310 results about "User involvement" patented technology

An on-line community/social network system and method for provide a novel technique that enables an on-line community system to obtain information necessary to provide additional and more robust features to its users, solely from the user's participation in the community, and without requiring the users to do anything else (i.e., to explicitly provide the needed information). From this core approach, a number of advantageous novel techniques are provided by the inventive system to greatly enhance the quality and usefulness of various features and services that can be offered to community users as well as to provide them with entirely new and unique features as a result of user-specific data generated by the system's novel infrastructure.

An interactive online community utilizes an activity monitor that is operable to measure data, transmit data, and receive data. One or more servers coupled to a communication network provide access to the World Wide Web (“web”). A web portal located on one or more servers is operable to transmit data to the activity monitor and receive data from the activity monitor. The web portal includes a gaming and communication environment that utilizes the data from the activity monitor. Users engage in physical activity and participate in the gaming and communication environment with other users.

The present invention may be embodied in a method, performed in a computer system having a disk drive, for installing an application program for execution under a user's preferred operating system without requiring user intervention. A command is received by the disk drive for reading a first data block to initiate a bootload of the user's preferred operating system. The disk drive detects the command and transfers a second data block which bootloads an installer program for installing the application program. The installer program is executed in the computer system to transfer the application program from a protected area of the disk drive to a user area of the disk drive, to modify a parameter of the user's preferred operating system to cause the application program to be loaded during a bootload of the user's preferred operating system, and to reboot the system to bootload the user's preferred operating system.

A system and method are provided for sharing information in a distributed peer-to-peer network wherein an information owner invites one or more trusted users to participate in information sharing and wherein the information owner designates permission levels for each of one or more trusted users. Upon accepting the invitation, the one or more trusted users may be granted with complete access, read only access, or blocked access to the shared information. The one or more trusted users may selectively decide to accept or decline to share information on a folder-to-folder basis. Any modifications made to the shared information may be disseminated to all the trusted users in real-time, upon log-in to a central server, or after a predetermined time delay.

Incentivized offers may be provided to users of a virtual environment. More specifically, a virtual environment may be provided to users such that the users participate in the virtual environment by performing one or more actions within the virtual environment. Information may be determined that relates to the physical locations in the real world of individual users of the virtual environment. Offers of goods and/or services may be determined that should be presented to individual users. The offers may be determined based on one or more of the physical locations in the real world of the individual users, virtual environment criteria representing one or more aspects of the users involvement in the virtual environment, and/or other factors. The determined offers may be transmitted to the users.

A method of collaborative interactions with billboards includes receiving a request, by a billboard network manager, from an advertisement company to display synchronized interactive advertisements and video games on billboards in an area, inviting users in the area to participate in the advertisements and video games through the billboards and mobile devices of the users via a network, checking registration of the users to participate in the collaborative interactions with billboards, and checking a volume of the users in the area for appropriate synchronized advertisements and video games. If the volume of users is appropriate for synchronized advertisements and video games, then the billboard network manager displays the synchronized advertisements and video games, and continues to track the volume of the users in the area. If the volume of users is not appropriate for synchronized advertisements and video games, then the billboard network management reconfigures synchronized billboard content for more appropriate advertisements and video games by one of randomly changing a content, and propagating and extending through synchronized billboards a particular content of some billboard section that brought more interest from the users.

Systems and methods for identifying objects in a managed storage environment with a user and involving the user with policy implementations or decisions associated with these objects are disclosed. These systems and methods may allow a single user identity for the managed storage environment to be assigned to a user and associated with a set of user identities, each of the set of user identities corresponding to the user's identity with respect to a particular domain. Previous or subsequent to establishing a user's enterprise wide identity, data and metadata may be obtained about objects residing in one or more of the domains in the enterprise as described in detail above. Objects within these domains can then be associated with a user using the set of user identities and a report generated for the user based upon these objects, including the policies associated with these objects.

A presentation system and method provides a GUI application that allows presenting Internet information on electronic devices such as consumer electronic devices with minimal user key presses/commands. The user is enabled to browse/search for Internet information without having to enter queries, using a small number of key presses. Further the user is enabled to obtain desired Internet information with no or minimal user involvement in query construction.

This present invention provides users with secure transparent electronic communication, allowing them to send and receive encrypted and/or signed messages with little or no user involvement. In various embodiments, the present invention provides a user with e-mail security via automated hierarchical techniques for transparently sending and receiving secure messages, and lowers the burden on administrators. Such a system can also manage cryptographic keys and certificates for the users, and creates such keys and certificates for the users when necessary. A server according to the present invention can intercept unsecured messages from a user, automatically transform those messages into secured messages, and transmit those secure messages to the intended recipients. The server can also automatically transform messages after the recipient sends a digital identity to the server and downloads the software necessary for transforming the secured messages back into readable messages (i.e., from ciphertext into plaintext). The server can further intercept an unsecured message from a user, search for a digital identity of the intended recipient, secure the unsecured message upon finding such a digital identity, and transparently send the secured message to the intended recipient.

A method for conveying complex or large amounts of data to a user in a readily understandable fashion. The method includes providing a computerized graphical user interface for displaying information to a user of the method, providing a reference database containing data pertaining to a field of endeavor engaged in by a user of the method, the reference database being stored on an electronic medium in communication with the computerized graphical user interface, streamlining by an automated process the data contained in the reference database such that at least a portion of the data is identified as being that which is pertinent to a problem being addressed by the user, displaying with the computerized graphical user interface at least a portion of the data identified as being that which is pertinent to a problem being addressed by the user, and displaying to the user with the computerized graphical user interface a graphical timeline illustrating a history of the problem being addressed by the user.

