3259 results about "Systems design" patented technology

Electronic payment systems and supporting methods and devices are described. For instance, the disclosed subject matter describes aggregated transactional account functionality configured to receive electronic financial transactions associated with one or more of a set of electronic identifying information such as phone ID, email, instant message, etc. for a user and related functionality. The disclosed details enable various refinements and modifications according to system design and tradeoff considerations.

A web-based method and system that facilitates business transactions, including the raising of capital in global financial markets via the Internet is described. Users of the system design, structure, analyze and execute business transactions over the Internet. Users of the system described include issuers, financial institutions, intermediaries, other professional advisors (law firms, accounting firms, translation agencies, etc.) and end investors. A security means controls access to the system and restricts access to the system to only qualified users. Users of the system design and diagram a transaction structure, assign corresponding attributes to the structure design. The structure design and corresponding attributes are stored in a database. The transaction is posted as a notice or interest onto the system, wherein a user maintains the posting. A database of user and transaction information is compiled and maintained. The user profile is compared with the posted transactions to identify transactions of interest to a user. The transaction information is communicated to the user. The transaction is executed, including issuing new securities or buying or selling previously issued securities through an auction or trade process. The system provides users direct access to its community, which includes, but is not limited to, issuers, investors, intermediaries, and advisors such as law firms, consultancy firms, accounting firms, and translation agents.

Photocosmetic device for use in medical or non-medical environments (e.g., a home, barbershop, or spa), which can be used for a variety of tissue treatments. Radiation is delivered to the tissue via optical systems designed to pattern the radiation and project the radiation to a particular depth. The device has a variety of cooling systems including phase change cooling solids and liquids to cool treated skin and the radiation sources. Contact sensors and motion sensor may be used to enhance treatment. The device may be modular to facilitate manufacture and replacement of parts.

A system designed to support and manage the workflow for all user roles pertaining to an endoscopic laboratory, from registration and scheduling of patient information through pre-procedure, procedure and post-procedure phases of an endoscopic examination, including support for the entry, by various users associated with an endoscopic laboratory, of information and data including the processing and storage of endoscopic images captured during an endoscopic exam of a patient, for association with a patient record stored in a database, and including the entry of procedure notes and generation of reports that include the stored images, all via an integrated user interface.

PCT No. PCT/IB96/00025 Sec. 371 Date Jul. 2, 1998 Sec. 102(e) Date Jul. 2, 1998 PCT Filed Jan. 12, 1996 PCT Pub. No. WO97/25801 PCT Pub. Date Jul. 17, 1997Computer network management for electronic commerce requires technical implementations of business processes. The process addressed here is a technical method for a communication in which two or more parties legitimately want to communicate anonymously, often before discussing a deal or closing a business, e.g. for anonymous bidding or auctioning in electronic commerce. Essentially, the invention is a method, described by a protocol, for safely exchanging data in a network that provides a public key infrastructure and an anonymous communication possibility between network users. It consists of a sequence of steps in which both sender (e.g. customer) and addressee (e.g. merchant) compose data sets (i.e., requests and replies) that are based on received data and/or prior knowledge. The data sets are enciphered to provide anonymity, and digitally signed to provide proof of the partner. The invention is also a system designed to implement the invented method.

Communication over lossy packet networks such as the Internet is hampered by limited bandwidth and packet loss. The present invention provides a path diversity transmission system for improving the quality of communication over a lossy packet network. The path diversity transmission system explicitly sends different subsets of packets over different paths, thereby enabling the end-to-end application to effectively see an average path behavior. Generally, seeing this average path behavior provides better performance than seeing the behavior of any individual random path. For example, the probability that all of the multiple paths are simultaneously congested is much less than the probability that a single path is congested. The resulting path diversity can provide a number of benefits, including enabling real-time multimedia communication and simplifying system design (e.g., error correction system design). Two exemplary architectures for achieving path diversity are described herein. The first architecture is based on source routing, and the second architecture is based on a relay infrastructure. The second architecture routes traffic through semi-intelligent nodes at strategic locations in the Internet, thereby providing a service of improved reliability while leveraging the infrastructure of the Internet.

