16th week of 2010 patent applcation highlights part 19 |
Patent application number | Title | Published |
20100100359 | Sensor Mapping - Techniques, systems and computer program products are disclosed for providing sensor mapping. In one aspect, a method includes receiving input from a user. The received input includes at least one of motion, force and contact. In addition, a sensor signal is generated based on the received input. From a choice of data structures a data structure associated with a selected application having one or more functions is identified. The data structure indicates a relationship between the generated sensor signal and the one or more functions of the selected application. The generated sensor signal is selectively mapped into a control signal for controlling the one or more functions of the selected application by using the identified data structure. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100360 | MODEL-BASED ROAD SURFACE CONDITION IDENTIFICATION - A method is provided for determining a state of a road condition using a linear model-based estimation technique. Two vehicle reference models are defined to represent vehicles operating under non-slippery and slippery road surfaces respectively. An index that reflects the vehicle understeer characteristics is also defined. Indices are determined from the reference models under the non-slippery road surface, the slippery road surface, and from vehicle sensor measurement, respectively. A first root mean square deviation is calculated between the index of reference model under non-slippery road surface and the index calculated based on sensor measurement. A second root mean square deviation is calculated between the index of reference model under slippery road surface and the index calculated based on sensor measurement. A probability analysis is applied as a function of probability density functions for identifying the condition of the road surface between a non-slippery road surface and a slippery road surface. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100361 | NUMERICAL STRUCTURE-ANALYSIS CALCULATION SYSTEM - The object is to enable the calculation of load transfer paths in case of distributed load applied to the structure with the numerical structure-analysis calculation system. The value of the parameter U** at each point is calculated according to the ratio of the complementary strain energy U at the application of load without fixing the point in the structure and the complementary strain energy U′ at the application of load with fixing one point in the structure. In the actual calculation, according to the complementary strain energy U, and the flexibility matrix C | 2010-04-22 |
20100100362 | Point-Based Shape Matching And Distance Applied To Ear Canal Models - A method for determining a degree of similarity between ear canal models includes receiving a first mesh model representing an inner surface of a first ear. A set of points is sampled within the first mesh model. Each of the sampled set of points is matched to a corresponding point of a second mesh model representing an inner surface of a second ear. A shape distance between the first mesh model and the second mesh model is calculated based on the matched sets of points. A determination of the degree of similarity between the inner surface of the first ear and the inner surface of the second ear is provided based on the calculated shape distance. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100363 | Determination of Melting Temperatures by Equation-Less Methods - Numerical determinations of the first derivatives of a melt curve data set are made. A baseline is determined for the first derivative values and the baseline is subtracted from the first derivative values to produce modified first derivative values. A first maximum value of the modified first derivative values is determined and said first maximum value represents a melting temperature Tm of a DNA sample. A model function, such as a Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) function, with parameters determined using a Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) regression process can also be used to find an approximation to the first derivative curve. The maximum values of the numerically determined first derivative values are used as initial conditions for parameters of the model function. The determined parameters provide one or more fractional melting temperature values, which can be returned, for example, displayed or otherwise used for further processing. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100364 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MOVING NUCLEAR FUEL - The apparatus for creating and editing a nuclear reactor core template includes a graphical user interface and a processor controlling the graphical user interface to allow a user to selectively populate a loading map with fuel bundles residing in at least one fuel pool. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100365 | SIMULATION SYSTEM AND SIMULATION METHOD - A simulation system is provided. A simulator is configured to execute simulation of a simulation object at a processing speed. A user interface module is configured to generate at least one of a first operation screen for inputting simulation conditions on the simulation executed by the simulator and an output screen for representing a result of the simulation executed by the simulator, and to display the at least one of the first operation screen and the output screen on a display unit. An adjustor is configured to adjust an updating speed of the at least one of the first operation screen and the output screen which are displayed on the display unit by the user interface module to be different from the processing speed. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100366 | MICRORNA DETECTING APPARATUS, METHOD, AND PROGRAM - A microRNA detecting apparatus finds a region matching a microRNA model from a base sequence using base vector sequence data generated from inputted base sequence information of a detection processing target and a microRNA model that is a probability model of known microRNA. The base vector sequence data is a sequence of base vectors corresponding to respective bases of the base sequence. Each of the base vectors includes a parameter of a degree of evolutional conservation that is a characteristic of microRNA and parameters of a secondary structure that characterize a stable hairpin structure. Concerning the secondary structure, the base vector includes a stem parameter and a loop parameter in addition to a parameter of minimum free energy. The Hidden Markov Model is used as the microRNA model. It is possible to improve the accuracy of detection of the microRNA region on the base sequence when the base sequence information is processed by the bioinformatics technique. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100367 | OFFLINE SIMULATION OF ONLINE SESSION BETWEEN CLIENT AND SERVER - A method and system for conducting an offline session simulating an online session between a client and server in a network environment. The client imports data and functional logic from the server prior to going offline. The imported functional logic is embedded into a format or document that is capable of being interpreted and performed by the local interface at the client that is used to interact with server during an online session. Whether offline or online, the user utilizes the same local interface at the client to transmit instructions to the functional logic in order to manipulate the data. In an offline session, such instructions cause the imported and embedded functional logic to execute, thereby manipulating the data that is imported at the client. Known synchronization methods may also be used in order to maintain consistency and coherency between the imported data at the client and the database at the server. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100368 | Method of Learning Character Segments From Received Text, and Associated Handheld Electronic Device - An improved method of learning character segments from received text enables facilitated text input on an improved handheld electronic device. In receiving text on the handheld electronic device, the characters of the text are converted into the inputs with which the characters correspond. Then, segments and other objects are analyzed to generate a proposed character interpretation of the series of inputs. Responsive to detecting that at least a portion of the character interpretation differs from a corresponding portion of the received text, a character learning string comprising the differing characters of the received text are stored as a candidate. In response to receiving additional text on the handheld electronic device, the characters of the additional text are converted into the inputs with which the characters correspond. Then, segments and other objects are analyzed to generate another proposed character interpretation of the series of additional inputs. Responsive to detecting that at least a portion of the another character interpretation differs from a corresponding portion of the additional received text, another character learning string comprising the differing characters of the additional received text are compared with the candidate. If a set of characters in the another character learning string match characters in the candidate, the set of characters are stored as a segment. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100369 | Translating Source Locale Input String To Target Locale Output String - A dictionary mapping source locale strings to target locale strings is constructed. A tree is constructed from the dictionary. The tree has nodes including a start node, end nodes, and string nodes. The nodes form node chains of the tree that correspond to the source locale strings. Each node chain links a collection of the nodes from the start node to a string node. Each node other than the start node has a parent node and corresponds to a character of the source locale strings. Each node other than the end nodes has one or more child nodes. Each string node ends a node chain, and corresponds to a mapping within the dictionary of a source locale string to a target locale string. An input string having the source locale is processed against the tree to generate an output string having the target locale. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100370 | SELF-ADJUSTING EMAIL SUBJECT AND EMAIL SUBJECT HISTORY - In one embodiment, an apparatus for automated generation of subject line content for e-mail messages includes an input operable to receive content data including text-based information corresponding to a body of an e-mail message, a text analyzer including logic operable to analyze received content data, a topic extractor including logic operable to extract topic data in accordance with an output of the text analyzer, a string generator including logic operable to generate subject line data in accordance with an output of the topic extractor, and a message output operable to output a multi-field e-mail message having a body field inclusive of the content data and a subject line field inclusive of generated subject line data. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100371 | Method, System, and Apparatus for Message Generation - Methods, systems, and apparatuses for message generation receive one or more keywords that are indicative of a message subject matter. Based on the keywords, information related to the keywords is searched, and message preferences of a message recipient are determined. A natural language message is created using the information related to the keywords and the message preferences, and the message is sent to the message recipient. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100372 | STEREO ENCODING DEVICE, STEREO DECODING DEVICE, AND THEIR METHOD - Disclosed is a stereo encoding device which can improve critical channel encoding accuracy without increasing the encoding information amount. The device includes: a monaural signal synthesis unit ( | 2010-04-22 |
