel modulators. The invention is particularly useful in processing and responding to upstream information and subscriber communications received from set top terminals. In so doing, the invention accommodates various system services, including (1) near video on demand (NVOD), (2) virtual video on demand (VVOD), (3) video on demand (VOD), (4) interactive program services, (5) program suggestion features, (6) advertisement targeting, (7) generation of standard and custom menus, and (8) data spooling and text overlaying.

A system is provided for delivering Internet and digital content to a variety of thin client devices. A web portal for accessing and selecting content is used in conjunction with graphical user interfaces on a personal computer for setting up and controlling the content channels. The user interfaces, scheduling, and communication management are controlled by a system control software application running on a local server with an Internet connection. A high speed local area network provides for streaming content from the Internet or local server to thin client devices. A digital audio playback device is connected to the local server via the local area network connection and decodes streamed audio files, and converts them into analog audio signals for input into a conventional stereo. Digital content is streamed automatically from the local server to another Internet playback device, based on end user content preferences and schedule selections.

A data processing system for implementing transaction management of auction-based trading for specialized items such as fixed income instruments. The data processing system provides a highly structured trading protocol implemented through a sequence of trading paradigms. The system employs a distributed computer processing network linking together a plurality of commonly configured program controlled workstations. The protocol and its program controlling logic enhances trading efficiency, rewards market Makers, and fairly distributes market opportunity to system users.

A system with parental control features is provided. The system may be switched between single account control and multiple account control. Each account may have a program control code and a purchase control code. A user may set parental control criteria for controlling access to programming for each account. A user may set purchase control criteria for controlling purchasing for each account. The system may remove a block on parentally-controlled activity when an authorized user enters an appropriate purchase or program control code. Every activity that matches any of the parental control criteria may be blocked and authorized user login may be required. The system may provide a selectable bypass locks feature. The system may present targeted advertising based on which code was entered last. The system may track account usage and provide information related to usage.

An efficient method for compressing sampled analog signals in real time, without loss, or at a user-specified rate or distortion level, is described. The present invention is particularly effective for compressing and decompressing high-speed, bandlimited analog signals that are not appropriately or effectively compressed by prior art speech, audio, image, and video compression algorithms due to various limitations of such prior art compression solutions. The present invention's preprocessor apparatus measures one or more signal parameters and, under program control, appropriately modifies the preprocessor input signal to create one or more preprocessor output signals that are more effectively compressed by a follow-on compressor. In many instances, the follow-on compressor operates most effectively when its input signal is at baseband. The compressor creates a stream of compressed data tokens and compression control parameters that represent the original sampled input signal using fewer bits. The decompression subsystem uses a decompressor to decompress the stream of compressed data tokens and compression control parameters. After decompression, the decompressor output signal is processed by a post-processor, which reverses the operations of the preprocessor during compression, generating a postprocessed signal that exactly matches (during lossless compression) or approximates (during lossy compression) the original sampled input signal. Parallel processing implementations of both the compression and decompression subsystems are described that can operate at higher sampling rates when compared to the sampling rates of a single compression or decompression subsystem. In addition to providing the benefits of real-time compression and decompression to a new, general class of sampled data users who previously could not obtain benefits from compression, the present invention also enhances the performance of test and measurement equipment (oscilloscopes, signal generators, spectrum analyzers, logic analyzers, etc.), busses and networks carrying sampled data, and data converters (A/D and D/A converters).

An input device including an illuminated keyboard and a display controller for displaying characters on depressible keyboard locations or buttons. The display controller changes the displayed characters according to a selection of a character set and application of modifiers, such as shift, alternate, or control. The input/output device also includes a light sensor for sampling the ambient light level in the vicinity of the input/output device. Based on the ambient light level, the display controller adjusts the intensity of the displayed character, its background, and the contrast between the displayed character and its background. The depressible keyboard locations may be buttons connected to mechanical switches to allow a user to rapidly type information into the input device. The display controller can be controlled by either user-selectable switches or by the operating system or software applications of an attached computing device.