Microfluidic methods and devices for heterogeneous binding and agglutination assays are disclosed, with improvements relating to mixing and to reagent and sample manipulation in systems designed for safe handling of clinical test samples.

Methods and apparatus for deep learning-based system design improvement are provided. An example system design engine apparatus includes a deep learning network (DLN) model associated with each component of a target system to be emulated, each DLN model to be trained using known input and known output, wherein the known input and known output simulate input and output of the associated component of the target system, and wherein each DLN model is connected as each associated component to be emulated is connected in the target system to form a digital model of the target system. The example apparatus also includes a model processor to simulate behavior of the target system and/or each component of the target system to be emulated using the digital model to generate a recommendation regarding a configuration of a component of the target system and/or a structure of the component of the target system.

An isoreticular metal-organic framework (IRMOF) and method for systematically forming the same. The method comprises the steps of dissolving at least one source of metal cations and at least one organic linking compound in a solvent to form a solution; and crystallizing the solution under predetermined conditions to form a predetermined IRMOF. At least one of functionality, dimension, pore size and free volume of the IRMOF is substantially determined by the organic linking compound.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) probe and system designs are disclosed that minimize the effects of mechanical movement and strain to the probe to the OCT analysis. It also concerns optical designs that are robust against noise from the OCT laser source. Also integrated OCT system-probes are included that yield compact and robust electro-opto-mechanical systems along with polarization sensitive OCT systems.

A missile guidance system designed to operate on GPS signals in an anti-jamming environment. The inventive system includes first, second and third airborne vehicles (20). A GPS receiver (24) is mounted on each of the three vehicles (20) to receive signals transmitted from spaceborne satellites (14). Each vehicle (20) acts as a pseudo-satellite or "pseudolite'. The received GPS signals are processed by a processor (26) to provide a first intermediate signal indicating the position of the vehicle (20). This signal is retransmitted from each vehicle and received by a GPS receiver mounted on a missile. The received intermediate signal is processed on the missile to provide an output signal indicating the position thereof. The pseudolites would be airborne in the vicinity of a target area. Because the pseudolites are relatively close to the targets compared to a satellite in high altitude orbit and because the pseudolites would be able to transmit a kilowatt or more power, the signal strength may be improved significantly. To succeed as a jammer, a jammer, successful against GPS satellites, would need considerably more power to succeed against aircraft carried pseudolites. The pseudolite system delivers GPS signals into the target area 40-70 dB stronger than signals coming directly from GPS satellites. By timing the signals for 100% time coverage, enemy C/A code receivers will be jammed because they are limited to a J/S capability of 30 dB.

A new system design of multimedia recognition, processing, and indexing utilizes several new researches and technologies in the field of multi-media processing. The system integrates mature technologies being used in video security surveillance, media post-production, digital video storage and management, military visual and tacking technologies. The system makes unique integration of these existing, new, and upcoming technologies that have not been used in this combined fashion before, therefore providing new usage and applications beyond the simple sum of the functions of each technology. These technologies as components in a system that is open standard, and therefore can improve itself by modifying and replacing the technology components. The design of the system targets primarily heavily produced media contents from news, entertainment, and education and training, but not limited to these contents. Other digital contents, from live broadcast, to web broadcast, to home video, web cam, etc. can certainly use many different components of the system, and to utilize the open standard platform for various usages.

An object oriented design for an automated modeling system for mapping and monitoring the business roles and impact of elements within an IT Infrastructure that make up specific applications or business processes, spanning not only network elements, hosts, servers and programs but also users, company structure and processes. The design including: a series of collector modules for collecting relationship, modeling and status information from both IT and external non IT specific sources used to build a model of the application or process in the database and to gather data about activities occurring on the computer network from a business impact perspective; a series of visualizer modules for reporting monitoring activities conducted by the monitoring system; a modeling database for storing information collected by the collector modules; a series of correlator modules for automatically determining relationships between data objects stored in the database to build application models of individual applications in the context of business process and IT service delivery.

