96results about How to "Provide efficiency" patented technology

A system and method is provided for incentivizing players to visit a gambling location. In one aspect, a qualified person is invited to play an electronic game which has a plurality of outcomes, at least one of which is a winning outcome. One aspect relates to accumulating outcomes. Another relates to incentives provided to player program member(s). In some embodiments, the person does not need to be qualified. In one embodiment, the person may be required to redeem the outcome at the gambling location, in another at a redemption location. In one embodiment, a player is required to take an action in order to redeem an outcome. In some embodiments, game play and / or redemption and / or any action must occur in a specified time, respectively. In one embodiment the electronic game is not located at a gambling location, in another it is not located at a redemption location. According to another aspect, redemption systems and methods are provided for facilitating determination and validation of bonus awards by a bonus game operator. According to one embodiment, processing of redemption occurs at a gambling location using equipment connected to a bonus game operator, that retrieves awards corresponding to player entries.

A method and a device for joining a remotely controlled switching and current sensing AC device structured for attachment to standard and popular three way SPDT AC switches or cross DPDT AC switches and / or power outlets, such that the front wall plate of a single gang electrical box will cover the joined AC device with the manual switch or the AC outlet. The AC device is operated and communicates via lightguide or fiber optic cable using two way optical signals and via IR in air in line of sight and / or via RF in air. The lightguide is cascaded in series from one AC device to another and / or from a joint switch device to a joined AC outlet and to an optoport in front of an outlet socket for communicating the current drain and / or operation controls with the appliance, powered by the AC socket, via a lightguide included in the power cable with plug assembly of the appliance.

A relevancy ranking and clustering method and system that determines the relevance of a document relative to a user's query using a similarity comparison process. Input queries are parsed into one or more query predicate structures using an ontological parser. The ontological parser parses a set of known documents to generate one or more document predicate structures. A comparison of each query predicate structure with each document predicate structure is performed to determine a matching degree, represented by a real number. A multilevel modifier strategy is implemented to assign different relevance values to the different parts of each predicate structure match to calculate the predicate structure's matching degree. The relevance of a document to a user's query is determined by calculating a similarity coefficient, based on the structures of each pair of query predicates and document predicates. Documents are autonomously clustered using a self-organizing neural network that provides a coordinate system that makes judgments in a non-subjective fashion.

A blanking panel is provided for use with equipment racks or enclosures that house electronic components, and is configured to facilitate installation of the panel with a pair of vertical mounting rails or flanges of a rack or enclosure without the use of tools or other hardware. The blanking panel is constructed of one or more materials and / or defines one or more configurations such that when the blanking panel is installed into a rack or enclosure, portions of a body of the blanking panel interface with a surface of an equipment component or another blanking panel installed above or below the blanking panel to thereby form an air seal there between, which helps to reduce or prevent hot exhaust air from mixing with cooling air within a rack or enclosure, and further helps to reduce or prevent cooling air from bypassing equipment components.

A scheme for allowing logical routers to achieve data path efficiency and still maintain network visible virtual links is provided by allowing logical routers in the same physical router to share routing information using standard protocols in place of proprietary route leaking, and by analyzing received data packets to determine if they are tandem data packets or terminating data packets. Tandem data packets are routed directly to egress ports with a single pass through the switch fabric to achieve efficiency, while the TTL value of the packet is decremented twice to maintain the external appearance of the separation of the logical routers. Terminating data packets are routed to other logical routers over virtual links to allow network visibility of the inter-logical router links.

A method and a device for joining a remotely controlled switching and current sensing AC device structured for attachment to standard and popular three way SPDT AC switches or cross DPDT AC switches and / or power outlets, such that the front wall plate of a single gang electrical box will cover the joined AC device with the manual switch or the AC outlet. The AC device is operated and communicates via lightguide or fiber optic cable using two way optical signals and via IR in air in line of sight and / or via RF in air. The lightguide is cascaded in series from one AC device to another and / or from a joint switch device to a joined AC outlet and to an optoport in front of an outlet socket for communicating the current drain and / or operation controls with the appliance, powered by the AC socket, via a lightguide included in the power cable with plug assembly of the appliance.

Certain embodiments of the invention may be found in a method and system for antenna selection diversity with prediction. An antenna diversity system may use information that it has stored on the antenna selection process in previous frames to predict the starting receiving antenna and the starting transmission antenna for the next frame. The prediction may be based on which antennas were selected in previous frames or may be based metrics associated with performance of the antennas. Prediction may be based on a majority polling scheme of previously selected antennas in a determined number of previous frames. Prediction may also be based on a weighted sum of at least one selection metric for all antennas in a determined number of previous frames. Antenna prediction provides a significant performance improvement by reducing the processing and operational overhead in cases where a transmit or a receive antenna dominates.