20100100373 | AUDIO DECODING DEVICE AND AUDIO DECODING METHOD - Provided is an audio decoding device which can adjust the high-range emphasis degree in accordance with a background noise level. The audio decoding device includes: a sound source signal decoding unit ( | 2010-04-22 |
20100100374 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR VOICE PROCESSING IN MOBILE COMMUNICATION TERMINAL - Disclosed are an apparatus and a method for voice processing in a mobile communication terminal. A plurality of microphones are used to remove environmental noise at the time of voice communication, so that it is possible to perform high-quality voice communication and video telephony. Moreover, it is possible to perform voice recording even when a user does not open a mobile communication terminal. Furthermore, when voice is recorded or sound is recorded during moving image photographing, a plurality of microphones are effectively utilized to achieve good-quality recording and to perform recording conveniently even when the folder or the slider of the mobile communication terminal is closed. Therefore, it is possible to provide improved convenience in using the mobile communication terminal. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100375 | System and Method for Improved Use of Voice Activity Detection - The present invention is a system and method for packetizing actual noise signals, typically background noise, received by an access gateway from a speaking party and transmitting these packetized noise signals via a network to an egress gateway. The egress gateway converts the packetized noise signal into noise signals suitable for output and transmits the output noise signals to a listening party. When the access gateway detects that no voice signal is being received and only a noise signal is being received for a predetermined period of time, the access gateway instructs the egress network to continually transmit output noise signals to the listening party and ceases to transmit packetized noise signals to the egress gateway. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100376 | VISUALIZATION INTERFACE OF CONTINUOUS WAVEFORM MULTI-SPEAKER IDENTIFICATION - A method implemented in a computer infrastructure having computer executable code having programming instructions tangibly embodied on a computer readable storage medium. The programming instructions are operable to receive a current waveform of a communication between a plurality of participants. Additionally, the programming instructions are operable to create a voiceprint from the current waveform if the current waveform is of a human voice. Furthermore, the programming instructions are operable to determine one of whether a match exists between the voiceprint and one library waveform of one or more library waveforms, whether a correlation exists between the voiceprint and a number of library waveforms of the one or more library waveforms and whether the voiceprint is unique. Additionally, the programming instructions are operable to transcribe the current waveform into text and provide a match indication display (MID) indicating an association between the current waveform and the one or more library waveforms based on the determining. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100377 | GENERATING AND PROCESSING FORMS FOR RECEIVING SPEECH DATA - A system and method for dynamically generating and processing forms for receiving data, such as text-based data or speech data provided over a telephone, mobile device, via a computer and microphone, etc. is disclosed. A form developer can use a toolkit provided by the system to create forms that end-users connect to and complete. The system provides a user-friendly interface for the form developer to create various input fields for the form and impose parameters on the data that may be used to complete or populate those fields. These fields may be included to receive specific information, such as the name of the person filling out the form, or may be free-form, allowing a user to provide a continuous stream of information. Furthermore, the system allows a form developer to establish means for providing access to the form and set access limits on the form. Other aspects are disclosed herein. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100378 | METHOD OF AND SYSTEM FOR IMPROVING ACCURACY IN A SPEECH RECOGNITION SYSTEM - A method for transcribing an audio response includes:
| 2010-04-22 |
20100100379 | VOICE RECOGNITION CORRELATION RULE LEARNING SYSTEM, VOICE RECOGNITION CORRELATION RULE LEARNING PROGRAM, AND VOICE RECOGNITION CORRELATION RULE LEARNING METHOD - A speech recognition rule learning device is connected to a speech recognition device that uses conversion rules for conversion between a first-type character string expressing a sound and a second-type character string for forming a recognition result. The character string recording unit records a first-type character string and a corresponding second-type character string. The extraction unit extracts second-type learned character string candidates. The rule learning unit extracts, from the second-type learned character string candidates, a second-type learned character string that matches at least part of the second-type character string in the character string recording unit; extracts a first-type learned character string from the first-type character string in the character string recording unit; and adds the correspondence relationship between the first-type learned character string and the second-type learned character string to the conversion rules. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100380 | Multitask Learning for Spoken Language Understanding - A system, method and computer-readable medium provide a multitask learning method for intent or call-type classification in a spoken language understanding system. Multitask learning aims at training tasks in parallel while using a shared representation. A computing device automatically re-uses the existing labeled data from various applications, which are similar but may have different call-types, intents or intent distributions to improve the performance. An automated intent mapping algorithm operates across applications. In one aspect, active learning is employed to selectively sample the data to be re-used. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100381 | System and Method for Automatic Verification of the Understandability of Speech - The present invention relates to a system and method for automatically verifying that a message received from a user is intelligible. In an exemplary embodiment, a message is received from the user. A speech level of the user's message may be measured and compared to a pre-determined speech level threshold to determine whether the measured speech level is below the pre-determined speech level threshold. A signal-to-noise ratio of the user's message may be measured and compared to a pre-determined signal-to-noise ratio threshold to determine whether the measured signal-to-noise ratio of the message is below the pre-determined signal-to-noise ratio threshold. An estimate of intelligibility for the user's message may be calculated and compared to an intelligibility threshold to determine whether the calculated estimate of intelligibility is below the intelligibility threshold. If any of the measured speech level, measured signal-to-noise ratio and calculated estimate of intelligibility of the user's message are determined to be below their respective thresholds, the user may be prompted to repeat at least a portion of the message. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100382 | Detecting Segments of Speech from an Audio Stream - The disclosure describes a speech detection system for detecting one or more desired speech segments in an audio stream. The speech detection system includes an audio stream input and a speech detection technique. The speech detection technique may be performed in various ways, such as using pattern matching and/or signal processing. The pattern matching implementation may extract features representing types of sounds as in phrases, words, syllables, phonemes and so on. The signal processing implementation may extract spectrally-localized frequency-based features, amplitude-based features, and combinations of the frequency-based and amplitude-based features. Metrics may be obtained and used to determine a desired word in the audio stream. In addition, a keypad stream having keypad entries may be used in determining the desired word. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100383 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SEARCHING WEBPAGE WITH VOICE CONTROL - The present invention relates to a system and method for searching webpage by voice control. After an explorer opens a webpage, a natural language processing module searches a plurality of texts and hyperlinks in the webpage and remarks them with numbers and colors, and generates a constructive concept script representing them after analyzing the text, the hyperlink and the remarks. The constructive concept script and the corresponding linking commands can be stored in the database. The user only has to speak out the number, color or keyword, the system receives the user's voice signal by a sound receiving device and generates the constructive concept script by a voice identification module in order to match with a plurality of constructive concept script stored in the database, and execute the command of the resulting match. Thus, the user can directly say the number, color or keyword, the explorer will link to the desired webpage accordingly. Because the operation in the explorer is convenient and prompt, the user can retrieve the desired webpage in a shorter time. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100384 | Speech Recognition System with Display Information - A language processing system may determine a display form of a spoken word by analyzing the spoken form using a language model that includes dictionary entries for display forms of homonyms. The homonyms may include trade names as well as given names and other phrases. The language processing system may receive spoken language and produce a display form of the language while displaying the proper form of the homonym. Such a system may be used in search systems where audio input is converted to a graphical display of a portion of the spoken input. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100385 | System and Method for Testing a TTS Voice - Disclosed are various elements of a toolkit used for generating a TTS voice for use in a spoken dialog system. The invention in each case may be in the form of the system, a computer-readable medium or a method for generating the TTS voice. An embodiment of the invention relates to a method for preparing a text-to-speech (TTS) voice for testing and verification. The method comprises processing a TTS voice to be ready for testing, synthesizing words utilizing the TTS voice, presenting to a person a smallest possible subset that contains at least N instances of a group of units in the TTS voice, receiving information from the person associated with corrections needed to the TTS voice and making corrections to the TTS voice according to the received information. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100386 | Noise Variance Estimator for Speech Enhancement - A speech enhancement method operative for devices having limited available memory is described. The method is appropriate for very noisy environments and is capable of estimating the relative strengths of speech and noise components during both the presence as well as the absence of speech. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100387 | Method and Apparatus for Dynamic Voice Response Messages - A computing device implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product to generate dynamic voice response messages in a mobile computing device. In response to receiving an incoming call from a caller, the process displays a list of response messages in a set of response messages. In response to receiving a selection of a response message from the list of response messages, the process sends the selected response message to the caller. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100388 | Electronic Speech Aid and Method for Use Thereof to Treat Hypokinetic Dysarthria - A speech aid for persons with hypokinetic dysarthria, a speech disorder associated with Parkinson's disease. The speech aid alters the pitch at which the user hears his or her voice and/or provides multitalker babble noise to the speaker's ears. The speech aid induces increased speech motor activity and improves the intelligibility of the user's speech. The speech aid may be used with a variety of microphones, headphones, in one or both ears, with a voice amplifier, or connected to telephones. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100389 | System for Signal Sample Rate Conversion - An apparatus and method for converting a source signal at a first rate to a re-sampled signal at a second rate using an array of processors. A decoder decomposes the source signal into left and right source values and sends an aperture signal to a coefficient control unit upon decomposition completion. A transfer unit controllably receives and passes the left and right source values on to a re-sampler. The coefficient control unit calculates a polyphase offset based on the aperture signal and a clock signal. A coefficient server selectively passes coefficients to the re-sampler based on the polyphase offset. And the re-sampler generates the re-sampled signal based on the left and right source values and the coefficients. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100390 | AUDIO ENCODING APPARATUS, AUDIO DECODING APPARATUS, AND AUDIO ENCODED INFORMATION TRANSMITTING APPARATUS - To reduce the amount of transmitted information and further reduce the processing amount at a decoding apparatus. An encoding apparatus ( | 2010-04-22 |
20100100391 | PHARMACEUTICAL PACKAGING AND METHOD FOR DELIVERY OF SAME - A disease management system including: a Diagnostic Module, which provides access to patient information and scientific guidelines for patient treatment; a Diagnostic Interpretive Module, which provides tools to evaluate risk of particular diseases or conditions based on patient information and an evaluative methodology; a Prescriptive Module, which is used to recommend, select, and/or evaluate one or more treatment regimens based on patient information and guidelines; a Dispensing Module, which evaluates a patient's compliance with a treatment regimen; and/or a Feedback and Patient Management Module, which gathers compliance information and evaluates efficacy of a treatment regimen for a patient. In embodiments of the subject invention, some or all of the modules described can communicate to manage a disease, medical condition, and/or health problem in a patient. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100392 | Methods of Assessing Risk Based on Medical Data and Uses Thereof - Methods of assessing risk based on medical data are disclosed herein. In an embodiment, a method of assessing risk associated with medical data includes creating a dataset representing a plurality of patients, the dataset comprising (x,y) pairs for each patient, wherein x represents the medical data collected at a first time, and wherein y is an outcome measurement collected at a second time; binning the (x,y) pairs to form a plurality of binned data sets; computing an average value for x and an average value for y for each binned data set; determining a minimum average value of y based on all of the average values of y; subtracting the minimum average value of y from each average value of y to get a new average value of y for each binned data set; and deriving a function for assessing risk associated with the medical data. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100393 | Method and Apparatus for Processing Pharmaceutical Orders to Determine Whether a Buyer of Pharmaceuticals Qualifies for an "Own Use" Discount - Disclosed is a method and apparatus for processing pharmaceutical orders to determine whether a buyer of pharmaceuticals qualifies for an “own use” discount. “Own use” discounts on pharmaceuticals are available for a limited class of buyers under 35 U.S.C. §13c. Under one method, an auditor receives an order for a quantity of pharmaceuticals, receives a report associated with the order containing sufficient information therein to perform an audit on the order, and compares the information found in the order with the information found in the associated report to make a status determination as to whether a buyer qualifies for an “own use” discount. Preferably a second report containing additional audit information is received as well. The auditor can also audit the order by comparing the order to this additional information. If these comparisons result in a determination that the buyer does in fact qualify for an “own use” discount, the auditor can then place the order with a pharmaceutical seller for a discounted price. Also disclosed is a pharmaceutical order auditing system that uses a computer to perform the above-described audit. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100394 | DISPLAYING CLINICAL PREDICTED LENGTH OF STAY OF PATIENTS FOR WORKLOAD BALANCING IN A HEALTHCARE ENVIRONMENT - A computerized system method for displaying a predicted length of stay and actual length of stay in an inpatient healthcare facility for a patient is provided. A predicted length of stay and an actual length of inpatient stay in a healthcare facility for a patient are accessed. The predicted length of stay and the actual length of inpatient stay for the patient are displayed concurrently. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100395 | METHOD FOR HIGH-RISK MEMBER IDENTIFICATION - A method for using claims data to identify high-risk members of a healthcare plan is disclosed. In one embodiment, the present invention includes searching the plurality of claims of members selected by a filtering criteria to identify the presence of an intervention flag, to identify factors influencing care intervention, and identifying a medical episode driving the member's cost. In one embodiment, the intervention flag the medical episode are displayed in association with an identification of the member. In another embodiment, the member selection criteria includes selection based on the member's predicted future health care utilization. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100396 | MEDICAL DECISION-MAKING TOOL - Methods and apparatus for generating a graphical representation of a selected set of pharmacy claims data that includes information about a plurality of pharmacy claims. The methods and apparatus include or perform the steps of: (a) receiving one or more selection parameters corresponding to the selected set of pharmacy claims data; (b) accessing a data collection containing one or more sets of pharmacy claims data, including the selected set of pharmacy claims data; and (c) generating the graphical representation, which includes one or more symbols positioned along a virtual timeline, each symbol corresponding to one of the plurality of pharmacy claims, and each symbol positioned on the timeline according to a date that the corresponding pharmacy claim was made. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100397 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FACILITATING CENTRALIZED CANDIDATE SELECTION AND MONITORING SUBJECT PARTICIPATION IN CLINICAL TRIAL STUDIES - A system and method of facilitating centralized and standardized remote ratings of subjects in clinical trial studies includes providing training to raters located at one or more central rating sites such that the raters are trained to apply substantially similar criteria in determining whether a candidate is a qualified subject for the clinical trial and/or in the actual assessment, or information collection, phase of the clinical trail. By having centralized, consistently trained raters that are independent of clinical trial investigators, inter-rater reliability is enhanced and potential bias is reduced, thus increasing the effectiveness of the clinical trial results by providing more qualified subjects and more accurate results. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100398 | SOCIAL NETWORK INTERFACE - A system and method for providing online insurance quotes to a client on a social network web site includes an insurance server adapted to execute a coverage calculator application and an insurance database in communication with the insurance server for storing a plurality of personas, a plurality of insurance coverage options associated with each persona, and a price quote associated with each insurance coverage option. The system is in communication with a platform application on the social network web site. The platform application is in communication with a social network database for storing user content of the social network client. In one embodiment, the platform application uses an inference engine to query the user content of the social network client and return a set of inferred characteristics. The coverage calculator application selects a persona in response to the set of inferred characteristics and selects one of the insurance coverage options in response to the selected persona. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100399 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ADMINISTERING INSURANCE ACCOUNTS - A computer system for administering an insurance account includes a processor and a memory in communication with the processor. The processor is adapted to: access from a memory storage device data indicative of a payment mode associated with premium payments to the account or payments from the account; access from the memory data indicative of a calculation associated with the account dependent on the payment mode; perform the calculation based on the accessed payment mode dependent data; and provide an output signal having data indicative of the performed calculation. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100400 | FINANCIAL SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROVIDING LOANS TO INDIVIDUALS IN RESPONSE TO THE OCCURRENCE OF A QUALIFYING EVENT - Computer systems that, in various embodiments, are configured for: (A) storing policy information within the system's memory, the policy information indicating that a particular individual holds a policy that provides the individual with the option to, upon the occurrence of a qualifying event, receive a loan at a below-market rate (e.g., 0%); (B) receiving data indicating that the qualifying event has occurred; and (C) at least partially in response to receiving the data indicating that the qualifying event has occurred, facilitating the provision of the loan to the particular individual at the below-market rate. The qualifying event may be, for example: (A) the death of a specified individual (e.g., the policy holder); (B) the disability of the specified individual; (C) the involuntary unemployment of the specified individual; (D) the birth of the specified individual's child; or (E) the adoption of a child by the specified individual. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100401 | System And Method For Sizing Enterprise Application Systems - Embodiments of the present invention recite a system and computer-implemented method for sizing enterprise-application systems. In one embodiment of the present invention, a ratio of a plurality of pre-defined benchmarks is determined. The workload of the ratio-of pre-defined benchmarks corresponds to a desired workload of an enterprise application system. The ratio of the plurality of pre-defined benchmarks is then used as a second benchmark for testing the enterprise application system. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100402 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING AND SETTING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT RELATED PRICE POINTS - A system and method for price setting based on environmental impact whereby the environmental impact of a product and/or service is determined based on defined parameters. An environmental impact of a given product and/or service is also determined for various levels of consumption of the given product and/or service. An environmental impact goal is then established for the given product and/or service. An environmental impact goal level of consumption of the given product and/or service is then determined that will yield the desired environmental impact goal. An environmental impact goal price-point for the given product and/or service that will yield the environmental impact goal level of consumption that, in turn, will yield the desired environmental impact goal is then determined. The price of the given product or service is then set at the environmental impact goal price-point for the given product and/or service using one or more of various price setting mechanisms. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100403 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRACKING AND ANALYZING ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF PRODUCING PAPER - A system and methods are disclosed for enabling a purchaser to make informed, customized purchasing decisions about a plurality of suppliers based on environmental impact data entered by the suppliers. The system enables a supplier to input data about the environmental impact of production process. The system enables the supplier to grant access permission to the input data to one or more purchasers. The system applies a normalization curve to normalize the data. The system also enables the supplier to identify up-stream production entities. The system enables the up-stream production entities to anonymously input environmental impact data. A purchaser enters a plurality of weight values indicating the relative importance of the environmental impact factors. Based on the inputted data by the suppliers and the up-stream production entities, and based on the weight values, the system provides at least one customized supplier environmental impact score to the purchaser. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100404 | System and Method for Prediction of Deterioration - System and method for predicting the rate of deterioration of a first and optionally further items of process equipment, which first item of process equipment receives an inlet stream and discharges one or more outlet streams which are optionally fed to one or more further items of process equipment, which first and optional further items of process equipment are subject to deterioration by one or more deterioration mechanisms, which inlet stream comprises a feedstock or derivative thereof; wherein the method comprises the steps of; (a) obtaining values of one Or more properties of the feedstock, (b) calculating a predicted rate of deterioration by the one or more deterioration mechanisms for each item of process equipment from the values of one or more of the feedstock properties; and (c) providing an output comprising the predicted rate of deterioration for each item of process equipment; and the system comprises a data processor adapted to receive values of one or more properties of the feedstock, to calculate predicted rates of deterioration by the one or more deterioration mechanisms for the first and optionally further items of process equipment from the values of one or more of the feedstock properties, and to provide an output comprising information relating to the predicted rates of deterioration by the one or more deterioration mechanisms for the first and optionally further items of process equipment. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100405 | Method and Apparatus for Determining and Managing Sustainability Ratings - Methods and apparatuses for determining and managing sustainability ratings are provided. An example method may include receiving a construction product type and identifying a first candidate construction product within a database based at least in part on the construction product type. The first candidate construction product may be associated with sustainability data for the first candidate construction product. The example method may also include determining a first sustainability rating based at least in part on the sustainability data for the first candidate construction product through application of sustainability rules. Other methods and apparatuses are also provided. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100406 | METHOD FOR PROTECTING PERSONAL IDENTITY INFORMATION - The method is for an identity security system. A user sets up a permanent user-profile that has a personal identify number, in his personal ID security pod via a security website. The user uploads one or more photos of the user. An identification-check entity sends an identify request, including the personal identify-number to the website. The security website retrieves the photo associated with the user based on the personal identify-number and displays the photo for the identification-check entity. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100407 | SCALING OPTIMIZATION OF ALLOCATION OF ONLINE ADVERTISEMENT INVENTORY - A method for scaling inventory allocation includes mapping attributes to impressions through index tables; constructing a flow network of nodes each containing impressions of corresponding attributes projected to be available during a time period, contracts each including specific requests for impressions that satisfy a demand profile, and arcs to connect the nodes to the contracts that match the demand profiles of the contracts; sampling the arcs that flow into each contract at a sampling rate chosen to reduce the number of arcs to a fraction of the original arcs when the plurality of impressions that satisfy the contract is above a threshold number, the nodes corresponding to the sampled arcs being sampled nodes; and optimally allocating impressions from the sampled nodes to the contracts during the time period by solving the flow network with a minimum-cost network flow algorithm that maximizes delivery of the impressions from the sampled nodes to the contracts in a way that satisfies the corresponding demand profiles. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100408 | Professional continuing competency optimizer - A system, method, and computer product for implementing a multifaceted professional continuing competency management software product that addresses the evolved employment environment challenges. This comprehensive computer technology solution includes knowledge management, skill evaluation, individual portfolios, staffing methods, and performance management to enable implementation of a professional continuing competency optimizer for professional organization(s) and to the individual professional. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100409 | PROJECT PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT - A tool integrates various components of project planning and management. The tool enables the creation and tracking of authorization for expense (AFE) information for a project. Also, the tool allows risks to be assigned to corresponding activities of the project. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100410 | Systems and Methods for Ecological Evaluation and Analysis of an Enterprise - Systems and methods are described that improve, optimize and measure enterprise and consumer ecological sustainability, including use and disposal of energy, water, chemicals and waste thereof. Systems comprise combinations of networks, processors, software and analytics techniques, methodologies and technology. Systems and methods extend business intelligence through breakthrough mapping, integration, and modeling technologies to assess and expose the elements that contribute to ecological sustainability. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100411 | INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD, AND RECORDING MEDIUM - Master equipment information including cost-related information on an information equipment that is recommendable as a substitute for the information equipment managed by an equipment managing server is stored in a master information memory unit. An equipment information collecting unit collects equipment information from the equipment managing server. A comparative analysis unit compares the equipment information collected by the equipment information collecting unit with the cost-related information included in the master equipment information, and specifies an information equipment that enables achieving cost reduction with respect to the information equipment managed by the equipment managing server as a recommendable information equipment. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100412 | WORKFLOW MANAGEMENT IN A GLOBAL SUPPORT ORGANIZATION - Customer support involves multiple levels of support, where customer support personnel at higher levels have more experience and a higher cost associated with their services. A random assignment of support personnel to a problem, at lower levels, can lead to multiple call transfers, a customer being put “on hold”, ineffective resource utilization, and high service costs being billed to customers. Functionality can be implemented to assign a support person to resolve the customer's problem based on a multi-dimensional dynamic social network database of resources (e.g., personnel experience, success rate, skill set, social network, etc.) which allows for efficient assignment of support personnel to a problem. Routing a customer call to the most appropriate support person at a given level before determining support personnel at higher levels can ensure optimization in terms of return on investment and resource utilization. Optimally selecting and assigning support personnel can also ensure customer satisfaction. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100413 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PRIORITIZING MEETING ATTENDEES - A system for prioritizing meeting attendees based on a scheduling user's perspective in an event scheduling system. The system provides a user interface for a scheduling user that enables them to prioritize individual prospective attendees, or groups of prospective attendees, in a way allows for easier evaluation by the scheduling user of a greater number of potential event times for a desired event, in situations where it may not be possible to establish an acceptable event time across all prospective attendees. The scheduling user can indicate a number N of priority levels, and the disclosed system operates to supply prospective event times relevant to each priority. Accordingly, where a scheduling user has assigned prospective attendees to priorities | 2010-04-22 |
20100100414 | OPTIMIZATION OF ALLOCATION OF ONLINE ADVERTISEMENT INVENTORY - A system for advertisement inventory allocation is disclosed, including a database to store advertisement impressions. An indexer builds a plurality of index tables each associated with an attribute that is mapped to a plurality of the impressions. An impression matcher constructs a flow network including a plurality of nodes each containing impressions of at least one corresponding attribute projected to be available during a time period, a plurality of contracts each including specific requests for impressions that satisfy a demand profile during the time period, and a plurality of arcs to connect the plurality of nodes to the plurality of contracts that match the demand profile of each contract. An optimizer optimally allocates impressions from the nodes to the contracts during the time period by solving the flow network with a minimum-cost network flow algorithm that maximizes delivery of the impressions to the contracts in a way that satisfies the corresponding demand profiles and that specifies a number of impressions to flow over each of the plurality of arcs. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100415 | COMMON TAG FORMAT FOR AD SERVING AND INFORMATION TRACKING IN INTERNET ADVERTISING - Systems, methods, and computer programs for implementing a common tag format in an Internet advertising and tracking system are provided. In one embodiment, the system includes an ad delivery system, a beacon system, and a management system. The ad delivery system serves ads to a browser visiting a publisher's web page. The beacon system collects usage data on the publisher's web site. The management system receives a service request, checks the request type of the service request, and then forwards the request to the ad delivery system, or to the beacon system, or to both, according to the request type. The service request is originated by a common tag embedded in the publisher's web page when loaded by a browser. The same common tag format is used for ad and tracking requests, thereby simplifying the management of the publisher's website and simplifying the migration process to change from just tracking a website to serving ads, merely by changing a parameter in the tag embedded in the publisher's page. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100416 | Recommender System - A recommender system may be used to predict a user behavior that a user will give in relation to an item. In an embodiment such predictions are used to enable items to be recommended to users. For example, products may be recommended to customers, potential friends may be recommended to users of a social networking tool, organizations may be recommended to automated users or other items may be recommended to users. In an embodiment a memory stores a data structure specifying a bi-linear collaborative filtering model of user behaviors. In the embodiment an automated inference process may be applied to the data structure in order to predict a user behavior given information about a user and information about an item. For example, the user information comprises user features as well as a unique user identifier. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100417 | COMMERCIAL INCENTIVE PRESENTATION SYSTEM AND METHOD - A system and method is described that tracks the behavior of a user interacting with an information retrieval system, such as an Internet search engine, and selectively determines whether or not to present a commercial incentive to the user based on the tracked behavior. The system and method may limit the number of times that a commercial incentive is presented to an eligible user, thereby creating a strong incentive for the user to utilize the commercial incentive. The system and method may also assess a level of interest of the user in subject matter associated with the commercial incentive based on the tracked behavior and dynamically determine one or more terms of the commercial incentive based on the assessment. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100418 | ADAPTIVE SELF-LEARNING MARKETING AUTOMATION - Systems and methods for monitoring and adapting marketing campaigns are described. Various aspects of the systems and methods include dynamically adjusting presented campaign frequency based upon measured success criteria, identifying important or superfluous portions of a campaign to adjust campaign sub-part frequency based upon measured success criteria, and/or recombining campaign sub-parts into entirely new campaigns and selecting for successful campaigns based upon measured success criteria. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100419 | DIGITAL MARKETING OPTIMIZATION - A system for experimentation includes an experiment engine which can define an experiment relating to various treatments for a set of content elements. The experiment engine conducts the experiment by delivering treatments to control groups over the network. The selection of the treatments to deliver is optimized to provide treatments having a greater likelihood of satisfying an objective of the experiment. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100420 | TARGET MARKETING METHOD AND SYSTEM - A marketing method and system. The method includes receiving by a computing system total population data. A peer group is selected from the total population data. The peer group is associated with a first marketing action. A list of attributes characterizing the peer group is generated. The attributes are associated with the marketing action, demographic data, and additional purchasing habits of the peer group. A target group of individuals of the total population data is selected. The attributes are associated with the individuals of the target group. Scores associated with the individuals of the target group are generated. The individuals of the target group are ranked based on said scores. A ranking list based is generated. The ranking list includes the individuals of the target group in a ranked order. The ranking list is stored. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100421 | METHODOLOGY FOR SELECTING CAUSAL VARIABLES FOR USE IN A PRODUCT DEMAND FORECASTING SYSTEM - A method to select causal factors to be used within a causal product demand forecasting framework. The methodology determines the set of factors that have statistically significant effects on historical product demand, and hence are believed to be of greatest relevance in determining product demand changes in the future. The effects of all factors are determined simultaneously and the net effect of each variable is calculated. When several factors are operative at the same time, the net influence of each factor is calculated. Lesser and redundant factors in the causal forecasting model can be eliminated to improve the stability, scalability and efficiency of the model. The method is employed to optimize causal models to achieve maximum forecast accuracy. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100422 | APPARATUS AND METHODS FOR PRICING GUARANTEED DELIVERY CONTRACTS - Disclosed are apparatus and methods for pricing on-line advertisement inventory. In one embodiment, a method for pricing on-line advertisement inventory includes (i) forecasting a delivery cost for delivering a plurality of deliverable impressions to meet a guaranteed delivery contract for a particular advertising product; and (ii) determining a target price for a guaranteed delivery contract for such particular advertising product by adjusting the delivery cost based on one or more changes in one or more conditions of a supply and demand market. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100423 | Picture your prize / bodagle marketing method - The Picture Your Prize/Bodagle Marketing Method herein known as Bodagle, incorporates advertising into a fun and interactive game of chance. As users play the game their movements throughout the game board are tracked and categorized into a demographic profile. Unlike traditional games of chance where the winning prize is pre-determined, Bodagle users are allowed to make a choice from an array of products and services which they would most like to win. Users must scroll over the pictures of products or services within the game board in order to identify those products and services. The identification of those products and services appears in the product viewing screen and is tracked by Bodagle. Bodagle reports to advertisers eyeball time. Eyeball time is the amount of time a product or service appears in the product viewing screen. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100424 | TOOLS FOR RELATING FINANCIAL AND NON-FINANCIAL INTERESTS - Embodiments of the invention provide an apparatus having processor configured to: (a) provide a user with access to the user's financial account via a graphical user interface; (b) determine user preferences based at least partially on the user's financial information; and (c) provide non-financial content to the user via the graphical user interface and based at least partially on the user preferences. In one embodiment, the processor is configured to determine user preferences by determining trends in the user's financial information. In one embodiment, the processor is configured to determine user preferences by distinguishing between user financial transactions that are regular and user financial transactions that are ad hoc. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100425 | SYSTEMS, METHODS AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCTS FOR MODELING A MONETARY MEASURE FOR A GOOD BASED UPON TECHNOLOGY MATURITY LEVELS - A systems, methods and computer program products are provided for modeling a monetary measure of a good, such as a cost or revenue associated with the good. A method begins by selecting at least one qualitative measure of maturity for at least one technology associated with the good, where each qualitative measure of maturity is associated with a distribution such that each technology is correspondingly associated with a distribution. Next, a monetary point is associated with each technology, and thereafter a monetary distribution is determined for each technology based upon a respective monetary point and a respective distribution. A plurality of monetary values are selected by randomly selecting the plurality of monetary values for each technology based upon a respective monetary distribution. Finally, the monetary measure for the good are modeled based upon the selected monetary values for each technology. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100426 | AGENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM - An automated process for processing application data related to agent on-boarding in a money transfer system includes proforma subprocessing to pre-qualify the application data, analysis subprocessing to analyze the application data, set-up subprocessing to set up agents on the money transfer system and training subprocessing to train the agents on services provided by the money transfer system. Each of the subprocesses accepts an administrator input in response to the application data. In response to the administrator input, each of the subprocesses has an outcome that is one of forwarding the data, denying the data, notifying an originator of the application data and requesting additional data. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100427 | PERFORMANCE DRIVEN COMPENSATION FOR ENTERPRISE-LEVEL HUMAN CAPITAL MANAGEMENT - In embodiments of the present invention improved capabilities are described for a human resource management platform that includes applications targeted to solve a variety of human resource, compensation, and performance management problems. Applications of the human resource management platform include business applications such as performance driven compensation that may provide a single solution for driving employee performance and organizational success by automation of goal setting, performance measurement, and employee rewards by directly linking performance results to rewards. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100428 | Parking Locator - An apparatus and method for identifying a user's parking location in a parking facility, wherein the apparatus and method may have minimal financial impact on the users of the parking facility and the parking facility itself. The method may generally include positioning a ticket dispensing apparatus proximate a parking location of a user, and dispensing a parking location ticket from the ticket-dispensing apparatus to the user, wherein the parking location ticket contains a first side with parking location information and a second side with sponsor messages and/or advertisement information. The apparatus may generally include a ticket dispenser positioned in a parking zone of a parking facility, and removable parking location identifying tickets positioned in the ticket dispenser, wherein the parking location identifying tickets have a first side that has parking location information printed thereon and a second side that has sponsor messages and/or advertising information printed thereon. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100429 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR USING WORLD-SPACE COORDINATES OF AD OBJECTS AND CAMERA INFORMATION FOR ADVERSTISING WITHIN A VITRTUAL ENVIRONMENT - An ad system for use in a virtual environment. The ad system includes an ad engine integrated in an advertising enabled application, an advertising scheduling system, reporting software, impression metric processing software, and billing components wherein coordinates of ad object and camera data were made available to the ad engine during development of the application. Related methods of developing advertising enabled application software including an ad engine and use of a computer system for delivering ad content within a virtual environment are also provided. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100430 | RETAIL RATINGS MODULE SYSTEM - A retail rating system for use in connection with gambling activities is disclosed. Points or credits are accumulated for commercial activity and made available for gambling activity. A management system and/or player tracking cards are employed to track accumulation of points and commercial activity. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100431 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR A GUEST SERVICES SYSTEM FOR COUPONING AND GAMING - Guest services system for couponing and gaming where guests using an access point such as their room or kiosk select which promotions to view, which incentives and/or coupons to print and request and/or receive play credits. Additionally, secured means include using a PIN, password, and/or a secured card such as a room card or player tracking card to access and view incentives, request play credit, receive incentives and/or play credit, and/or purchase play credit. The system includes a connection to host systems, a controller, a user interface, input device, output device, card reading device as well as personal communication devices such as a computer. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100432 | Incentive method and apparatus - Instrumentality for promulgating worker quality and persistence in the workplace and user loyalty and patronage on the internet. A plurality of awards arranged in tiers is provided. One tier preferably is derived from the worker/user when selecting one or more awards from a menu of possible awards. Another tier is preferably provided by the employer/internet provider. A further tier is preferably in the form of a pecuniary award having a value which increments as a function of collective worker/user performance and which is preferably visible to the worker/user on a display until the award is won. Thereafter, the award resets to a base value. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100433 | Method and System for Promoting Artistic Works - The invention provides new and improved methods and systems for online promotion, marketing and distribution of artistic works. An embodiment of a system for distributing artistic works comprises an online store configured for sale and distribution of artistic works to individual buyers. A link server is configured to store links to webpages related to artists works stored in the online store. The link server is configured to download at least one link to a fan computer via the Internet in response to a fan-initiated request for at least one link. The links are configured for embedding by said fan in a clickable portion of the fan's webpage. The online store tracks purchases of artistic works corresponding to a fan's link. The online store provides a reward to the fan based on the tracked purchases. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100434 | GLOBAL ELECTRONIC RECEIPT PLATFORM FOR RECORDING, MANAGING AND ACCESSING TRANSACTION RECEIPTS THROUGH RETAILERS' PHYSICAL OR INTERNET BASED POINT OF SALE SYSTEM - A global electronic receipt platform for recording, managing and accessing transaction receipts through retailers' physical or internet based point of sale system. This system allows consumers to be assigned a Consumer Unique Identifier (CUI) and have retailers submit a given purchase transaction information to this global system through a secured internet connection between the retailer's point of sale system and the global electronic receipt system every time the CUI is presented. Programmed plugs-ins called Global Electronic Receipt Transfer Agents (GERTA) are made available to retailers which can be integrated into existing point of sale systems in order to process and submit electronic receipts to the Global Electronic Receipt Database Agent (GERDA). Each consumer is provided with an electronic receipt card which stores their Consumer Unique Identifier (CUI) and is presented at the time of purchase or in order to process a return, an exchange or claim a promotion such as a coupon or a rebate. This same UI is used to get access to different interfaces in order to view, manage and search through their transaction history consisting of the detailed electronic receipts generated from the different retail stores and stored in GERDA. The UI may also be linked to a credit card number and/or a phone number and/or email and/or any other loyalty card and/or any other data string accepted by the system and used to identify the consumer through the electronic receipt system in order to identify the customer at the time of purchase without the need for the electronic receipt card. Advertisers and retailers are provided with tools in order to send promotions and communicate with a selected consumer base which meets defined criteria based on the consumers' profile and purchase history stored in GERDA. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100435 | Methods, Systems, and Products for Classifying Subscribers - Methods, systems, and products classify subscribers based on viewing habits. An event record is stored that associates a command entered by a subscriber to a time. The event record is merged with data describing media programming to form event timeline data describing the at least one command and the media programming selected by the subscriber over a period of time. Credit card purchasing data is retrieved that describes the subscriber's credit card purchases. The event timeline data is compared to the credit card purchasing data. The subscriber is classified in a category associated with a product or service when the event timeline data indicates that the subscriber viewed an advertisement and afterwards purchased the product or service. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100436 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TRIGGERING AN AUTOMATED MAILER RESPONSE ACTION - Systems, methods, and articles of manufacture that automatically invoke one or more marketing actions directed toward a mail target are shown and described. Real time mail stream event data for one or more mail items intended for the mail target are analyzed to determine when a pre-delivery event in the processing of the one or more mail items intended for delivery to the target through a mail delivery network occurs. When the pre-delivery event corresponds one of a number of pre-assigned triggering actions a command is issued to execute a marketing action associated with the detected triggering action. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100437 | Suggesting and/or providing ad serving constraint information - Targeting information (also referred to as ad “serving constraints”) or candidate targeting information for an advertisement is identified. Targeting information may be identified by extracting topics or concepts from, and/or generating topics or concepts based on, ad information, such as information from a Web page to which an ad is linked (or some other Web page of interest to the ad or advertiser). The topics or concepts may be relevant queries associated with the Web page of interest, clusters, etc. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100438 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MEDIA-INDEPENDENT PROCESSING OF ADVERTISEMENT PUBLICATION INFORMATION - The present disclosure describes systems and methods for media-independent processing of advertisement publication information. Some illustrative embodiments include a data processing system including a server computer that includes a data storage device, the data storage device including an advertiser database that includes a source advertisement, and a media outlet database that includes a media outlet record. The server computer is capable of providing the media outlet record for selection by a user. The server computer is further capable of reformatting the source advertisement according to one or more constraints associated with the media outlet record selected by the user. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100439 | Multi-platform system apparatus for interoperable, multimedia-accessible and convertible structured and unstructured wikis, wiki user networks, and other user-generated content repositories - The present invention involves allowing users (e.g. an employee, student, professional, expert) to interoperably use multimedia (e.g. text, voice and image gestures) for input and output, including to interface, search, index, edit, add, delete, organize, share, transfer, create, and manage organization(s)' knowledge and information resources within structured wikis, unstructured wikis, and wiki user networks, with extension to other types of user-generated content repositories. The invention makes organizational knowledge and information resources fully accessible by users with different types of interface abilities. The invention proposes a multimedia accessible wild platform-system connecting information and knowledge consumers and producers. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100440 | SYSTEM, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR COMPENSATING WEB USERS FOR VIEWING TARGETED ADS - Embodiments disclosed herein can directly compensate Web users for viewing ads. In some embodiments, this is achieved by Ad player software. In some embodiments, the Ad player may be hosted on a server machine, implemented as a client-side application, or integrated into a Web site. In some embodiments, the Ad player may be operable to allow a user to login to the player, track the ads shown to the user, and directly compensate the user. The ads are selectively presented to the users based on information about the users. In some embodiments, at least a portion of the information about a user is provided by the user and stored in a designated MeFile. In some embodiments, advertisers may define ad campaigns based on information derived from the MeFiles. In some embodiments, advertisers may bid for the attention of Web users and the Ad player may list ads per bid price. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100441 | METHOD AND SYSTEM OF MONITORING AND RETRIEVING DEVICE USAGE - A method and system for monitoring and retrieving device usage for a device at a vehicle including storing a vehicle data record in the telematics unit, monitoring the device usage for device data, storing the device data at the vehicle, requesting the telematics unit to upload the device data, and transmitting the device data from the telematics unit to a remote location. At least one of the monitoring and the requesting is performed in accordance with the vehicle data record. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100442 | Methods and Systems for Programmably Generating Electronic Aggregate Creatives for Display on an Electronic Network - Methods and systems are provided for automatically creating large numbers of aggregate creative forms, in accordance with corresponding definitions, each aggregate creative form containing one or more groupings of zero or more subcreatives. The aggregate creative definition may comprise a template, software program or data file. Rotation is provided at two levels: the subcreatives may change within the aggregate creative forms and the aggregate creative as a whole may share a page location with other advertisements. Constraints may be applied to control which subcreatives appear concurrently. Aggregate creative definitions are reusable, subcreatives may be targeted narrowly or generally, and formatting considerations are applied. Methods and systems are provided for serving aggregate creatives over the Internet which take advantage of the benefits and features of the Internet to deliver those creatives in accordance with the capabilities of a standard advertising system. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100443 | User classification apparatus, advertisement distribution apparatus, user classification method, advertisement distribution method, and program used thereby - It is an object to provide user classification apparatus, a user classification method, and a program used thereby, which classify users based on search log and support the analysis of customer trends, and advertisement distribution apparatus, an advertisement distribution method, and a program used thereby, which distribute advertisements based on the analysis of customer trends. The user classification apparatus is provided with a search log database, a user search log information extracting unit extracting search log information of a user, an analyzed keyword extracting unit extracting search keyword information contained in search log information, a search session dividing unit dividing the search log information of the user into a plurality of search sessions, a search session class extracting unit generating a class, a user belonging class calculation unit classifying the user into the class, and a user search log analysis result display unit displaying the classification result. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100444 | INTERNET PROTOCOL-BASED CONTENT DELIVERY TECHNIQUE - To commence streaming of advertising clips to a player ( | 2010-04-22 |