Circular stapling instruments for cutting and applying one or more surgical staples to tissue are disclosed. The instruments include various forms of feedback systems designed to provide at least one mode of feedback to the surgeon when the anvil has been attached to the device and/or when the anvil has been attached to the device and oriented in a firing position. Various types of feedback indicators are disclosed such as illumination devices, sound generating devices and vibration generating devices. In various embodiments, the feedback indicator comprises at least one illumination device mounted on the anvil which indicates that the anvil has been properly attached to the instrument and which can also serve to illuminate the surgical site.

The transmission of ATM, Internet, and satellite communications is unified through international standardized protocol embedment. Global and Local performance optimization are achieved through the combination of combinatorial, dynamic, and probabilistic programming. A simultaneous domino effect of bandwidth conservation, efficiency enhancement, reliability improvement, traffic congestion prevention, delay minimization, and speed multiplication are realized for any digital communication system, particular in Internet. With three levels of error coding in ATM cells, the loss cell recovery and bit integrity are preserved. From its mathematical roots, new combinatorial sets are systematically generated, and applications of the sets are identified. Among the applications, optimal sequences can be produced for multi-user and multi-function communication system designs. Optimality is in terms of maximum possible number of sequences with given sequence length and sequence characteristics. The results are unique and theoretically proven. By serial and parallel concatenation of error codecs, reliability of multimedia transmission can be satisfied to any desirable level. As a part of the unified transmission scheme, the acquisition and synchronization method of cascading sequences exhibits significant improvement in correlation properties and detection probabilities. A method of using block designs is demonstrated to derive, to generate, and to construct low-density parity check block codes and threshold decodable convolutional codes. An efficiency evaluation method is formulated for the combination operation of ATM, Internet, and satellites.

The invention provides a computer implemented, methods, systems, software program devices, and a Multi-Tier Graphical Interface level General User Interface (GUI) screen designed to support data integration processes for IT and Subject Matter Experts User access and use of structured data sources. The software enables create, extract, transform, programs, processes, and load data integration application Data Integration Application (Composite Object)s through an object based software design enabling efficient and rapid retrieval, processing, and positioning of structured data directly from one or multiple data sources to the required formats, processes, and application support at the skills set levels of the user. The software is a command and processes design for Data Integration Application (Composite Object) that can be transaction oriented, recurring process, as well as periodic The software is an open, data oriented system design for rapid generation and support of Data Integration Application (Composite Object)s using a Multi-Tier three dimensional graphical interface design for cell based data applications. The Data Integration Application (Composite Object) are compiled, independent object applications residing in an object library designated by the user/user IT organization. The compiled data application object are run on the organization's existing computing systems under standard compute processing procedures as either independent applications or in support of the organizations ongoing business/operational requirements for data use requirements.

A system and protocol for implementing large scale installation of operating and user configuration data in essentially unattended fashion. The enhanced system design allows for greatly simplified system configuration, including protocols to insure user mobility between configured systems.

A multi-column electron beam inspection system is disclosed herein. The system is designed for electron beam inspection of semiconductor wafers with throughput high enough for in-line use. The system includes field emission electron sources, electrostatic electron optical columns, a wafer stage with six degrees of freedom of movement, and image storage and processing systems capable of handling multiple simultaneous image data streams. Each electron optical column is enhanced with an electron gun with redundant field emission sources, a voltage contrast plate to allow voltage contrast imaging of wafers, and an electron optical design for high efficiency secondary electron collection.

