41 results about "Incremental costs" patented technology

A system and method for retrieving information from the Internet with a digital text messaging capable phone. The system includes a retrieval computer, a plurality of user computers, and a plurality of content server computers interconnected via a communications medium, which includes the Internet. A user registers with the system and stipulates the information that they desire to remotely retrieve and provide the phone number of the cellular phone to which they wish the information to be provided. A user calls a phone number corresponding to the information that they wish to retrieve. The system employs a caller ID procedure to identify the caller and extracts the information from the content server maintaining the information. The system then sends a text message containing the information to the user's cellular phone. The system is adapted to provide the information retrieval at no incremental cost to the user.

Embodiments generally disclosed herein include methods and systems for calculating incremental network costs between logical city pairs in a network (each city pair being in communication across the network via one or more physical links). For example, the method includes a cost analyzer that, for each physical link in the network, determines a steady state capacity allocation associated with each city pair in the network and, in the same vein, determines a restoration capacity allocation associated with each city pair in the network. The cost analyzer is capable of calculating an incremental cost per unit of traffic for a given city pair based on: i) the steady state capacity allocation and a restoration capacity allocation associated with a given city pair, as compared to, ii) the aggregate steady state capacity allocations and restoration capacity allocations associated with each city pair in the network.

In one embodiment, an HSDPA co-processor for 3GPP Release 6 Category 8 (7.2 Mb / s) HSDPA that provides all chip-rate, symbol-rate, physical-channel, and transport-channel processing for HSDPA in 90 nm CMOS. The co-processor design is scalable to all HSDPA data rates up to 14 Mb / s. The coprocessor implements an Advanced Receiver based on an NLMS equalizer, supports RX diversity and TX diversity, and provides up to 6.4 dB better performance than a typical single-antenna rake receiver. Thus, 3GPP R6 HSDPA functionality can be added to a legacy R99 modem using an HSDPA co-processor consistent with embodiments of the present invention, at a reasonable incremental cost and power.

A method and apparatus for determining an incremental cost of insurance for the operation of a motor vehicle and billing the same to an operator of the vehicle. The system uses an internal system for determining one or more operational factors associated with the vehicle, such as its geographic location, speed, acceleration, etc, in at least near real time, and recording the information in a database. From this information incremental insurance cost information is determined relating to the cost of insuring the vehicle for a predetermined time during, for example one day. The insurance cost information is transmitted to a contracting company, which may comprise an underwriting company responsible for providing the insurance coverage for the vehicle. The invention makes it possible for an operator to better gauge how driving habits and / or usage of the vehicle affect the cost of the insurance, as well as providing insurance companies with near real time information from which even more accurate determinations of risk can be made, and insurance costs to the operator adjusted accordingly.

Systems and methods for calculating and predicting performance characteristics, incremental heat rate, capacity, incremental costs, production cost and emissions, for electric power generation plants, and in particular, those that use steam and gas-turbine prime movers. The system includes models and modules for calculating current unit performance and predicting unit performance, including the incremental heat rate and maximum capacity, using unit operating parameters, unit configuration data, and fuel constituency data. The system further includes a module for forecasting or predicting unit performance and cost information, by allowing the user to alter unit configuration and fuel constituency data to model planned maintenance and projected fuel changes, and to account for anticipated atmospheric conditions.

A network controller including a packet forwarding mechanism and method therefor improve load-balancing within a network system without requiring an intelligent switch having TCP splicing capability. If the network controller node is becoming overloaded (for example as indicated by a full output FIFO), the network controller forwards connections directly to alternate servers. The network controller and method further provide improved fail-safe operation, as the network controller can more easily detect failure of the coupled server than can a remote switch being monitored for failure of a connected server node. The packet forwarding mechanism can be implemented very compactly within the firmware of the network controller, providing a load-balancing solution with little incremental cost (as opposed to an intelligent switch solution) and with tight coupling to the server, providing a redirection solution from the point that has the most information available regarding the status of the associated server node.

A magnet arrangement which is usable as both a retrofit magnetic arrangement in a rotatable cylindrical magnetron sputtering electrode as well as a drive assembly in communication with the electrode for delivering high current into a target surface without adding highly incremental cost to the overall design of the electrode. The electrode includes a cathode body defining a magnet receiving chamber, a rotatable cylindrical target surrounding the cathode body, wherein the target is rotatable about the cathode body. The cathode body further defines a magnet arrangement received within the magnet receiving chamber, wherein the magnet arrangement comprised of a plurality of magnets wherein at least one of the magnets is a profiled magnet having a contoured top portion.