20100100445 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR TARGETING THE DELIVERY OF INVENTORIED CONTENT OVER MOBILE NETWORKS TO UNIQUELY IDENTIFIED USERS - A method and system for targeting online advertisements. The method includes receiving a request for an advertisement from a publisher, wherein the request includes an identifying data uniquely associated with a user. The method includes sending a response to the publisher, wherein the response includes the advertisement and an image URL. The method includes receiving a request for the image identified by the image URL and a unique user cookie from the user. The method includes if the identifying data has been previously received, determining a unique user identifier associated with the user from the identifying data. The method includes if the identifying data has not been previously received, determining the unique user identifier associated with the user from the unique user cookie, and associating the identifying information with the unique user identifier. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100446 | METHOD FOR ADVERTISING USING MOBILE MULTIPLAYER GAME AND SYSTEM THEREOF - A method of advertising using a multiplayer game for a mobile device, comprising: transmitting/receiving data for executing the multiplayer game in the mobile device through a network channel; checking whether a user of the multiplayer game has paid to play the multiplayer game! and determining whether or not to display an advertisement on a screen of the mobile device for the multiplayer game based on the check result and whether or not a free trial period has expired. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100447 | TOY SYSTEM AND EXTRAVAGANZA PLANNER - A customer may obtain an authorization which allows accessing a website that has prestored templates which are each associated with use by the customer. The authorization may be obtained by purchasing products. The prestored templates each represent an event that can be hosted at a place of business. The templates each include activities that can be hosted, days when the activities can be hosted, and times for the activities. The customer can select activities by the customer, and automatically produce pages and form an Internet webpage which advertises the activities based on said templates and information about the customer. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100448 | REFERRAL SYSTEM AND METHOD - A professional referral system on a website including a data base and server coupled thereto and further coupled into a publicly available website. The data base including a plurality of vertical business groups stored therein, each vertical business group including a plurality of ad-slots with each ad-slot including information relative to a member of the vertical business group, and each member of the vertical business group being identified by a unique referral code. The data base and server designed to retrieve a member's information stored with reference to at least one of the ad-slots in response to entering of the member's referral code and any request for information in the remaining ad-slots of the vertical business group. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100449 | METHOD AND SYSTEM OF ADVERTISING WITHOUT ADDING TAGS TO CONTENT STREAMS - A method and system of advertising that facilitates an automated advertisement process where a user, at any point during playback, simply makes a request to view an advertisement and an advertisement related to the current point of playback is automatically provided. The advertisement can be related to a scene showing proximate in time to the request so that the user can specify what type of advertisement is provided and when it is provided. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100450 | MOBILE SERVICE SYSTEM AND SERVICE METHOD USING THE SAME - The present disclosure is relate to an image comparison device using a personal video recorder, the device comprising a display unit configured to output a reference image, at least one camera configured to obtain a comparison image by taking a picture of a present scene of a subject for photography chasing a movement of an object included in the reference image while the reference image is displayed on the screen of the display unit, and a controller configured to display the comparison image with the reference image on the screen, and a method using the an image comparison device. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100451 | STREAMING SERVICE SERVER AND STREAMING SERVICE SYSTEM - A streaming service server includes means for bidding prices from a plurality of super peers and means for determining at least of the plurality of the super peers based on the received bidding prices such that for a given streaming service, a total number of consumers serviced by the plurality of the super peers satisfies a predetermined criterion. Therefore, the streaming service server may determine at least one super peer in a consideration with the number of consumers served by a plurality of super peers for a given service. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100452 | VIRTUAL BUSINESS OBJECT TO MANAGE VIRTUAL WORLD TRANSACTIONS - A method for managing a transaction in a virtual world may include generating a virtual business object (VBO), where the VBO may include a plurality of subcomponents that are each respectively related to a different aspect of the transaction associated with the virtual world object. Each subcomponent may include at least one attribute and each attribute may include information related to the subcomponent. Further, a set of enablement properties may be associated with each attribute and access to each attribute may be controlled in accordance with the set of enablement properties associated with each attribute. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100453 | PAYMENT SYSTEM FOR ELECTRONIC DATA - A payment method and system are provided for electronic data that is purchased by a recipient from a supplier thereof for transmission to the recipient with payment being made in advance of downloading of the electronic data. The pre-payment entitles the recipient to a predetermined period of time online, or a predetermined quantity of downloaded electronic data. Payment control means associated with communication means communicates with a source of funding associated with the particular recipient and an allocated funds register is associated with the source of funding such that an initial quantum of value contained in the source of funding is credited to the allocated funds register. The payment control means monitors the balance remaining in the allocated funds register and when a predetermined low value is reached a further predetermined quantum of value contained in the source of funding is credited to the allocated funds register to increase the balance therein and enable continued connectivity. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100454 | Methods for performing internet processes using global positioning and other means - Methods for purchasing of goods or services over the internet. A customer has a customer account set up at a bank with associated account information. The account information includes verification information for verification parameters, such as authorized computer identification, authorized delivery addresses, authorized global positioning satellite or other secure location information, authorized user identification, authorized telephone caller identification, and/or other account information. An order is placed by a user via an ordering computer which provides order information. Such order information includes verification variables used by the bank. Verification and/or authentication using one or more variables of the customer account information is used by the bank to validate the order before assuring payment to the merchant. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100455 | PROVIDING AUTOMATED GIFT REGISTRY FUNCTIONALITY TO ASSIST A USER IN PURCHASING AN ITEM FOR A RECIPIENT - A method, system, and computer-readable medium is described that provides automated gift registry functionality to assist a user in purchasing an item for a recipient. In particular, the system may track various information about a series of item purchases from one or more services through which items can be purchased. When such information about past item purchases is available, the system can then use the information to provide various automated gift registry functionality for users that want to purchase items for various recipients. Types of automated gift registry functionality provided by the System include making recommendations of items that are appropriate to be purchased for a specified recipient, assisting in preventing recipients from receiving inappropriate gift items by monitoring item gift purchases and item self-purchases, and responding to user requests to determine whether a specified gift would be appropriate for a recipient. In addition to information about past item purchases (e.g., whether a recipient has already received a copy of an item), the system can also use other information when determining whether a purchase of an item for the recipient is appropriate such as demographic information about the recipient or explicitly specified recipient preferences. Thus, for each type of gift registry functionality provided by the AGR system, a variety of types of tracked or retrieved information can be used when determining whether an item is appropriate for a recipient. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100456 | CELL ONTOGENY INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND METHODS OF USING THE SAME - Aspects of the invention are drawn to cell ontogeny information systems and methods for using the same. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100457 | METHOD OF ENABLING A USER TO DRAW A COMPONENT PART AS INPUT FOR SEARCHING COMPONENT PARTS IN A DATABASE - A method of receiving input image data for an image search engine includes providing a two-dimensional input image on a display screen, enabling a user to rotate the input image on the display screen about an axis that is non-perpendicular to a plane of the input image, and enabling the user to electronically draw modifications on the rotated input image. | 2010-04-22 |
20100100458 | SERVICE METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING ONLINE INTEGRATED SHOPPING MALL - An online integrated shopping mall service apparatus and method is disclosed. The apparatus registers manufacturing/enterprises, SOHO distribution enterprises, and SOHO trade enterprises as enterprise members, provides the shopping mall with commodities, sells the commodities, and manages the sales record of the commodities. If a member is a shopping-mall founder, a sideline-person, a SOHO distribution enterprise, or a SOHO trade enterprise, the apparatus assigns a free retail-client shopping mall to the member, such that the member sells commodities at retail in the client shopping mall, performs the shopping mall management, registers commodities as regular commodities to be sold in the client shopping mall, and assigns lower client shopping malls to others. The apparatus assigns a specific administrator who satisfies a predetermined condition to a wholesale-qualified member capable of managing the wholesale shopping mall, assigns the wholesale shopping mall to the qualified member, and sells the commodities at wholesale. | 2010-04-22 |