76497results about "Electric digital data processing" patented technology

A calibration system for a surgical instrument. The calibration system includes an actuator, such as a motor system and a flexible shaft. The calibration system also includes a surgical instrument actuatable by the actuator. The calibration system also include calibration data corresponding to the surgical instrument. A processor is configured to process the calibration data for determining a position of the surgical instrument. The calibration system may include a sensor configured to provide a signal corresponding to a movement of the actuator, the processor being further configured to process the signal for determining a position of the surgical instrument.

A solution to the general problem of Secure Storage and Retrieval of Information (SSRI) guarantees that also the process of storing the information is correct even when some processors fail. A user interacts with the storage system by depositing a file and receiving a proof that the deposit was correctly executed. The user interacts with a single distinguished processor called the gateway. The mechanism enables storage in the presence of both inactive and maliciously active faults, while maintaining (asymptotical) space optimailty. This mechanism is enhanced with the added requirement of confidentiality of information; i.e., that a collusion of processors should not be able to learn anything about the information. Also, in this case space optimality is preserved.

A system, method, and article of manufacture are provided for planning the testing of components of an existing network framework. First, a pictorial representation of an existing network framework is displayed along with a plurality of components of the existing network framework. Thereafter, the components of the existing network framework are indicia coded in order to convey a plan by which the components of the existing network framework are to be tested. The components may be indicia coded in order to convey an order of the testing or which components of the existing network framework are to be tested.

A system and method are provided for maintaining consistent server-side state across a pool of collaborating servers with independent state repositories. When a client performs an event on a collaborating server which affects such state on the server, it publishes notification of the event into a queue maintained in client-side state which is shared by all of the collaborating servers in the pool. As the client makes requests to servers within the pool, the queue is thus included in each request. When a collaborating server needs to access its server-side state in question, it first discerns events new to it from the queue and replicates their effects into such server-side state. As a result, the effects of events upon server-side state are replicated asynchronously across the servers in the pool, as the client navigates among them.

The present invention relates to a system for (1) protecting the transmission of packet streams between a host computer and one or more client computers, and (2) upon reception, (a) reconstructing any outage damage caused during the transmission to the packet streams, and (b) digitally recording the reconstructed packet streams to a file. The present invention also relates to a method for dynamically generating a file index table as the packet stream is being digitally recorded.

System and method for designing and implementing Web Services according to a structured methodology and design patterns. Embodiments may incorporate a structured methodology, best practices and design patterns that address reliability, availability and scalability of Web Services architecture. Embodiments may provide mechanisms for integrating heterogeneous technology components into Web Services. Embodiments may provide a vendor-independent Web Services architecture framework and reusable Web Services design patterns, which may be used in creating end-to-end solutions based on past experience and best practices. Embodiments may include design patterns and best practices for delivering Web Services solutions with Quality of Services. One embodiment may provide a Business-to-Business Integration (B2Bi) integration framework for Web Services. Embodiments may provide a Web Security framework and design patterns for designing end-to-end Web Services security.

A system for processing data provided by medical devices. The system includes a medical device having a memory device configured to store medical device information. The system also includes an information system connected to the medical device. The information system includes at least a server configured to receive at least a portion of the medical device information from the memory device of the medical device. The server is also configured to employ the medical device information to process at least one of patient data, prescription data and inventory / ordering data. The medical device information may include serial number data, device identifier data, operation data and / or usage data for the medical device. The patient data may include at least one of patient tracking data, patient recordkeeping data and patient billing data. The prescription data may include prescription issuance data, prescription filling data and prescription tracking data. The inventory / ordering data may include at least one of maintenance and replacement schedule data, administrator notification data, and automatically-generated medical device order data.

An on-line scheduling application allows users to personalize how television-related, entertainment-related, and social event related information is provided. Users may select one or more sources from which the information is obtained. Users may set up a date book that is also used as a source. Users may select one or more delivery schemes that the application uses to provide the information. One or more of the personalization features of the scheduling application may be incorporated into an on-line television programming guide.

A method and apparatus for calculating, displaying and acting upon relationships in a social network is described. A computer system collects descriptive data about various individuals and allows those individuals to indicate other individuals with whom they have a personal relationship. The descriptive data and the relationship data are integrated and processed to reveal the series of social relationships connecting any two individuals within a social network. The pathways connecting any two individuals can be displayed. Further, the social network itself can be displayed to any number of degrees of separation. A user of the system can determine the optimal relationship path (i.e., contact pathway) to reach desired individuals. A communications tool allows individuals in the system to be introduced (or introduce themselves) and initiate direct communication.