An outdoor shading device includes a supporting frame, a shading awning supported by the supporting frame to define a shading area underneath the shading awning, and a solar power system. The solar power system includes a solar collecting unit having a solar collecting surface overlapped on the shading awning for solar energy collection, and a power storage supported at the supporting frame to electrically connect to the solar collecting unit, wherein when the shading awning is orientated for providing shade from the sun, the solar collecting surface of the solar collecting unit is aligned with the direction of the sun to maximize the solar energy collection, such that after the solar energy is collected, the solar collecting unit converts the solar energy into electrical energy and stored in the power storage.

A transmission is provided with a reverse input split mode and, preferably, a reverse low fixed speed ratio which provides sufficient reverse grade performance while allowing motor size and planetary and transmission ratios to be optimized for fuel economy or other design criteria. Engine-on reverse performance is improved, reducing dependence on the battery and electric motors to meet reverse grade performance requirements.

A system and method are disclosed for calibrating a plurality of projectors for three-dimensional scene reconstruction. The system includes a plurality of projectors and at least one camera, a camera-projector calibration module and a projector-projector calibration module. The camera-projector calibration module is configured to calibrate a first projector with the camera and generate a first camera-projector calibration data using camera-projector duality. The camera-projector calibration module is also configured to calibrate a second projector with the camera and generate a second camera-projector calibration data. The projector-projector calibration module is configured to calibrate the first and the second projector using the first and the second camera-projector calibration data.

A heat exchanger has tubes defining refrigerant passages therein and fins disposed between the tubes. The tubes have tube main walls opposed to each other. The fins are joined to the tube main walls. The tube main walls have projections that project inside of the tubes and define recesses on outer sides of the tubes. Each of the tubes has an outer dimension, in a direction perpendicular to the tube main walls, in a range between equal to or greater than 0.8 mm and equal to or less than 1.9 mm.

Certain embodiments of the invention may be found in a method and system for antenna selection diversity with prediction. An antenna diversity system may use information that it has stored on the antenna selection process in previous frames to predict the starting receiving antenna and the starting transmission antenna for the next frame. The prediction may be based on which antennas were selected in previous frames or may be based metrics associated with performance of the antennas. Prediction may be based on a majority polling scheme of previously selected antennas in a determined number of previous frames. Prediction may also be based on a weighted sum of at least one selection metric for all antennas in a determined number of previous frames. Antenna prediction provides a significant performance improvement by reducing the processing and operational overhead in cases where a transmit or a receive antenna dominates.

A unique laparoscopy instrument tip and method which allows simultaneous gasping, cauterization, dissection, containment, enclosure and removal of body tissue. Mechanisms for grasping, holding, manipulating, cauterizing, dissecting, encasement in an enclosed cavity and removing the tissue are provided in one implement allowing easy, safe and quick performance of the procedure.

In accordance with one aspect of the present disclosure, an LED decorative lamp is provided. The LED decorative lamp comprises a light engine having at least one LED mounted on a platform, a current regulated driver configured to provide power to the at least one LED, the driver mounted inside a base, a substantially hollow envelope forming an enclosure over the light engine and driver, and a reflector disposed above the light engine. The reflector is configured to improve the light distribution of the at least one LED.

A method and apparatus for cleaning exterior surfaces, particularly aircraft exteriors, which method and apparatus applies cleaning solution to a soiled surface, scours the surface, squeegees the contaminated solution from the surface and evacuates it through a vacuum manifold for collection and environmentally appropriate disposal. Applicant's method and apparatus are designed principally to alleviate the problem of toxic run-off and ground water pollution as attends present-day wash-rack or bucket and brush type washing operations. Applicant's method and apparatus are also beneficial from a convenience standpoint, as an aircraft may be cleaned in any location without the necessity of removing the aircraft to a maintenance facility. Applicant's method and apparatus are also useful for other exterior surfaces, such as for cleaning skyscraper surfaces.

An exhaust gas stack includes an elongate, tubular stack member having inlet and outlet ends and a central longitudinal axis. An end section is mounted on the outlet end and has open first and second ends, the first end connected to the outlet end of the stack member and a frustoconical passage extending between these ends. An inner duct section has a central axis co-axial with the axis of the stack member and is mounted centrally in the end section. An annular gas passage is formed between the duct section and the end section. An air plug is movable between an open position at which exhaust gases can flow through the inner duct section and another position at which the plug restricts or prevents passage of exhaust gases through this duct section. An actuator is connected to the plug in order to move it between an open and other positions.

The invention discloses an air cushion bed system and an air charging and deflating pressure regulating system and method. The air charging and deflating pressure regulating system is used for the air cushion bed provided with at least two air pipelines, and the air charging and deflating pressure regulating system comprises an air charging and deflating device, a pressure detection unit and a control unit. The air charging and deflating device is used for charging or deflating air for the air cushion bed; the pressure detection unit is used for continuously detecting an instant pressure value of the air cushion bed; the control unit is used for obtaining the instant pressure value detected by the air cushion bed in a loading state according to the pressure detection unit, and whether the instant pressure value reaches the preset pressure value before setting time is up or not is judged; the control unit determines a first air charging and deflating strategy or a second air charging and deflating strategy according to judge results to control the air charging and deflating device to charge or deflate the air for the air cushion bed.