19th week of 2013 patent applcation highlights part 54 |
Patent application number | Title | Published |
20130117001 | Method and Apparatus for Simulating Gate Capacitance of a Tucked Transistor Device - A method for simulating a tucked transistor device having a diffusion region defined in a semiconductor layer, a gate electrode adjacent a first side of the diffusion region, a floating gate electrode adjacent a second side of the diffusion region, and an isolation structure disposed beneath at least a portion of the floating gate electrode is provided. The method includes receiving a first netlist having an entry for the tucked transistor device in a computing apparatus. The entry defines parameters associated with the gate electrode and the diffusion region. A parasitic capacitance component is added to the entry representing a gate capacitance between the floating gate and the diffusion region in the computing apparatus. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117002 | Method and Apparatus for Simulating Junction Capacitance of a Tucked Transistor Device - A tucked transistor device has a diffusion region defined in a semiconductor layer, a switching gate electrode adjacent a first side of the diffusion region, a floating gate electrode adjacent a second side of the diffusion region, and an isolation structure disposed beneath at least a portion of the floating gate electrode. A method includes receiving a netlist having an entry for the tucked transistor device in a computing apparatus, the entry defining parameters associated with the switching gate electrode and the diffusion region, receiving a device parameter file including at least a gate bounded junction capacitance parameter that includes a junction capacitance bounded by the switching gate electrode modified to include a contribution of the floating gate electrode to a gate bounded junction capacitance of the tucked transistor device. Operation of the tucked transistor device is simulated in the computing apparatus using a transistor device model and the netlist. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117003 | METHOD FOR STRUCTURING HARDWARE INFORMATION BY USING AN MOF-BASED HCML - Provided is a method for structuring hardware information in computer system, including: modeling Target Independent Model (TIM), which is independent from a hardware; structuring hardware information based on Meta Object Facility (MOF)-Hardware Component Modeling Language (HCML); and transforming the TIM into a Target Specification Model, which depends on the hardware, based on the structured hardware information and the model transformation language, wherein the step of structuring hardware information based on Meta Object Facility (MOF)-Hardware Component Modeling Language (HCML), comprises: defining a MOF-based Hardware Component Modeling Language (HCML) meta-model; and defining a model by using a meta-model of the HCML and representing architecture information on the model. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117004 | ELECTRICAL POWER PROFILE SIMULATOR - A system and methods to simulate a power profile of an electrical system are disclosed. A combination of electrical devices operable to be electrically coupled to a common power source is virtually assembled, and empirically derived dynamic power requirements associated with each of the electrical devices are modeled. Power profiles for at least one electrical system configuration comprising the combination of electrical devices are generated using the empirically derived dynamic power requirements. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117005 | COVERAGE ANALYSIS FOR MULTIPLE TEST METHODOLOGIES - Systems and methods for constructing a model to test the functionality of a target system are provided. When a first test methodology is used to test the target system, a model is proposed to test the target system based on a second test methodology. A subset of the target system's properties covered by the model is selected according to the second test methodology. It is determined whether the selected subset of the target system's properties, as covered by the second test methodology, is covered by the first test methodology. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117006 | SIMULATED BOOT PROCESS TO DETECT INTRODUCTION OF UNAUTHORIZED INFORMATION - Techniques involving a simulated start-up or “boot” process to detect the introduction of unauthorized code or data into the boot process. In one embodiment, a boot process is performed to initiate a computing system. The boot process is then simulated using the initiated computing system to detect unauthorized modifications introduced into the computing system prior to the computing system's operating system being operational. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117007 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TURNING CUSTOM PROTOTYPE BOARDS INTO CO-SIMULATION, CO-EMULATION SYSTEMS - A custom prototyping board and a controller are integrated to form an emulation system for emulating a circuit design. The controller may be disposed on an adaptor board. The custom prototyping board is defined by a set of board description files which further define the FPGA device(s) used in the system as well as the wire connections among the FPGA devices and connectors on the custom prototyping board. The FPGA device(s) is configured in accordance with the partitioned circuit design. Each partitioned circuit in the FPGA device is associated with a verification module for communicating with the controller to control and probe the emulation. A host workstation may be used to link with the controller to support co-simulation or co-emulation of the circuit design. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117008 | TECHNIQUES FOR AUTOMATED DOCUMENT TRANSLATION - Techniques for automated document translation are described. An apparatus may comprise a translatable content component, an intermediate component, and a translation management component. The translatable content component may be generally operative to extract translatable content from an original document, and to construct a translated document based on extracted translated content, the translated document comprising a translation of the original document from a first language to a second language. The intermediate component may be operative to create one or more intermediate documents from extracted translatable content, and to extract translated content from one or more translated intermediate documents. The translation management component operative to transmit the one or more intermediate documents to a translation service for translation from a first language to a second language and to receive one or more translated intermediate documents from the translation service. Other embodiments are described and claimed. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117009 | METHOD OF PROVIDING A MULTILINGUAL TRANSLATION DEVICE FOR PORTABLE USE - Portable, real time voice translation systems, and associated methods of use, are provided. The systems include a translation system for use on a single unit, portable computing device and operable for accessing a multilanguage database, selecting a source language from a plurality of source languages and a destination language from a plurality of destination languages, inputting a source phrase, transmitting the source phrase to a speech recognition module, a translation engine, and a template look-up engine for finding the phrase template associated with the destination phrase from among the multiple languages. The spoken translation is then output in the selected destination language. The translation system has a total time between the input of the source phrase and output of the destination phrase that is no slower than 0.010 seconds, and a communications interface operable for communicating with a second computer system. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117010 | METHOD AND DEVICE FOR FILTERING A TRANSLATION RULE AND GENERATING A TARGET WORD IN HIERARCHICAL-PHASE-BASED STATISTICAL MACHINE TRANSLATION - Disclosure relates to a statistical machine translation field, and more particularly to a method and a device for filtering a translation rule and generating a target word in a hierarchical phrase-based statistical machine translation. The method and device filters a translation rule using a relaxed-well-formed dependency structure and generates a target word by referring to a head word of a source word in a hierarchical phrase-based statistical machine translation. The disclosure improves a translation performance while reducing a number of translation rules, in comparison with a hierarchical phrase-based original translation rule table. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117011 | TELEMETRY OF SYSTEM CHANGES - A telemetry system can parse and transform one or more change sets from a format intended to be processed by a computer to a form that is readily consumable by a human. The report or display generated to present the results can be customized for a particular domain. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117012 | KNOWLEDGE BASED PARSING - The subject disclosure generally relates to parsing unstructured data based on knowledge of domains related to the unstructured data. A domain identification component can identify a set of domains related to a term in a data set. An inspection component can identify unmatched words, and unmatched related domains. A correlation component can compare the unmatched words to known values for the unmatched domains, and a manager component can match the unmatched words with the unmatched domains based on the comparison. In addition, combinations of the words can be generated based on a set of predetermined rules, and compared to the unmatched domains. Furthermore, delimiter based parsing can be employed to augment the knowledge based parsing. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117013 | PRONOUNCEABLE DOMAIN NAMES - Embodiments of the present teachings relate to systems and methods for generating pronounceable domain names. The method includes proving a list of character strings; filtering the list of character strings through a first filter based on a phonetic model to produce a first filtered list of character strings; filtering the list of character strings through a second filter based on a character order mode to produce a second filtered list of character strings; and generating, by a processor, a list of pronounceable domain names based on the first filtered list of character strings and the second filtered list of character strings. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117014 | MULTIPLE MICROPHONE BASED LOW COMPLEXITY PITCH DETECTOR - Disclosed are various embodiments of multiple microphone based pitch detection. In one embodiment, a method includes obtaining a primary signal and a secondary signal associated with multiple microphones. A pitch value is determined based at least in part upon a level difference between the primary and secondary signals. In another embodiment, a system includes a plurality of microphones configured to provide a primary signal and a secondary signal. A level difference detector is configured to determine a level difference between the primary and secondary signals and a pitch identifier is configured to clip the primary and secondary signals based at least in part upon the level difference. In another embodiment, a method determines the presence of voice activity based upon a pitch prediction gain variation that is determined based at least in part upon a pitch lag. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117015 | AUDIO SIGNAL DECODER, AUDIO SIGNAL ENCODER, METHOD FOR DECODING AN AUDIO SIGNAL, METHOD FOR ENCODING AN AUDIO SIGNAL AND COMPUTER PROGRAM USING A PITCH-DEPENDENT ADAPTATION OF A CODING CONTEXT - An audio signal decoder includes a context-based spectral value decoder configured to decode a codeword describing one or more spectral values or at least a portion of a number representation thereof in dependence on a context state. The audio signal decoder also includes a context state determinator configured to determine a current context state in dependence on one or more previously decoded spectral values and a time warping frequency-domain-to-time-domain converter configured to provide a time-warped time-domain representation of a given audio frame on the basis of a set of decoded spectral values provided by the context-based spectral value decoder and in dependence on the time warp information. The context-state determinator is configured to adapt the determination of the context state to a change of a fundamental frequency between subsequent audio frames. An audio signal encoder applies a comparable concept. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117016 | METHOD AND AN APPARATUS FOR GENERATING A NOISE REDUCED AUDIO SIGNAL - A method and apparatus are provided for generating a noise reduced output signal from sound received by a first microphone. The method includes transforming the sound received by the first microphone into a first input signal and transforming sound received by a second microphone into a second input signal. The method includes calculating, for each of a plurality of frequency components, an energy transfer function value as a real-valued quotient by dividing a temporally averaged product of an amplitude of the first input signal and the second input signal by a temporally averaged absolute square of the second input signal, calculating a gain value as a function of the calculated energy transfer function value, and generating the noise reduced output signal based on the product of the first input signal and the calculated gain value at each of the plurality of frequency components. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117017 | ELECTRICAL APPARATUS AND VOICE SIGNALS RECEIVING METHOD THEREOF - An electrical apparatus a voice signal receiving method thereof are disclosed. The electrical apparatus includes a plurality of voice receivers, a voice activity detector, a voice channel switch and a noise eliminator. The voice receivers are used to receive the voice signals. The voice activity detector receives and detects the voice signals, and obtains a main voice signal from the voice signals. The voice channel switch transports the main voice signal to a voice transporting channel and transports a plurality of other voice signals of the voice signals other than the main voice signal to a noise transporting channel according to a detecting result of the voice activity detector. The noise eliminator reduces the noise in the main voice according to the voice signals from the noise transporting channel. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117018 | VOICE CONTENT TRANSCRIPTION DURING COLLABORATION SESSIONS - A method, computer program product, and system for voice content transcription during collaboration sessions is described. A method may comprise receiving an indication to provide one or more real-time voice content-to-text content transcriptions to a first collaboration session participant. The one or more real-time voice content-to-text content transcriptions may correspond to voice content of a second collaboration session participant in one or more collaboration sessions including the first collaboration session participant and the second collaboration session participant. The method may additionally comprise defining a preference for the first collaboration session participant to receive the one or more real-time voice content-to-text content transcriptions corresponding to the voice content of the second collaboration session participant in the one or more collaboration sessions including the first collaboration session participant and the second collaboration session participant based upon, at least in part, the indication. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117019 | Remote Laboratory Gateway - A remote laboratory gateway enables a plurality of students to access and control a laboratory experiment remotely. Access is provided by an experimentation gateway, which is configured to provide secure access to the experiment via a network-centric, web-enabled interface graphical user interface. Experimental hardware is directly controlled by an experiment controller, which is communicatively coupled to the experimentation gateway and which may be a software application, a standalone computing device, or a virtual machine hosted on the experimentation gateway. The remote laboratory of the present specification may be configured for a software-as-a-service business model. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117020 | PERSONALIZED ADVERTISEMENT DEVICE BASED ON SPEECH RECOGNITION SMS SERVICE, AND PERSONALIZED ADVERTISEMENT EXPOSURE METHOD BASED ON SPEECH RECOGNITION SMS SERVICE - Disclosed are a personalized advertisement device based on speech recognition SMS services and a personalized advertisement exposure method based on speech recognition SMS services. The present invention provides a personalized advertisement device based on speech recognition SMS services and a personalized advertisement exposure method based on speech recognition SMS services capable of maximizing an effect of advertisement by grasping user's intention, an emotion state, and positional information from speech data uttered by a user during a process of providing speech recognition SMS services, configuring advertisements based thereon, and exposing the configured advertisements to a user. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117021 | MESSAGE AND VEHICLE INTERFACE INTEGRATION SYSTEM AND METHOD - A method and system uses an integration application to extract an information feature from a message and to provide the information feature to a vehicle interface device which acts on the information feature to provide a service. The extracted information feature may be automatically acted upon, or may be outputted for review, editing, and/or selection before being acted on. The vehicle interface device may include a navigation system, infotainment system, telephone, and/or a head unit. The message may be received by the vehicle interface device or from a portable or remote device in linked communication with the vehicle interface device. The message may be a voice-based or text-based message. The service may include placing a call, sending a message, or providing navigation instructions using the information feature. An off-board or back-end service provider in communication with the integration application may extract and/or transcribe the information feature and/or provide a service. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117022 | Personalized Vocabulary for Digital Assistant - Methods, systems, and computer readable storage medium related to operating an intelligent digital assistant are disclosed. A text string is obtained from a speech input received from a user. The received text string is interpreted to derive a representation of user intent based at least in part on a plurality of words associated with a user and stored in memory associated with the user, the plurality of words including words from a plurality of user interactions with an automated assistant. At least one domain, a task, and at least one parameter for the task, are identified based at least in part on the representation of user intent. The identified task is performed. An output is provided to the user, where the output is related to the performance of the task. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117023 | System and Method for Mobile Automatic Speech Recognition - A system and method of updating automatic speech recognition parameters on a mobile device are disclosed. The method comprises storing user account-specific adaptation data associated with ASR on a computing device associated with a wireless network, generating new ASR adaptation parameters based on transmitted information from the mobile device when a communication channel between the computing device and the mobile device becomes available and transmitting the new ASR adaptation data to the mobile device when a communication channel between the computing device and the mobile device becomes available. The new ASR adaptation data on the mobile device more accurately recognizes user utterances. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117024 | STRUCTURED TERM RECOGNITION - A method, system and computer program product for recognizing terms in a specified corpus. In one embodiment, the method comprises providing a set of known terms t ∈ T, each of the known terms t belonging to a set of types Γ (t)={γ | 2013-05-09 |