A semiconductor package and substrate having multi-level plated vias provide a high density blind via solution at low incremental cost. Via are half-plated atop a circuit pattern and then a second via half is added to complete the via after isolation of elements of the circuit pattern. Successive resist pattern applications and etching are used to form a via tier atop a circuit pattern that is connected by a thin plane of metal. After the tier is deposited, the thin metal plane is etched to isolate the circuit pattern elements. Dielectric is then deposited and the top half of the via is deposited over the tier. The tier may have a larger or smaller diameter with respect to the other half of the via, so that the via halves may be properly registered. Tin plating may also be used to control the etching process to provide etching control.

In a class of minimum cost flow control (MCFC) algorithms for adjusting session rates or window sizes congestion control is achieved through consideration of an incremental cost function that addresses link congestion, and an incremental cost function that addresses the cost of providing less than the desired transmission rate. A coarse version of the algorithm is geared towards implementation in the current Internet, relying on the end-to-end packet loss observations as indication of congestion. A more complete version anticipates an Internet where sessions can solicit explicit congestion information through a concise probing mechanism.

The invention provides an event trigger consistency algorithm-based economic dispatching method for a power system. Each generator set in the power system builds an incremental cost-related distributed event trigger mechanism and an incremental cost consistency updating algorithm on the basis of the mechanism by own information and the information of other adjacent generator sets in a communication network; and optimization of total power generation cost is achieved under the premise of meeting the power balance of the power system. On the basis of ensuring that an economic dispatching task is effectively finished, on-demand transmission of the information among the generator sets is achieved; the pressure of the communication network is greatly reduced; congestion of the communication network is avoided; and safe and stable operation of the power system is ensured.

The invention discloses a distributed automatic dispatching method for a power system with accurate network loss calculation capability. A power flow tracing method and an electrical dissecting method are creatively utilized to calculate the power loss of each generator. The invention provides a method for relatively accurately calculating network loss. By a two-layer consistency algorithm, the marginal cost tends to be consistent finally; each node has respective load and power generation information, so that the nodes have respective power deviations; the power deviation consistency is ensured by a relatively low layer with the average consistency; and the target that the incremental cost of each generator tends to be consistent is achieved by a relatively high layer with the incremental cost consistency. Through the distributed control algorithm, the economic dispatching problem in the power system can be solved under the condition of reducing the communication cost.

The invention related to an economic dispatching method for a power distribution network and especially relates to a real-time distributed economic dispatching method for the power distribution network. According to the invention, the method comprises the steps: taking the minimum power generation cost as an economic dispatching target of a power system, wherein a power generation cost function isa secondary function of generated power; taking an external power grid as a virtual generator, and expressing the cost function through a secondary function, but supposing that the output power of the cost function is zero; taking the incremental cost of each generator set as a consistency variable, and enabling the incremental cost of each generator set to be convergent to a consistency value through a distributed consistency algorithm, thereby obtaining an optimal solution of economic dispatching. According to the invention, the external power grid is equivalent to the virtual generator which participates in the economic dispatching, and the method takes the incremental cost as the consistency variable. Only the active power exchanged between the power distribution network and the external power grid needs to be measured, and there is no need of other global information, thereby overcoming a difficulty that a conventional distributed economic dispatching algorithm needs to obtain the system power difference or total load.

A predication control based multi-time-lag intelligent power grid economic scheduling method relates to intelligent power grid scheduling. The method includes 1, constructing a network structure typological graph and obtaining an adjacent matrix, a degree matrix and a Laplacian matrix; 2, constructing a mathematic model for intelligent power grid economic scheduling and acquiring system parameters; 3, designing a power generation device output state predicator; 4, giving initial values of the power generation devices; 5, setting a communication mode so as to enable each power generation device to communicate with an adjacent device only, operating a distributive control algorithm and adjusting the state of each node; 6, judging whether the incremental cost state of all the nodes achieves consistence or not, if the consistence is achieved, turning to step 7, and if the consistence is not achieved, returning to step 5; 7, obtaining the optimal solution of the intelligent power grid economic scheduling problem.

