48th week of 2009 patent applcation highlights part 45 |
Patent application number | Title | Published |
20090292642 | Method and system for automatically issuing digital merchant based online payment card - An online payment card is a digital form card derived from a credit/debit card or bank account of a customer. A central service provider issues the online payment card electronically to a registered merchant system under the authorization of the owner of the ordinary credhVdebit or bank account. The central service provider maintains the association of the online payment card with the ordinary credit/debit card or bank account of the customer, and the identity of the merchant that the payment is issued to. The merchant handles the online payment card in the same manner as ordinary card. When the merchant submits a request for authorization, the central service provider verifies if the online payment card is associated with the merchant who submits the authorization request. If the verification successes, the central service provider process the authorization request using the ordinary credit/debit which is associated with the online payment card. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292643 | System and method for online publication - System and method for online publication. According to an embodiment, a user stores contents on a web site, and based on the screening process and negotiated terms, the user is compensated accordingly. In certain embodiments, a user is compensated based on results of a periodical competition program offered by the web site. For example, a user whose writing wins a weekly contest, which is decided by subscribers, is awarded a publishing contract. In certain aspects of the invention, various techniques are employed to protect user contents. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292644 | System and method maximizing video license utilization using billboard services - Key to overall video license utilization lies in a cooperative sharing of licenses between the different branch operators of the licenses before the expiry of the licenses. A branch operator has a region of operation and stimulating the demand for licenses that are about to expire across multiple regions increases the overall license utilization. Billboard service provides subscribers with information and facility to preview and select movies for viewing online and it provides an opportunity for branch operators and central operator to maximize the utilization of available licenses. Central billboard provides a platform for branch operators to submit and trade their surplus licenses while a local billboard that is part of a branch operator infrastructure helps create demand for such surplus licenses. Central billboard supports both regulated and unregulated pricing and trading thereby enhancing the chances of trading of licenses that are about to expire. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292645 | Method and Apparatus for Network Marketing of Financial Securities - A centralized financial market management system and method are disclosed that permit individual investors to trade over a network. The disclosed centralized financial market management system automatically identifies bids that are in proximity to one another and permits participants to negotiate directly in order to consummate a transaction. The disclosed centralized financial market management system permits each participant in the financial security trading market to have a unique definition of its market structure. A participant can establish various market segments, each corresponding to a group of other market participants, within the push market where bids are posted. Thus, the submitter of a bid (buy or sell) can narrowly focus the bid on select market participants. A large transaction (buy or sell) can be divided by the bid submitter into smaller units and divided over a number of market segments. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292646 | Method and Apparatus for Network Marketing of Financial Securities - A centralized financial market management system and method are disclosed that permit individual investors to trade over a network. The disclosed centralized financial market management system automatically identifies bids that are in proximity to one another and permits participants to negotiate directly in order to consummate a transaction. The disclosed centralized financial market management system permits each participant in the financial security trading market to have a unique definition of its market structure. A participant can establish various market segments, each corresponding to a group of other market participants, within the push market where bids are posted. Thus, the submitter of a bid (buy or sell) can narrowly focus the bid on select market participants. A large transaction (buy or sell) can be divided by the bid submitter into smaller units and divided over a number of market segments. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292647 | METHOD, SYSTEM AND BUSINESS MODEL FOR A BUYER'S AUCTION WITH NEAR PERFECT INFORMATION USING THE INTERNET - A methodology, system and business model are disclosed for facilitating a fully automated buyer's auction in which the major types of transaction costs are significantly reduced by providing the buyer and the sellers with near-perfect information about one another, including information about buyer preferences and competing sellers' offers. The system implements a buyer's auction with multidimensional bidding that minimizes market intelligence, search, bargaining and transaction execution costs and thus creates more competitive, frictionless markets. Buyers and sellers can efficiently conduct the buyer's auction within a unified environment, thereby minimizing buyer integration costs as well. The buyer's auction generates commercially marketable proprietary information and a revenue stream for the auctioneer providing such a service. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292648 | DIVERSIFICATION MEASUREMENT AND ANALYSIS SYSTEM - This disclosure details methods for measuring and analyzing diversification of portfolio of assets. A dimension is a logical and quantitative means to measure diversification. As the number of dimensions increases so does diversification. Strong asset correlations among each other detract from the notion of independence. A positive correlation increases risks and is therefore undesirable. Assets are embedded into a high dimensional Euclidean vector space. The entire portfolio is interpreted as a set of points whose ambient dimension is the number of assets in the portfolio. The Karhunen-Loève expansion is used to quantify the KL dimension of the geometric object induced by a portfolio. The associated dimension is taken as the measure of diversification accounts for both the number of assets and the commonality within them. This ensures that measuring diversification as a dimension accounts for the complete diversification affect of the portfolio and is thus a valuable portfolio management tool. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292649 | DEVICE, SYSTEM AND METHOD OF AUTOMATIC FINANCIAL-INSTRUMENT MANAGEMENT - Devices, systems, and methods of automatic Financial-Instrument (FI) management. In some embodiments, a system includes, a memory having stored thereon financial-instrument-based (FI-based) management instructions; and a processor to execute the FI-based management instructions resulting in a FI-based management application, wherein the FI-based management application may receive portfolio data corresponding to a plurality of financial-instrument portfolios associated with a plurality of clients, wherein the FI-based management application may automatically identify one or more portfolios of the plurality of portfolios satisfying at least one criterion, wherein, for each identified portfolio, the FI-based management application may receive client-specific management data corresponding to a client associated with the identified portfolio, wherein the client-specific management data includes at least client-specific destination information defining at least one destination, and wherein, for each identified portfolio, the FI-based management application may automatically communicate portfolio-related data corresponding to the identified portfolio to the destination defined by the management data. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292650 | System and Method for Analyzing and Displaying Security Trade Transactions - A system and methods for processing and charting security exchange trading and market information shows security traders if current transactions originated as buy orders or sell orders, and simultaneously indicates traded quantity. Security exchange trading information is received that includes the price, volume and time of each trade. In addition, security exchange market information is received from buyers, specifying bide prices and quantities, and from sellers, specifying asking prices and quantities. The security exchange trading and market information is processed simultaneously and displayed as a continuously updated real-time chart depicting the exchange auction process whereby buyers and sellers agree to trade at specified prices, including details of individual transactions. The chart is formed by plotting each trade at the price traded, and for each plot point shows a distinctive icon indication whether the transaction was initiated by a buyer or seller. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292651 | System and Method for Analyzing and Displaying Security Trade Transactions - A system and methods for processing and charting security exchange trading and market information shows security traders if current transactions originated as buy orders or sell orders, and simultaneously indicates traded quantity. Security exchange trading information is received that includes the price, volume and time of each trade. In addition, security exchange market information is received from buyers, specifying bide prices and quantities, and from sellers, specifying asking prices and quantities. The security exchange trading and market information is processed simultaneously and displayed as a continuously updated real-time chart depicting the exchange auction process whereby buyers and sellers agree to trade at specified prices, including details of individual transactions. The chart is formed by plotting each trade at the price traded, and for each plot point shows a distinctive icon indication whether the transaction was initiated by a buyer or seller. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292652 | System and Method for Analyzing and Displaying Security Trade Transactions - A system and methods for processing and charting security exchange trading and market information shows security traders if current transactions originated as buy orders or sell orders, and simultaneously indicates traded quantity. Security exchange trading information is received that includes the price, volume and time of each trade. In addition, security exchange market information is received from buyers, specifying bide prices and quantities, and from sellers, specifying asking prices and quantities. The security exchange trading and market information is processed simultaneously and displayed as a continuously updated real-time chart depicting the exchange auction process whereby buyers and sellers agree to trade at specified prices, including details of individual transactions. The chart is formed by plotting each trade at the price traded, and for each plot point shows a distinctive icon indication whether the transaction was initiated by a buyer or seller. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292653 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR USE IN CONNECTION WITH AN ANNUITY - A method for determining one or more features of an annuity includes receiving data indicative of a prospective annuitant's personal expenses in at least a first expense category and a second expense category; storing the data in memory; accessing price index information for the first expense category; accessing price index information for the second expense category; accessing general price index information; and based on factors including the price index information for the first expense category, the price index information for the second expense category, and the general price index information, determining a benefit increase rate of an annuity for the prospective annuitant; and providing an output indicative of at least the determined benefit increase rate. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292654 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CALCULATING USE CHARGES IN A VIRTUALIZED INFRASTRUCTURE - A method for calculating computing resource use charges for a data center consumer entity is disclosed. The data center consumer entity accesses one or more of a plurality of computing resources in a data center. The method includes retrieving usage data of each of the plurality of computing resources. The usage data is retrieved for a selected period of use of each of the plurality of computing resources by the data center consumer entity. Each of the plurality of computing resources includes at least one of a CPU, a disk, a Network Interface Card (NIC), and a memory. The method further includes retrieving a rate plan data for the data center consumer entity and retrieving per unit charge, base rate, and rate factor for each of the plurality of computing resources. Further, a sum of a sum of multiplications of billed units of each of the plurality of computing resources by per unit charge, base rate, and rate factor is calculated. The billed units include one of actual used units or reserved units. The rate plan data includes information whether the actual used units or the reserved units to be used in calculating the sum. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292655 | LEASE GUARANTY BUSINESS MODEL - Methods are provided for lease guaranty services. A landlord enters into an arrangement with a lease guaranty service provider including an agreed upon lease guaranty policy to cover a rental property associated with the landlord. Under the lease guaranty policy, the landlord is a beneficiary and is bound to some contractual duties. A tenant, interested in renting the rental property, enters into a lease guaranty participation agreement with the lease guaranty service provider, which provides that the lease guaranty service provider pays the landlord a claim amount, resulted from the tenant's failure to comply with a lease signed between the tenant and the landlord for the rental property, and the tenant is legally liable to the lease guaranty service provider. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292656 | METHOD, APPARATUS AND SYSTEM FOR COLLECTING, RECEIVING, AND DISTRIBUTING INFORMATION FROM MULTIPLE CHANNELS - Embodiments of methods, apparatuses, devices and systems associated with collecting, receiving, and distributing information from multiple channels of information are disclosed. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292657 | Acquisition and association of data indicative of an inferred mental state of an authoring user - A computationally implemented method includes, but is not limited to: acquiring data indicative of an inferred mental state of an authoring user; and associating the data indicative of the inferred mental state of the authoring user with an electronic message. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292658 | Acquisition and particular association of inference data indicative of inferred mental states of authoring users - A computationally implemented method includes, but is not limited to: acquiring a first inference data indicative of an inferred mental state of a first authoring user in connection with a particular item of an electronic message, acquiring a second inference data indicative of an inferred mental state of a second authoring user in connection with the particular item of the electronic message; and associating the first inference data and the second inference data with the particular item. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292659 | Acquisition and particular association of inference data indicative of inferred mental states of authoring users - A computationally implemented method includes, but is not limited to: acquiring a first inference data indicative of an inferred mental state of a first authoring user in connection with a particular item of an electronic message, acquiring a second inference data indicative of an inferred mental state of a second authoring user in connection with the particular item of the electronic message; and associating the first inference data and the second inference data with the particular item. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292660 | USING RULE INDUCTION TO IDENTIFY EMERGING TRENDS IN UNSTRUCTURED TEXT STREAMS - A method for identifying emerging concepts in unstructured text streams comprises: selecting a subset V of documents from a set U of documents; generating at least one Boolean combination of terms that partitions the set U into a plurality of categories that represent a generalized, statistically based model of the selected subset V wherein the categories are disjoint inasmuch as each document of U is included in only one category of the partition; and generating a descriptive label for each of the disjoint categories from the Boolean combination of terms for that category. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292661 | Compact Circuits and Adaptation Techniques for Implementing Adaptive Neurons and Synapses with Spike Timing Dependent Plasticity (STDP). - This invention pertains to compact synaptic circuits and networks comprising compact synaptic circuits that exhibit functional characteristics of biological synapses and networks of synapses including, but not limited to, spike timing dependent plasticity (“STDP”). Temporal coincidence of pre- and post-synaptic action potentials across the synapses of the present invention induces proportional Hebbian synaptic weight updates. Networks of the synapses of the present invention operated according to the methods of this invention are designed to implement biological learning functions, such as STDP. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292662 | TIME-SERIES DATA ANALYZING APPARATUS, TIME-SERIES DATA ANALYZING METHOD, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT - Sets of integrated data including history data and time-invariant data grouped for each analysis target are classified based on an inclusion between an amount of change of a time-varying item included in sets of integrated data and a numerical range expressed by an event sequence and also based on a common time-invariant item, to generate a prediction model in which a prediction-target event sequence expressing an amount of change of the event item included in each set of integrated data after being classified and an amount of time required for reaching the amount of change is associated with the event sequence together with a classification condition related to the classification. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292663 | FUZZY RULE HANDLING - A method to add expression level fuzzy rule processing capability to existing crisp rule engine without requiring extensive modifications to such rule engine. A system and computer implemented method receive a data set at a crisp rule engine. If the data set involves a fuzzy rule, a callback to a fuzzy rule broker is done. The fuzzy rule broker selects one of multiple tailored processing modules for processing the fuzzy rule. The result of processing the fuzzy rule may be converted to a crisp result and returned to the crisp rule engine. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292664 | SERVICE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD OF OPERATION THEREOF - A service management system and method. In one embodiment, the service management system includes: (1) a service description repository configured to contain service descriptions that define services in terms of a set of systems and devices that assume roles based on at least one of capabilities and attributes thereof and (2) a service management engine coupled to the service description repository and configured to employ the service description repository and at least one of the systems to deliver a service corresponding to at least one of the service descriptions via at least one of the devices. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292665 | Computer System and Computer-Facilitated Method for Nucleic Acid Sequence Alignment and Analysis - The present invention relates to a computer system and methods of computer-facilitated data analysis for providing reliable DNA alignments. More specifically, the invention relates to the automation of alignment and naming of mitochondrial DNA sequences for use in forensic analysis. The methods of the present invention provide consistency of sequence nomenclature by minimizing alignment ambiguities, thus providing a common functional system within and among laboratories. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292666 | Acquisition and presentation of data indicative of an extent of congruence between inferred mental states of authoring users - A computationally implemented method includes, but is not limited to: acquiring a first inference data indicative of an inferred mental state of a first authoring user in connection with a particular item of an electronic document, acquiring a second inference data indicative of an inferred mental state of a second authoring user in connection with the particular item of the electronic document; comparing the first inference data with the second inference data; and presenting data indicative of an extent of congruity between the inferred mental state of the first authoring user and the inferred mental state of the second authoring user based, at least in part, on said comparing. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292667 | Automatic updating apparatus, automatic updating method, and programmable storage medium embodying program to perform method for automatic updating - An automatic updating apparatus includes a start instructing unit that outputs an analysis start signal at given intervals, an access count analysis unit that calculates an access count for each of menus indicated in a menu list on a network in response to the analysis start signal, calculates predictive evaluated values based on a variation in the access count within a unit time for each of the menus indicated in the menu list, and outputs a start signal unless the predictive evaluated values are arranged in order of a magnitude relation, and a menu updating unit that acquires the predictive evaluated values according to the start signal, and updates contents of the menus indicated in the menu list according to respective magnitude relations of the predictive evaluated values. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292668 | SYSTEM, METHOD, AND COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM FOR PARTIAL REDISTRIBUTION, PARTIAL DUPLICATION OF ROWS OF PARALLEL JOIN OPERATION ON SKEWED DATA - A system, method, and computer-readable medium that facilitate management of data skew during a parallel join operation are provided. Portions of tables involved in the join operation are distributed among a plurality of processing modules, and each of the processing modules is provided with a list of skewed values of a join column of a larger table involved in the join operation. Each of the processing modules scans the rows of the tables distributed to the processing modules and compares values of the join columns of both tables with the list of skewed values. Rows of the larger table having non-skewed values in the join column are redistributed, and rows of the larger table having skewed values in the join column are maintained locally at the processing modules. Rows of the smaller table that have non-skewed values in the join column are redistributed, and rows of the smaller table that have skewed values in the join column are duplicated among the processing modules. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292669 | TECHNIQUE FOR REMOVING SUBQUERY USING WINDOW FUNCTIONS - Methods for transforming a query to remove redundant subqueries in HAVING clauses are provided. The methods provided transform queries that contain subqueries in HAVING clauses with tables and join conditions and filter conditions equal to tables, join conditions and filter conditions in outer query to queries that eliminate the original subquery and retain the original outer query with a single inline view using window functions. Whether this transformation can be performed depends on which tables and join and filter conditions are in the outer query and the subquery. The transformation eliminates duplicative table accesses and join operations from queries. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292670 | Method and apparatus for providing access to information systems via e-mail - Invention provides a method for an e-mail based interface to function as a single common access point for requesting, receiving, publishing, accessing and sharing various data from multiple, remote information systems. The invention becomes akin to a human relay operator in the loop which is transparent to the user. By relaying the e-mail chain, the invention performs multiple functions based on the originating request, and reply as a human would. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292671 | MOTION-BASED DATA REVIEW AND ZOOM - Dynamically magnifying search results and enabling motion-based review of the search results. The user enters a query to search the content of a document. As the characters of the query are entered by the user, the search results are identified and magnified such that all the search results after any given input character are visible in the user interface. The user advances through the search results by moving the computing device in a predefined manner. In an embodiment, the user searches the content of a web page rendered in a browser executing on a mobile computing device such as a telephone. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292672 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FACILITATING ACCESS TO AUDO/VISUAL CONTENT ON AN ELECTRONIC DEVICE - A method and system for facilitating access to content on an electronic device is provided. Facilitating access involves maintaining a temporal log of metadata for content accessed by one or more users, segregated based on time slots; searching the log to detect a pattern related to the metadata for one or more times slots; and constructing a temporal usage profile based on the pattern. The temporal usage profile may be used for recommending appropriate content to a user at an appropriate time. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292673 | Electronic Document Processing with Automatic Generation of Links to Cited References - Links to references cited in a given electronic document are automatically generated in conjunction with processing of the electronic document. In one aspect, which may be implemented at least in part in an otherwise conventional electronic document reader or an associated preprocessor, a reference citation is detected in a first electronic document, the reference citation is processed to determine a link that provides access to a second electronic document identified by the reference citation, and the link and at least a portion of the first electronic document are displayed to a user. The link may be determined by providing one or more designated portions of the reference citation to a search engine and processing results provided by the search engine to determine the link. For example, a search query may be formulated based on the detected reference citation and the search query provided to the search engine. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292674 | PARAMETERIZED SEARCH CONTEXT INTERFACE - Disclosed are apparatus and methods for facilitating search queries via a computer network. In certain embodiments, each search term that a user inputs for a search query causes a rich set of contextual information having one or more parameters or facets to be presented to the user to further enhance and refine the search query. The context facets can pertain to the search term itself or contextual information that is associated with search results objects that have been previously associated with such search term. Additionally, the user can be queried for a facet to be associated with the search term. The user can then input parameter values or choose selection option (e.g., numbers, strings, links, etc.) for each facet, and search results can then be provided based on such facet parameter values or selection option input. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292675 | System for Notification of Group Membership Changes in Directory Service - An identity management system provides for a computationally efficient approach to monitor group changes, or events, on a directory service. Group events are monitored by use of a domain crawler process launched by an event monitoring process of the identity management system that gathers group event data and reports the collected and consolidated changes to the identity management system. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292676 | Combination treatment selection methods and systems - Methods, computer program products, and systems are described that include accepting at least one attribute of at least one individual, querying at least one database at least partly based on the at least one attribute, selecting from the at least one database at least one bioactive agent and at least one artificial sensory experience to address the at least one attribute of at least one individual, and/or presenting an indication of the at least one bioactive agent and the at least one artificial sensory experience at least partly based on the selecting from the at least one database at least one bioactive agent and at least one artificial sensory experience to address the at least one attribute of at least one individual | 2009-11-26 |
