792results about How to "Performance" patented technology

A system for automatically creating and maintaining a database of information utilizing user opinions about subjects, particularly exceptional experiences. Described is an Internet system assisting/motivating a population of users interested in information about certain categories of subjects to automatically maintain the database content and to improve the usefulness and quality of the database information without any substantial management by the website owner-manager. The user opinions are primarily in the form of both comments and ratings about which natural-language terms best describe a particular subject, enabling user searches of the subject database to be by way of preferred such descriptive natural-language terms, which terms are further preferred to be evaluative and approving.

A system for automatically creating and maintaining a database of information utilizing user opinions about subjects, particularly exceptional experiences. Described is an Internet system assisting/motivating a population of users interested in information about certain categories of subjects to automatically maintain the database content and to improve the usefulness and quality of the database information without any substantial management by the website owner-manager. The user opinions are primarily in the form of both comments and ratings about which natural-language terms best describe a particular subject, enabling user searches of the subject database to be by way of preferred such descriptive natural-language terms, which terms are further preferred to be evaluative and approving. Also, a system for automatically creating and maintaining a database of information utilizing user knowledge about sales related subjects. Described is an Internet-based system for assisting/motivating a population of users interested in information about certain categories of sales related subjects to automatically maintain the database content and to improve the usefulness and quality of the database information without any substantial management by the website owner-manager. The user opinions are primarily in the form of both comments and ratings of which sales related subjects best provide assistance in completing a sale.

A fluid storage and dispensing system comprising a vessel for holding a fluid at a desired pressure. The vessel has a pressure regulator, e.g., a single-stage or multi-stage regulator, associated with a port of the vessel, and set at a predetermined pressure. A dispensing assembly, e.g., including a flow control means such as a valve, is arranged in gas/vapor flow communication with the regulator, whereby the opening of the valve effects dispensing of gas/vapor from the vessel. The fluid in the vessel may be constituted by a liquid that is confined in the vessel at a pressure in excess of its liquefaction pressure at prevailing temperature conditions, e.g., ambient (room) temperature. In another aspect, the vessel contains a solid-phase sorbent material having sorbable gas adsorbed thereon, at a pressure in excess of 50 psig. The vessel may have a >1 inch NGT threaded neck opening, to accommodate the installation of an interior regulator.

Haptic feedback interface devices using electroactive polymer (EAP) actuators to provide haptic sensations and/or sensing capabilities. A haptic feedback interface device is in communication with a host computer and includes a sensor device that detects the manipulation of the interface device by the user and an electroactive polymer actuator responsive to input signals and operative to output a force to the user caused by motion of the actuator. The output force provides a haptic sensation to the user. Various embodiments of interface devices employing EAP actuators are described, including embodiments providing direct forces, inertial forces, and braking forces.

A system for optimizing the performance of a website that runs on one or more HTTP servers and is configured to receive HTTP requests from one or more clients via user agents and provide HTTP responses to the one or more clients includes an intermediary component configured to connect to the clients and the servers via network connections. The intermediary component includes a traffic management system (TMS) that includes means for managing HTTP requests originating from the clients and targeting the servers and HTTP responses originating from the servers and targeting the clients and means for redirecting the HTTP requests to the intermediary component. The intermediary component further includes a traffic processing system that includes means for receiving the redirected HTTP requests and the HTTP responses and means for applying optimization techniques to the redirected HTTP requests and the HTTP responses.

Exemplary embodiments of methods and apparatuses to dynamically redistribute computational processes in a system that includes a plurality of processing units are described. The power consumption, the performance, and the power/performance value are determined for various computational processes between a plurality of subsystems where each of the subsystems is capable of performing the computational processes. The computational processes are exemplarily graphics rendering process, image processing process, signal processing process, Bayer decoding process, or video decoding process, which can be performed by a central processing unit, a graphics processing units or a digital signal processing unit. In one embodiment, the distribution of computational processes between capable subsystems is based on a power setting, a performance setting, a dynamic setting or a value setting.

An apparatus for assessing human physical performance includes one or more force measuring devices; one or more instruments for measuring at least one of kinesthetic, vestibular, visual, auditory, somatosensory, or cardiovascular information; a control apparatus; a computing apparatus; a storage apparatus; an input apparatus; and an output apparatus. The apparatus may also include one or more instruments for measuring at least one of vestibular, visual, or somatosensory information. In addition, methods may be used to assess human physical performance by assessing one or more of: (1) muscular performance; (2) postural balance/equilibrium and nervous system processing of kinesthetic information; (3) postural balance/equilibrium and nervous system processing of at least one of vestibular, visual, auditory, or somatosensory information; (4) postural balance/equilibrium and at least one other physiological parameter; or (5) neuromuscular abilities of a person during a movement requiring power followed by a stabilization period.

A clipping device comprises: a clip loaded into a forward end portion of a sheath; a manipulating wire connected to a rear end of the clip; and a retention ring fitted onto the clip and fitted into the sheath so as to be capable of advancing and retreating. The retention ring includes: a resin retaining portion which has two or more skirt portions which, when being situated inside the sheath, are closed inwardly by being pressed by an inner wall of the sheath and which, when being situated outside of a forward end of the sheath, are opened in a width larger than an inner diameter of the sheath to prevent retreat into the sheath, and a metal clamping portion arranged on a forward end side of the retaining portion and, when being situated on a forward end side of the clip, abutting the clip to clamp it.

