819 results about "Communications software" patented technology

An Internet (or World-Wide-Web or other such public or private network) based business card and contact management system capable of conveying and managing advertising as well as traditional and other non-traditional business contact information. The invention is a system that: (1) accepts a Universal Contact Locator (UCL) as encoded on a business card in man and / or machine readable format and, when the Universal Contact Locator (UCL) is entered into a client program running on a client computer, (2) causes a web browser (or like program) and associated communications software to establish a communications session with a remote server computer which (3) accesses the stored contact and advertisement and news information of the card issuer associated with the Universal Contact Locator and (4) downloads the business contact and / or personal contact information and targeted advertisements and news items associated with the Universal Contact Locator to a client program running on a client computer which (5) loads the contact data into the Contact Management or Personal Information Management (PIM) system of the users choosing running on the users client computer and (6) stores the advertisements and news items downloaded from the server computer on the client computer's secondary storage device (i.e. hard disk) and (7) causes the advertisements and news items stored on the client computer's secondary storage device to be displayed to the user on a predetermined schedule in a portion of the client computer's output device (i.e. CRT or LCD panel).

A system to monitor and report the use of communication software applications in a computing environment including an instant messaging system, that provides local users with information describing detected uses of communication software applications by remote users. The monitored communication applications may include, for example, electronic mail, voice over IP applications, on-line meetings, and other specific types of communication applications, as well as instant messaging activities. The system potentially stores specific information regarding each use of the monitored communication applications, and sends the communication application information to one or more server process that stores the information in association with a user identifier provided with the information. The stored communication application information is then broadcast by the server process to client processes that have registered with the server process to receive communication application information associated with that user identifier.

It will be well known that a so-called object-oriented approach to computer programming has become widespread over the past few years and applications such as large multiplayer games are no exception. A number of approaches to allowing objects to communicate with one another have been developed. One set of these approaches relate to allowing so-called distributed objects, which is to say objects distributed over a client / server system, to communicate with one another. With reference to applications such as large multiplayer games, dynamic real time distributed communications between mobile objects must be considered. Present day techniques, involving the use of simple TCP / IP or UDP / IP, CORBA or DCOM are unable to provide such real time dynamic performance. According to one aspect of the invention a method of providing communication between two or more application software elements is provided comprising associating each application software element with a communication software element through which to send and / or receive messages, holding the communication state of the associated application software element in each communication software element, allowing each application software element to communicate with other application software elements by sending and receiving messages through the respectively associated communication software elements and allowing each application software element and associated communication software element to move. Holding the communication state in the communication software element associated with each application software element allows the application software element and communication software element assembly to communicate and move in particularly dynamic fashion. Messaging consequently enabled, carried out on a per software element basis, allows for continuity of communication between objects even if they move in a dynamic fashion.

A computer peripheral device used for communication and computing input is provided comprising a digital medium for storing data and software, a processor for controlling computing functions, a power source, a motion detection sensor, communication software residing on and executable from the digital medium, computing input device software residing on and executable from the digital medium, a user interface for enabling user control and task performance, and a wireless transceiver for enabling wireless communication.

Methods and systems provide for sharing information between computer networks in which the information to be shared is required at one location (e.g. for the provision of a data-processing service) but is only available at a separate location. The information may be deliberately absent (e.g. for privacy reasons) or may be unavailable as an artifact of the computer network(s) involved. For the provision of a data-processing service, where several different devices on one network may service contiguous requests from a client device on another network according to a load-balancing strategy, data is propagated once only through the service network. Network communication software is subsequently amended to provide the minimal information necessary for a device on the service network to retrieve the information pertinent to the client device and necessary for its service. Therefore, a web-based single sign-on scheme can operate over HTTP to authorize data-processing services, such as web-filtering services.

The present invention discloses a method of logging on a third party server through instant communication software. In the method, when the user logs on the instant communication IM server through a single-point logging-on SSI server, the client acquires the authority certificate information of the user to log on the third party server from the SSI server, according to the operating command of the user, and then transmits the login request information with the authority certificate information to the third party server; the authority certificate information is encrypted by a first secret key corresponding to the third party server; the third party server deciphers the authority certificate information in the login request information according to the first secret key; the user logs on after the identity of the user is confirmed at the client. The user can log on the IM server through the client, and can visit all the mutually trusting application systems only by inputting the name and the password of the user once. Therefore, the method simplifies the operating processes of the user, and improves the experience of the user to certain extent.

An approach for providing multi-user access to a packet switched network via a shared Ethernet-based local area network (LAN) is disclosed. Multiple end user stations are connected to the LAN, in which each of end user stations executes a communication software. The communication software is based upon a communication protocol (e.g., Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)) that establishes a point-to-point communication session. The end user stations generate packets based upon the communication protocol. In addition, each of the end user stations selectively encapsulates the communication protocol packets using the Ethernet-based LAN protocol. Further, attached to the LAN is a customer premise equipment (CPE), which transmits the encapsulated packets to a line terminating equipment, which according to one embodiment is a digital subscriber line (DSL) access multiplexer that is located in a central office. The line terminating equipment transports the multiple PPP sessions to a multiplexer / demultiplexer, which is located within a regional carrier's network. In one embodiment, the multiplexer / demultiplexer is an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) switch, which simultaneously transports the multiple PPP sessions over a single permanent virtual circuit (PVC); VPI / VCIs (Virtual Path Identifier / Virtual Connection Identifier) are mapped to the multiple PPP sessions. The multiple PPP sessions are terminated at a remote access server, which recovers and forwards the packets to a backbone router. Thereafter, the backbone router forwards the packets to the packet switched network.

A computerized vending machine comprising a micro-controller, a network interface and a large touch screen is provided. The machine is further part of a larger networked system. The system is administrated with the use of a computer network linked by modem or other communication means, comprising a server and its database, administration and communication software. The vending machines are equipped with computer systems allowing for remote inventory management and methods to put products on the market which are offered via a vending machine including medical or other supplies. The display screen acts as interface between a user and the machine and can also be used for multimedia presentation such as advertisement.

A computerized password verification system and associated method is disclosed for discreet recognition and reporting of a duress transaction being imposed upon a user at an ATM or other remote cash-dispensing terminal. The inventive system utilizes conventional ATM hardware including a card reader, keypad and display together with its associated operating and communications software required for transaction processing, and further comprises the programmed generation and display screen of a list of transaction acceptance passwords (TAPs) with a prompt to the user for a TAP selection to confirm the validity of the immediate transaction. The prompted display of the TAP list appears following the initial acceptance of the user's personal identification number (PIN) and requires the ATM user to select the TAP from the list that is currently registered to the user. While selection of the user's current TAP from the prompted list verifies the immediate transaction, the selection of any other TAP from the displayed list would constitute a “panic” TAP that triggers the generation of a silent alert signal to the authorities.