System and method for designing, developing and implementing Internet Service Provider (ISP) architectures. One embodiment of a method for designing and implementing ISP architectures may include formulating a set of design requirements for an ISP architecture, establishing an architectural model for the ISP architecture using the set of design requirements, generating a logical design for the ISP architecture from the architectural model and the set of design requirements, and generating a physical design for the ISP architecture using the architectural model and the logical design. One embodiment may also include selecting one or more components of the ISP architecture and implementing the ISP architecture according to the logical design and the physical design. In one embodiment the system and method for designing, developing and implementing ISP architectures may be used to design, develop and implement an N-tiered ISP architecture.

Described herein are various methods and systems relating to the unification of media devices, and more specifically to the provision of wireless audio systems. In overview, two or more wireless speaker subsystem units substantially autonomously form a single wireless audio system having its own control interface. This control interface is used to apply operational changes across the wireless audio system, such as volume adjustment. That is, an operational change may be applied to the system as a whole, and this change is subsequently implemented by each of the individual wireless speaker subsystem units.

To serve content through a content delivery network (CDN), the CDN must have some information about the identity, characteristics and state of its target objects. Such additional information is provided in the form of object metadata, which according to the invention can be located in the request string itself, in the response headers from the origin server, in a metadata configuration file distributed to CDN servers, or in a per-customer metadata configuration file. CDN content servers execute a request identification and parsing process to locate object metadata and to handle the request in accordance therewith. Where different types of metadata exist for a particular object, metadata in a configuration file is overridden by metadata in a response header or request string, with metadata in the request string taking precedence.

Systems and methods for processing sensor data are provided. In some embodiments, systems and methods are provided for calibration of a continuous analyte sensor. In some embodiments, systems and methods are provided for classification of a level of noise on a sensor signal. In some embodiments, systems and methods are provided for determining a rate of change for analyte concentration based on a continuous sensor signal. In some embodiments, systems and methods for alerting or alarming a patient based on prediction of glucose concentration are provided.

A method and apparatus for providing personalized information content over telephones is described. The creation of a voice portal is supported by the invention. Embodiments of the invention use telephone identifying information such as the calling party's number to identify, or create, user profiles for customization. The personalized content is specific to that user based on her / his telephone identifying information and may be further customized based on the current time, current date, the calling party's locales, and / or the calling party's dialect and speech patterns. Also, the telephone identifying information may support targeted advertising, content, and purchasing recommendations specific to that user. The system may use a voice password and / or touch-tone login system when appropriate to distinguish the caller or verify the caller's identity for specific activities. Typically, embodiments of the invention will immediately present a caller personalized content based on her / his profile using the appropriate dialect as well as the caller's preferred content. Profiles can be constructed as the caller uses embodiments of the invention as well as through explicit designation of preferences. For example, as the user selects topics, as well as particular content, a record of actions can be maintained. This record of actions can be used to provide suggestions and direct the personalization of the system for the user.

In a network interconnecting a plurality of content providers and a plurality of clients, for providing content to a client, each of the plurality of content providers is coupled to at least one content distribution network of a plurality of content distribution networks, wherein the client is coupled to at least one of the plurality of content distribution networks and a request for the content is sent from the client to a redirector node that receives requests, wherein a redirector at the redirector node provides an address for a server available to serve the requested content. When the client's content distribution network is a primary content distribution network for the content provider providing the requested content, redirecting the client to a server within the client's content distribution network. When the client's content distribution network is not a primary content distribution network for the content provider but the client's content distribution network has a content peering relationship with a primary content distribution network for the content provider, redirecting the client to a server within the client's content distribution network. When the client's content distribution network is not a primary content distribution network for the content provider and the client's content distribution network does not have a content peering relationship with a primary content distribution network for the content provider, redirecting the client to a server outside the client's content distribution network. The redirecting can be done using a domain name service (DNS) server that responds to requests for domain name resolution that include metadata encoding for the content being requested and / or attributes of the resolution request other than a domain name or explicit client / redirector communication to perform the redirection.

Embodiments of a system and method for providing peer-to-peer (p2p) capabilities to devices with limited resources (e.g. wireless devices). A mechanism is described that allows the devices to participate as peer nodes in p2p network environments through wired or wireless connections. In one embodiment, the p2p network environment may be implemented according to a p2p platform, and the mechanism may be interoperable with p2p platform devices in the p2p network environment. A relay / proxy node on the network may serve as an interface to the p2p environment for devices using the mechanism to participate as peers in the p2p network. The relay / proxy node may be accessed using the mechanism to perform one or more p2p network environment functions on behalf of the devices.