A method and apparatus for operating a production system that includes a plurality of production facilities is provided. The method includes receiving, in real-time, for each facility, cost data for a first resource used by each respective facility to produce an output, receiving, in real-time, for each facility, cost data for a second resource used by each respective facility to produce the output, determining, in real-time; an automated incremental cost curve for the system based on a level of production of each facility and the received resource cost data, and determining a production output target for each production facility to achieve an optimum production system output based on the real-time incremental cost curves. The system includes at least one production facility that includes a software code segment programmed to determine, in real-time, an incremental cost of a first resource based on a level of production of each respective facility.

A process and computer program product for adjusting a price derived from a benchmark computer service model to a price of a computer service contract, or vice versa. Differences in service between the benchmark computer service model and the computer service contract are determined. Then, a price adjustment due to the differences is determined. The price adjustment may be based on incremental cost of labor and tools to account for the differences between the benchmark computer service and the computer service contract. Then, the price of the benchmark computer service model is compared to the price of the computer service contract with the price adjustment. The benchmark computer service model and the computer service contract can both include computer program support services, computer hardware support services, a help desk call center service and / or network maintenance services. The differences between the benchmark computer service and the computer service contract may comprise a difference in type of a computer service, a quantity of a computer service, quality of a computer service, and / or complexity of a computer service. The differences may comprise support for a customer's computer hardware or computer programs which is more difficult to support than computer hardware or computer programs specified in the benchmark service model. The differences may comprise a service constraint in the service contract which is not present in the benchmark service model.

A system for heating and supplying electricity to residential, commercial, and industrial buildings using renewable energy that is stored, at little or no incremental cost, in a large mass of warm or hot water. The large thermal mass is sized based on the building. Thermal energy from a number of sources, including, but not limited to renewable energy panels, waste heat, and flue gas, are used to provide heat to the large thermal mass.

The invention relates to an energy internet real-time dynamic power distribution method based on a two-layer consistency algorithm. The two-layer consistency theory is introduced to construct an energy internet real-time power distribution frame with the island energy internet acting as the research object. The energy internet is divided into multiple energy local area networks, and each energy local area network and the incremental cost of each distributed power supply in the energy local area network act as the consistency state variables to design the consistency power distribution algorithm so that each energy local area network is enabled to equally bear the power imbalance of the energy internet system according its own condition, each distributed power supply is further enabled to equally bear the power imbalance of the energy local area network according its own condition and thus the objective of cost reduction can be achieved. The data communication amount is reduced throughinformation interaction between the adjacent intelligent agents so that optimization of the power generation cost of the single energy local area network can be realized, and optimization of the powergeneration cost of the whole energy internet can be realized.

The invention discloses a power terminal communication access network and an optimization method, which aim to achieve rapid optimization, reduce cost and solve the problem of difficulty in planning of the power terminal communication access network. The power terminal communication access network comprises a first-layer Ethernet and second-layer Ethernets, wherein the first-layer Ethernet comprises a high-voltage substation node and all sub-nodes of the high-voltage substation node in a medium-voltage power distribution network, the first-layer Ethernet is an annular network topology, the number of the second-layer Ethernets is the same as the number of 10kV transformer nodes, the 10kv transformer nodes are intersection nodes of the first-layer Ethernet and the second-layer Ethernets, the second-layer Ethernets are annular and tree-shaped network topologies, the power terminal communication access network conforms to a feasible solution boundary condition, and the incremental cost is minimum. The optimization method of the power terminal communication access network relates to an estimation function, a mating algorithm and a variation algorithm in a genetic algorithm framework. By the power terminal communication access network, the efficiency of network planning and optimization is greatly improved, and the algorithm complexity is reduced.

A scanner is provided with a variable aperture lens system. High resolution scans use a relatively small aperture size, and scanning speed is relatively slow. Low resolution scans use a relatively large aperture size, and scanning speed is increased. Fast scans are limited to lower sampling rates, which in turn permit more optical blurring relative to high sampling rates. Accordingly, the incremental cost of the larger aperture is minimized by permitting the lens aberrations specifications to be relaxed at larger apertures. Preferably, an electronic variable aperture is provided, for example, by use of electronically controlled polarization plates or by use of electrochromic substances.

The invention provides a power system distributed economic dispatching method taking an unbalanced communication network into consideration. An average consistency algorithm is used creatively in the invention. By designing an update matrix of the unbalanced communication network, the improved consistency algorithm can adapt to the unbalanced communication network, and the marginal cost can converge eventually. As each node has respective load and power information, each node has respective power deviation. An improved incremental cost consistency algorithm is adopted to make the incremental cost of generators consistent. By adopting the distributed control algorithm, the economic scheduling problem of the unbalanced communication network in the power system can be solved under the condition of reducing the communication cost.