An osmotic delivery system for controlled delivery of a beneficial agent includes an implantable capsule containing a beneficial agent and an osmotic engine that swells on contact with water, thereby causing the release of the beneficial agent over time. The osmotic delivery system has a membrane material that allows a controlled amount of fluid to enter from an exterior of the capsule, while preventing the compositions within the capsule from passing out of the capsule. The osmotic delivery system is designed to meet at least the operating pressures of 1000 psi. The membrane material is cast, calendered or extruded followed by machining (i.e., die-cutting, stamping or otherwise cutting to shape) to provide a uniform nonribbed membrane material. The capsule also includes a membrane material-retaining means that is positioned at a fluid uptake end to retain the membrane material within the capsule, even under periods of high pressure.

A method and apparatus for adaptively adjusting the operating voltage of an integrated circuit in response to tester-to-system variations, worst-case testing techniques, process variations, temperature variations, or reliability wearout mechanisms. The minimum operating voltage of an integrated circuit is determined either during external testing of the integrated circuit or during built-in-self-testing. The minimum operating voltage is transmitted to a variable voltage regulator where it is used to set the output of the regulator. The output of the regulator supplies the integrated circuit with its operating voltage. This technique enables tailoring of the operating voltage of integrated circuits on a part-by-part basis which results in power consumption optimization by adapting operating voltage in response to tester-to-system variations, worst-case testing techniques, process variations, temperature variations or reliability wearout mechanisms. Alternatively, the invention enables adaptive adjustment of the operating frequency of an integrated circuit. The invention enables system designers to adaptively optimize either system performance or power consumption on a part-by-part basis in response to tester-to-system variations, worst-case testing techniques, process variations, temperature variations or reliability wearout mechanisms.

A method and system that optionally allows a user to view image defects organized by natural groupings based on features of the images. The natural groupings make it easier for the user to organize some or all of the images into classes in a training set of images. A feature vector is extracted from each image in the training set and stored, along with its user-specified class, for use by an automatic classifier software module. The automatic classifier uses the stored feature vectors and classes to automatically classify images not in the training set. If the automatically classified images do not match images manually classified by the user, the user modifies the training set until a better result is obtained from the automatic classifier. The system can provide feedback to an inspection system designed to aid in the setup and fine-tuning of the inspection system.

A collaborative engineering environment (CEE) enables the effective capture, management, communication, and exploitation of all product related information to a project team. The systematic employment of this information offers substantial improvements in productivity, cost savings, cycle time reductions, product integrity, and lifetime supportability of the system. Advanced CEE capabilities exploit and leverage the engineering, architectural and technological expertise of enterprise subject matter experts (domain experts) across multiple complex systems development and integration activities. The CEE provides a tightly coupled process automation using reusable product elements for coupling information with engineering processes and ensuring adherence to repeatable and traceable engineering processes. A product catalog provides a single information management point for intrinsic complex product characteristics and facilitates the propagation of that information to engineering teams incorporating the complex product into their system designs. The intrinsic complex product characteristics are augmented with implementation specific information to fully describe the complex product in the system design.

A valet parking system for automatically bringing a vehicle to a parking space within a predefined parking area. The valet parking system includes a central control unit and a parking-space monitoring system having a stationary parking-space sensor. The parking-space monitoring system is designed to detect the current state of occupancy of the parking spaces of the parking area and to transmit that to the central control unit. The parking-space monitoring system may localize all autonomously moving or waiting vehicles that are currently in transit autonomously within the parking area either to be brought to their assigned parking space or received by their driver at a predefined pick-up location, and to transmit information about the present position of all these vehicles to the central control unit. A free parking space is assigned to the vehicle by the central control unit as a function of the geometrical dimensions of the vehicle.

The present invention relates to Internet information services. In particular, the present invention relates to improvements related to and/or use of the Usenet. The present invention also has application to email systems, as well as other electronic distribution media. In one aspect, the present invention relates to the distribution, access and/or download speed of Web objects, and involves a new system design and method of use, providing a Usenet based alternative to the current Web caching and mirroring solutions. A second aspect of the present invention relates to a method that enables relatively transparent encoding within Web objects' URLs information necessary to locate the object in a Usenet server and retrieve it. The method also allows transparent retrieving of news cached objects from their original servers.

