425results about How to "Improve nature" patented technology

The present disclosure provides components useful in heating, particularly heating of an aerosol precursor solution so as to vaporize the solution and form an aerosol. The disclosure particularly provides an electrically conductive, porous carbon heater. The heater may be combined with an aerosol precursor transport element that also is formed of carbon. The heater and transport element may form an atomizer that can be useful in an electronic smoking article, such as in a cartridge that is adapted for attachment to a control body. In some embodiments, the disclosure provides a cartridge of an electronic smoking article, the cartridge being formed substantially completely of carbon.

A speech synthesizer is provided that concatenates stored samples of speech units without modifying the prosody of the samples. The present invention is able to achieve a high level of naturalness in synthesized speech with a carefully designed training speech corpus by storing samples based on the prosodic and phonetic context in which they occur. In particular, some embodiments of the present invention limit the training text to those sentences that will produce the most frequent sets of prosodic contexts for each speech unit. Further embodiments of the present invention also provide a multi-tier selection mechanism for selecting a set of samples that will produce the most natural sounding speech.

Assemblies, systems, and methods convey fluid from an internal wound site or body cavity by applying negative pressure from a source outside the internal wound site or body cavity through a wound drain assembly that is placed directly inside the internal wound site or body cavity.

Aspects of the present invention relate to systems and methods by which a player may remotely participate in casino gaming activity. Such aspects may include a video camera configured to provide visual data concerning the casino gaming activity to the player, a microphone configured to provide audio data concerning the casino gaming activity to the player, and a data network coupled with the video camera and the microphone. In such aspects, the player may be located in a hotel guest room, the hotel guest room may include a video display coupled with the data network, and one or more buttons of a remote control device associated with said video display may be configured to control said player's remote participation in the casino gaming activity.

The invention consists of a method, apparatus, and data structure that allows a player remotely located from wagering devices, such as slot machines, video lottery terminals (VLTs), etc., to make wagers on the wagering devices using funds on deposit in an account. The remote player may establish a communication link to the location where the wagering devices are housed through a remote-access service. After authentication of the player's identity, the player may be provided with a menu of available wagering devices. A wagering device computer network server, preferably coupled to video cameras, may transmit the image of the selected wagering device, or as appropriate, the video output of the wagering device, through telecommunications media, to the player. A pop-up control panel on the player's remote viewing system may provide graphical representations of the game play inputs of the actual wagering device, as well as a graphical display of current funds on account. The player may deposit money from an account directly into the wagering device via software controlled by icons in the pop-up control panel. The player then operates the selected device remotely through the graphical representations of the game play inputs in the pop-up control panel. Game play proceeds as per the attributes of the wagering device. Game play records and accounting may be kept on the wagering device, and the wagering device network server. The status of the player's current amount of money on deposit in the wagering device may be displayed on the device and transmitted to the player's remote viewing system in the video broadcast process. Upon conclusion of the gaming session, any money remaining on deposit in the wagering device may be transferred to the player's account. The invention also discloses a method, apparatus, and data structure for remote gaming. This may include a video display, a control device, a video / audio distribution amplifier, a video graphic overlay board, and apparatus for linking the video display and control device.

Systems and methods of creating talking books that employ photo-electronics to realize autonomous page recognition, are provided. More particularly, systems and methods are provided for employing one or more light sensing components (e.g., photoresistors, phototransistors, and photodiodes) on the pages of a book in order to recognize when a user is reading a particular page, or a pair of pages such that an audio segment associated to that page, or pair of pages, may be played. This invention also provides light sensing components that can recognize, and react to, user interactions with a talking book. Examples included playing a media segment or turning a particular LED ON for a particular action (e.g., covering an interacting light sensing component).

Techniques described herein relate to systems and methods of data storage, and more particularly to providing layering of file system functionality on an object interface. In certain embodiments, file system functionality may be layered on cloud object interfaces to provide cloud-based storage while allowing for functionality expected from a legacy applications. For instance, POSIX interfaces and semantics may be layered on cloud-based storage, while providing access to data in a manner consistent with file-based access with data organization in name hierarchies. Various embodiments also may provide for memory mapping of data so that memory map changes are reflected in persistent storage while ensuring consistency between memory map changes and writes. For example, by transforming a ZFS file system disk-based storage into ZFS cloud-based storage, the ZFS file system gains the elastic nature of cloud storage.

A fixture mounting assembly includes a mounting bracket for attaching, via a flange, to the outside wall of a building under construction. A mounting block for holding the fixture in place against the wall fits within the mounting bracket. The mounting bracket includes a flashing component extending from the front face of the mounting bracket such that the mounting block is held in place by being at least partially surrounded by the flashing component. The fixture mounting assembly is useful but not limited to construction in which fiber cement siding will surround the outside wall and the associated fixture.

A bottle is provided with a cap. The cap includes a container that may be externally opened while the cap seals material inside the bottle. Thus, a user may retrieve items from inside the cap (e.g., dietary supplements or candy such as mini M&Ms) before opening the bottle (by removing the cap) and using the material inside of the bottle (e.g., a water or a soft drink).

Techniques described herein relate to systems and methods of data storage, and more particularly to providing layering of file system functionality on an object interface. In certain embodiments, file system functionality may be layered on cloud object interfaces to provide cloud-based storage while allowing for functionality expected from a legacy applications. For instance, POSIX interfaces and semantics may be layered on cloud-based storage, while providing access to data in a manner consistent with file-based access with data organization in name hierarchies. Various embodiments also may provide for memory mapping of data so that memory map changes are reflected in persistent storage while ensuring consistency between memory map changes and writes. For example, by transforming a ZFS file system disk-based storage into ZFS cloud-based storage, the ZFS file system gains the elastic nature of cloud storage.