20130117025 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR REPRESENTING AN IMAGE IN A PORTABLE TERMINAL - An apparatus for displaying an image in a portable terminal includes a camera to photograph the image, a touch screen to display the image and to allow selecting an object area of the displayed image, a memory to store the image, a controller to detect at least one object area within the image when displaying the image of the camera or the memory and to recognize object information of the detected object area to be converted into a voice, and an audio processing unit to output the voice. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117026 | SPEECH SYNTHESIZER, SPEECH SYNTHESIS METHOD, AND SPEECH SYNTHESIS PROGRAM - State duration creation means creates a state duration indicating a duration of each state in a hidden Markov model, based on linguistic information and a model parameter of prosody information. Duration correction degree computing means derives a speech feature from the linguistic information, and computes a duration correction degree which is an index indicating a degree of correcting the state duration, based on the derived speech feature. State duration correction means corrects the state duration based on a phonological duration correction parameter and the duration correction degree, the phonological duration correction parameter indicating a correction ratio of correcting a phonological duration. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117027 | ELECTRONIC APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING ELECTRONIC APPARATUS USING RECOGNITION AND MOTION RECOGNITION - An electronic apparatus and a method thereof are provided. A method for controlling an electronic apparatus includes recognizing a voice signal that is input; and displaying text corresponding to the recognized voice signal on a display unit of the electronic apparatus; and deleting selected text of the text displayed on the display unit in response to a deletion motion that is input while the text is displayed on the display unit. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117028 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR CODING SIGNAL IN A COMMUNICATION SYSTEM - Disclosed are an apparatus for coding a signal in a communication system including: a coding unit configured to code voice and audio signals based on a code excited linear prediction (CELP) coding method; a residual signal calculation unit configured to calculate residual signals of the voice and audio signals; a frequency transform unit configured to transform the residual signal into a signal in a frequency domain; an energy calculation unit configured to use frequency coefficients of the residual signals to calculate frequency energy of the residual signals; an energy concentration calculation unit configured to calculate energy concentrations of each vector dimension of the residual signals from the frequency energy of the residual signals; and a vector dimension determination unit configured to compare the energy concentrations of each vector dimension to determine targeted vector dimensions of the residual signals. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117029 | SIGNAL CLASSIFICATION METHOD AND DEVICE, AND ENCODING AND DECODING METHODS AND DEVICES - Embodiments of the present invention provide a signal classification method and device, and encoding and decoding methods and devices. The encoding method includes: dividing a current frame into a low-frequency band signal and a high-frequency band signal; attenuating the high-frequency band signal or a to-be-encoded characteristic parameter of the high-frequency band signal according to an energy attenuation value of the low-frequency band signal, where the energy attenuation value indicates energy attenuation of the low-frequency band signal caused by encoding of the low-frequency band signal; and encoding the attenuated high-frequency band signal or the attenuated to-be-encoded characteristic parameter of the high-frequency band signal. The technical solutions according to the embodiments of the present invention can improve the effect of combining the low-frequency band signal and the high-frequency band signal at the decoder. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117030 | SIGNAL COMPRESSION METHOD AND APPARATUS - A signal compression method and apparatus are provided. The signal compression method includes: multiplying an input signal by a window function; calculating original autocorrelation coefficients of a windowed input signal; calculating a white-noise correction factor or a lag-window according to the original autocorrelation coefficients, and calculating modified autocorrelation coefficients according to the original autocorrelation coefficients, the white-noise correction factor and the lag-window; calculating linear prediction coefficients according to the modified autocorrelation coefficients; and outputting a coded bit stream according to the linear prediction coefficients. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117031 | AUDIO DATA ENCODING METHOD AND DEVICE - Provided is an audio data encoding method and device for use in Ogg/Vorbis encoding in portable multimedia players. The method comprises: receiving audio data requiring encoding ( | 2013-05-09 |
20130117032 | TRANSCODER WITH DYNAMIC AUDIO CHANNEL CHANGING - A transcoder is arranged to transcode a stream having a dynamically changing audio configuration, such as a changing number of audio channels. The transcoder can receive an input stream whereby changes in the content associated with the input stream causes corresponding changes to the configuration of audio data encoded in the input stream. The transcoder is arranged to detect the change in audio configuration and, in response, to dynamically reconfigure its decoder and encoder modules to continue to transcode the audio data after the audio configuration change. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117033 | HEALTHCARE PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT AND EQUITABLE PROVIDER REIMBURSEMENT SYSTEM - The present invention incorporates medical knowledge into the processes and algorithms that combine inpatient quality outcomes, ambulatory quality measures and health insurers' financial data into actionable information that hospitals and physicians can use to improve the efficacies and efficiencies of their care. It then quantifies the financial net savings that predictably accrue as a result of the providers' improved medical outcomes. This information enables a hospital or health insurer to equitably share the net saving with the physicians and hospitals as incentives to continuously improve the quality of their patients' care and control costs. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117034 | Creating and Visualizing Professionally Crowdsourced Structured Medical Knowledge - A system and a method are disclosed for gathering and visualizing votes on the comparative efficacy, tolerability, and cost of medical treatments, including surgeries, drugs, devices, radiological and other procedures and interventions, using an Internet-based, credentialed physician social network. The system includes a method for intuitive head-to-head visualization of competing treatments, based upon aggregated community physician votes, with respect to their performance on the principal clinical dimensions of efficacy, tolerability, and cost. The system additionally includes a method to reduce intentional and unintentional voting bias. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117035 | MEDICAL PAYMENT SYSTEM WITH DELAYED SETTLEMENT - Medical professionals may obtain payment authorization from their patients, even before the insurance company or other payer has determined the patient's ultimate financial obligation. In particular, the medical professional or their administrative staff may estimate the patient's financial obligations, obtain authorization for payment, and then subsequently collect payment at a later date once the actual financial obligation has been determined. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117036 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR INTELLIGENT ROUTING OF HEALTH INFORMATION - An intelligent router for performing functions such as data aggregation from multiple sources, data mining, business intelligence analysis, exploratory data analysis, confirmatory data analysis, predictive data analysis, text analytics, and routing of the results to the appropriate recipient(s) at the appropriate time. The router may comprise an authorization/access manager, a business rules management system, routing engine, data aggregator, community data analytics engine. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117037 | Goal Tracking and Segmented Marketing Systems and Methods with Network Analysis and Visualization - Systems and methods for establishing and studying networks of professionals and how they associate, learn, and behave are disclosed. In methods according to embodiments of the invention, networks of professionals are defined by administering sociometric surveys to a group of professionals, or by culling already available data about the professionals from other data sources. Behavioral data is also imported, and methods and systems according to embodiments of the invention allow behavioral data to be overlaid on network data. Metrics can be calculated indicating the importance of a particular professional based on his or her influence on the behavior of others in his or her network. This network data and other data can then be used to define business goals and objectives, segment a customer base according to user-defined characteristics, deliver targeted marketing interventions, and understand the effects of those interventions. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117038 | PREVENTIVE CARE ENGINE - A preventative care recommendation engine to provide a preventative care recommendation corresponding to a patient is disclosed. Processor(s) may be coupled to network interface(s) accessible by healthcare provider(s) and/or patient(s), to execute instructions to access a set of confidential health information for an identified patient, where the set is derived from a first data source, and includes an indication of a health condition of the identified patient, a healthcare service provided to the identified patient, and/or a time when the health care service was provided to the identified patient. A second data source that includes a set of criteria specified by a third party indicating a preventative care service may be accessed. A recommendation corresponding to the identified patient may be sent, wherein the recommendation is a function of the set of confidential health information for the identified patient and the set of criteria. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117039 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR ELECTRONICALLY ACCESSING AND TRANSMITTING HEALTH INSURANCE PORTABILITY AND ACCOUNTABILITY ACT (HIPAA) COMPLIANT DATA - Systems and methods for electronically transmitting and accessing Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant data are provided. The HIPAA compliant data are transmitted to a patient via a mobile device in the form of an alert that provides the patient with reminders to take medications. To maintain the privacy of the patient, the specific drug names of the medications are replaced by a generic reference or identifier to comply with the provisions of HIPAA. Systems and methods for providing and authorizing access to a third party to receive and/or review PHI and/or EPHI of a patient via a social network website are also provided. To grant access, the patient executes a HIPAA release form and the third party is added to a list of third parties allowed to receive and access HIPAA compliant data via a social network website. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117040 | Method and System for Supporting a Health Regimen - A method and user interface for supporting a health regimen comprising: grouping a plurality of participants into a matched group; providing, to each participant of the matched group, a body metric measurement device configured to communicate remotely with a network; receiving a set of body metric measurement data over the network from the participant and a portion of the participants of the matched group; storing the set of body metric measurement data on a server; determining a trend in the body metric measurement of the participant; determining a trend in the body metric measurement of the portion of the matched group; providing feedback to the participant based on the trend of the participant relative to the trend of the portion of the matched group; providing, to each participant of the matched group, a health regimen curriculum; and providing a physical motivational incentive to the participant. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117041 | COMPUTER METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROMOTING HEALTH, WELLNESS, AND FITNESS WITH MULTIPLE SPONSORS - Disclosed is an improved automated system and corresponding computer method of promoting and maintaining health, wellness, and fitness. Multiple sponsors per member participant are enabled. Each sponsor defines respective qualifying healthy behavior (activities, purchases, other) and reward rate for each such activity and purchase. A rewards engine operates on member accounts adding units per member completion of qualifying healthy activities or purchases, thereby encouraging members to adopt healthy habits. This, in turn, leads to better health, wellness, and fitness for the subject members. The combination of different and multiple sponsors having different qualifying activities/purchases provides increased member incentive. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117042 | AUTOMATIC ANALYSIS SYSTEM AND DEVICE MANAGEMENT SERVER - Precise prediction of the state of congestion in an automatic analysis system and adjustment of timings and the order of take-in and take-out of specimens in each of devices prevent increase in TATs of urgent specimens. A device management server for instructing each device to take in or take out specimens in each device determines the current position of each specimen, estimates the staying time of each specimen in one of regions by simulating the operation of each device assuming an initial state in which each specimen is at the current position, causes the simulation unit to perform a simulation, and corrects the timings or order of take-in and take-out of one or more other specimens so that each of the staying times in one of the regions do not exceed a corresponding allowable staying time in the region. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117043 | Wellness Incentive System And Method - A system and method for incentivizing the participants' improvement in exercise participation in a health plan including a plurality of participants, without an employer's knowledge of the participants' individual health data. Initially, a randomly-generated identifier is assigned to each of the participants. Next, an exercise schedule is assigned to each of the participants. Points are allocated to each participant based on exercise participation, and incentives are provided for the participants, in the form of prizes awarded to each of the participants based on the number of points respectively allocated. Reports are generated indicating the degree of participation by aggregate participants and by individual participants. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117044 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING A MEDICATION INVENTORY - A system and method for electronically verifying a patient's medication inventory comprises receiving an optical image of a medication label on a pill bottle or other medication container, translating said image into text data (e.g., comprising patient's name, medication name, dose, frequency and route of administration of medication); comparing the text data to known medications in a medication database and identifying any identical match. If no match is found, the system and method acts as an expert system to search the data in the medication database for historical user verified closest matches and to return the closest match with the highest user verified historical probability of being correct. The matched information is displayed to a user and the user is enabled to correct the information, if needed. The verified information is stored in a medication database. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117045 | HEALTH PORTAL DATA CONSOLIDATION - A consolidation engine to consolidate health information under regulatory control and from healthcare entities and patients is described. Data sources corresponding to healthcare providers and/or healthcare payers are accessed. A first set of confidential medical information from a first data source for an identified patient is accessed, including a first indication of a health condition and/or a first indication of a health care service. A second set of confidential medical information from a second data source is accessed, including a second indication of a health condition and/or a second indication of a health care service. First and second sets are consolidated to form a composite set of confidential medical information. Authentication information for a user approved for access to at least part of the composite set is stored, and a network interface allows access by the user that is approved for access to the composite set of confidential medical information. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117046 | INTENT-BASED CLUSTERING OF MEDICAL INFORMATION - A medical information navigation engine (“MINE”) includes a medical information interface, a reconciliation engine and an intent-based presentation engine. The medical information interface receives medical information from a plurality of medical sources, which is subsequently reconciled by the reconciliation engine. The intent-based presentation engine clusters the reconciled medical information by applying at least one clustering rule to the reconciled medication information. The clustered reconciled medical information can be presented to a user. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117047 | Method for Defeasance of Pension Scheme Risk - A method of transferring risk from a pension scheme, comprising: a sponsoring entity acquiring a captive entity established to provide infrastructure to insure at least a portion of the pension scheme's liabilities; the sponsoring entity providing an amount of risk capital to the captive entity and an amount of capital to the pension scheme; the captive entity writing one or more contracts in favor of a counterparty to make payments dependent on the insured liabilities to the pension scheme members; calculating the insured liabilities to the pension scheme members; and causing an electronic payment of an amount dependent on the calculated insured liabilities to be executed to the counterparty. The captive entity may be demerged from the sponsoring entity by the sponsoring entity divesting at least a portion of the captive entity. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117048 | System and Method for Online Automobile Insurance Quoting - The present disclosure describes novel systems and methods for a customer to receive information and/or purchase a product or service while interacting with multiple vendors through a single contact/agency. The customer is able to communicate with the agency through a variety of communication modes. The agency adapts the customer's input as necessary to meet the requirements of the vendors and the agency returns information to the customer so that the customer can conveniently interact with the multiple vendors. The systems and methods allow for the customer to stop and restart the process at various points using any of the communication modes. The agency has the ability to present the customer with prospecting, sales, service, upgrades, cross-sells, and other pre- and post-purchase services at the single point-of-contact agency. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117049 | SYSTEM FOR SEARCHING AND SOLVING FOR INSURANCE PRODUCTS - A system for evaluating and scoring software products in which illustration engines relating to insurance products are run based on a common set of inputs. The illustration engines output a set of output metrics which are common to all illustration engines. The output metrics of products selected for comparison or evaluation are mathematically combined with each other and with the corresponding metrics of from all other illustration engines to determine a score which can be used to compare quickly and accurately the selected product against all other products in the database. The score may be determined by a weighted average in which the weights assigned to output metrics are adjustable at the user's discretion. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117050 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ADMINISTERING TELEMATICS BASED REINSURANCE POOLS - A data processing system includes a processor for determining a percentage share to assign a share of relative risk in an insurance pool between an insurer, a first safety vendor and at least one other safety vendor. The processor is further configured to allocate portions of the insurance pool among the insurer and the safety vendors according to the determined shares assigned to the insurer and the safety vendors, to aggregate by the insurer loss information related to the insurance pool, and transmit the loss information to the safety vendors. Also, the processor may allocate portions of a claim liability or a received premium associated with the insurance pool among the insurer and the safety vendors according to the determined shares assigned to the insurer and the safety vendors. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117051 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SELLING INTANGIBLE PROPERTY - A method comprises analyzing the psychology of a typical consumer and defining first key stages wherein customers drop out and second key stages wherein sales could be maximized. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117052 | System and Method for Reserving Unused Resources in a Controlled Admission Venue - A system and method for a ticketing system to sell seating rights for a venue, wherein the method may include the steps of offering a ticket for sale by a ticketing system to the public; receiving an instruction to purchase a ticket to reserve a first seat in a venue for a specific event from a first customer at the ticketing system; upon receiving the purchasing instruction, the ticketing system offering an option to keep a second seat proximate to the reserved seat vacant in exchange for value from the first customer, in the event that no ticket for the second seat is sold prior to an occurrence of the specific event. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117053 | ON-SHELF TRACKING SYSTEM - A system to be installed on a merchandising unit having one or more inventory zones, one or more units of product, one or more product sensors, a mounting structure, and an electromagnetic signal processor. The one or more inventory zones can present the one or more units of product in several different arrangements. The one or more product sensors, each at least associated operatively with one of the one or more inventory zones, converts a sensed quantity of the one or more units of product into a respective analog electromagnetic signal. The mounting structure secures the one or more product sensors to the merchandising unit relative to the one or more units of product so that the one or more product sensors sense a quantity of the one or more units of product. The electromagnetic signal processor in communication with the one or more product sensors can sample output from the one or more product sensors periodically and converts the analog signal into a digital signal. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117054 | TRANSPORTATION NETWORK SCHEDULING SYSTEM AND METHOD - A system includes a scheduling module and a monitoring module. The scheduling module is configured to generate schedules for vehicles to concurrently travel in a transportation network formed of interconnected routes over which the vehicles travel. The monitoring module is configured to determine financial costs of fuel at refueling locations within the transportation network that are used by one or more of the vehicles to acquire additional fuel. The scheduling module is configured to coordinate the schedules of the vehicles based on the financial costs of the fuel while maintaining a throughput parameter of the transportation network above a designated threshold. The throughput parameter represents adherence by the vehicles to the schedules as the vehicles travel through the transportation network. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117055 | TECHNIQUES TO PROVIDE ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING FUNCTIONS FROM AN E-MAIL CLIENT APPLICATION - Techniques and apparatuses for providing access to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems from e-mail applications are described. In an embodiment, an apparatus includes a processing unit and a client e-mail application executing on the processing unit. An add-on application may be installed on the client e-mail application. The add-on application allows the client e-mail application to receive an ERP action from an ERP system via a supply hub; act on the ERP action with a second ERP action; and send the second ERP action to the ERP system via the supply hub. Other embodiments are described and claimed. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117056 | TECHNIQUES TO PROVIDE ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING FUNCTIONS FROM A CUSTOMER RELATIONS MANAGEMENT CLIENT APPLICATION - Techniques and apparatuses for providing access to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems from CRM applications are described. In an embodiment, an apparatus includes a processing unit and a client CRM application executing on the processing unit. An add-on application may be installed on the client CRM application. The add-on application allows the client CRM application to receive an ERP action from an ERP system via a supply hub; act on the ERP action with a second ERP action; and send the second ERP action to the ERP system via the supply hub. Other embodiments are described and claimed. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117057 | Systems, Methods and Devices for Generating Alternate Itineraries - Systems, methods and devices for generating one or more alternate itineraries for an entity for accommodation upon one or more disruptions of one or more predetermined itineraries for the entity for accommodation, each of the predetermined and alternate itineraries consisting of one or more segments, wherein the one or more segments of the predetermined itinerary are affected by the one or more disruptions and none of the one or more segments of the alternative itineraries are affected by the one or more disruptions, the system comprising a data storage component, configured to store information relating to segments and disruptions; and a data services component configured to (a) receive information relating to disruptions and segments; (b) communicate the information from (a) to the data storage component for storage of same; (c) determine whether predetermined itineraries will be affected by disruptions and, if so, generate alternative itineraries. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117058 | Systems and Methods for Scheduling Events - Systems and methods for scheduling events are described. In some embodiments, a method comprises: at a computer system, obtaining a request to schedule a calendar event including a plurality of constraints. In response to the request, a plurality of candidate calendar events that meets at least two of the plurality of constraints is obtained. The plurality of candidate calendar events and a plurality of user-editable options corresponding to the plurality of constraints are concurrently presented for display. In some embodiments, the method optionally includes obtaining, via a user-editable option, a modification to a constraint in the plurality of constraints which is then used to update the plurality of candidate calendar events. In some embodiments, the user-editable options are determined, at least in part, by user preferences. In some embodiments, the plurality of user-editable options further corresponds to a designation of one or more invitees to the scheduled calendar event. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117059 | Just-In-Time Conference Room Scheduling - Systems and methods for just-in-time scheduling of conference rooms based on a plurality of conference room scheduling requests are provided. In some embodiments a plurality of conference room scheduling requests are obtained. A conference room scheduling request in the plurality of conference room scheduling requests includes at least one meeting constraint. The plurality of conference room scheduling requests is serviceable by a plurality of conference rooms. At least one conference room in the plurality of conference rooms is available for assignment. Prior to assigning the plurality of conference rooms in accordance with the plurality of conference scheduling requests, polling is conducted for a predefined trigger event corresponding to the at least one meeting constraint. In response to detecting the predefined trigger event, the plurality of conference rooms is assigned in accordance with the plurality of conference scheduling requests. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117060 | System for Collaboration and Meeting Management - Computer hardware and software implement a mind mapping system and method for collaboration. Each branch is assigned an identifier by the system, and each child branch is assigned a child identifier. The child identifier includes a reference to the identifier of the branch from which the child branch extends. An external export system may export information to external project management systems. An input system may receive changes to parameters, determining if changes should be made and rejecting changes for lack of permissions. A system may automatically generate a meeting agenda from tasks that may be created during mind mapping incorporating automatic generation of a meeting agenda, automatic optimization of the meeting agenda, automatic conduct of a meeting and automatic generation of a dashboard including information obtained from the system and feedback and switching between viewing projects in a mind map agenda view or a project management view. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117061 | CARBON MANAGEMENT FOR SOURCING AND LOGISTICS - Embodiments of the invention provide a method, system and computer program product for carbon management for sourcing and logistics. In one embodiment, the method comprises using a computer for quantifying both a cost and a carbon impact of one or more logistics policies relating to a manufacturing process; and minimizing the cost and carbon impact using a defined equation including a first component representing a transportation cost, and a second component representing a carbon cost. In an embodiment of the invention, the quantifying includes using an analytics engine to quantify the cost and carbon impact. The analytics engine may include a shipment analysis module to calculate an optimal transportation policy, a sourcing analysis module for testing alternate sourcing options, a scenario analysis module to find an optimal order frequency, and a sensitivity analysis module to test the impact of various changes. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117062 | ONLINE RESOURCE ALLOCATION ALGORITHMS - Various embodiments provide online algorithms for resource allocation. In one or more embodiments, requests for resources from a service provider are received stochastically. For each request, different options for satisfying the request are evaluated based in part upon shadow costs (e.g., unit costs) that are assigned to resources associated with the different options. One of the options may be selected by optimizing an objective function that accounts for the shadow costs. Resources for the selected option are allocated to the request and an adjustment is made to the shadow costs for remaining resources to reflect differences in rates for allocation and/or consumption of the resources. Thereafter, resources may be allocated to a subsequent request using the updated shadow costs and the costs are adjusted again. By updating shadow costs iteratively in this manner, an increasingly more accurate analysis of the objective function is achieved. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117063 | Arranging Functional Elements Into A Workflow - Visual representations of gadgets, each of which is configured to perform a different function, are displayed by an electronic device. The gadgets are arranged in a sequence to build a workflow. The gadgets are executed in the sequence to execute the workflow on a project. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117064 | BUSINESS PROCESS ANALYSIS COMBINING MODELING, SIMULATION AND COLLABORATION WITH WEB AND CLOUD DELIVERY - A business process analysis system provides a platform for process modeling and simulation in a collaborative environment. The system includes a series of client stations connected to servers over a network. The platform is suitable for operating on an internal, local enterprise network or a group of systems across multiple locations, or in a cloud-based or other environment. The servers maintain business process models being created or edited at one or more clients. The servers also run simulations of the models. A collaboration server controls changes to the business process model. A history of revisions is maintained in a content management system. An interactive work site provides relevant information regarding the business process models, such as a listing of the latest changes to the model, user-submitted commentary, discussions, and additional files relating to the model. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117065 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR AUTOMATED MESSAGING IN AN ONLINE LEGAL WORKFLOW TOOL - A computer system and computer-implemented method for message or “chaser” management in a distributed legal workflow environment is provided. Embodiments provide central administration of legal workflow conducted by a plurality of distributed participants. A plurality of workflow chasers associated with a plurality of workflow records are created and defined based on a plurality of attributes (e.g. associated record identification, action identification, target user, display date, etc.). New and existing chasers are compared to one another to identify any redundancies (e.g. duplicate chasers, unnecessary chasers, etc.). Redundant chasers are deleted or otherwise de-activated. Remaining chasers are implemented within the distributed legal workflow environment, as appropriate (i.e. displayed to their target user on the associated target display date. Chasers may be created automatically as required for conformance to workflow policies, procedures or applicable laws. Chasers may also be user-defined and modified. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117066 | DECISION SUPPORT METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT OF LIQUEFIED NATURAL GAS PLANT - Provided are a decision support method and system for project management of a LNG plant. In the decision support method, a plurality of stages corresponding to sequential processes performed for Engineering, Procurement & Construction project management of the LNG plant are determined Decision items necessary to perform each of the plurality of stages are determined. Individual performance scores with respect to the decision items are estimated and a total performance score with respect to each of the plurality of stages is determined using the individual performance scores. Risk factors with respect to each of the plurality of stages are determined and risk indexes with respect to each of the plurality of stages are derived by evaluating the risk factors. Decision-making is performed with respect to a corresponding stage according to the total performance score and the risk index derived with respect to each of the plurality of stages. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117067 | SYSTEM, METHOD AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR DEMAND-WEIGHTED SELECTION OF SALES OUTLETS - In embodiments disclosed herein, a computer may operate to determine, for each member in a set and each non-member under consideration for the set, an expected revenue to be passed to a parent organization. The expected revenue may be determined utilizing a plurality of weighted features. Members in the set may be ranked according to their expected revenues. Top performing members in the set may be protected to ensure their expected revenues. Bottom performing members may be removed from the set and/or replaced with new members outside of geographical protective areas of the top performing members. The optimization process can be repeated until the set of members can satisfy an existing demand while maximizing revenue for the parent organization. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117068 | ENTERPRISE DATA MATCHING - A system and method for managing media advertising enterprise data including a process for learning enterprise data matching. An EDM (Enterprise Data Management) application module can be configured to include a set of rules at an enterprise level to manage disparate and disconnected records associated with an entity. A number of unmatched and enterprise entities that matches with respect to an active entity can be returned based on a fuzzy logic associated with various matching options stored in an EDM database. A matching process can then be performed to accurately match similar records regardless of manual input, location, and format of the records in a distributed system. Each unmatched record can then be assigned with a parent enterprise entity. Such an optimization mechanism can interactively manage and report records at the enterprise level in a simple and efficient manner. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117069 | SYSTEM TO POPULATE SALES PLAN - A system may include determination, for each of a first plurality of time periods, of a first plurality of values of a first sales metric, where each of the first plurality of values is associated with a respective one of a plurality of sales categories, determination, for each of a second plurality of time periods, of a second plurality of values of a second sales metric, where each of the second plurality of values is associated with a respective one of the plurality of sales categories, determination, for each of a third plurality of time periods, of an expected sales value for each of the plurality of sales categories, determination, for each one of the third plurality of time periods, of a total expected sales value based on the expected sales values, and display of a visualization of the expected sales values. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117070 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING MARKET SIMULATION SERVICE - A method of providing a market simulation service includes: a) receiving a request for predictive information regarding a subsequent competitive bidding process in an existing marketplace, the existing marketplace having been previously used for like competitive bidding processes, the request being received from a user device associated with a prospective participant in the subsequent competitive bidding process, the request including auction parameters and simulation parameters; b) obtaining historical marketplace data from a data storage device, the historical marketplace data associated with the existing marketplace and the plurality of like competitive bidding processes; c) processing the historical marketplace data using a statistical sampling algorithm and a resampling technique based on the auction parameters to determine a distribution function for the like competitive bidding processes; and d) simulating the subsequent competitive bidding process using an evolutionary algorithm based on the simulation parameters and the distribution function to derive the predictive information. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117071 | TECHNIQUES FOR PROVIDING PERCEIVED QUALITY METRIC ANALYSIS - Various embodiments for providing perceived quality metrics and analysis for products and content prior to sale are described. Embodiments may include surveying potential consumers about of what future products they are aware. For any product of which the survey responder is aware, the survey may poll the responder to rate their perception of the quality of those products. The ratings for any particular product may be aggregated, for example, by averaging to produce a quality metric. The survey may be administered on a periodic basis, for example, monthly or bi-weekly, and a change in the value of the quality metric over time for a product may provide valuable information to marketers and product developers. Other embodiments are described and claimed. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117072 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MEASURING AND DISPLAYING RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE AND PROPERTY VALUES - A system and a method for displaying real estate information include a display illustrating a heat map generated from at least one database. The at least one database includes objective data about plurality of real estate properties. The heat map providing a comparative market analysis for a desired location selected by an end user. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117073 | PRICE DETERMINATION SYSTEM, PRICE DETERMINATION SYSTEM CONTROL METHOD, PROGRAM, AND INFORMATION STORAGE MEDIUM - A price varying unit ( | 2013-05-09 |