A process and computer program product for adjusting a price derived from a benchmark computer service model to a price of a computer service contract, or vice versa. Differences in service between the benchmark computer service model and the computer service contract are determined. Then, a price adjustment due to the differences is determined. The price adjustment may be based on incremental cost of labor and tools to account for the differences between the benchmark computer service and the computer service contract. Then, the price of the benchmark computer service model is compared to the price of the computer service contract with the price adjustment. The benchmark computer service model and the computer service contract can both include computer program support services, computer hardware support services, a help desk call center service and / or network maintenance services. The differences between the benchmark computer service and the computer service contract may comprise a difference in type of a computer service, a quantity of a computer service, quality of a computer service, and / or complexity of a computer service. The differences may comprise support for a customer's computer hardware or computer programs which is more difficult to support than computer hardware or computer programs specified in the benchmark service model. The differences may comprise a service constraint in the service contract which is not present in the benchmark service model.

The invention provides a finite time average consistency algorithm-based economic dispatching method for a power system. Through designing a finite time average consistency algorithm, the optimal incremental cost and the optimal generation power are obtained under the premise that generators meet certain operational constraints; the economic dispatching problem of the power system is solved within finite time; and the incremental cost of each generator tends to be uniform. According to the method provided by the invention, the economic dispatching problem of the power system can be solved within the finite time; the communication cost is reduced; the fast dispatching requirements of an intelligent power grid in the future are met; and the applicability is relatively wide.

The invention relates to the field of computer software, and discloses an evaluation method for the economic feasibility of the energy-saving technology for renewable energy to provide reference for different decision-makers and promote the energy-saving technology for renewable energy. The method comprises the steps of a, determining evaluation indexes; b, establishing a triangular fuzzy number-analytic hierarchy process-data envelopment comprehensive evaluation model; and c, solving the comprehensive evaluation model. The initial cost, adjusted cost, base cost and incremental cost can be analyzed comprehensively based on the scheme of the invention, so as to increase the consumer acceptance considering the cost, provide a reference for different decision makers and promote the energy-saving technology for renewable energy.

What is disclosed is a novel system and method for determining an amount of clear toner to be applied to a document image to improve smoothness in an output print rendered using a xerographic device capable of applying clear toner to the image in the image path. Using clear toner to improve smoothness enables a GCR strategy in which more black can be used. This, in turn, decreases the incremental cost for clear toner. The teachings hereof present attractive trade-offs for print shops specializing in color document reproduction and other customers of high-end xerographic devices capable of applying clear toner. Various embodiments are disclosed.

The invention provides a distributed optimal scheduling method and system for an active distribution network. The method comprises the following steps: acquiring power disturbance; solving a pre-established power-cost model in an autonomous region of the distribution network based on the acquired power disturbance; distributing power of each autonomous node in the autonomous region of the distribution network according to calculation results, wherein the pre-established power-cost model in the autonomous region of the distribution network comprises that the generating incremental cost of eachdistributed power supply serves as a consistency variable, so that an equal consumed energy ratio of each distributed power supply keeps consistent. According to the method and the system, defects oflarge communication and computation amount during optimal scheduling of the active distribution network can be overcome, and optimization of an active distribution network scheduling algorithm is realized.

Apparatus and methods for providing a fine granularity alerting mechanism for alerting customers of the status of an order are provided. With the apparatus and methods, a customer selects a supplier of a good or service and places an order with the supplier. Upon submitting the order to the supplier, a session between the supplier and the customer is initiated such that the customer may be provided with one or more alerts of the current status of the customer's order. The one or more alerts may be periodic or may be based on the occurrence of one or more certain events. The alerts may include an estimated time of travel from a customer's current location to a location at which the order is to be completed along with an estimated time of completion of the order. In one embodiment, if the estimated time of travel from the customer's current location to the completion location is the same or within a certain tolerance of the estimated time of completion of the order, an alert is transmitted to the customer indicating that the customer should begin traveling to the completion location. In another embodiment, the alerts may include an estimated cost of the order based on a base cost for the product or service ordered as well as incremental costs for delay on the part of the customer for completion of the order.