A distributed tangible user interface comprises compact, self-powered, tangible user interface manipulative devices having sensing, display, and wireless communication capabilities, along with one or more associated digital content or other interactive software management applications. The manipulative devices display visual representations of digital content or program controls and can be physically manipulated as a group by a user for interaction with the digital information or software application. A controller on each manipulative device receives and processes data from a movement sensor, initiating behavior on the manipulative and/or forwarding the results to a management application that uses the information to manage the digital content, software application, and/or the manipulative devices. The manipulative devices may also detect the proximity and identity of other manipulative devices, responding to and/or forwarding that information to the management application, and may have feedback devices for presenting responsive information to the user.

A computer system modifies digital images of the human form as well as other objects. The computer system provides intuitive means for accessing warp, smooth, stretch, copy, and paste tools for image modification; undo, toggle and restore tools for change management; and zoom, fit, and full tools for image display sizing. The computer system is controlled by a program that uses a combination of novel approaches to make image manipulation fast and easy. Buttons are displayed only when they are actually available for use, based on the current system operating mode. The image sizing tools enable an image size change to accomodate the tool size without a required change to the cursor state or to the edit mode state. When regions are defined by the user, the cursor shape changes to indicate whether the cursor is located inside a region, outside the region, and on the region bounding box; allowing a user to perform different operations depending upon cursor location rather than depending upon, and requiring, user executed button pushing as a specific operation. The computer system uses display contexts and bitmap masks that enhance operation speed. Operations are always performed on the full image resolution rather than a displayed image resolution.

An energy saving control for appliances via an intelligent thermostat is provided. This intelligent thermostat provides programmatic control over the HVAC system, and provides coordinated control over the appliances. This control over the appliances is accomplished via a communications network between the intelligent thermostat and the appliances. The appliances include occupancy sensors and transmit usage and occupancy information to the intelligent thermostat. The intelligent thermostat processes this information to determine the occupancy of the dwelling. The thermostat controls the HVAC system and the appliances according to the determined occupancy of the dwelling.

A method and apparatus for generating electromagnetic fields for healing. A device preferably includes a microcontroller and associated memory, a wire coil in electrical communication with a driving circuit that is controlled by the microcontroller in accordance with a program stored in the associated memory, wherein the driving circuit is effective to produce a pulsed DC output having a frequency in the range of about 0-45 Hz, more preferably in the range of 0.5-14.1 Hz and most preferably around 9.6 Hz. A user interface is provided for selecting one of a plurality of modes of operation and a port (e.g., a USB port) is provided to allow the program stored in the associated memory to be modified by way of a computer, memory card or the Internet. In another embodiment, the apparatus takes the form of a medallion that can be worn around a user's neck or strategically placed on a user's body or embedded in other user hardware such as a combat or racing helmet.

A computing device is described that comprises one or more hardware processors and a memory communicatively coupled to the one or more hardware processors. The memory comprises software that, when executed by the processors, operates as (i) a virtual machine and (ii) a hypervisor. The virtual machine includes a guest kernel that facilitates communications between a guest application being processed within the virtual machine and one or more virtual resources. The hypervisor configures a portion of the guest kernel to intercept a system call from the guest application and redirect information associated with the system call to the hypervisor. The hypervisor enables logic within the guest kernel to analyze information associated with the system call to determine whether the system call is associated with a malicious attack in response to the system call being initiated during a memory page execution cycle. Alternatively, the hypervisor operates to obfuscate interception of the system call in response to the system call being initiated during memory page read cycle.

A processor is connected by a bus to a plurality of station modules, each station module being connected to a corresponding valve and having a micro-controller. The processor executes a stored watering program and controls the station modules in accordance with the program. Messages are bi-directionally sent and received over the bus that are generated by the processor and the micro-controllers. Each message contains an identification field with an instruction that describes a meaning of the message. The processor and the micro-controllers each interpret the messages received thereby and perform predetermined functions in response thereto.

A disk drive including a disk, a signal measurement circuit to measure amplitudes of signals received from the host, and a processor for controlling operations in the disk drive. The processor under the control of a program in conjunction with the signal measurement circuit: measures an amplitude of a signal from a host during a first speed negotiation process and determines if the amplitude of the signal from the host is above a pre-determined amplitude for the disk drive. If so, the processor commands the disk drive to transmit the signals to the host at the measured amplitude of the first speed negotiation process. However, if the amplitude is below the pre-determined amplitude for the disk drive, a second speed negotiation process is forced using a low frequency signal from the host and calculations are performed to determine appropriate transmit amplitudes for the interconnect.