An electrical connection system designed to connect electrical conductors to a junction box containing a receptacle. The system incorporates a junction box, a supply connector, a distribution connector, and a receptacle. The junction box includes a line bus, a ground bus, and a neutral bus. The supply connector adapts the incoming electrical wire having a line conductor, a ground conductor, and a neutral conductor for connection to the line bus, the ground bus, and the neutral bus. The electrical receptacle is formed with a line blade, a ground blade, and a neutral blade which, respectively, electrically connect to the line bus, the ground bus, and the neutral bus. Electrical energy may be supplied through the electrical conductors to the electrical receptacle. A distribution connector may be incorporated to supply electrical energy to downstream receptacles.

A test system comprises a sensor container and a testing device. The sensor container has a base and a lid. The container encloses a plurality of test sensors therein. The container includes a calibration label attached thereto. The label includes electrical contacts located thereon that encode calibration information onto the calibration label. The testing device has a sensor-container opening formed thereon. The sensor-container opening has an auto-calibration feature located therein. The auto-calibration feature is external to the testing device. The auto-calibration feature includes calibration elements to communicate with the electrical contacts on the calibration label. The testing device determines the calibration information encoded on the calibration label in response to the calibration elements engaging the electrical contacts. A portion of the sensor container remains external to the meter while the encoded calibration information is being determined.

An integrated wafer fab production characterization and scheduling system incorporates a manufacturing execution system with a scheduling system based on simulation. The integrated characterization/scheduling system provides manufacturing with a simulation tool integrated with the manufacturing execution system to evaluate proposed production control logic as a practical alternative to expensive experimentation on actual production system. Furthermore, simulation models are used to create short term dispatch schedules to steer daily manufacturing operations towards planned performance goals. Innovative features include integration of preventive maintenance scheduling, Kanban based WIP control, an integrated time standard database, a, and real time lot move updates.

The technique of amplifier sharing is implemented in a system designed to accommodate transmit diversity. In one embodiment of the invention, the amplifiers are shared 1) to amplify a first and a second diversity-encoded signal, each of which represents the information a first signal that is to be transmitted using transmit diversity, and 2) to amplify a second signal to be transmitted without using transmit diversity. The first and second diversity-encoded signals are used to form a first and a second composite signal. Each composite signal is amplified in a different one of two power amplifiers. Each amplified composite signal is then used to form an amplified first diversity-encoded signal and an amplified second diversity-encoded signal. The first and second composite signals can also be formed using the second signal. Each composite signal is then amplified in a different one of the two power amplifiers and the two amplified composite signals are used to form an amplified second signal. In another embodiment of the invention, the first and second composite signals can be formed in the digital domain. Each composite signal is digitally pre-distorted and then modulated onto a transmission frequency signal, such as an RF signal. Each pre-distorted composite signal is then amplified in the respective amplifier.

A time-phased forecasting and replenishment system (20) for a retail supply chain for inventory management, financial management, capacity planning and transportation planning. A computer(s) (28) create time-phased plans for one or more retail facilities, such as various types of retail stores (23) and/or various types of suppliers (24). The system calculates projected sales for each product at each facility and calculates projected replenishment shipments between facilities and suppliers a specified number of weeks into the future. The calculated forecasts and replenishments are done in ways that account for the unique needs of retail organizations, and allow efficient processing and storage of the large data volumes typical in many retail organizations. In particular the system has specified logic for handling low-volume products, and has a transportation and capacity planning component that benefits retail stores. Also, the system is designed to operate on a continuous basis if desired.

Hair-cutting systems with a visualization device are disclosed in present invention. The air-cutting systems include a video camera and a lighting device attached to an electrical hair-cutting clipper. Such hair-cutting systems are designed for use by an individual in cutting his or her own hair, and also for use by one person to cut the hair of another.