The present invention discloses a laminate-based electromechanical device and a method of fabricating laminate-based electromechanical devices. The device includes two or more layers of laminate bonded together to form a unitary laminate structure. The layers of laminate include a layer of organic dielectric material that may have at least a portion of one layer of electrically conductive material adherent thereto. The layers of organic dielectric material are bonded to form a unitary laminate structure through a process of lamination. The structures that make up the electromechanical device may be formed either before or after bonding. In particular, the various electromechanical structures that make up the electromechanical device are formed from the layers of organic dielectric material and the layers of electrically conductive material adherent thereto using a predetermined sequence of additive and subtractive fabrication techniques.

A coolable airfoil structure having internal heat transfer features through which cooling air is flowed under operative conditions is disclosed. Various construction details and features are developed which affect the castability and core strength during manufacture and strength and cooling effectiveness of the airfoil after manufacture. In one particular embodiment, the airfoil has a plurality of heat transfer members disposed in the rearmost section of the trailing edge region which comprises a single impingement rib, a single row of pedestals and a single row of chordwisely extending flow dividers.

A method of fabricating a CMOS inverter including providing a heterostructure having a Si substrate, a relaxed Si_1-xGe_x layer on the Si substrate, and a strained surface layer on said relaxed Si_1-xGe_x layer; and integrating a pMOSFET and an nMOSFET in said heterostructure, wherein the channel of said pMOSFET and the channel of the nMOSFET are formed in the strained surface layer. Another embodiment provides a method of fabricating an integrated circuit including providing a heterostructure having a Si substrate, a relaxed Si_1-xGe_x layer on the Si substrate, and a strained layer on the relaxed Si_1-xGe_x layer; and forming a p transistor and an n transistor in the heterostructure, wherein the strained layer comprises the channel of the n transistor and the p transistor, and the n transistor and the p transistor are interconnected in a CMOS circuit.

A computer graphics system provides for processing image data including Z data for use in displaying three-dimensional images on a display unit. The system includes: a depth buffer providing for temporary storage of Z data; and a graphics processing unit having a graphics engine for generating image data including Z data, and a memory interface unit communicatively coupled to the graphics engine and communicatively coupled to the depth buffer via a depth buffer interface. The graphics processing unit is operative to compress at least a portion of the generated Z data, to write the compressed portion of Z data to the depth buffer via the depth buffer interface in a compressed format, to read portions of compressed Z data from the depth buffer via the depth buffer interface, and to decompress the compressed Z data read from the buffer. An advantage of the present invention is that effective Z data bandwidth through the depth buffer interface is maximized in order to facilitate fast depth buffer access operations.

A system integrates an intelligent storage switch with a flexible virtualization system to enable efficient service of file and block protocol data access requests for information stored on the system. A storage operating system executing on a storage system coupled to the switch implements the virtualization system to provide a unified view of storage to clients by logically organizing the information as named files, directories and logical unit numbers. The virtualization system is illustratively embodied as a file system having a write allocator configured to provide a flexible block numbering policy that addresses volume management capabilities, such as storage virtualization, at a finer granularity (e.g., a single block) than that of previous non-flexible storage virtualization schemes. The flexible block numbering policy also yields substantial benefits in terms of increased write efficiency and elimination of storage “hot spots”, as well as a compelling point-in-time read-only data image (snapshot) mechanism.

A method and system for stress testing database storage. Stress testing software generates read and/or write commands to a database engine. Preferably, the read and write commands adhere to a desired ratio of reads to writes. The commands are interpreted by the database engine. The database engine issues read and/or write instructions to a database storage system. Multiple instances of the stress testing software may be spawned against a plurality of databases in order to achieve a desired aggregate rate of operations to the database storage system. Performance measurements of the database storage system are obtained and may be used for evaluation of the database storage system. Advantageously, the performance of a database storage system may be tested and measured without the encumbrances of transaction processing overhead due to actual database processing.

A method and apparatus for multiplexing positive or negative acknowledgement signals (ACK or NACK, respectively) and channel quality indication (CQI) signals from a user equipment (UE) to a serving base station (Node B) during a CQI transmission time interval (TTI) in a single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) communication system. The UE does not have simultaneous data transmission. The multiplexing of acknowledgement signals is implicitly achieved by the UE applying different orthogonal covers on the reference signal (RS) symbols transmitted in the CQI TTI, depending on whether the UE sends ACK or NACK. At the Node B receiver, the detection of ACK or NACK is based on the accumulated RS energy, after removing each of the possible orthogonal covers applied at the UE transmitter. For robust system performance, absence of ACK/NACK and NACK are mapped onto the same orthogonal cover.

A method for assisting in a handover is provided that includes utilizing a link between a centralized access controller (CAC) and customer premises equipment (CPE) to facilitate a communication session involving a mobile station. The method also includes rejecting a handover from a public network to a cell controlled by the CAC after recognizing, in advance, that sufficient resources are unavailable for supporting a channel to be employed for the handover.

A fluid storage and dispensing system including a vessel for holding a fluid, an adjustable set point pressure regulator in the interior volume of the vessel, a dispensing assembly in fluid flow communication with the regulator for dispensing fluid at a pressure determined by the set point of the regulator, and an adjusting assembly exterior to the vessel for in situ adjustment of the set point of the internally disposed regulator. By such arrangement, fluid storage and dispensing operations can have respectively differing regulator set point pressures, as for example a sub-atmospheric pressure set point for storage and a super-atmospheric pressure set point for dispensing.

A prosthetic spinal implant having a deployable securing mechanism that is deployable into a portion of the vertebral space for affixing the implant between the vertebrae, the securing mechanism having tactile feedback means comprising a surface for transmitting tactile feedback during deployment of the securing mechanism. A spinal implant having deployable securing means that interface with the implant to prevent the deployable securing means from retracting after deployment. An implant that utilizes its resilient properties to provide the user with tactile feedback with which the user may ascertain the position of the securing mechanism. A system and tools for sizing and implanting implants with the aforementioned characteristics.