A method and apparatus for calculating, displaying and acting upon relationships in a social network is described. A computer system collects descriptive data about various individuals and allows those individuals to indicate other individuals with whom they have a personal relationship. The descriptive data and the relationship data are integrated and processed to reveal the series of social relationships connecting any two individuals within a social network. The pathways connecting any two individuals can be displayed. Further, the social network itself can be displayed to any number of degrees of separation. A user of the system can determine the optimal relationship path (i.e., contact pathway) to reach desired individuals. A communications tool allows individuals in the system to be introduced (or introduce themselves) and initiate direct communication.

The present invention has particular applications to the navigation of Internet web pages using two-way interactive communication devices, such as a mobile device, a mobile phone, a landline telephone, and an Internet capable remote controller. According to one aspect of the present invention, each of the two-way interactive communication devices is a node in a distributed network, thus the devices can access hypermedia or hierarchic layers of information stored in server devices on the network. When one or more pages of information are updated, rather than sending the entire updated information to users of the devices subscribing to the updated information through the network, the present invention sends a notification to a proxy server that forwards the notification to the users using a messaging system via a low cost narrowband channel. Upon receiving the notification, the users can fetch the updates, when needed, through a wideband channel. Hence systemic solutions are provided in the present invention to integrate wideband and narrowband channels so as to keep the users informed of any updates to their desired information and meanwhile provide efficient means to the users for retrieving the latest updates without incurring uncontrollable costs and increasing unnecessary network traffics.

A system for supporting a plurality of different applications utilizing a next generation network having a network layer includes an application services middleware between the applications and the network layer that includes a plurality of common infrastructure elements usable by the different applications. The common infrastructure elements provide both services associated with use of the network and services that are not associated with use of the network. At least one of the common infrastructure elements is an Internet Protocol (IP) Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) element.

A multidimensional energy decision system, comprising a plurality of server systems, including at least a statistics server and an interface adapted to receive and send digital information from at least a client system, and further adapted to optionally communicate with the digital exchange via a packet-based data network, wherein the multidimensional energy decision system periodically optimizes operational parameters of client system for a specific time period and a specific energy asset from client system based on forecasted conditions, and directly, or upon decision confirmation from a client system, procures or makes dispatchable energy resources, related externalities, or related derivative financial products, available to a digital exchange or other parties, wherein upon the purchase of a listed asset by another party or across digital exchange, implements dispatch procedures to satisfy the issued contract and, optionally, provides monitoring and verification of performance, is disclosed.

Controlled devices according to a device control model maintain a state table representative of their operational state. Devices providing a user control point interface for the controlled device obtain the state table of the controlled device, and may also obtain presentation data defining a remoted user interface of the controlled device and device control protocol data defining commands and data messaging protocol to effect control of the controlled device. These user control devices also subscribe to notifications of state table changes, which are distributed from the controlled device according to an eventing model. Accordingly, upon any change to the controlled device's operational state, the eventing model synchronizes the device's state as represented in the state table across all user control devices.

A system and method for implementing and management virtual networks is disclosed. A method includes receiving a network packet arriving at a first network interface of a first node of an underlying network, communicating at least the packet and an identifier of the first network interface to a decision engine, determining how the packet should be processed based on a simulation by the decision engine of a traversal of a virtual network topology including a plurality of virtual network devices, wherein the decision engine communicates with a shared database accessible from the underlying network that stores the virtual network topology and virtual device configurations for the plurality of virtual network devices; and processing the packet based upon the simulation.

A method and apparatus for providing hypermedia content maintained remotely on a network to a wireless device without a browser are described. A Short Message Service (SMS) request for Internet-based content is received from the wireless device at a proxy server, via an SMS Center (SMSC). The SMS request is transmitted to the SMSC on a wireless network. The proxy server transcodes the SMS request from a character set of the SMSC to a character set of an application and extracts a keyword from the trancoded request. The proxy server maintains a mapping of keywords to URLs. The proxy server looks up the extracted keyword in the keyword-to-URL mapping to identify the URL of an application associated with the keyword. The proxy server constructs an HTTP POST operation containing the keyword and the URL, and submits the HTTP POST operation to the application over a wireline network such as the Internet. Upon receiving an HTTP response containing the requested content from the application in response to the POST operation, the proxy server extracts the content from the HTTP response. The proxy server then translates the content from the content-type used by the application to the content-type used by the SMSC and transcodes the content from the character set used by the application to the character set used by the SMSC. The proxy server then sends the translated and transcoded content in an SMS response to the SMSC, for subsequent delivery to wireless device as an SMS message.