An auto pairing system and method for a Bluetooth network is provided through a wired or wireless coupling. The method for pairing two devices of a short range wireless communication network includes configuring, at each device, a wired and wireless auto pairing of the devices; determining whether the devices are physically coupled with each other; and performing pairing between the devices if the devices are physically coupled. The auto pairing system and method for Bluetooth devices of the present invention enables Bluetooth devices to automatically perform an on-going pairing process through a wired connection or wirelessly in close proximity without a user involvement, thereby improving user convenience.

A method is disclosed for recovering data from a RAID system after a transient failure. After a transient failure, the cause of the failure is corrected and a user initiates a trust array command. The RAID controller receives the trust array command and performs several modifications to the disk metadata. First, the partition age metadata field is synchronized. Second, the primary dead partition map metadata field is cleared. Third, the partition status metadata field is set to initialized. Following the metadata modifications, the RAID controller verifies that it can access all of the drives in the array. If all drives are accessible, the array is on-line and fault tolerant without the need for re-constructing a drive within the array, or re-creating the array. If one drive remains inaccessible, data is available from the array, and the array is in a critical state. If two or more drives remain inaccessible, the array remains off-line and a partial recovery may be attempted. The trust array command may, in certain instances, be initiated automatically by the RAID system without any user involvement.

An invention allowing the exchange of community cards within a virtual space by an easy operation. A display screen shown on the display section of the user terminal device is composed of a virtual space display for displaying three-dimensional objects in a virtual space, and a list window of belongings displayed by the user's own community cards. The user can move freely within the virtual space while referring to the virtual space display, and when conversing with other users within the virtual space and the user wants to let another user participate in the community the user himself belongs to, the user can present community cards corresponding to the avatar, to a user for newly participating in the community, by drag-and-drop of any of the community cards on the avatar.

A system and method for providing traffic violation avoidance guidance by categorizing traffic data into data types or user types corresponding to one another, the data and user types including one of commercial vehicle, non-commercial vehicle, vehicle type, vehicle plate type, motorcyclist, cyclist, or pedestrian, and generating notifications of potential traffic violations based on the user's location and type. A summary of differences between a first set of traffic rules associated with a first location and a second set of traffic rules associated with a second location may be generated based on the data type or the user type. The system and method may also analyze traffic data to predict potential traffic violations based on a user's location and type, and to provide a notification regarding the potential traffic violations to the user through a user engagement panel associated with a user's remote computing device.

Information regarding the structure of information in a content database is maintained in a structure database. The structure database is used to correlate the data structure of a query to the structure of the content database, in order to determine that information in the content database which needs to be provided to a searcher in response to the query. In one embodiment, this search method is used in an online forum, and the forum maintains a reputation score for users with respect to given subject matter. The reputation score is dependent upon the quality of a user's participation in the forum. A user's reputation score depends upon the evaluation by others of information he posts and upon the user evaluating information posted by others.

Provided are a method, system, and program for allocating resources, wherein the resources are capable of being configured from a computer system. User interface elements are rendered enabling user selection of a plurality of strategies concerning allocation of computational resources, including a participation strategy having one of at least two values indicating a degree of user involvement in the allocation of computational resources and at least one configuration strategy specifying a configuration for the resource allocation. Selection of a plurality of resource allocation constraints is enabled if the selected value for the participation strategy is a first value. Selection of one of a plurality of configuration modes is enabled if the selected value for the participation strategy is a second value. An allocation is made of the resources based on the selected at least one configuration strategy and one of the selected resource allocation constraints or the selected configuration mode.

A method for providing recommendations to a user based on user activity. A plurality of activity data tracking a plurality of activities of a user is obtained. The activity data may be obtained over a wide area network such as the internet or downloaded from a data card which stores activity data whenever the user participates in an activity. The activity data is either stored on the data card or transmitted over the network whenever the user uses a card when participating in any activity such as when making a purchase of goods, paying for services, watching television, etc. The activity data is processed to identify a plurality of user patterns. The user patterns are used to form a user profile and may include user habit data. Recommendations specific to the user based on the user patterns are then created for and provided to the user. The recommendations are provided to a user when the user logs onto a computer network such as the internet. The recommendations may also be provided by electronic mail, electronic pager or other methods. The recommendations are provided by various data analysis techniques including rule based inference engines and other forms of artificial intelligence.

Payment for a purchase is facilitated wherein members of a group contribute to the payment. A memory can store account information for a plurality of contributing users and for a purchasing user. A processor can be operable to receive a communication indicating an agreement of each of the contributing users to participate in a group purchase transaction. The participation can include transferring money from the contributing users to the purchasing user. The processor can be further operable to access accounts of the contributing users and the purchasing user, transfer money from the accounts of the contributing users into the account of the purchasing user, and authorize the group purchase transaction with a merchant for the purchasing user. In this manner, a more expensive item may be purchased, such as for a gift, than may be purchase by an individual member of the group.

A chat presence state adjustment indicating an availability of a particular user to participate in new chat sessions is automatically performed in a computer system. The computer system, which is in communication with a network, includes at least one of a chat server that facilitates chat communications between multiple client systems logged onto by multiple users and a particular client system logged onto by a particular user from among the multiple user. The computer system includes an avoidance controller that first detects a selection of chat sessions avoided by the particular user over a period of time from among the total chat session directed to the particular user over the period of time. In particular, the avoidance controller detects that the user avoids each of the selection of chat sessions through at least one separate type of avoidance activity. Next, the avoidance controller automatically sets at least one avoidance threshold based on at least one threshold characteristic of the selection of chat sessions avoided by the particular user. The avoidance threshold is set so that when future avoidance activity by the particular user exceeds the avoidance threshold, avoidance controller will automatically adjust the chat presence state of the particular user to indicate lack of availability of the particular user to participate in a new chat session.