20th week of 2011 patent applcation highlights part 56 |
Patent application number | Title | Published |
20110119034 | METHOD FOR RECORDING PULSE SIGNALS - A method for recording pulse signals which allows the reconstruction of a time reference. The time of every pulse signal event can be determined by counting sampling result bits preceding the respective sampling result bit using the known sampling frequency. For this purpose, every period of the sampling frequency is associated with a bit representing the respective sampling result and the sampling result bits are stored one by one and per channel in data blocks. The sampling frequency is preferably higher than a pixel clock, a sampling result bit associated with a flank of the pixel clock being marked. The pixel clock can thus be synchronized with the individual events exactly per sampling period. The invention further relates to the field of fluorescence correlation spectroscopy using confocal microscopes or laser scanning microscopes. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119035 | PRODUCT DESIGN EVALUATION SYSTEM AND PRODUCT DESIGN EVALUATION PROGRAM - In a virtual space, a digital human is connected to a movable portion of a virtual model of a product, and torque acting on each joint of the digital human when the digital human moves the movable portion is calculated in a load calculator. The load calculator calculates maximum voluntary contraction according to the angle of each joint based on the relation between the joint angle and maximum voluntary force and separates the workability degree at the time of moving the movable portion of the product into a plurality of levels based on the ratio thereof to the maximum voluntary contraction. The evaluation image generator calculates torque acting on each joint when the digital human moves the movable portion of the product and displays which level the calculated torque belongs to on the screen of the monitor unit. The muscular load when the digital human uses the product is then evaluated for assisting design of the product. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119036 | Method and apparatus for modeling memristor devices - A method and apparatus for modeling the characteristics of memristor devices. The invention provides methods and an apparatus for accurately characterizing the linear and non-linear Lissajous current-voltage behavior of actual memristor devices and incorporating such behavior into the resultant model. The invention produces a model that is adaptable to large scale memristor device simulations. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119037 | PRODUCTION OPTIMIZATION FOR OILFIELDS USING A MIXED-INTEGER NONLINEAR PROGRAMMING MODEL - A system performs production optimization for oilfields using a mixed-integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) model. The system uses an offline-online approach to model a network of interdependent wells in an online network simulator while modeling multiple interdependent variables that control performance as an offline MINLP problem. The offline model is based on production profiles established by assuming decoupled wells in the actual network of wells. In one example, an amount of lift-gas to inject and settings for subsurface chokes are optimized. An offline solver optimizes variables through the MINLP model. Offline results are used to prime the online network simulator. Iteration between the offline and online models results in a convergence, at which point values for the interdependent variables are communicated to the real-world oilfield to optimize hydrocarbon production. Priming the online model with results from the offline model drastically reduces computational load over conventional techniques. Additional techniques anneal initial data starting points, smooth pressure differences, and adapt constraint values to further reduce computational intensity. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119038 | PARALLEL COMPUTING SYSTEM THAT PERFORMS SPHERICAL HARMONIC TRANSFORMS, AND CONTROL METHOD AND CONTROL PROGRAM FOR PARALLEL COMPUTING SYSTEM - A parallel computing system that performs simulation of a sphere by using a spherical harmonic function, and comprises a plurality of computing nodes interconnected with each other via a communication path, wherein each of the computing nodes includes: a storage unit that stores spectral data obtained by dividing spectral space data into a plurality of data elements on the basis of longitudinal wavenumber; a computation unit that performs inverse Legendre transformation for a computation region divided in a latitudinal direction on the sphere and thereby transforms each of the spectral data elements to Fourier coefficient data; and a communication unit that transmits the Fourier coefficient data, obtained through the transformation performed by the computation unit, to another computing node via the communication path after the inverse Legendre transformation for the next computation region divided in the latitudinal direction on the sphere has been started by the computation unit. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119039 | Objective Measurement of Audio Quality - In an apparatus for objective perceptual evaluation of speech quality, parameters BandwidthRef and BandwidthTest representing the bandwidth are forwarded to a calculator | 2011-05-19 |
20110119040 | ATTRIBUTE IMPORTANCE MEASURE FOR PARAMETRIC MULTIVARIATE MODELING - Parametric Bayesian Updating method is described for attribute importance measures. AIM is a quantitative measure of the relative importance of multiple attributes used in a Bayesian Updating parametric multivariate modeling approach. The AIM is a function of the correlation coefficients between the attributes themselves and the attributes with collocated target variable. The importance calculation is straightforward, repeatable, and objective. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119041 | METHOD AND DEVICE FOR FREQUENCY ANALYSIS OF DATA - The data frequency analysis method comprises: a step ( | 2011-05-19 |
20110119042 | WEATHER-RELATED ENERGY-USAGE ANALYSIS - Embodiments of the invention relate to apparatuses and methods for gathering and analyzing facility weather data, such as temperature and humidity data, and energy-usage data, such as electricity-usage data, from a plurality of remote facilities and using the analysis to assess energy-using systems and/or methods across an organization made up of the plurality of remote facilities. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119043 | INTERFACE CONVERTER FOR UNIFIED VIEW OF MULTIPLE COMPUTER SYSTEM SIMULATIONS - Providing a unified view of multiple computer system simulations. A simulation process has a simulation thread that executes a plurality of computer system simulations. The simulation process also has a debug support thread that provides a unified view of the simulations. To provide the unified view, the debug support thread has an external interface, an internal interface to each of the simulations, and an interface converter that converts between the external interface and the internal interfaces. Thus, the external interface provides a unified view of the simulations. The external interface allows a single debugging platform to control and observe the simulations. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119044 | PROCESSOR SIMULATION USING INSTRUCTION TRACES OR MARKUPS - An efficient, cycle-accurate processor execution simulator models a target processor by executing a program execution image comprising instructions having run-time dependencies resolved by execution on an existing processor compatible with the target processor. The instructions may have been executed upon a processor in an I/O environment too complex to model. In one embodiment, the simulator executes instructions that were directly executed on a processor. In another embodiment, a markup engine alters a compiled program image, with reference to instructions executed on a processor, to remove run-time dependencies. The marked up program image is then executed by the simulator. The processor execution simulator includes an update engine operative to cycle-accurately simulate instruction execution, and a communication engine operative to model each communication bus of the target processor. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119045 | MONITORING PHYSICAL PARAMETERS IN AN EMULATION ENVIRONMENT - A method and system is disclosed for monitoring and viewing physical parameters while the emulator is emulating a design. Additionally, the parameters are in real time or substantially real time, such as after a periodic update. In one embodiment, a monitoring portion of the emulator periodically monitors the emulator boards and power supplies for physical information. The physical information is communicated to a workstation for communication to a user. For example, the workstation can display the physical information in a graphical user interface (GUI) that shows which boards are plugged in the system and which slots are empty. In yet another aspect, the user can select a particular board in the system and view communication information, such as data errors, status, link errors, global errors, etc. In a further aspect, power supply information can be viewed, such as current and voltage levels, air temperature, fan speed, board temperatures at particular points, etc. In another aspect, the IC layout on a board can be viewed with a graphical presentation of which ICs are malfunctioning. Even further, the sections within a particular IC can be viewed with a graphical presentation of sections within the IC that are malfunctioning. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119046 | INFORMATION PROCESSING DEVICE AND INFORMATION PROCESSING METHOD - An example sentence selection unit selects an example sentence from a template database based on an instruction received by an input unit. A translation output unit causes a display unit to display the example sentence selected by the example sentence selection unit and a translation of the example sentence. In addition, the translation output unit causes the display unit to display a designation sign designating a variable section in association with the variable section of the example sentence selected by the example sentence selection unit. Further, when the input unit receives input of a character corresponding to the designation sign, the translation output unit causes the display unit to display word candidates that can replace the variable section corresponding to the input character. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119047 | Joint disambiguation of the meaning of a natural language expression - At least two ambiguous aspects of the meaning of a natural language expression are disambiguated jointly. In the preferred embodiment, word sense ambiguity, reference ambiguity, and relation ambiguity are resolved simultaneously, finding the disambiguation result(s) that simultaneously optimize the weight of the solution, taking into account semantic information, constraints, and common sense knowledge. Choices are enumerated for each constituent being disambiguated, combinations of choices are constructed and evaluated according to semantic information on which meanings are sensible, and the choices with the best weights are selected, with the enumeration pruned aggressively to reduce computational cost. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119048 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COMPUTERIZED PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTENT ANALYSIS OF COMPUTER AND MEDIA GENERATED COMMUNICATIONS TO PRODUCE COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT SUPPORT, INDICATIONS AND WARNINGS OF DANGEROUS BEHAVIOR, ASSESSMET OF MEDIA IMAGES, AND PERSONNEL SELECTION SUPPORT - At least one computer-mediated communication produced by or received by an author is collected and parsed to identify categories of information within it. The categories of information are processed with at least one analysis to quantify at least one type of information in each category. A first output communication is generated regarding the at least one computer-mediated communication, describing the psychological state, attitudes or characteristics of the author of the communication. A second output communication is generated when a difference between the quantification of at least one type of information for at least one category and a reference for the at least one category is detected involving a psychological state, attitude or characteristic of the author to which a responsive action should be taken. The content of the second output communication and the at least one category are programmable to define a psychological state, attitude or characteristic in response to which an action should be taken and the action that is to be taken in response. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119049 | Specializing disambiguation of a natural language expression - Disambiguation of the meaning of a natural language expression proceeds by constructing a natural language expression, and then incrementally specializing the meaning representation to more specific meanings as more information and constraints are obtained, in accordance with one or more specialization hierarchies between semantic descriptors. The method is generalized to disjunctive sets of interpretations that can be specialized hierarchically. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119050 | Method for the automatic determination of context-dependent hidden word distributions - Described is method, the Latent Words Language Model (LWLM), that automatically determines context-dependent word distributions (called hidden or latent words) for each word of a text. The probabilistic word distributions reflect the probability that another word of the vocabulary of a language would occur at that position in the text. Furthermore, a method is described to use these word distributions in statistical language processing applications, such as information extraction applications (for example, semantic role labeling, named entity recognition), automatic machine translation, textual entailment, paraphrasing, information retrieval, and speech recognition. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119051 | Phonetic Variation Model Building Apparatus and Method and Phonetic Recognition System and Method Thereof - A phonetic variation model building apparatus, having a phoneme database for recording at least a standard phonetic model of a language and a plurality of non-standardized phonemes of the language is provided. A phonetic variation identifier identifies a plurality of phonetic variations between the non-standardized phonemes and the standard phonetic model. A phonetic transformation calculator calculates a plurality of coefficients of a phonetic transformation function based on the phonetic variations and the phonetic transformation function. A phonetic variation model generator generates at least a phonetic variation model based on the standard phonetic model, the phonetic transformation function and the coefficients thereof. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119052 | Speech recognition dictionary creating support device, computer readable medium storing processing program, and processing method - A device extracts prosodic information including a power value from a speech data and an utterance section including a period with a power value equal to or larger than a threshold, from the speech data, divides the utterance section into each section in which a power value equal to or larger than another threshold, acquires phoneme sequence data for each divided speech data by phoneme recognition, generates clusters which is a set of the classified phoneme sequence data by clustering, calculates an evaluation value for each cluster, selects clusters for which the evaluation value is equal to or larger than a given value as candidate clusters, determines one of the phoneme sequence data from the phoneme sequence data constituting the cluster for each candidate cluster to be a representative phoneme sequence, and selects the divided speech data corresponding to the representative phoneme sequence as listening target speech data. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119053 | System And Method For Leaving And Transmitting Speech Messages - A system for leaving and transmitting speech messages automatically analyzes input speech of at least a reminder, fetches a plurality of tag informations, and transmits speech message to at least a message receiver, according to the transmit criterions of the reminder. A command or message parser parses the tag informations at least including at least a reminder ID, at least a transmitted command and at least a speech message. The tag informations are sent to a message composer for being synthesized into a transmitted message. A transmitting controller controls a device switch according to the reminder ID and the transmitted command, to allow the transmitted message send to the message receiver via a transmitting device. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119054 | APPARATUS FOR ENCODING AND DECODING OF INTEGRATED SPEECH AND AUDIO - Provided is an apparatus for integrally encoding and decoding a speech signal and an audio signal. An encoding apparatus for integrally encoding a speech signal and an audio signal, may include: a module selection unit to analyze a characteristic of an input signal and to select a first encoding module for encoding a first frame of the input signal; a speech encoding unit to encode the input signal according to a selection of the module selection unit and to generate a speech bitstream; an audio encoding unit to encode the input signal according to the selection of the module selection unit and to generate an audio bitstream; and a bitstream generation unit to generate an output bitstream from the speech encoding unit or the audio encoding unit according to the selection of the module selection unit. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119055 | APPARATUS FOR ENCODING AND DECODING OF INTEGRATED SPEECH AND AUDIO - Provided is an encoding apparatus for integrally encoding and decoding a speech signal and a audio signal, and may include: an input signal analyzer to analyze a characteristic of an input signal; a stereo encoder to down mix the input signal to a mono signal when the input signal is a stereo signal, and to extract stereo sound image information; a frequency band expander to expand a frequency band of the input signal; a sampling rate converter to convert a sampling rate; a speech signal encoder to encode the input signal using a speech encoding module when the input signal is a speech characteristics signal; a audio signal encoder to encode the input signal using a audio encoding module when the input signal is a audio characteristic signal; and a bitstream generator to generate a bitstream. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119056 | SUBWORDS CODING USING DIFFERENT INTERLEAVING SCHEMES - In a communications system that demultiplexes user data words into multiple sub-words for encoding and decoding within different subword-processing paths, the minimum distance between bit errors in an extrinsic codeword can be increased by having corresponding interleavers/deinterleavers in the different subword-processing paths use different interleaving/deinterleaving algorithms. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119057 | Neural Segmentation of an Input Signal and Applications Thereof - Disclosed are systems, methods, and computer-program products for segmenting content of an input signal and applications thereof. In an embodiment, the system includes simulated neurons, a phase modulator, and an entity-identifier module. Each simulated neuron is connected to one or more other simulated neurons and is associated with an activity and a phase. The activity and the phase of each simulated neuron is set based on the activity and the phase of the one or more other simulated neurons connected to each simulated neuron. The phase modulator includes individual modulators, each configured to modulate the activity and the phase of each of the plurality of simulated neurons based on a modulation function. The entity-identifier module is configured to identify one or more distinct entities (e.g., objects, sound sources, etc.) included in the input signal based on the one or more distinct collections of simulated neurons that have substantially distinct phases. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119058 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR THE CREATION OF A PERSONALIZED VIDEO - A method and system for creating a personalized video destined to an intended recipient, comprising gathering personal information about the intended recipient, selecting of a non personalized video, retrieving the selected non personalized video along with associated customizable elements, setting the customizable elements according to the personal information of the intended recipient and assembling the non personalized video and the set customizable elements to create the personalized video. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119059 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR STANDARDIZED SPEECH RECOGNITION INFRASTRUCTURE - Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for selecting a speech recognition model in a standardized speech recognition infrastructure. The system receives speech from a user, and if a user-specific supervised speech model associated with the user is available, retrieves the supervised speech model. If the user-specific supervised speech model is unavailable and if an unsupervised speech model is available, the system retrieves the unsupervised speech model. If the user-specific supervised speech model and the unsupervised speech model are unavailable, the system retrieves a generic speech model associated with the user. Next the system recognizes the received speech from the user with the retrieved model. In one embodiment, the system trains a speech recognition model in a standardized speech recognition infrastructure. In another embodiment, the system handshakes with a remote application in a standardized speech recognition infrastructure. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119060 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SPEAKER DIARIZATION - A method and system for speaker diarization are provided. Pre-trained acoustic models of individual speaker and/or groups of speakers are obtained. Speech data with multiple speakers is received and divided into frames. For a frame, an acoustic feature vector is determined extended to include log-likelihood ratios of the pre-trained models in relation to a background population model. The extended acoustic feature vector is used in segmentation and clustering algorithms. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119061 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DIALOG ENHANCEMENT - A method and system for enhancing dialog determined by an audio input signal. In some embodiments the input signal is a stereo signal, and the system includes an analysis subsystem configured to analyze the stereo signal to generate filter control values, and a filtering subsystem including upmixing circuitry configured to upmix the input signal to generate a speech channel and non-speech channels and a peaking filter configured to filter the speech channel to enhance dialog while being steered by at least one of the control values. The filtering subsystem also includes ducking circuitry for attenuating the non-speech channels while being steered by at least some of the control values, and downmixing circuitry configured to combine outputs of the peaking filter and ducking circuitry to generate a filtered stereo output. In some embodiments, the system is configured to downmix a multichannel input signal to generate a downmixed stereo signal, an analysis subsystem is configured to analyze the downmixed stereo signal to generate filter control values, and a filtering subsystem is configured to generate a dialog-enhanced audio signal in response to the input signal while being steered by at least some of the filter control values. Preferably, the filter control values are generated without use of feedback including by generating power ratios (for pairs of speech and non-speech channels) and preferably also shaping in nonlinear fashion and scaling at least one of the power ratios. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119062 | Voice-recognition/voice-activated vehicle signal system - A control system is operable within a host vehicle to control the operation of signaling apparatus indicative of a driver intent to execute right, left or U-turn actions. The control system includes a voice recognition circuit for activating turn signal devices within the vehicle. In some embodiments, a wireless link facilitates aftermarket applications while in other embodiments original equipment manufacture is accommodated. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119063 | REMOTE NOTIFICATION SYSTEM AND METHOD AND INTELLIGENT AGENT THEREFOR - The invention relates to remote access systems and methods using automatic speech recognition to access a computer system. The invention also relates to an intelligent agent resident on the computer system for facilitating remote access to, and receipt of, information on the computer system through speech recognition or text-to-speech read-back. The remote access systems and methods can be used by a user of the computer system while traveling. The user can dial into a server system which is configured to interact with the user by automatic speech recognition and text-to-speech conversion. The server system establishes a connection to an intelligent agent running on the user's remotely located computer system by packet communication over a public network. The intelligent agent sources information on the user's computer system or a network accessible to the computer system, processes the information and transmits it to the server system over the public network. The server system converts the information into speech signals and transmits the speech signals to a telephone operated by the user. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119064 | AUDIO DATA BIT RATE DETECTOR - A detector for determining an audio data bit rate of a pre-compressed audio elementary stream (AES), in which the pre-compressed AES includes a plurality of preamble length fields is provided. The detector includes an analyzer module configured to determine one or more candidate audio data bit rates of the AES from the plurality of preamble length fields, a detector module configured to determine whether one or more of the candidate audio data bit rates are correct, and a selector module configured to select one of the one or more candidate audio data bit rates determined to be correct as the audio data bit rate of the pre-compressed AES. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119065 | EMBODIED MUSIC SYSTEM - An embodied music system. The system creates an interactive interface between a listener and the external environment. The system includes a physical device located in the environment that provides sensory input to the listener. An audio signal of the system is adapted to be heard by the listener. An encoder embeds inaudible control data into the audio signal. A decoder extracts the control data from the audio signal and transmits the control data to the physical device, thereby controlling operation of the device. Finally, an audio reproduction device is connected to the decoder and plays the audio signal for the listener. The embodied music system allows the listener to experience multi-sensory compositions. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119066 | SIGNAL ENCODING DEVICE AND SIGNAL ENCODING METHOD, SIGNAL DECODING DEVICE AND SIGNAL DECODING METHOD, PROGRAM, AND RECORDING MEDIUM - A signal encoding device for encoding an input time-series signal includes: partitioning means; low-frequency encoding means; high-frequency gain information generating means; low-frequency reference value information generating means; high-frequency gain difference information generating means; high-frequency gain difference information encoding means; and multiplexing means. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119067 | APPARATUS FOR SIGNAL STATE DECISION OF AUDIO SIGNAL - A module capable of appropriately selecting a linear predictive coding (LPC)-based or a code excitation linear prediction (CELP)-based speech or audio encoder and a transform-based audio encoder according to a feature of an input signal is a module that performs as a bridge for overcoming a performance barrier between a conventional LPC-based encoder and an audio encoder. Also, an integral audio encoder that provides consistent audio quality regardless of a type of the input audio signal can be designed based on the module. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119068 | ZONE AWARE TASK MANAGEMENT UTILIZING USER GENERATED PRESENCE HISTORY - The disclosure presents a solution for identifying one or more zone based tasks within a task manager application of a computing device. The tasks can be comprised of one or more planned activities. In the solution one or more zones can be determined to be associated the identified tasks. Each of the zones can be associated with one or more bounded geographical regions. A task duration for the identified task can be estimated based on user presence historical data associated with the zones. Further, an optimized task list comprising of two or more tasks can be generated from the computed estimates. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119069 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR RECURRING FEATURE SUBSCRIPTION SERVICE - A subscription module is configured to extend a service and to prevent the service from being stopped after a first time period. The subscription module is further configured to cause the service to be perceived as a new service even after expiration of the first time period. The service is to be associated with a unique resource locator during the first time period and after the first time period has expired. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119070 | Accountability system - A method and system to provide a process or program to evaluate a participant or candidate elected to public office on a plurality of elements or campaign promises and to report evaluations on each of the elements or campaign promises and overall evaluation by a plurality of members or voters to hold elected officials accountable for campaign promises wherein during an initial or campaign phase the participant or candidate for elected office selects the plurality of elements or campaign promises the participant or candidate for elected office commits to be evaluated on, each of the elements or campaign promises is then transmitted to an accountability/survey platform and stored in a data base where members or voters can observe the elements or promises displayed either at the accountability/survey site or the candidate for elected office site and wherein during a subsequent elected phase a member or voter can evaluate the performance of the participant or elected official with respect to the plurality of elements or campaign promises and assign one of a plurality of evaluation levels or grades to each of the elements or campaign promises transmitted to the accountability/survey platform site and entered into the data base to be tabulated and reported to the participant or elected official and members or voters. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119071 | PRICE SENSITIVITY SCORES - A price sensitivity score is calculated for a prospect by obtaining data associated with a prospect. A scoring function is determined (which is a function of one or more scoreable variables) based at least in part on training data set. A price sensitivity score is calculated by evaluating the scoring function using the data associated with the prospect. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119072 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DETERMINING A FAIR BENCHMARK FOR PHYSICIANS' QUALITY OF PATIENT CARE - Described herein are systems, methods and computer-program products for application of both the Angoff standard-setting procedure with the Dunn-Rankin scaling method to determine standards (or cutscores) for practice-based performance assessments. In addition, reliability of measures and overall performance scores, and estimates of the decision consistency of the resulting performance standard can be calculated. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119073 | Method and Apparatus for Verification of Medication Administration Adherence - A system and method of confirming administration of medication is provided. The method comprises the steps of receiving information identifying a particular medication prescription regimen, determining one or more procedures for administering such prescription regimen and identifying one or more activity sequences associated with such procedures. Activity sequences of actual administration of such prescription regimen are captured and then compared to the identified activity sequences to determine differences therebetween. A notice is provided if differences are determined. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119074 | PDA BASED SYSTEM FOR MANAGING TREATMENT OF A PATIENT HEALTH CONDITION - A measurement module for glucose testing includes a glucose testing measurement module housing, a test strip receptacle formed in the housing, and a connector portion formed in the housing and shaped to permit mechanical removable attachment of the housing to a hand-held computer. Electronics determine the amount of glucose present in a sample of body fluid, when the test strip is positioned in the receptacle and the body fluid is placed on a test strip, and communicate the glucose amount to the hand-held computer via the connector portion. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119075 | APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR A MOBILE HEALTHCARE MANAGER-BASED PROVIDER INCENTIVE MANAGER - The APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR A MOBILE HEALTHCARE MANAGER (“MHM”) BASED PROVIDER INCENTIVE MANAGER may provide an elegant and consistent multimedia interactive reference standard to maximize personal understanding of health information and coach individuals toward better health outcomes. In one embodiment, a healthcare service provider performance incentivisation processor-implemented method is disclosed, comprising: providing prescription media objects for a plurality of users, wherein the prescription media objects are associated with a plurality of healthcare service providers; obtaining usage feedback on the provided prescription media objects from the plurality of users; aggregating the obtained usage feedback from the plurality of users; analyzing via a processor the aggregated usage feedback from the plurality of users; identifying a user trend based on the analysis of the aggregated usage feedback; and generating a performance report for one of the healthcare service providers based on the identified user trend. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119076 | APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR A MOBILE HEALTHCARE MANAGER-BASED VIRAL SHARING PROVIDER - The APPARATUSES, METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR A MOBILE HEALTHCARE MANAGER (“MHM”) BASED VIRAL SHARING PROVIDER may provide an elegant and consistent multimedia interactive reference standard to maximize personal understanding of health information and coach individuals toward better health outcomes. In one embodiment, a healthcare content sharing processor-implemented method is disclosed, comprising: providing prescription media objects associated with a plurality of healthcare service providers to a plurality of users for sharing; obtaining information on user sharing of the provided prescription media objects; aggregating the information on user sharing of the provided prescription media objects; analyzing, via a processor, the aggregated information on user sharing of the provided prescription media objects; identifying a user trend based on analyzing the aggregated information on user sharing of the provided prescription media objects; and generating a performance report for one of the healthcare service providers based on the identified user trend. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119077 | VIRTUAL MEDICAL SELF MANAGEMENT TOOL - Systems and methods are disclosed herein for providing a virtual medical self management tool by an insurer to an injured person who sustained an insured bodily injury. In certain embodiments, these systems and methods provide medical self management information related to property/casualty insurance claims using a web portal. In a preferred embodiment, the systems and methods provide the medical self management information to injured employees covered through their employer by workers compensation insurance. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119078 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR HEART FAILURE PREDICTION - A method for monitoring a health status of a human subject includes the capturing of medical data concerning the health of the subject at defined intervals using a questionnaire. The questionnaire provides a standard script for data capture. Part of the captured data is constrained to a Likert scale while other data is on a visual analog scale. The captured data further includes an assessment by a physician of health symptoms of the subject. The captured data is input into a computer, provided to an algorithm that is configured to assess a risk of acute heart failure. The risk of acute heart failure is computed using the algorithm and the captured data from a plurality of the defined intervals. In one method, the health status of the subject as being either improved or worsening is output to the physician as a function of a value of the computed risk. In another method, a survival function outcome for the subject is predicted using the output of the algorithm. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119079 | Connecting Consumers with Service Providers - A computer-implemented method includes receiving by a first mobile device an application that executes on the first mobile device associated with a consumer, the application including a plurality of graphical user interfaces, the graphical user interfaces having one or more fields that are populated with information received from a central, brokerage system; sending by the application executing on the first mobile device a request to consult with a service provider; populating one or more fields of the plurality of graphical user interfaces with information received from the central, brokerage system, to render a visual representation of present availability of one or more service providers; receiving by the application a selection of a particular service provider; and establishing through the brokerage system by the application a communication channel between the first mobile device and a second mobile device associated with a selected service provider. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119080 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ANALYTE DATA TRANSMISSION AND REPORT GENERATION - Medical data provided by a physiological parameter sensor is stored on a patient's hand held device used for management of the patient's medical condition. The hand held device is programmed to upload the stored medical data in batch to a remote server at a time during which connection and data transfer services are less expensive. In another aspect, a docking station is used for interacting with the hand held device and uploading the data in batch. In another aspect, the hand held device is programmed to select and organize stored medical data into one of a plurality of report formats, apply a selected printer driver to the report, and output the processed medical data to an appropriate printer for printing a hard copy report for review by a health care provider at a patient's examination. In other aspects, a cradle or removable memory device are used for the purpose. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119081 | Method For Defining And Interactively Managing A Treatment For Glycemic Level Control In A Diabetic Patient And Device That Carries Out Said Method - A method for interactive definition and management of a treatment for monitoring blood glucose of a diabetic patient includes performing two distinct, asynchronous and simultaneous, work cycles, having different length: a first local cycle, shorter, includes the steps of acquiring at least one value of said patient's blood glucose by means of a glucometer integrated in a monitoring device, calculating an insulin dosage value to be administered to the patient, by means of a computing algorithm, provided by a specialist doctor, displaying the insulin dosage on a monitoring device display, and defining a date and time for subsequent acquisition of blood glucose level. Furthermore, the system automatically sends glycemic information to the doctor, if they are beyond mean value parameters, time passed from a last contact and number of hypoglycemic value measurements, that the specialist himself can set for each patient and modify over time. A second remote cycle, longer, includes reading the patient's last blood glucose value, periodical running of a procedure for extracting a group of data significant for the patient, related to at least the trend of glycemic level values of the patient and to corresponding insulin doses, recommended on the basis of computation of said algorithm in a predetermined previous period; transmission of the group of significant date to the specialist' doctor's remote computer, by means of a simplified transmitter/receiver module operating via a mobile telephone network, integrated with monitoring device, possibly receiving a set of modified parameters for performing the computing algorithm, or a new computing algorithm, and introduction of such set of modified parameters or of the new algorithm in the managing program. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119082 | REASONABLE VALUE MEDICAL BENEFIT PLAN - A self-insured or self funded medical benefit plan is provided by an employer wherein the self-insured medical benefit plan is governed by ERISA, and wherein the employer who is providing the medical benefit plan is 100 percent responsible for payment for medical services provided to an employee, receiving the benefit of the medical benefit plan, to a medical service provider for covered medical services and products. The medical benefit plan and method for providing the medical benefit plan determines a reasonable value for the medical services provided by a medical service provider to a participant of the plan, reprices a bill or claim from the medical service provider, and protects the participant/employee under ERISA from attempted collections of additional moneys that a medical service provider may believe is owed for the medical services but were not paid by the exemplary self insured medical benefit plan. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119083 | System and Method for Health Care Financing - A system for health care financing comprises at least two health care providers, a vendor/operator, an electronic price list, at least one employer having at least one participating employee, at least one deposit account for each of the employees, and at least one high-deductible insurance policy that is available to the participating employees. The electronic price list includes offers from the at least two health care providers, and consumer feedback data regarding past transactions between participating employees and the health care providers having a price listed in the electronic database. The health care providers have authority vary price offers in the price list, and can access the electronic database to vary their price offers. The participating employees can access the price list via the Internet to learn price offers extended by the providers, and to access the consumer feedback data. Payment for a transaction between a participating employee and a provider can be made from a consumer's deposit account without consulting a third party to decide the price of the transaction. The participating employees can place consumer feedback data into the electronic database after a transaction between a given employee and a provider having a price listed in the electronic database. The vendor/operator receives positive revenue from health are transactions between the employees and the providers having a price listed in the electronic database. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119084 | System and Method for Ordering Patient Specific Healthcare Services - A system and method for ordering healthcare services wherein a list of selectable orders for medical services for a given patient is dynamically generated based on medical information of the patient (e.g., the patient's condition or set of conditions) and presented to a user (e.g., a physician). In one aspect, a system for ordering patient specific healthcare services comprises a user interface that enables a user to input a medical condition of a patient and to select desired medical services from a list of orderable medical services presented to the user; a services database comprising a plurality of predetermined medical services that are each associated with a medical condition; and an engine for compiling the list of orderable medical services from one or more predetermined medical services in the services database that are associated with the input medical conditions of the patient. A clinical knowledge model is used by the engine to identify a medical condition that is potentially associated with a known or identified medical condition of the patient, based upon potential etiology, potential complication, clinical associations, or any combination thereof. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119085 | SENSITIVE DRUG DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM AND METHOD - A drug distribution system and method utilizes a central pharmacy and database to track all prescriptions for a sensitive drug. Information is kept in the database regarding all physicians allowed to prescribe the sensitive drug, and all patients receiving the drug. Abuses are identified by monitoring data in the database for prescription patterns by physicians and prescriptions obtained by patients. Further verification is made that the physician is eligible to prescribe the drug by consulting a separate database, and optionally whether any actions are taken against the physician. Multiple controls beyond those for normal drugs are imposed on the distribution depending on the sensitivity of the drug. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119086 | SYSTEM FOR MANAGING TREATMENT OF A PARTICULAR HEALTH CONDITION VIA A MOBILE PHONE DEVICE - A measurement module for glucose testing includes a glucose testing measurement module housing, a test strip receptacle formed in the housing, and a connector portion formed in the housing and shaped to permit mechanical removable attachment of the housing to a hand-held computer. Electronics determine the amount of glucose present in a sample of body fluid, when the test strip is positioned in the receptacle and the body fluid is placed on a test strip, and communicate the glucose amount to the hand-held computer via the connector portion. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119087 | SYSTEM FOR MANAGING TREATMENT OF A PARTICULAR HEALTH CONDITION THAT INCLUDES GRAPHING ACCUMULATED DATA - A measurement module for glucose testing includes a glucose testing measurement module housing, a test strip receptacle formed in the housing, and a connector portion formed in the housing and shaped to permit mechanical removable attachment of the housing to a hand-held computer. Electronics determine the amount of glucose present in a sample of body fluid, when the test strip is positioned in the receptacle and the body fluid is placed on a test strip, and communicate the glucose amount to the hand-held computer via the connector portion. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119088 | CLOUD-BASED HEALTHCARE INFORMATION EXCHANGE - The present disclosure describes systems and methods of a healthcare exchange system to exchange medical information, stored in different formats, between different entities. This exchange system provides a channel for the flow of information and patient records across different health care entities that may store data in different formats. The exchange system's ability to receive requests and retrieve corresponding data from various entities, along with the transformation of data from the storing format into a format specified by the requesting entity, allow a flexible and extendable healthcare information exchange system. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119089 | System and Method for Personal Electronic Medical Records - An electronic medical record system and method enables a patient and the patient's caregivers to create, maintain, and use an electronic medical record over a secured communication network, such as the Internet. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119090 | SMART CAP WITH COMMUNICATION FUNCTION - A smart cap for a medical container for the containment of solid medications having unique indicia. The cap is provided with an optical scanner configured with at least one locally contained or external data base having general medication identification data and optionally patient-specific information to scan and identify the medication (and optionally the dosage, specific formulations, manufacturing source, etc.) and to record and correlate information regarding patient medication usage (scanning of a medication is generally considered indicative of actual patient taking of the medication). The cap further comprises communication elements configured to transmit/receive “usage” through scanning of a unit dosage of the medication, to an external data base such as the patient's cell phone and or computer (such as with blue tooth or RF communication) or via a telephone call or internet transmission to a data base of a pharmacy or physician or other health care provider | 2011-05-19 |
20110119091 | Method for Generating and Transmitting Prescription Renewal Request Information - A method for providing prescription renewal request information via an electronic network. Upon receiving a request from a client for renewal request information for a particular prescriber, a report is generated containing the requested renewal request information and transmitted to the client. The transmitted report allows the client to easily review renewal request information and helps the client to manage appointments with patients whom the prescriber wishes to see. Depending on the client request, the transmitted report may be an “active renewals” page containing renewal request information regarding renewal requests that the prescriber has not reviewed, an “archived renewals” page containing renewed request information regarding renewal requests that the prescriber has reviewed, an “appointment” page containing renewal request information regarding patients with whom the prescriber wishes to make an appointment, or a “prescription detail” page containing detailed renewal request information regarding a particular renewal request. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119092 | ELECTRONIC HEALTH MANAGEMENT SYSTEM - A method and system of aggregating, integrating and reporting medical data for the purpose of encouraging the use of a health care program recommended to a patient by a health care provider, comprises maintaining a database of recommended health care actions by patient and health care provider; maintaining a database of recommended changes in recommended health care actions by patient and health care provider; requesting agreement by a health care provider to the recommended changes for at least one patient of that provider; communicating to that patient (1) the recommended changes and (2) the agreement by the health care provider to such recommended changes; maintaining a database of actual changes in recommended health care actions by health care provider; and delivering to at least certain of the health care providers an incentive to recommend health care actions that include the recommended changes. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119093 | SYSTEM AND METHOD OF MANAGING AN INSURANCE SCHEME - A method of managing an insurance policy includes defining a plurality of mechanisms to protect an insured person from adverse financial outcomes. A selection of at least one of the plurality of mechanism is received from the insured person and stored the selection in a memory. On the occurrence of an insured event, the stored selection is retrieved and a basic insurance amount to be paid to the insured person based on an insurance policy of the insured person is calculated. The method then includes determining based on the stored selection of mechanisms if the insured person has suffered any adverse financial outcomes since the inception of the policy and if so then calculating a further financial protector amount to be paid to the insured person based on the stored selection of mechanisms. Finally, the basic insurance amount and further financial protector amount are paid to the insured person or their nominated beneficiary. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119094 | Apparatus and method for providing employee benefits and/or employee benefits information - A computer-implemented method including storing or processing information regarding a health, disability, or life, insurance benefit, included in an individual benefits account of or for an employee, wherein the benefit relationship is established pursuant to or during a first employment relationship between the employee and a first employer, storing or processing information for providing or maintaining the benefit provided to the employee pursuant to or during a second employment relationship between the employee and a second employer, receiving a request for information regarding the benefit, processing the request for information regarding the benefit with a processing device, generating a message in response to the processing of the request, and transmitting the message to a communication device associated with the employee, a benefit beneficiary, the second employer, and a benefit administrator. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119095 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ADMINISTERING A LIFETIME INCOME SHARE PLAN - The present invention provides a system and method for administering an investment option known as a lifetime income share. Lifetime income shares mitigate survival risk, the risk that an individual will outlive his or her assets. More specifically, the purchase of a plurality of lifetime income shares guarantees an individual a predetermined, periodic income payment for the life of the purchaser. The guaranteed stream of monthly income commences at a specified age. Furthermore, the guaranteed stream is utilized to supplement an existing income level or provide income in the event that the individual outlives his or her accumulated liquid assets. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119096 | Method And System For A Deferred Variable Annuity With Benefit Payments As A Function Of An Age-Based Withdrawal Percent - A computer system for processing data relating to a deferred variable annuity contract during the accumulation phase includes a data storage device storing data relating to the deferred variable annuity contract, including a payment base value, a contract value, a withdrawal percent, a birth date of a relevant life, and a formula for determining, based on the withdrawal percent and a withdrawal base value, an available periodic benefit payment amount that does not decrease the payment base; and a processor. The processor is configured to determine a withdrawal percent applicable to a date, based on whether the date is prior to a date of a selected birthday of the relevant life. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119097 | FACILITY UTILITY ENHANCEMENT SYSTEM - A system and method of use for enhancing the utility of facilities suitable for presentation and viewing of Intellectual Property (IP). The system includes a rights management system for storing and managing information relating to IP having information associated therewith including IP-Owners and terms of use of the IP including royalties; a facility availability database system for storing and managing information relating to the availability of the facility; an audience contacting system for enabling a stakeholder to contact individuals targeted by the stakeholder as the audience for viewing the IP; a booking system enabling the stakeholder to arrange exhibition of the IP at the facility at specific times and terms; an information database for storing information relating to stakeholders and individuals of an audience; and a revenue determination, collection, accounting and royalty distribution system. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119098 | Ticketing System - In order to expand the area of application of a ticketing system that works based on a virtual ticket, a method for operating a ticketing system is proposed, in which a virtual ticket is generated, a user-dependent access code is allocated to the virtual ticket, the virtual ticket is stored together with the access code, the access code is stored in a separate data memory, and the virtual ticket is accessed by entering the access code stored in the separate data memory at an entry point of the ticketing system provided for this purpose. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119099 | ASSIGNING AND MANAGING PATRON RESERVATIONS FOR DISTRIBUTED SERVICES USING WIRELESS PERSONAL COMMUNICATION DEVICES - A system and method for assigning and managing patron reservations to one or more of a plurality of attractions receive reservation requests at personal communication devices (PCDs). Reservation requests are transmitted to a computer associated with the selected attraction, which determines a proposed reservation time based on information describing the attraction, the patron, previously-made reservations maintained in a virtual queue, and the current state of a physical queue associated with the attraction. Proposed reservation time is transmitted to the PCD for confirmation or rejection by the patron. Confirmed reservations are entered in the virtual queue. Patrons are alerted by the PCD when their reservation time is approaching. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119100 | Method and System for Displaying Anomalies in Time Series Data - A graphical user interface is used for presenting time series data and anomalies associated with a data source on a computer display. The graphical user interface has first and second windows. The first window includes a graph of time series data values for an attribute of the data source and a histogram of anomalies of the data source, each corresponding to a value of a respective attribute that is substantially different from an expected value of the attribute. The second window includes a list of automatic alerts characterizing a set of anomalies of the data source at a particular time. In response to a user adjustment of a sensitivity threshold, a new histogram of anomalies is rendered to replace the existing histogram of anomalies in the first window and a new list of automatic alerts is rendered to replace the existing list of automatic alerts in the second window. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119101 | Case Management Services - Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for automatically routing and managing human resource requests. A method includes receiving a work ticket including a ticket identification code, a request type, a submission date, and an employee identification code from a workforce management engine, the work ticket being associated with a human resource request submitted by an employee at a human resource portal; assigning a case identification code to the work ticket; associating a work flow with the case identification code, the work flow including a status condition, and at least one work flow task associated with a workflow task event; and transmitting an update to the workforce management engine, the transmitting triggered by the work flow task event. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119102 | Paperless Docketing Workflow System - A workflow system provides role-specific console programs that display information for working attorneys, covering attorneys, paralegals and others. The system enables a working attorney's workflow items to be covered by another attorney, without intermingling display of “to do” items belonging to the covering attorney with “to do” items belonging to the working attorney. Another aspect of the system enables automatically attaching documents that are relevant to a workflow item to an e-mail message. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119103 | TECHNOLOGICAL INFRASTRUCTURE CONSUMPTION INDEX - Embodiments of the invention relate to systems, methods, and computer program products that provide for a technological infrastructure consumption index. The index is instrumental in measuring and managing technological infrastructure consumption. The consumption index is generated on a predetermined schedule as indicator of a business entity's volume of infrastructure consumption. The consumption index tracks key consumption elements, which are within the control of application teams, thereby insuring that the consumption of the key elements are being managed on an ongoing basis. Additionally, the consumption index provides for drill-down capabilities for the purpose of readily accessing data associated with specific key consumption elements of interest and specific teams/organizations within the business entity. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119104 | INDIVIDUALIZED BEHAVIOR-BASED SERVICE BUNDLING AND PRICING - A method and system analyze service applications being utilized within a computerized network environment using an analytics module of a computerized device to produce operational information of the service applications and usage information of the service applications. The operational information is analyzed using an application behavior analysis module of the computerized device to produce application behavior profiles. The usage information is analyzed using an application association analysis module of the computerized device to produce bundles of the services applications. The application behavior profiles and the bundles of the service applications are analyzed using a pricing module of the computerized device to produce price ranges for each bundle of service applications and cost profiles for each bundle of service applications. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119105 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CONDUCTING NON-NOUISANT SURVEYS OVER VIRTUAL NETWORKS - A polling method, online polling system and program product therefor. A system avatar unit creates, maintains and controls system avatars distributed throughout a virtual world. System avatars receive questions received from polling system clients. A dialogue module manages dialogs between system avatars presenting the questions to user avatars in the virtual world. A report generator generates reports responsive to responses given by user avatars to system avatars. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119106 | APPLICATION RISK FRAMEWORK - A risk framework is described for computing application risks. A risk value associated with each of one or more products included in an application may be determined. The risk value associated with each of the products may be classified as declining software risk, not-permitted software risk, declining hardware risk, and not-permitted hardware risk and may be weighted and summed to produce a technical risk score. A business criticality score may be computed based on how critical the application is to a business. The technical risk score and the business criticality score may be weighted and summed to produce a composite risk score. Based on one or more of the scores, planning may be conducted and strategies may be formulated to mitigate risk. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119107 | AUDIT PLANNING - An audit planning system enables users to plan effective audits by identifying audit units having potentially large impacts and risks on an enterprise and enabling users to select audit units to include in audits based on a variety of different criteria. The audit planning system displays the audit units of the enterprise and a visual indicator of the impact and risk associated with each audit unit. The audit planning system enables users to select the displayed audit units to plan an audit. The audit planning system may display audit units in an impacted financial statement, a tree map, a graph, and/or a table. The audit planning system may sort and/or display audit units with visual indicators specifying associated risks, impacts, materiality values, exposures, coverages, and/or audit costs. The audit planning system can further display visual indications of the changes in audit units' associated attributes over time. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119108 | Method and System for Modeling Behavior of a Visitor to An E-Commerce Location - A method for modeling the behavior of a visitor to an e-commerce location includes the steps of automatically obtaining one or more visitor characteristic values, and automatically developing a model of the visitor's behavior according to a nonlinear state estimation technique (NSET). The method also includes then automatically estimating a set of visitor behavior characteristic values with said model that model said visitor's behavior. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119109 | HEADCOUNT FORECASTING SYSTEM - Embodiments of the present invention provide systems, apparatuses, methods, and computer program products for forecasting the future headcount of an organization by generating, validating and displaying models of the headcount of an organization or division thereof over time. In some embodiments, at least three different models are generated using stored historical headcount information, including a linear regression model, a multivariate model using macroeconomic variables, and an autoregressive moving average model. In some embodiments, for each of the foregoing types, multiple models are generated and the best model of each type is selected for use in forecasting headcount according to predetermined evaluation criteria. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119110 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PRODUCT RECOMMENDATION AND AUTOMATIC SERVICE EQUIPMENT THEREOF AND COMPUTER READABLE RECORDING MEDIUM STORING COMPUTER PROGRAM PERFORMING THE METHOD - A system for product recommendation comprises several automatic service equipments which are mutually linked via a communication network. Each of the automatic service equipments obtains data of other user groups, data of other product groups and other, relation matrixes from other automatic service equipments. Each of the automatic service equipments integrates data of other user groups into data of local user groups stored in itself, and also integrates data of other product groups into data of local product groups stored in itself. Each of the automatic service equipments revises a local relation matrix stored in itself, such that the revised local relation matrix records correlation coefficients between the integrated local user groups and the integrated local product groups. Each of the automatic service equipments performs product recommendation according to the integrated data and input data received through an input device. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119111 | Measuring Effectiveness of Advertisements and Linking Certain Consumer Activities Including Purchases to Other Activities of the Consumer - A method for linking online computer activity with non-online consumer activity by creating a unique identifier for each consumer; storing online and non-online consumer activity in a database indexed by the unique identifier; and modifying online or non-online consumer offerings based on processing the stored online and non-online consumer activity. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119112 | Modeling Tool for Reducing Resource Usage or Emissions - A centralized modeling system is implemented via a host server that is accessible to a large number of clients (organizations) using a website. In one example, it is assumed a client wishes to reduce its CO2e emissions by reducing its energy consumption by a certain amount per year. The client then enters a budget, and the server or client identifies a list of all the possible initiatives (specific projects) for electricity reduction. The client enters certain relevant information to customize the initiatives. The server may then automatically calculate, using conversion factors, each initiative's cost and estimated electricity and emissions reduction per year, among other metrics. The software allows the client to repeatedly select any combination of the initiatives and then models the resulting total energy savings and CO2e emission reduction, and any budgeted amount remaining. Based on the modeling, the client then decides on the overall strategy using a combination of the initiatives. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119113 | Best Practices for Emission and Energy Management - A centralized emission and energy management system is implemented via a server that is accessible to a client organization. In response to a request to recommend best practices for an organizational unit to reduce environmental impact or energy usage, the system selects relevant best practices based on reduction goals and the organizational unit's particular industry. Based on attribute values for the relevant best practices and the organizational unit, the system filters/ranks the relevant best practices to form recommended best practices. The system may transmit a forecast of energy savings, cost impacts, and environmental impacts over an implementation time period for a draft procedure created from a recommended best practice. The system may generate a request for proposal (RFP) including an approved procedure to a vendor. The system may maintain ratings and feedbacks on the approved procedure and the vendor. The system generally enforces authentication, authorization, and auditing for access to the system. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119114 | Modeling Tool for Determining an Organization's Supply Chain Emissions Footprint - A CO2e modeling system is implemented via a host server that is remotely accessible by a large number of clients (organizations) and suppliers of goods and services to the clients. The host server accesses a database containing CO2e emission-related data from a large number of suppliers. The client, when determining their indirect CO2e emissions resulting from their supply chain network, then identifies to the host server, via the web, the various suppliers used by the client and the client's amount of usage of the various suppliers. The host server uses its stored conversion factors and other data from the database to calculate the client's indirect CO2e emissions as a result of the client's usage of the particular suppliers. The server may calculate the total CO2e emissions generated by the entire chain of suppliers that are involved with providing a particular product to the client. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119115 | System Generated Benchmarks - A centralized emission management system is implemented via a server that is accessible to a large number of entities. The entities upload information relevant to determining a measure of environmental impact. The server calculates benchmarks for a performance metric based on the entities' measures of environmental impact and certain normalization factors. Based on a comparison of the performance metric of an entity against one or more benchmarks, the server may transmit initiatives to the entity for reducing environmental impact and an alert to related subordinate entities to reduce their environmental impact. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119116 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ANALYZING ANALYST RECOMMENDATIONS ON A SINGLE STOCK BASIS - A system and method for measuring and creating a score for the performance of one or more contributor recommendations on a single stock. According to one embodiment, the score may be derived via a payoff function that depends on a variety of factors. For example, the factors may include one or more of: i) the performance of the stock; ii) the performance of a selected benchmark; iii) the recommendation of the contributor for the stock; and/or iv) other factors. According to one embodiment the payoff function may be designed such that certain desired characteristics are satisfied. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119117 | GENERATION OF PRODUCTS IN CATALOGS FROM DIVERGENT LISTINGS - Methods and systems to generate product records in catalogs from divergent listings are provided. Example systems include a listings module to identify an immature product record corresponding to the item for sale. The listings module may determine, from one or more attributes of an item for sale described by the listing, that the item can be matched to an immature product record. A voting module may provide an interface including the first version of the immature product record and an option to select a first version or a second version of the immature product record matching the item. The voting module may further relate the selected version to the item for sale based on a selection by a user, and, in response, update a count of votes for the selected version. When the count of votes meets a threshold, the selected version may become the mature product record for inclusion in a catalog. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119118 | System and Method for Providing Automated Fee Pricing - A system includes a memory and a processor communicatively coupled to the memory. The memory is operable to store a list of fee rules and a fee schedule. The processor is operable to receive account data comprising an asset type and an asset value associated with the asset type. The processor is further operable to determine, based on the asset type, one or more rules for calculating asset management fees from the list of fee rules and to calculate a standard asset management fee based on the received account data, the determined one or more rules, and the fee schedule. The processor is further operable to receive a discount factor associated with the standard asset management fee and to calculate an adjusted asset management fee based on the discount factor and the standard asset management fee. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119119 | ADVERTISER INVOICING SYSTEM - An advertising invoicing system enables a invoicing for transactions reported by a buyer. The system allows a buyer to identify, from a list of transactions, a transaction to be reported. The system calculates an invoice and sends it to the seller. The seller may dispute or pay the invoice. The system allows the buyer to specify a beneficiary (for example, a charitable organization) so that a portion of the amount collected from the seller is contributed to the beneficiary. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119120 | Loyalty reward program for reducing the balance of a loan obligation - A method and apparatus for reducing the balance of a consumer or educational loan obligation using a loyalty reward program is disclosed. Loan obligors can reduce the balances of their loan obligations by purchasing consumer goods and services that they would normally purchase. The method essentially comprises the steps of (a) establishing a site on a global computer network; (b) recognizing at least certain users of the site; (c) directing the recognized users to merchants; (d) enabling accumulation of loyalty points by the recognized users based upon purchases from the merchants; (e) monitoring the purchases by the recognized users from the merchants; (f) tracking the accumulated loyalty points; and (g) permitting selective redemption of the accumulated loyalty points. Users of the site are recognized by requiring them to provide initial registration information. Accumulated loyalty points may be categorized with a status of “pending” or a status of “earned.” Selective redemption of the accumulated loyalty points includes selective application of earned loyalty points to a loan of a recognized user to permit repayment of the loan, or selective transfer of earned loyalty points from one recognized user to another recognized user. Information about accumulated, redeemed, and transferred loyalty points may be displaying to a recognized user. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119121 | SEARCHER CALL BACK REQUEST SYSTEM AND METHOD - A search based call back request system enables a user to request a follow up contact from a seller. The system provides search functionality and stores seller information such that when search results appear for sellers that have requested to offer call back service to a buyer, the system formats the search results screen to include a call back request indicator for the seller. The system includes functionality for the user to enter custom call back data. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119122 | TRANSACTION PROCESSING METHOD AND SYSTEM - A computer-implemented transaction processing method allows consumers to access offerings across a plurality of merchants using a single unique identification for each consumer. The method includes the steps of: (a) storing information on the consumers in a database including a unique identification associated with each of the consumers; (b) storing information on one or more merchant offerings from each of the plurality of merchants in a database; and (c) for each of the plurality of merchants: (i) receiving from a merchant over a communications network information on a proposed transaction with a consumer involving a merchant offering, the information including an identification of the merchant and the merchant offering, and the unique identification of the consumer; (ii) verifying that the unique identification of the consumer is valid and that the consumer is eligible to participate in the merchant offering, and transmitting an authentication and validation message to the merchant over the communications network; and (iii) receiving settlement information over the communications network from the merchant confirming that the merchant offering was applied to the transaction with the consumer, and storing the settlement information in a database. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119123 | Process And Method For Providing Incentives To Increase Vision-Therapy Performance - Systems and methods provide incentives to a stimulative visual therapy user performing computer based visual therapy. User compliance with a recommended schedule of visual therapy is recorded, reward points are provided to the user based on compliance, and the user is rewarded based on the number of accumulated reward points awarded to the user. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119124 | MULTIMEDIA ADVERTISEMENT EXCHANGE - An advertisement exchange obtains characteristics associated with multimedia advertisements such as commercial slots in a commercial pod, banners in a video, announcements in an audio program, etc. Characteristics may include demographic information, advertisement type, survey information, etc. Advertisement slots are offered with information on advertisement slot characteristics and may be selected, purchased, exchanged, and analyzed by advertisers, individuals, corporations, and firms. Advertisement slot characteristics may be changed in real-time as placement of advertisements in surrounding slots changes the characteristics of a particular slot. Advertisements may be automatically matched with advertisement slots based on advertisement slot characteristics and advertisement characteristics. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119125 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR ONE TAG TRAFFICKING IN DISPLAY ADVERTISING TO ACHIEVE PERSONALIZED AD EXPERIENCES AT SCALE - A method and system for trafficking one-to-one display ad campaigns centers around a Dynamic Ad Server that generates an advertising creative experience dynamically by assembling different ad subcomponents on the fly, selecting subcomponents based on publisher, user or media parameters submitted to the Ad Server at the time an ad impression is to be served. A business rules engine allows a marketer to author natural-language business rules. Using such system, campaigns can be designed and implemented wherein association of placements to creative tags is only per-size per-campaign, necessitating set-up of only one placement per distinct site in a media plan. By accommodating the rules via dynamic ad placement, a marketer's intent may be fully satisfied. Time required for set-up and launch is dramatically reduced and maintenance and optimization is infinitely scalable. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119126 | Online Monitoring Systems to Determine Offline Advertising Effectiveness - Methods, systems, and apparatuses for online monitoring systems to determine offline advertising effectiveness. Information related to an advertisement for a product is received. The advertisement is presented through offline media. The information includes an advertising schedule. Communications related to the product that are received from the consumers in the market at the time the advertisement is presented, are detected. Data responsive to the detected communications are collected; the data represent a number of consumers in the market. A statistical correlation between the collected data and the advertising schedule is determined and provided to the advertiser as a report of the effectiveness of the advertising. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119127 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR PROMOTIONAL MEDIA ITEM SELECTION AND PROMOTIONAL PROGRAM UNIT GENERATION - A computer implemented process for generating customized, user-specific programming for delivery over a network, each programming unit comprising one or more media items, such as song tracks, and at least one promotional media item, such as a commercial advertisement. The media items are selected in response to implicit user taste data, and promotional media items or ads are selected where a media item associated with the promotional media item matches at least one media data item identified as responsive to the user taste data. The media items and the promotional media items are selected so as to constrain the promotional program unit to incur a net cost of no more that a selected maximum cost, wherein the net cost is determined as a sum of the licensing costs of the selected media items, reduced by a sum of the expected revenues generated by the selected promotional media items. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119128 | Advertising Exchange System to Share Online Audiences - An online audience is targeted for advertisement delivery in an advertising exchange system. The method is performed in an advertising exchange system and may include processing a request to delivery at least one message over a network. An audience segment may be stored for a first entity. The audience segment may identify a population of visitors to one or more network locations of the first entity that form a target-group of members based on activity of the visitors at the first entity. The system may retrieve the audience segment for a second entity and the system may deliver a message from the advertising exchange system in response to the request to the target-group of members on behalf of the second entity by using the audience segment to target the target-group of members. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119129 | ADVERTISEMENT EXCHANGE USING NEURO-RESPONSE DATA - An advertisement exchange determines characteristics associated with advertisement slots such as slots in a commercial pod, locations on a printed page, banners in a video, billboards, etc. Characteristics may include demographic information, advertisement type, and neuro-response characteristics such as priming, attention, engagement, and retention. Advertisement slots are matched with advertisements and may be selected, purchased, exchanged, and analyzed by advertisers, individuals, corporations, and firms. In some examples, bids and offers are made for advertisement slots based on advertisement slot characteristics. Advertisement slot characteristics may be changed in real-time as placement of advertisements in surrounding slots changes the characteristics of a particular slot. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119130 | METHODS, SYSTEMS, AND APPARATUS TO MANAGE MEAL PLANNING AND COUPON DISPENSING - Methods, systems, and apparatus to manage meal planning and coupon dispensing are disclosed. An example method includes parsing a message posted on a social networking service to extract a keyword by determining which of a plurality of entries relates to food; querying a recipe service using the keyword as an ingredient to produce a first set of recipes including the ingredient; comparing each of the first set of recipes to a profile corresponding to a consumer associated with the message to produce a second set of recipes customized to the consumer; and conveying at least a first one of the second set of recipes to the consumer. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119131 | System and method for peer-to peer advertising between mobile communication devices - Disclosed are a method and system for peer-to-peer advertising between mobile communication devices. A subsidy program is set up based on a profile of an advertiser having at least one advertising media. A qualified subscriber is identified for the advertiser based on a profile of a subscriber. One or more advertisers and subsidy programs for the qualified subscriber is selected. In addition, when a communication transmission is received from a source communication device, at least one advertising media is associated with the communication transmission and the communication transmission is transmitted from a source communication device to a destination communication device. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119132 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR THE CORRELATION OF MOBILE DEVICES WITH MARKERS USED BY A CONTENT DELIVERY SYSTEM IN A RETAIL ENVIRONMENT - A system and method for correlating mobile devices with temporary and permanent markers used by an advertising system that delivers content to consumers via a network of display devices. Each mobile device is typically associated with a single consumer, and demographic, financial, merchant, purchase history, or other information about the consumer is maintained by the correlation system. By correlating the mobile device with the marker, the correlation system allows information about the consumer to be shared with the advertising system. The advertising system may use the shared information in order to more accurately target advertising content to the consumer. | 2011-05-19 |
20110119133 | System and Method for Adding Advertisements to a Location-Based Advertising System - A location-based advertising system automatically analyzes messages posted on social networking systems or other publicly accessible or private computer systems for posting messages for viewing by others. The messages are analyzed to identify messages that contain offers, such as offers that may be construed as location-based offers. Information about the offers is extracted from the messages and placed in a database. The database may be used by a location-based advertising application to send advertisements to targeted users or to respond to user who are qualified according to their current or recent geographic location. Optionally or alternatively, merchants may send messages, such as e-mail messages or instant messages (IMs), to the system to notify the system of offers. These messages are also analyzed and information about their respective offers is extracted and placed in the database. | 2011-05-19 |