An interactive television system that renders on-demand interactive multimedia services for a community of users. The interactive multimedia is delivered to each user on a TV or on a LAN-node (Local-Area-Network) computer through an "interactive TV channel" created and controlled by a Channel-processor, which can be implemented as either a PC or a high-end workstation. The system employs a direct-access on-demand workgroup server. It is equipped with the primary on-demand multimedia data base stored on a hard disk subsystem that is connected directly to the Channel-processors through an internal workgroup link. Using a no-overhead server technology, the connected workgrouped Channel-processors can all concurrently retrieve and process the data directly from the hard disk subsystem without resorting to a stand-alone server system for data retrieving and downloading. The system also employs peer-to-peer workgroup connectivity, so that all of the workgrouped Channel-processors that are connected to the workgroup server through the internal workgroup link, can communicate with one another.

A method and apparatus for distributing, generating, and redeeming discount Virtual Coupons TM , rebate or gift certificates or the like which may be used on conjunction with a frequency card program or the like. Virtual Coupons TM may be distributed electronically, for example, in the form of a diskette or CD-ROM software. Software on the diskette or CD-ROM may prompt a consumer to call a 1-800 number for a validation number or code. During the phone call, telemarketing personnel may request consumer demographic and or identification information which may be entered into a centralized database. Once the software is validated, a consumer may print out a list selected Virtual Coupons TM displayed on a Graphical User Interface (GUI). When a product is purchased, the UPC code of the product may be compared electronically with a list of Virtual Coupons TM authorized for a particular consumer. An appropriate coupon discount may then be applied and the Virtual Coupon TM may be considered "redeemed". Once redeemed, consumer ID information and Virtual Coupon TM information may be retrieved electronically and used to update a central database. Accurate data may then be produced illustrating which consumers or groups of consumers are redeeming which Virtual Coupons TM . Such data may be used for marketing purposes or to generated further diskettes for distribution targeting specific consumers or groups of consumers with specific classes of Virtual Coupon TM offerings. The use of Virtual Coupons TM eliminates or reduces fraud, and allows a frequency card discount to be applied only a limited number of times.

A full-featured e-mail system is used in both Internet-based and client-side (personal computer) forms. In each form, either basic e-mail service is provided to system subscribers or a secure, premium service with authentication, concealment, integrity, and non-repudiation functions for electronic messaging services is provided. In either form and at either level of service, subscribers can work off-line on their own computers with proprietary software loaded or, alternatively, on-line on any computer with an Internet connection. The system is interoperable, to preserve security, with all S / MIME compliant software applications, even for those users not subscribing to a service implementing the disclosed system. Digital certificates can be provided as a security service of the disclosed system, rather than requiring a second source with separate verification procedures. As additional optional features, the subscriber can control compression of outgoing attachment files, rather than having that function absent or operate in some automatic way. Decompression of such file attachments when received occurs automatically for subscribers, without having to invoke a different program or system. Interactive help features, book hierarchy uniformity for messages, accounts, certificates, virus warnings, and dual naming capability are also provided and available to subscribers in both the Web-based and the client-side application forms disclosed herein, and in both basic and premium service levels.

A communication application server for supporting converged communications in a communication system. The communication application server is responsive to communication service requests from external endpoints, applications or other c requesting entities, and in one embodiment comprises at least first and second components. The first component is operative: (i) to process a given one of the communication service requests to identify at least one corresponding communication service supported by the communication application server, (ii) to determine one or more executable communication tasks associated with the identified communication service; and (iii) to establish communication with one or more external servers to carry out execution of at least a subset of the one or more executable communication taks associated with the communication service. The second component is coupled between the first component and the one or more external servers, and provides, for each of the external servers, a corresponding interface for connecting the communication application server to the external server.

A system and method for measuring user affinity in a social network environment is provided. One or more activities performed by a user associated with a social network environment are monitored. A relationship associated with the one or more activities is identified. An affinity for one or more objects associated with the social network environment is then determined based on the one or more activities and the relationship.

A system and business methodology for providing interactive and customizable digital full-motion, animated and static multimedia content, to be used for communicating unique personalized entertainment, information, and messages and advertising to be delivered via the internet, electronic mail, or any other methods of delivering interpersonal communications and messages. The communications and messages are initiated and received by senders and recipients visiting a host site of the system through the internet. Content within the customized communication includes content personally relevant to a user which is integrally associated with sponsorship or advertising information. Creation of a customized communication begins by selection of a content item by a user, which content may be personalized by graphical editing techniques. Personalized or non-personalized content may be executed in parallel or in series with other content items in a multilinear playback sequence compiled according to a predetermined script to produce a finished customized multimedia communication. The host site also provides other features and products desirable to users, such as screensavers, reminder services, etc.