20130117074 | METHOD AND SYSTEM TO MEASURE OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY LEVELS OF BUSINESS FUNCTIONS - A method, implemented at least in part by a computing device to measuring operational efficiency levels of business functions the method comprising acquiring a plurality of business data from at least one database, wherein the plurality of business data is indicative of a pre-defined set of business parameters for one or more business functions. The method also comprises the step of analyzing the plurality of business data by at least one processor based on the pre-defined weightage for each of the business parameters and the plurality of business data. Furthermore, the method comprises generating a customizable report based on the analysis of the plurality of business data to obtain relative ranking of one or more of the business functions. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117075 | PROJECT COMPLIANCE ASSESSMENT - Compliance of a project is assessed by generating a graph including nodes representing attributes of the project, and populating a subset of nodes in the graph with attribute values of the project. A rule applicable to the subset of nodes is identified and applied to determine whether the attribute values comply with the rule. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117076 | PROMOTING GREEN INITIATIVES IN HOTELS - The present invention provides systems and methods for allowing hotels (or any other organizations having one or more physical locations requiring various resources) to (1) measure their energy, water, waste and carbon emissions, (2) manage and control the elements of the hotel that impact the environment the most, and (3) report on the progress of the measurement, management and control, to the hotel owners, franchisors, franchisees and guests. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117077 | PARKING AVAILABILITY DETECTION WITH HUMAN SENSING - Providing means for people to input their observations can reduce the need for sensor deployments because humans have excellent sensing abilities. One thing people tend to observe carefully is parking availability. Parking meters and pay stations can request people to enter their observations of parking availability and other environmental factors. The observations, being numerical in nature, can be processed to determine reasonable parking fees, likelihood of violators in an area, and the statistical, observed, or estimated dispersion of available parking with a geographic region. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117078 | VIRTUAL ATTENDANT SYSTEM AND PARKING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM - A control and management system for defined areas, employs a card reader, vehicle sensing loop detectors and electric eyes, entrance door sensors and operators, truck securement devices, cameras, a control system with memory, and a wireless connection or internet/intranet connection, is provided to produce event log documentation. The event information is readily accessible by management or supervisory personnel, to see all of the recorded information concerning a specified event. Thus, an event can be readily reconstructed after the fact, using all available sensors and other information relevant to a manager or supervisor. An alert can be issued whenever an abnormal or unauthorized event occurs during operations. A QR code reader can be provided which communicates with the system to enable a person carrying the cell phone to scan QR codes at specified locations or on specified items or vehicles. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117079 | METHOD OF PROCESSING A TRANSACTION FOR A PARKING SESSION - A method, using a mobile device, of initiating the processing of a transaction for a parking session between a parking system and a payment provider on behalf of a user, the method comprising storing a user identifier in memory on the mobile device, receiving a parking identifier and transmitting the user identifier and the parking identifier to a network server. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117080 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A USER INTERFACE TO PROVIDE INFORMATION ABOUT OFFERS EXTRACTED FROM A MARKETING COMMUNICATION - An improved system and method for generating offers from marketing communications is provided. Marketing communications, including marketing emails, may be received, and offer information may be extracted from the marketing communications. A marketing message retrieved may be parsed to identify and extract offer information including the brand, headline text, description, and other content. Offers may be generated from the offer information extracted from the marketing communications, and may be stored in persistent storage for serving to users of an online offer service through a variety of user interfaces. In various embodiments, messages identified from recognized brands may be presented in a graphical user interface for a user to read with messages from unrecognized brands. Furthermore, either the message or an offer generated from a message may be displayed in various embodiments through a variety of user interfaces where its relevance may be specified by a user's interests. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117081 | Lead Fraud Detection - Data is received that characterizes one or more leads. Thereafter, it is determined, for each of the one or more leads, whether the lead is likely to be fraudulent and/or inaccurate using at least one predictive model. In some implementations, one or more of the utilized predictive models can be trained using a plurality of historical leads with known fraud or accuracy data. Data can be later provided that identifies and/or includes one or more of (i) those leads that are determined to be fraudulent and/or inaccurate and (ii) those leads that are determined not to be fraudulent and/or inaccurate. Related apparatus, systems, techniques and articles are also described. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117082 | Electronic Shopping System - The present invention relates to a shopping container comprising an electronic device having means for communicating with a purchaser of a product to be sold. The invention also relates to a system comprising a location for displaying a product to be sold to a purchaser and a portable electronic device comprising means for communicating with a purchaser. The portable electronic device is activated so as to communicate, in use, with a purchaser in response to the electronic device being positioned within a pre-determined distance of the product location. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117083 | SYSTEM AND PROCESS FOR DISTRIBUTING COUPON CODES OR DISCOUNT OFFERS VIA SHORT CODE AND SMS MOBILE AND INTERNET TECHNOLOG FOR A CONVENIENCE FEE - Among other things, there are disclosed systems and methods for providing coupons on demand to a consumer, to make the process of offering coupons and redeeming coupons more efficient. Embodiments of such systems may include a server reachable by mobile telephones or other communication devices with a database of coupon information, with modules or software for entering and administering coupon information and monitoring activity of coupons and reporting it to merchants. A consumer may text a keyword to a dedicated address, requesting coupons related to the keyword, and a selection of coupons (if any are available) is returned. If any coupon(s) are desired, they are returned to the consumer's mobile communication device, and a fee is added to the consumer's bill for the mobile communication device. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117084 | ENGAGEMENT REWARD AND REDEMPTION SYSTEM - An engagement reward and redemption system is disclosed. Within the platform, consumers, entities and processes interact with an engagement management system to manage transactions, compensation events, consumer profiles, etc. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117085 | DISTRIBUTED INCENTIVE DISTRIBUTION AND REDEMPTION - A community of members with a set of global goals and a set of individual member goals is established. The community of members provides a set of services. Further, an analysis is performed on one or more attributes of a first plurality of customers. In addition, a set of incentives is provided to at least one a second plurality of customers to interact with at least a subset of the community of members based upon the analysis to maximize the set of global goals and the set of individual member goals. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117086 | PROMOTING OFFERS THROUGH SOCIAL NETWORK INFLUENCERS - Mechanisms are provided to facilitate buying and selling products utilizing social pricing. Sellers initiate sale of a product with volume discounts for a limited time. In other words, the more people that buy a product, the lower the price for the group. Buyers have a real incentive to become prosumers that not only purchase a product but also promote purchase by others. A social pricing system brokers interaction between sellers and buyer groups, and provisions mechanisms to aid promotion of products by consumers utilizing social networks and other online activities. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117087 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTHENTICATING ELECTRONIC TRANSACTION INSTRUMENTS - Security is provided to electronically performed transactions by authenticating transaction instruments (such as electronic coupons, electronic receipts and electronic vouchers such as electronic tickets) that are utilized by a customer in a transaction, such as by a participating customer in a loyalty program. In an electronic wallet application provided on a mobile communication device, for example, digital signatures are applied to verify the authenticity of such transaction instruments when communicated between the communication device and a gateway that effectuates such transactions and defines, manages, distributes, processes and/or applies the corresponding transaction instruments. Digital signatures may also be applied to verify the authenticity of transaction instruments and related data when communicated between the gateway and other entities or systems. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117088 | METHOD USING A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE TO PERFORM OPERATIONS ON OFFER GROUPS TO CURATE PROMOTIONAL OFFERS - An improved system and method of providing offer groups to curate an offer list of promotional offers from multiple offer sources in an online service is provided. Components for offer groups support operations accessible through a graphical use interface for creating, editing, joining, and searching for offer groups, as well as curating and viewing offers of offer groups. Such operations may be governed according to rules of membership of an offer group, roles of members of an offer group, rules of visibility of an offer group, and rules of curating promotional offers for the list of promotional offers of the offer group. A user may create an offer group which others may join to participate in curating offers of interest to the group. Or users may identify and join offer groups of interest to browse curated lists of promotional offers pertaining to those interests. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117089 | SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION ON MOBILE NETWORKS - Managing software and service provided to a device by a service provider includes performing a pre-qualification check for availability of a premium promotional version of the service for the device, where the pre-qualification check is performed off-line and includes a determination if the device is in a table of devices for which the premium promotional version is available, performing an online qualification check for availability of a premium promotional version of the service for the device in response to passing the pre-qualification check, and offering the premium promotional version of the service in response to passing the qualification check. The pre-qualification check may include determining if there is already a premium account associated with the device and/or determining if there is already a free service account associated with the device. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117090 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR AUTOMATED AUTHORING, DISTRIBUTING AND PROCESSING OF ENHANCED DISCRETE COUPONS - A computerized enhanced discreet coupon (EDC) processing system processes shopper EDC(s) using a scanner and a processor. The scanner scans purchased items. The processor generates tickets corresponding to the purchased items, syntactically validates shopper EDC(s), semantically checks the EDC(s), and authenticates the EDC(s). If an EDC is authentic, then the processor compares the EDC against the ticket to determine if the EDC qualifies, and if so, then the EDC is redeemable. Authentication can be accomplished by, for example, comparing EDC rule(s) and/or rule identifier(s) against genuine rule/identifier sets. Genuine rule set includes a qualifying rule and a redemption rule. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117091 | WIRELESS SUBSCRIBER LOYALTY SYSTEM AND METHOD - A system and method are disclosed for providing a complete architectural and procedural solution to wireless subscriber loyalty issues. A flexible promotion creation environment allows mobile phone operators to rapidly create and deploy various incentive programs and other such loyalty schemes; together with a data mining and profiling method for tracking, monitoring and analysing subscriber (or aggregate) usage information associated with given promotions. The proposed data mining and profiling method purposely incents specific subscriber behaviors by triggering a point-based reward scheme based on the dynamic screening of event records which are correlated with incented behaviors. Wherein a threshold is assigned based on usage information for a particular promotion; upon realization of which, the subscriber is, immediately notified of the reward through a plurality of means including e-mail, voice notification and by way of Short Message Service (SMS) at their wireless handset. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117092 | LOYALTY AWARDS FOR DATA USAGE THROUGH TEMPORARY QoS UPGRADES - Systems and methods are disclosed for providing temporary QoS upgrades as loyalty awards. In one embodiment, an Online Charging System (OCS) stores account information for end users that access data services provided by a packet core network. The OCS receives a request involving a data service of an end user from the packet core network. In response to the request, the OCS determines that the end user qualifies for a loyalty award based on the account information for the end user. The OCS then grants a temporary QoS upgrade for the end user as the loyalty award, and transmits an indication of the temporary QoS upgrade to the packet core network. Based on the indication of the temporary QoS upgrade, the packet core network is able to enforce the temporary QoS upgrade as the end user accesses one or more data services. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117093 | METHOD AND SYSTEM TO DISCHARGE A LIABILITY ASSOCIATED WITH A PROPRIETARY CURRENCY - A method and an apparatus to discharge a liability owed to a buyer and stored in a first proprietary currency. The apparatus receives authorization from the buyer to tender the first proprietary currency to pay for an offering that is listed by a seller on a network-based marketplace. The apparatus transmits a national currency to the seller who receives the national currency as payment for the offering. The transmission at least partially discharges the liability owed to the buyer. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117094 | Automated System for Optimizing Retail Savings Using Coupons - A computerized system for optimizing the use of store and manufacturer coupons by consumers. The system maintains a store profile database storing attributes of retail stores, including location and coupon policy rules, a coupon profile database storing the attributes of current and future coupons, a sale profile database storing attributes of sale events at the stores, and a subscriber profile database storing identifiers of stores preferred by the subscriber, subscriber preferences, and the like. A matchup process executed by the system interrogates the databases to identify matches among stores, coupons, and sale events, and provides the subscriber with a list of those matches, from which the subscriber can enter shopping list inputs that identify items that the subscriber wants to purchase, including coupons possessed by the subscriber. A transactionator process executed by the system uses the shopping list inputs to create suggested transactions for the subscriber that minimizes out-of-pocket cost, maximizes savings, or maximizes the value of items purchased within a spending limit. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117095 | METHOD FOR PROVIDING OFFER GROUPS TO CURATE PROMOTIONAL OFFERS - An improved system and method of providing offer groups to curate an offer list of promotional offers from multiple offer sources in an online service is provided. Components for offer groups support operations accessible through a graphical use interface for creating, editing, joining, and searching for offer groups, as well as curating and viewing offers of offer groups. Such operations may be governed according to rules of membership of an offer group, roles of members of an offer group, rules of visibility of an offer group, and rules of curating promotional offers for the list of promotional offers of the offer group. A user may create an offer group which others may join to participate in curating offers of interest to the group. Or users may identify and join offer groups of interest to browse curated lists of promotional offers pertaining to those interests. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117096 | Internet Protocol Multi-Media System Value Voucher Distribution with Network Storage and Redemption - A system and method may comprise providing, via a computing device, a connection link to an end user device having a network connectivity access network element; extracting, via an advertisement server, an offer of a value voucher unique to the end user from a database connected to the advertisement server and presenting, through the end user device, an offer of the value voucher to the end user; receiving, via the computing device, from the end user an acceptance of the value voucher; and storing the value voucher in a coupon database in an Internet accessible coupon storage locker unique to the end user. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117097 | ADVERTISING OFFERS USING SOCIAL NETWORKS - Systems, methods, and computer-readable media that may be used to present advertisements to a first user based on the first user's interactions with one or more other users are provided. One method includes transmitting an electronic advertisement to a user computing device. The electronic advertisement includes an invitation for the user to receive a non-cash benefit in return for allowing an advertiser associated with the electronic advertisement access to one or more aspects of an account of the user on a social network. The method further includes receiving an indication that the user has accepted the invitation for the non-cash benefit, performing an action on behalf of the advertiser relating to the account of the user on the social network and providing a confirmation message to the user indicating that the non-cash benefit will be provided. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117098 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR EXTRACTING OFFERS FROM A MARKETING COMMUNICATION - An improved system and method for generating offers from marketing communications is provided. Marketing communications, including marketing emails, may be received, and offer information may be extracted from the marketing communications. A marketing message retrieved may be parsed to identify and extract offer information including the brand, headline text, description, and other content. Offers may be generated from the offer information extracted from the marketing communications, and may be stored in persistent storage for serving to users of an online offer service through a variety of user interfaces. In various embodiments, messages identified from recognized brands may be presented in a graphical user interface for a user to read with messages from unrecognized brands. Furthermore, either the message or an offer generated from a message may be displayed in various embodiments through a variety of user interfaces where its relevance may be specified by a user's interests. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117099 | SYSTEM FOR PROVIDING OFFER GROUPS TO CURATE PROMOTIONAL OFFERS - An improved system and method of providing offer groups to curate an offer list of promotional offers from multiple offer sources in an online service is provided. Components for offer groups support operations accessible through a graphical use interface for creating, editing, joining, and searching for offer groups, as well as curating and viewing offers of offer groups. Such operations may be governed according to rules of membership of an offer group, roles of members of an offer group, rules of visibility of an offer group, and rules of curating promotional offers for the list of promotional offers of the offer group. A user may create an offer group which others may join to participate in curating offers of interest to the group. Or users may identify and join offer groups of interest to browse curated lists of promotional offers pertaining to those interests. | 2013-05-09 |
20130117100 | System for Distributing Advertisements to Multiple Locations - Systems and methods for distributing an advertisement are provided. In one embodiment, an advertisement distribution device comprises a database manager configured to select an advertisement to be retrieved from a database. The advertisement is selected based on at least a time when the advertisement is to be run. The advertisement distribution device further comprises an interface device configured to transmit the advertisement to a ticket printing device. | 2013-05-09 |