20090292677 | Integrated web analytics and actionable workbench tools for search engine optimization and marketing - Methods and systems disclosed herein relate to a private keyword database and method of generating the database, such as compilation, manipulation, segmentation, analysis, and leveraging, to enable search engine optimization and marketing tools. The private keyword database may include search marketing data, such as keywords, a character string, a phrase, a slogan, an idiom, a string of characters of alpha-numeric codes, and the like, which may be aggregated from any number of public and proprietary data sources. Related user interfaces, applications, and computer program products are disclosed. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292678 | IMAGE PROCESSING APPARATUS, CONTROL METHOD THEREOF, PROGRAM, AND STORAGE MEDIUM - An image processing apparatus is provided that reduces a data size of a composite file without affecting output when generating a composite file by merging multiple files containing objects. To accomplish this, in merging multiple files, the image processing apparatus determines whether or not objects (images or the like) contained in the multiple files are hidden behind another object. Further still, the image processing apparatus merges objects that are hidden behind another object as link information in the composite file, and image data corresponding to the objects is stored in a separate file. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292679 | CASCADING INDEX COMPRESSION - Techniques for compressing branch nodes in an index are provided. The branch nodes may be part of a main index of a multi-level index that also includes one or more journal indexes. A Bloom filter may be generated and associated with, e.g., a branch node in the main index. The Bloom filter is used to determine whether, without accessing any leaf blocks, a particular key value exists, e.g., in leaf blocks associated with the branch node. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292680 | Systems and Methods for Syndicating Content To, And Mining Content From, Internet-Based Forums - The present invention is directed to a system for mediating an electronic communication between a forum and a non-member of the forum. The system includes a server having programmatic instructions where execution of the programmatic instructions by a processor a) generates data representative of a GUI, where the GUI prompts a user to input a query, b) receives data representative of the query, c) parses data representative of the query and uses the parsed data to create a forum interface call, d) transmits the forum interface call to remotely located servers, where at least some of the servers hosts at least one forum, e) in response to the transmission of forum interface calls, receives responses responsive to the query, and f) generates data representative of another GUI, which provides a user electronic access to the responses. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292681 | PRESENTATION OF AN EXTRACTED ARTIFACT BASED ON AN INDEXING TECHNIQUE - A system and method of presentation of an extracted artifact based on an indexing technique are disclosed. In an embodiment, the method includes indexing a database of a captured network characteristic data using a processor and a memory to form an indexed capture data. The method includes enhancing a query response time with the indexed capture data. The method further includes searching the indexed capture data to generate a capture query result. The capture query result includes an extracted artifact. The method also includes graphically presenting the capture query result as at least one of an artifact list and an artifact image. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292682 | DELIVERY TRACKING SYSTEM - A novel tracking system is disclosed. In one embodiment, users obtain access to tracking information by entering a destination address in a query. In another embodiment, package shippers are given a “shipper password” and a “recipient password.” In this embodiment, the shipper may query the system with the shipper password to track all packages it has sent, and the recipient may query the system with the recipient password (and, optionally, one or more portions of the recipient's address information) to track all packages that the shipper has sent to that address. Different amounts of detail may be shown to shippers and recipients. In another embodiment, a service bureau may accept packages from shippers, collect information about the packages, process queries by shippers and recipients, and track packages that it handles using a separate “service bureau password.” | 2009-11-26 |
20090292683 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY RANKING LINES OF TEXT - Disclosed are apparatus and methods for ranking lines of text. In one embodiment, an intent of a query is ascertained. A relevance of each one of a plurality of lines of text of a document is determined based upon the intent of the query, content of the query, and content of each of the plurality of lines of text. The plurality of lines of text may then be ranked according to the determined relevance of each of the plurality of lines of text. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292684 | PROMOTING WEBSITES BASED ON LOCATION - A computer system, method, and media for associating locations with ranked websites are provided. The computer system includes a search engine, a log database, and a location database that are employed to respond to search requests from users by returning appropriately ranked websites to the user. The websites are ranked using the location of the website and the location of the user to select websites to receive high ranks. Additionally, the search engine includes a correction feature that reevaluates locations for a website or user when a large number of obtained locations suggest a different location than a currently associated location for the website or the user. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292685 | VIDEO SEARCH RE-RANKING VIA MULTI-GRAPH PROPAGATION - A video search re-ranking via multi-graph propagation technique employing multimodal fusion in video search is presented. It employs not only textual and visual features, but also semantic and conceptual similarity between video shots to rank or re-rank the search results received in response to a text-based search query. In one embodiment, the technique employs an object-sensitive approach to query analysis to improve the baseline result of text-based video search. The technique then employs a graph-based approach to text-based search result ranking or re-ranking. To better exploit the underlying relationship between video shots, the re-ranking scheme simultaneously leverages textual relevancy, semantic concept relevancy, and low-level-feature-based visual similarity. The technique constructs a set of graphs with the video shots as vertices, and the conceptual and visual similarity between video shots as hyperlinks. A modified topic-sensitive PageRank algorithm is then applied to these graphs to determine the overall relevancy ranking. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292686 | DISAMBIGUATING TAGS IN FOLKSONOMY TAGGING SYSTEMS - Allowing users of a folksonomy tagging system to use any phrase they feel is relevant to the resource can lead to ambiguities within the system. For example, a user may tag a picture of a gift with the keyword “bow”. Another user may tag a picture of a bow and arrow with the keyword “bow”. This may cause a problem for someone searching with the keyword “bow” when looking for information about making a bow for a gift. The user looking for gift bows does not want to see search results for bows and arrows. Functionality can be implemented in a folksonomy tagging system to disambiguate tags by associating them with definitions. Associating ambiguous tags with appropriate definitions will increase search accuracy for users of folksonomy tagging systems, thus allowing users to find relevant information more efficiently. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292687 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING QUESTION AND ANSWERS WITH DEFERRED TYPE EVALUATION - A system, method and computer program product for conducting questions and answers with deferred type evaluation based on any corpus of data. The method includes processing a query including waiting until a “Type” (i.e. a descriptor) is determined AND a candidate answer is provided; the Type is not required as part of a predetermined ontology but is only a lexical/grammatical item. Then, a search is conducted to look (search) for evidence that the candidate answer has the required LAT (e.g., as determined by a matching function that can leverage a parser, a semantic interpreter and/or a simple pattern matcher). In another embodiment, it may be attempted to match the LAT to a known Ontological Type and then look for a candidate answer up in an appropriate knowledge-base, database, and the like determined by that type. Then, all the evidence from all the different ways to determine that the candidate answer has the expected lexical answer type (LAT) is combined and one or more answers are delivered to a user. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292688 | ORDERING RELEVANT CONTENT BY TIME FOR DETERMINING TOP PICKS - A computer-readable medium encoded with computer instructions for providing relevant content on a web page for a user is provided. According to embodiments of the invention, the instructions are for determining a relevance metric for at least two articles. Each article of the at least two articles is selected from content of the user. Each article is associated with a time. The instructions further include instructions for selecting a set of relevant articles based on the relevance metric and ordering the set of relevant articles according to the associated time of each article of the set. The instructions also include instructions for providing the ordered set of relevant articles to the user. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292689 | SYSTEM AND METHOD OF PROVIDING ELECTRONIC DICTIONARY SERVICES - A database and techniques for managing and updating the database are described. The database includes defined terms and undefined terms stored therein. While each of the defined terms is stored in the database in association with a definition thereof, each of the undefined terms is stored in the database in association with a number of times search requests have been received for the associated undefined term. Further, a ranking list for the undefined terms is maintained. In the ranking list, the undefined terms are ranked with reference to the number associated with each. Search requests for particular terms are received. In response to the search requests, the search for the particular term is performed in the database. If a match is found between a first one of the particular term and a first one of the defined terms, the definition thereof is retrieved from the database. Also, if a match is not found between a second one of the particular term and any of the defined terms, the ranking list is updated with reference to the second particular term. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292690 | Method and System for Automatic Event Administration and Viewing - This is a method and system for automated calendar event creation from unstructured text, with assisted administration and viewing. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292691 | System and Method for Building Multi-Concept Network Based on User's Web Usage Data - A system and method for building a multi-concept network based on web usage data that collect keywords used in a search site utilized by a plurality of users and web page information and build the multi-concept network for the keywords are provided. The method includes (a) collecting the keywords input by the users for searches in the site and the information on web pages read according to keyword search results; (b) for each keyword, selecting read web pages for each user; (c) for each keyword, setting each selected web page as one node, grouping the web page nodes for each user, connecting the web page nodes in a row, and arranging the web page nodes around the keyword; and (d) obtaining a similarity between two groups of the web page nodes arranged around the keyword, and integrating the two groups to form one group connected in a row when the similarity is above a predetermined standard value. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292692 | Information Search Method and Information Processing Apparatus - According to one embodiment, an information processing apparatus includes an information acquisition processing module, a scheduling module and a control module. The information acquisition processing module performs an information acquisition process of acquiring information corresponding to an input keyword via an Internet by transmitting the keyword to a predetermined server apparatus on the Internet via the data communication module. The scheduling module acquires a date and time which is relevant to the input keyword, and records the date and time together with the input keyword. And then, the control module causes the information acquisition processing module to timely re-perform an information acquisition process using the keyword recorded by the scheduling module together with the date and time based on the date and time recorded by the scheduling module. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292693 | TEXT SEARCHING METHOD AND DEVICE AND TEXT PROCESSOR - The present invention provides a text searching method including the steps of: extracting initials of corresponding words in a text to be searched according to a predetermined extracting rule to form an initial character string; creating mapping relation between the extracted initial character string and the text to be searched; performing matching between the initial character string and an abbreviation character string to be searched for; and determining an expanded phrase corresponding to the abbreviation character string to be searched for and a location of the expanded phrase in the text to be searched according to a result of the matching and the mapping relation. The invention further provides a text searching device for implementing the method and a text processor including the text searching device. With the invention, a searching function can be implemented precisely and efficiently to locate an expanded phrase of a phrase abbreviation in the text to be searched, even if a user only knows the phrase abbreviation but can not completely spell the expanded phrase thereof. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292694 | STATISTICAL RECORD LINKAGE CALIBRATION FOR MULTI TOKEN FIELDS WITHOUT THE NEED FOR HUMAN INTERACTION - Disclosed is a system for, and method of, calculating parameters used to determine whether records and entity representations should be linked. The system and method utilize blended field weights to account for certain types of partial matches. The system and method apply iterative techniques such that parameters from each linking iteration are used in the next linking iteration. The system and method need no human interaction in order to calibrate and utilize record matching formulas used for the linking decisions. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292695 | AUTOMATED SELECTION OF GENERIC BLOCKING CRITERIA - Field probabilities associated with fields in a database may be used to create one or more blocking criteria. The blocking criteria may be a set of fields that should be equal among two or more records in a database, so that a search of the records in the database according to the blocking criteria yields a subset of records approximately equal to or less than the specified maximum block size. Generic blocking criteria may also be created. The generic blocking criteria may be used for a batch comparison or batch linking operation within the records of the database. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292696 | COMPUTER-IMPLEMENTED SEARCH USING RESULT MATCHING - A computer search system compares search results received for searches falling within a defined parameter envelope used for grouping search requests. The parameter envelope may be defined by various parameters, for example, time of search, origin or search request, language, or other non-keyword data associated with each search request, excluding keywords used to define the search. Each new search result (comprising a list of search hits) for incoming search requests is compared to stored search results for search requests within the same parameter envelope. Search results that are found to be similar based on a pre-defined similarity measure are provided as related search results responsive to the incoming search requests. A client-side pseudo-browsing application may control interactions with the search engine, collecting true browsing input from the client and providing pseudo-browsing information to the search engine or other information provider. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292697 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR LEXICAL MAPPING BETWEEN DOCUMENT SETS HAVING A COMMON TOPIC - Terms (e.g., words) used in an expert domain that correspond to terms in a naïve domain are detected when there are no vocabulary pairs or document pairs available for the expert and naive domains. Documents known to be descriptions of identical topics and written in the expert and naive domains are collected by searching the Internet. The frequencies of terms that occur in these documents are counted. The counts are used to calculate correspondences between the vocabularies of the expert and naive language expressions. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292698 | METHOD FOR EXTRACTING A COMPACT REPRESENTATION OF THE TOPICAL CONTENT OF AN ELECTRONIC TEXT - An electronic document is parsed to remove irrelevant text and to identify the significant elements of the retained text. The elements are assigned scores representing their significance to the topical content of the document. A matrix of element-pairs is constructed such that the matrix nodes represent the result of one or more functions of the scores and other attributes of the paired elements. The resulting matrix is a compact representation of topical content that affords great precision in information retrieval applications that depend on measurements of the relatedness of topical content. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292699 | Nucleotide and amino acid sequence compression - A biomolecular sequence database is encoded using a set of byte-aligned block codes. Some of the block codes encode a portion of a current sequence by pointing to an identical portion of another sequence. Others of the block codes are run length codes. Multiple different ways of encoding a current sequence using different ones of the block codes are determined. Dynamic programming is used to determine which one of these ways most efficiently encodes the current sequence into the shortest string of block codes. Each sequence in the database is encoded as such a string of block codes. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292700 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SEMI-AUTOMATIC CREATION AND MAINTENANCE OF QUERY EXPANSION RULES - A system and method enable semi-automated generation of query expansion rules for searching a knowledge base. Candidate synonymy pairs are automatically extracted from queries made by users when searching a knowledge base. Synonymy rules are defined, based on the extracted candidate synonymy pairs, and may be context dependent. Query expansion rules based on the defined synonymy rules can then be exported to a storage medium for use in expansion of new user queries when searching the knowledge base. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292701 | Method and a system for indexing and searching for video documents - The invention relates to a method of indexing a video document, comprising the following steps:
| 2009-11-26 |
20090292702 | Acquisition and association of data indicative of an inferred mental state of an authoring user - A computationally implemented method includes, but is not limited to: acquiring data indicative of an inferred mental state of an authoring user; and associating the data indicative of the inferred mental state of the authoring user with an electronic message. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292703 | Methods, Systems, and Products for Developing Tailored Content - Methods, systems, and products are disclosed for developing tailored content. A selection of content is received. Content information is received that describes the selected content. Clickstream data is received that describes at least one subscriber's action while receiving the selected content. A category is assigned to the selected content information. The content information is merged with the clickstream data to create content-choice information, and the content-choice information is stored in a database. The database is queried to obtain the content-choice information matching a search query. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292704 | ADAPTIVE AGGREGATION: IMPROVING THE PERFORMANCE OF GROUPING AND DUPLICATE ELIMINATION BY AVOIDING UNNECESSARY DISK ACCESS - A method for use with an aggregation operation (e.g., on a relational database table) includes a sorting pass and a merging pass. The sorting pass includes: (a) reading blocks of the table from a storage medium into a memory using an aggregation method until the memory is substantially full or until all the data have been read into the memory; (b) determining a number k of blocks to write back to the storage medium from the memory; (c) selecting k blocks from memory, sorting the k blocks, and then writing the k blocks back to the storage medium as a new sublist; and (d) repeating steps (a), (b), and (c) for any unprocessed tuples in the database table. The merging pass includes: merging all the sublists to form an aggregation result using a merge-sort algorithm. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292705 | EFFICIENT SUPPORT OF CONSISTENT CYCLIC SEARCH WITH READ-COPY UPDATE AND PARALLEL UPDATES - A method, system and computer program product for supporting concurrent updates to a shared data element group while preserving group integrity on behalf of one or more readers that are concurrently referencing group data elements without using locks or atomic instructions. Two or more updaters may be invoked to generate new group data elements. Each new data element created by the same updater is assigned a new generation number that is different than a global generation number associated with the data element group and which allows a reader of the data element group to determine whether the new data element is a correct version for the reader. The new generation numbers are different for each updater and assigned according to an order in which the updaters respectively begin update operations. The global generation number is updated so that when all of the updaters have completed data element update processing, the global generation number will correspond to the new generation number that is associated with the last of the updaters to begin update operations. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292706 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR DATA MANAGEMENT - A data management method includes a reference activation step, after generating a first time-series data for causing chronological relationship to be identifiable in a memory device at activation of a reference operation to a first record in a database, of referring to the first record; an update step, in response to an update request for the first record, of generating a second record corresponding to the first record in the database and updating the second record; a commit step of generating a second time-series data in the memory device at a commit operation for the updating; a reference termination step of deleting the first time-series data at completion of the reference operation; and a deletion step, if the first time-series data generated earlier than the second time-series data is not present as a result of the commit step or the reference termination step, of deleting the first record. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292707 | ELECTRONIC APPARATUS AND CONTENT DATA PROVIDING METHOD - According to one embodiment, an electronic apparatus includes a wireless communication device, an information acquisition module, a file management information generation module, and an access control module. The information acquisition module acquires, by wireless communication with an external device, metadata corresponding to content data which the external device can provide. The file management information generation module generates, based on the acquired metadata, file management information based on which a host apparatus recognizes the content data as a file stored in a storage medium in the electronic apparatus. The access control module is configured to, upon receiving a read request for a file corresponding to the content data, which is transmitted from the host apparatus, execute external device access processing of acquiring the content data from the external device using the wireless communication device, and output the acquired content data to the host apparatus. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292708 | DATA DELIVERY APPARATUS, DATA DELIVERY METHOD, AND DATA DELIVERY PROGRAM - A data delivery apparatus comprising: an information acquiring unit for making a connection with an external equipment provided with a delivery destination folder for receiving data for delivery and for acquiring information on data receiving constrains imposed on said delivery destination folder (S | 2009-11-26 |
20090292709 | INTELLIGENT CLIENT ARCHITECTURE COMPUTER SYSTEM AND METHOD - A collision detection and data synchronization mechanism operates to expand the speed and capability of distributed applications. The execution environment employs collision detection and data synchronization to distribute data objects to appropriate network nodes to support local processing. The collision detection and data synchronization mechanism defines the set of processes and algorithms used to track distributed data objects and to manage changes to the distributed objects throughout a network of intelligent computing devices. Data and code are distributed to local computing devices necessitating tracking and synchronizing updates. The system and method ensures that data updates received during the course of a local transaction do not unwillingly affect the results of other transactions by notifying the local computing devices of changes to the data that are subject of the transaction. These conflicts are then resolved in the applications, and notification of the resolution is sent to the remaining intelligent computing devices. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292710 | MANAGEMENT OF MOBILE-DEVICE DATA - Information is maintained on a mobile client device. A delete command is received at the mobile client device over a wireless mobile network from a mobile-device data management server configured to provide mobile-device service to multiple mobile client devices over the wireless mobile network. The information is deleted from the mobile client device automatically and without user interaction in accordance with the delete command. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292711 | Constraints With Hidden Rows in a Database - In an embodiment, a constraint is created for a database table. The constraint specifies a condition for a first column in the database table and an action. The action specifies whether data that violates the condition is allowed to be stored in the first column. A value and a specification of a second column in the database table are received from a data source. If the second column is identical to the first column, the value violates the condition, and the action specifies that data that violates the condition is allowed to be stored, the value is stored in a row in the database, the row is marked as hidden, and an identification of the constraint that was violated is stored in the row. A query does not return the row that is marked as hidden. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292712 | Identity Assignment for Software Components - Devices, systems, methods and software are described which provide identity assignment and redistribution capabilities for software components of a distributed application. Identity value ranges can be fixed or variable. Identity assignment schemes according to exemplary embodiments facilitate the continuation of traffic between the components and clients during redistribution of the identities. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292713 | Acquisition and particular association of data indicative of an inferred mental state of an authoring user - A computationally implemented method includes, but is not limited to: acquiring data indicative of an inferred mental state of an authoring user in connection with at least a particular item of an electronic message, and associating the data indicative of the inferred mental state of the authoring user with the particular item. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292714 | ADAPTIVE LAZY MERGING - A query processing method intersects two or more unsorted lists based on a conjunction of predicates. Each list comprises a union of multiple sorted segments. The method performs lazy segment merging and an adaptive n-ary intersecting process. The lazy segment merging comprises starting with each list being a union of completely unmerged segments, such that lookups into a given list involve separate lookups into each segment of the given list. The method intersects the lists according to the predicates while performing the lazy segment merging, such that the lazy segment merging reads in only those portions of each segment that are needed for the intersecting. As the intersecting proceeds and the lookups are performed, the intersecting selectively merges the segments together, based on a cost-benefit analysis of the cost of merging compared to the benefit produced by reducing a number of lookups. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292715 | System and Method for Determining Overall Utilization - The present disclosure is directed to a method and system for determining overall utilization. In accordance with a particular embodiment of the present disclosure, utilization metrics are received from at least one entity. Each utilization metric indicates resource availability for the entity. The utilization metrics are converted to mapped values by comparing the utilization metrics to configured thresholds. The mapped values are converted to percentage values. An overall utilization is calculated for the entity by identifying an average value of the percentage values. A graphical representation of the overall utilization is generated. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292716 | APPARATUS, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR PROCESSING RESOURCE DESCRIPTION FRAMEWORK STATEMENTS - A method is provided that includes receiving a first triple including a subject, predicate and object, where the object is of a literal-type. For the first triple, then, the method includes identifying a subtype of the object; semantically marking the object with the identified subtype, including generating second and third triples; and storing the second and third triples in a triple store. In this regard, the second triple includes the subject and predicate of the first RDF triple as the subject and predicate thereof, and the third RDF triple includes the object of the first RDF triple or a representation of the object of the first RDF triple as the object thereof. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292717 | Optimistic Versioning Concurrency Scheme for Database Streams - Aspects of the subject matter described herein relate to versioning for databases. In aspects, two or more users may share the same version of data, such as a report, in a database. One of the users may seek to update the data. In response to a request from the user, a new version of the data is created. For data that is not updated via the request, the new version shares data with the previous version, thus saving space. For data this is updated, new segments within the database are created to store the updated data. Each user is allowed to access the data without blocking other users accessing the data. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292718 | PAGING HIERARCHICAL DATA - Architecture that provides the ability to intelligently page (slice) hierarchical datasets through viewing operations of a hierarchical view. This further provides the capability to make additions to/deletions from the hierarchy view and manage the parent/child relationship of view records without ever sending the entire recordset to the client or receiving the entire recordset back to the server, thereby optimizing operation performance on the hierarchical datasets. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292719 | METHODS FOR AUTOMATICALLY GENERATING NATURAL-LANGUAGE NEWS ITEMS FROM LOG FILES AND STATUS TRACES - Methods, for automatically generating natural-language news items from log files, including the steps of: gathering at least one data record; filtering at least one data record according to at least one rule to produce at least one filtered data set; aggregating at least one filtered data set; analyzing at least one filtered data set for at least one statistical trend; and automatically generating a news item based on at least one statistical trend. Preferably, the method further includes the step of: customizing the news item based on a relative importance of at least one statistical trend. Preferably, the method further includes the step of: performing a drill-down analysis on at least one statistical trend. Most preferably, the method further includes the step of: enriching the news item based on the drill-down analysis. Preferably, the method further includes the step of: embedding at least one graphical element into the news item. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292720 | Service Model Flight Recorder - A method, system and medium for recording events in a system management environment is described. As system events are detected in an enterprise computing environment they are stored in a manner allowing them to be “replayed” either forward or reverse to assist a system administrator or other user to determine the chain of events that affected the enterprise. The system engineer and business process owner are therefore presented with pertinent information for monitoring, administrating and diagnosing system activities and their correlation to business services. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292721 | System and Method for Application of Hash Function in Telecommunication and Networking - A novel hashing function and hashing collision resolution method are introduced that combine multiple known hashing resolution methods to achieve a very low collision probability that is specifically useful in lookup of long keys, such as (for example) the VLAN and MAC lookup in Ethernet switches. However, the system and method introduced here can be used in any networking and telecommunication systems. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292722 | REAL TIME EXPERT DIALOG SERVICE - Methods and systems provide for establishment of online dialogs between a person and a user of an online community where those people are not necessarily familiar with each others areas of expertise or interests. The methods and systems can categorize a dialog topic received from the person, and determine, from categorization of users, a selection of users of a system to receive the dialog topic. That selection can be further narrowed according to user availability and/or ranking determinations, as well as an initial subject matter test posed to the selection of users. Judging the acceptability of the users' responses can help determine subject matter expertise in an area relevant to the proposed topic. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292723 | Method and Apparatus to Implement Themes for a Handheld Device - A method and apparatus for the delivery, administration and application of themes to a cellular telephone device. The apparatus, in one embodiment, comprises an inbox to receive a multimedia message (MM) containing a theme, a filing logic to place the MM in a themes folder, a themes folder available to the user to browse the theme MMs, and a client-side application to apply the theme to the user's cellular telephone device. In one embodiment, the apparatus includes notification logic to notify a web page associated with the user to change its display to match the theme applied by the user to the cellular telephone device. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292724 | Acquisition and particular association of inference data indicative of an inferred mental state of an authoring user and source identity data - A computationally implemented method includes, but is not limited to: acquiring inference data indicative of an inferred mental state of an authoring user in connection with at least a particular item of an electronic message, acquiring source identity data providing one or more identities of one or more sources that is or are basis, at least in part, for the inference data indicative of the inferred mental state of the authoring user, associating the inference data indicative of the inferred mental state of the authoring user with the particular item; and associating the source identity data providing one or more identities of the one or more sources with the particular item. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292725 | Acquisition and presentation of data indicative of an extent of congruence between inferred mental states of authoring users - A computationally implemented method includes, but is not limited to: acquiring a first inference data indicative of an inferred mental state of a first authoring user in connection with a particular item of an electronic document, acquiring a second inference data indicative of an inferred mental state of a second authoring user in connection with the particular item of the electronic document; comparing the first inference data with the second inference data; and presenting data indicative of an extent of congruity between the inferred mental state of the first authoring user and the inferred mental state of the second authoring user based, at least in part, on said comparing. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292726 | System and Method for Identifying Hierarchical Heavy Hitters in Multi-Dimensional Data - A method including receiving a plurality of elements of a data stream, storing a multi-dimensional data structure in a memory, said multi-dimensional data structure storing the plurality of elements as a hierarchy of nodes, each node having a frequency count corresponding to the number of elements stored therein, comparing the frequency count of each node to a threshold value based on a total number of the elements stored in the nodes and identifying each node for which the frequency count is at least as great as the threshold value as a hierarchical heavy hitter (HHH) node and propagating the frequency count of each non-HHH nodes to its corresponding parent nodes. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292727 | Facilitating Electronic Exchange of Proprietary Information - A method and apparatus effectuates bilateral commerce in ideas. An originator and user-driven on-line commercial network system is designed to facilitate idea submission, purchase, and licensing, and is easily adapted to business-to-business transfers of innovation as well as consumer-to-business transfers of innovation. The invention allows originators of ideas to communicate nondisclosing synopses of ideas globally to potential users, for users conveniently to search for relevant ideas and for users potentially to bind an originator to a limited duration license granting user the exclusive right to access and consider confidentially the originator's fully disclosed idea. The invention also allows users to communicate confidentially or nonconfidentially unsolved problems or needs globally to potential originators, for originators conveniently to search for relevant unsolved problems or needs, and for originators to submit and communicate confidentially proposed solutions to the soliciting user. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292728 | Human Resources Employment Product - Various embodiments of this invention disclose a computer-aided human resources employment system and method that electronically captures and shares, in real-time, human resources and unemployment events and the completed forms that relate to those events. Other embodiments of this invention disclose a computer-aided system for managing human resources and unemployment forms and data captured in those forms. Another embodiment of the invention relates to a system and method for managing unemployment claims. This invention also relates to a human resources employment computer-based product that manages human resources and unemployment forms and database information. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292729 | Method and Apparatus for Maintaining and Processing Provenance Data in Data Stream Processing System - Techniques are disclosed for maintaining and processing provenance data in such data stream processing systems. For example, a method for processing data associated with a data stream received by a data stream processing system, wherein the system comprises a plurality of processing elements, comprising the following steps. A portion of data associated with the data stream is maintained. The maintained data comprises inputs to each processing element that contributed to an output of each processing element. In response to an alert generated by one of the processing elements, a scheduler is triggered to determine when a pre-calculation of a prospective query related to the alert should be executed. In response to the scheduler, at least a portion of the maintained data is used to determine a set of data that contributed to the alert such that the alert-contributing set of data can be used to respond to the prospective query upon arrival thereof. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292730 | SPREADSHEET FORMULA TRANSLATION OF SERVER CALCULATION RULES - Architecture includes for translating server calculations into client application formulas. The architecture determines dependencies, performs formulae translation, and processes data retrieval queries using the translated formulae. In one implementation, the architecture translates performance management server calculations into spreadsheet application formulas so that the impact of changes can be reflected immediately. Moreover, this technique does not require updating and querying of the performance management server. An algorithm is provided that allows translation of the backend formula (e.g., MDX—multidimensional expressions) directly into the spreadsheet application such that the impact on calculated values by an input change can be reflected instantaneously in the sheet. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292731 | Method And Apparatus For Generating A Composite Media File - A number of embodiments concern a method of generating a composite media file. The method can include: (a) storing a first media file over an information sharing network from a first user to a database; (b) storing a first tag over the information sharing network for the first media file to provide first information regarding the first media file; (c) storing a second media file over the information sharing network from a second user to the database; (d) storing a second tag over the information sharing network for the second media file to provide second information regarding the second media file; (e) facilitating a search over the information sharing network for the first media file in the database based on the first information; and (f) storing the composite media file comprising a combination of at least the first media file and portions of the second media file. Other embodiments are disclosed in this application. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292732 | SIMILARITY-BASED CONTENT SAMPLING AND RELEVANCE FEEDBACK - A method and a system may be provided to sample media content similar to media content enjoyed by a user. Feature vectors, which describe a number of characteristics, with respect to media content enjoyed by the user, may be employed to find similar media content from a media library, or a media service. The similar media content may be played, interleaved with requested media content. Relevance feedback, with respect to played media content, may be transparently or explicitly provided. The feature vectors may be updated based on the provided relevance feedback. Additional similar media content may be found from the media library, or the media service, based on the updated feature vectors, and may be played. An interface may be provided such that the user may purchase sampled, media content via a media device for playing the content. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292733 | Acquisition and particular association of data indicative of an inferred mental state of an authoring user - A computationally implemented method includes, but is not limited to: acquiring data indicative of an inferred mental state of an authoring user in connection with at least a particular item of an electronic message, and associating the data indicative of the inferred mental state of the authoring user with the particular item. In addition to the foregoing, other method aspects are described in the claims, drawings, and text forming a part of the present disclosure. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292734 | RULE BASED AGGREGATION OF FILES AND TRANSACTIONS IN A SWITCHED FILE SYSTEM - A switched file system, also termed a file switch, is logically positioned between client computers and file servers in a computer network. The file switch distributes user files among multiple file servers using aggregated file, transaction and directory mechanisms. The file switch distributes and aggregates the client data files in accordance with a predetermined set of aggregation rules. Each rule can be modified independently of the other rules. Different aggregation rules can be used for different types of files, thereby adapting the characteristics of the switched file system to the intended use and to the expected or historical access patterns for different data files. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292735 | DECLUTTERING A COMPUTING SYSTEM - Technologies are described herein for decluttering a computing system by removing a visual display or performance impact caused by pre-installed software components. Through the decluttering process, icons and other visual indications of pre-installed software are removed, thereby eliminating visual clutter. The decluttering process also prevents the automatic execution of pre-installed software, thereby eliminating the performance impact caused by these programs. Because the decluttering process does not uninstall the pre-installed software, the process can be reversed, thereby returning the pre-installed software to its original state. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292736 | ON DEMAND NETWORK ACTIVITY REPORTING THROUGH A DYNAMIC FILE SYSTEM AND METHOD - A method, apparatus and a system of on demand network activity reporting through a dynamic file system and method are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method includes forming a root level selection guide based on a set of criteria associated with an activity through a network that is captured and stored on a storage device associated with a network appliance, refreshing listings of a sub-directory of the root level selection guide dynamically based on the activity through the network stored on the storage device when an option is selected in the root level selection guide, and creating a packet capture file based on a current state of the activity through the network when one of the listings of the sub-directory of the root level selection guide is selected. The method may include automatically referencing a database having the activity through the network when creating the packet capture file. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292737 | Methods and Systems for Patching Multiple Disk Images Derived from a Common Base Disk Image - A method for updating a plurality of disk images, each of the plurality of disk images derived from a common base disk image and a delta image comprising a plurality of delta files, includes applying a delta file to a base disk image to generate a second disk image comprising a portion of the base disk image modified by the delta file and an unmodified portion of the base disk image. Each delta file represents at least one difference between one of the plurality of user disk images and the base disk image. The method includes applying a patch to a copy of the base disk image, and determining that the patch is applied to a portion of the base disk image corresponding to the unmodified portion of the base disk image. The delta file is applied to the patched copy of the base disk image. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292738 | Conducting An Individualized, Virtually Moderated, Virtual Real Time Methodical Debate - Disclosed herein is a computer implemented method and system for conducting an individualized, virtually moderated, and virtual real time debate. Debating topics and debating rules are defined for the debate. A group of panelists is selected for the debate based on the debating topics. An electronic debating platform is provided to the panelists for receiving one or more key points, responses, and counter-responses contributed by each of the panelists in non real time. The key points, the responses, and the counter-responses are governed by the debating rules. The prerecorded key points, responses, counter-responses, and one or more information components relevant to each of the key points are stringed together in sequence. The debate is presented to a viewer on a multimedia presentation layer. The presentation of the debate is customized by enabling the viewer to selectively navigate through the presentation using the sequenced key points, responses, counter-responses, and information components. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292739 | Methods and Systems for Service Tracking and Timeline Updating - A system for tracking and managing value-added services and service timelines provided to a client by an agency. The system includes a secure web-based interface and a database, the database being connected to the web-based interface and including client account data. The system also includes an agency set-up portion of the web-based interface allowing an authorized administrator to associate the client account data with an agency account, a service timeline portion of the web-based interface allowing an authorized user to view and edit an interactive client account service timeline generated from the client account data. The interactive client account service timeline includes a plurality of editable data fields, including editable data fields for a value-added service category, a description of a value-added service, a tracking metric, a list of one or more participants, a target date for completion of the service, and an actual completion date for the service. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292740 | DATABASE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD - A database management system and method are provided. In one example, the database management system may include a source database, a target database, and a replication system operable to identify a difference in structure between the source database and the target database and change the structure of the target database to correspond to the structure of the source database. In such an example, the structure of the target database may be alternatively changed manually. In another example, the source database may include structure and data, and the replication system may be operable to replicate at least one of the structure and the data to the target database without storing the at least one of the structure and the data in an intervening database as the at least one of the structure and the data is transmitted from the source database to the target database. | 2009-11-26 |
20090292741 | Detailed data storage apparatus and method - A detailed data storage apparatus creates, when a detailed data database that stores therein detailed data relatint to each stage of a process executed through multiple stages receives detailed data relating to a predetermined stage, forecast detailed data indicating contents predicted for a stage next to a predetermined stage and subsequent stages from the detailed data, and stores the forecast detailed data in the detailed data database. The apparatus includes an order holding unit that orders and holds the multiple stages; a determining unit that determines whether there is a stage immediately previous to the predetermined stage; and an offset detailed-data creating unit that creates offset detailed data including a content for offsetting the forecast detailed data created at the immediately previous stage when the determining unit determines that there is the immediately previous stage, so as to store the offset detailed data in the detailed data database. | 2009-11-26 |