12th week of 2012 patent applcation highlights part 56 |
Patent application number | Title | Published |
20120072317 | BILLING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR AGRICULTURAL SERVICES ACCESS - Billing for application services may be provided. A plurality of data may be received from a machine. The machine may be determined to be associated with a subscribing user, and an application service associated with the machine may be identified. The plurality of data may be provided to the application service and a charge record associated with the subscribing user may be created. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072318 | Mechanisms for Executing a Process in a Cloud Computing Environment - Deterioration of service quality due to shortage of resources and/or increased cost of support due to excessive resources is minimized in the case where the amount of requested services may change in cloud computing. Provided are mechanisms for executing a process specified by a user in a cloud computing environment and charging the user for the process. The mechanisms include a receiving part for receiving an instruction to execute the specified process and a determining part for determining an external resource to provision from a first other computer system for a charge. The mechanisms further comprise an external resource securing part for securing the external resource on the first other computer system and an executing part for causing the external resource to execute at least a part of the specified process. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072319 | MAINTAINING CHARGING STATE DURING FINAL UNIT REDIRECT IN CREDIT-CONTROL SYSTEMS - A method is implemented in a credit control server (CCS). The method includes receiving, at the CCS from a credit control client (CCC), a message associated with a multiple services credit control (MSCC) session, where the message includes a request for service units associated with a service account. The method further includes determining, at the CCS, that insufficient service units are available in the service account and notifying the CCC that service units need to be added to the service account. The method also includes maintaining, at the CCS, MSCC session related parameters while the CCC adds service units to the service account. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072320 | Tax-return assembly, apparatus, and method - An apparatus, and an associated method for a tax kiosk provides for a tax filer to enter information related to a tax return that is required to be prepared for the tax filer. Both tax-filer information and tax-form information is collected at the kiosk. Once collected, the collected information is sent to a remote location at which the tax return is prepared. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072321 | METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR CENTRALIZED GLOBAL TAX COMPUTATION, MANAGEMENT, AND COMPLIANCE REPORTING - Methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture for tax computation, management, and compliance reporting via a centralized transactional tax platform capable of incorporating transaction data and/or tax information from multiple locations and/or multiple business applications via a network architecture are disclosed herein. In one embodiment, a central server may be configured to execute an application to generate a user interface to enable configuration of tax compliance data via a network link, to receive transaction data from one or more client systems via the network, to calculate transaction taxes corresponding to the transaction data, and to store tax information, including outputs and computational logic generated by tax calculation engines executed by the server. In another embodiment, the tax calculations may be executed client-side, while administration of tax compliance data and reporting are facilitated by the central server. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072322 | SELF-PROVISIONING BY A MACHINE OWNER - User provisioning of application services may be provided. A selection of a plurality of agricultural application services may be received from a authenticated user. A subscription entry comprising the selected application services may be created in a database. When a transmission is received from a machine comprising a data measurement and a machine identifier, the subscription entry may be determined to be associated with the machine identifier. The plurality of application services associated with the subscription entry may be invoked and the data measurement may be provided to the plurality of application services. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072323 | MAINTAINING ONLINE FUNCTIONALITY DURING AN OUTAGE - A system maintains online functionality during an outage. The system includes a processing device configured for receiving a request for online interaction via a network from a client system and identifying a primary interaction system configured to respond to the request. The processing device is also configured for determining the primary interaction system is incapable of providing the online interaction associated with the request, identifying an alternative interaction system configured to respond to the request, and initiating an online interaction between the client system and the alternative interactive system. In some embodiments, the primary interaction system is incapable of providing website content, and the processing device initiates an exchange of alternative website content. In some embodiments, the primary interaction system is incapable of providing online banking information, and the alternative interaction system provides alternative online banking information such as non-current information regarding an account. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072324 | CUSTOMER EXPOSURE VIEW & INCOME STATEMENTS (CEVIS) - According to one embodiment of the present invention, a method comprises receiving a request to aggregate data associated with a customer. The method determines a first identifier associated with the customer that identifies the customer and a second identifier that identifies a household associated with the customer. Data associated with the second identifier is aggregated and communicated in response to the request. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072325 | System and Method for Coalescing Market Data at a Network Device - A network device coalesces data received from an exchange, and provides a user with the opportunity to receive fewer, but up-to-date, data updates from an exchange when duplicate prices become available or a large volume of prices becomes available suddenly. Accordingly, the trader can be assured of receiving non-duplicated prices that are fed at a rate that is cohesive with that trader's connection speed. The present invention is designed to conserve on bandwidth thereby increasing the likelihood that bandwidth will be available to receive desirable market information. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072326 | Smart Trade Template Based Matching - Systems and methods for matching orders are provided. One or more trade templates are created. The trade templates define groups of orders for financial instruments that may be combined such that all of the orders are matched. A collection of tradable price levels is also created for each template. New orders and resting orders are analyzed using one or more trade templates and tradable price levels to determine whether a combination of orders satisfies all of the elements of a trade template with a required price level. When all of the elements of a trade template are satisfied and an order with a tradable price level is received, the corresponding orders may be matched contemporaneously. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072327 | AUTOMATED TRADING SYSTEM FOR ROUTING AND MATCHING ORDERS - An automated system for routing orders in an exchange configured for trading securities or derivatives is disclosed. The system includes an electronic trade engine operative to receive an order from an originating firm, the order including a designation specifying a preference for a particular market maker for a security or derivative at the exchange. Upon determining that the order cannot trade at the exchange, the electronic trade engine, via an order handling system, is operative to route the order to a second exchange with a second designation that is one of: identical to the designation of the received order or modified to a different designation according to predetermined instructions. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072328 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CREATING PARITY ON CLOSE ORDERS - An automated system for creating parity on close orders in an exchange configured for trading securities or derivatives is disclosed including an electronic trade engine operative to receive an order for a security or derivative at the exchange, the trade engine further operative to disseminate a request for a price message to a plurality of market makers quoting a class in response to receiving the order, wherein the request for a price message includes a parity amount for the order; an electronic book in communication with the electronic trade engine, the electronic book operative to store at least one order received by the electronic trade engine; and wherein, in response to the request for a price message, the electronic trade engine receives at least one price message that includes a fee in addition to the parity amount. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072329 | ELECTRONIC QUANTITY PURCHASING SYSTEM - Disclosed is an electronic quantity purchasing system which is a host computer that a user may access to purchase quantities of goods or services at a locked-in price for later redemption. The preferred communication means employed is via secure, high-speed Internet access. Data storage is electronic. Users employ the system to make an instant purchase of a small or large quantity of a commodity, such as gasoline at the current purchase price. Users can redeem all or part of their balance for real product at a physical location in the future when desired. The redemption will draw down the user's account balance at the locked-in purchase price, so the user is able to circumvent the market price in effect at the time of redemption. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072330 | TRADE EXECUTION METHODS AND SYSTEMS - One embodiment of the present invention relates to securities trading using electronic systems. Another embodiment of the present invention relates to a computer implemented trade execution method, comprising: sending from an execution venue to each of a plurality of smart order routers a notification message; receiving at each of the smart order routers the notification message sent thereto, wherein the notification message notifies each of the smart order routers about the presence of a non-displayed priced order at the execution venue; sending from at least one of the smart order routers to the execution venue at least one order to execute against the non-displayed priced order; receiving at the execution venue each order sent from each of the smart order routers; and executing at least one order received from at least one of the smart order routers against the non-displayed priced order. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072331 | System and Method for Monitoring Trades Outside of a No-Bust Range in an Electronic Trading System - An alert system that notifies an Exchange's staff of a trade appearing to be outside an expected market range of prices includes determination logic which derives, based on data received from an input device, a theoretical no-bust range of prices, i.e. prices above and below a synthesized market price, within which an erroneous trade cannot be cancelled. Evaluation logic monitors trades and compares them to the theoretical no-bust range of prices. Alert logic notifies the Exchange's staff when the evaluation logic identifies a potentially erroneous trade that lies outside the theoretical no-bust range of prices. A method of notifying the Exchange of a trade that potentially lies outside of an expected range of prices includes monitoring an input range of prices, deriving the theoretical no-bust range of prices, comparing transactions prices to the theoretical no-bust range of prices and notifying the Exchange when a potentially erroneous trade can be cancelled. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072332 | Public Offering Risk Management - The present invention provides an auction system that allows IPO sales to be offered in an open and transparent manner, wherein, a certain percentage (up to 100%) of shares in an IPO can be offered to qualified bidders at a “buy now” pre-auction price, set by an issuer and/or underwriter. Investors can be allowed to “bid some shares out of the auction process” and thus guarantee those investors' allocation while also allowing bidders to participate in an open auction for other shares. Shares of stock to be offered in an IPO can include a subset of pre-auction price shares and a subset of auction price shares. The pre-auction price shares are offered to pre-auction bidders at a pre-auction price, and auction shares are generally sold to the highest bidder. Pre-auction sales can serve as a catalyst for generating enthusiasm for an associated IPO auction. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072333 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DISPLAYING AND/OR ANALYZING A LIMIT ORDER BOOK - Various systems and methods for determining information about limit orders is provided. Data regarding a plurality of limit orders entered onto an electronic market is received and stored. For each of a subset of the plurality of limit orders, a market distance is determined. The market distance comprises the difference between the price of the respective limit order and a market price. A weighting of the respective limit order is determined based at least on the determined market distance for the respective limit order. One or more market indicators is determined based at least in part on the weighting of each of the at least two limit orders. The one or more market indicators are caused to be displayed in a graphical user interface. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072334 | RESPONSIBILITY ANALYTICS - A request to generate a responsibility score is received that characterizes a likelihood of a change in a level of creditworthiness of an individual in response to at least one unknown financial event. Such responsibility score can provide useful insight into a consumer that is complementary to a credit score. Thereafter, a responsibility score is generated based on historical creditworthiness data for the individual using at least one predictive model. The at least one predictive model was trained using historical creditworthiness data of a plurality of consumers subjected to a plurality of financial events. In addition, the at least one predictive model associates the historical creditworthiness data of the individual with matching states for each of a plurality of pre-defined performance behaviors—with each pre-defined performance behavior having at least two corresponding states. The responsibility score can be later provided to a user (e.g., persisted, transmitted, displayed, etc.). Related apparatus, systems, techniques, and articles are also described. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072335 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR DEAL MANAGEMENT OF SYNDICATED LOANS BY MULTIPLE BOOKRUNNERS - Systems, and programming for improved arrangement and administration of syndicated loans using computer networks. Each of a plurality of bookrunners is authorized to invite any number of other bookrunners, as well as any number of loan participants, or underwriters (i.e. investors or lenders), to participate in offering and administering a loan, typically by providing various forms of information describing the proposed loan, including the borrower, the proposed terms, and possibly any potential participants in making the loan. Invitees who accept such invitations may be associated with the inviting bookrunner, and upon being accepted as participants may be granted by the bookrunner access to various sets of communications, documents, and other information concerning the proposed loan. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072336 | METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR GLOBAL UNDERWRITING AND EXPRESS LOAN ORIGINATION - A method and apparatus that allow a rapid evaluation and origination of loans is provided. The creditworthiness of potential borrowers may be evaluated by multiple models. Some models may provide a nuanced evaluation of creditworthiness, while other models generate cross-sell opportunities. The models may implement a strategy. The model may be run on a logic engine or engines. The evaluation may utilize multiple stages, whereby each stage is reached only if the earlier stages are passed. Evaluation may utilize a multi-level strategy. In the event that a loan cannot be reasonably provided, the potential borrower may be given suitable reasons and/or be presented with alternative credit products. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072337 | Payment Processing System Debt Conversion Notification - When a buyer's debt to a seller cannot be paid using an account issued to the buyer by an issuer within a payment processing system, then either or both the seller and the buyer are solicited to conduct future transactions payable on the account. If the debt can be paid using the account, then a sub-account is created unique to the seller and buyer. Transactions between the buyer and seller can be processed using the sub-account including the option of aggregating the debts prior to the processing. The credit limit of the sub-account can be set to match the amount of the aggregated debts. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072338 | Machine, Program Product, and Computer-Implemented Method to Construct a Person-To-Person Loan - Embodiments of the present invention provide a marketer for person-to-person lending or a bank server to promote a plurality of individual lenders bidding on a plurality of person-to-person loan requests from a plurality of individual borrowers to thereby construct person-to-person loans with a bank as an intermediary. The marketer computer establishes a person-to-person lending profile for the lender, include preferences for the lender. A bank server establishes an account for the benefit of the lender and determines an account balance for the individual lender. The bank server creates the loan with the borrower responsive to loan terms determined by the marketer computer. The bank server assigns at least part of the loan to the lender to construct the person-to-person loan with the bank as intermediary and withdraws funds corresponding to the at least part of the loan assigned to the lender from the account. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072339 | HYBRID ACCOUNT - A system, according to one embodiment, includes a hybrid account provided by an issuer to a user, the hybrid account having a balance, the balance being either positive, zero, or negative; and a financial instrument including a hybrid card, the hybrid card providing access to the hybrid account, in which transactions using the hybrid card provide interchange income to the issuer, the issuer charges interest to the hybrid account when the balance is negative, and the issuer pays interest to the hybrid account when the balance is positive. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072340 | METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR ESTABLISHING COMMUNICATIONS WITH MOBILE DEVICES - A method comprises determining, at a first communication terminal, that a second communication terminal is at a selected geo-spatial location relative to the first communication terminal and transmitting from the first communication terminal, a broadcast invitation to the second communication terminal to establish a peer-to-peer communication session. At the second communication terminal, a message is displayed prompting acceptance of the transmitted invitation and, responsive to a manipulation of the second terminal indicative of acceptance of the transmitted invitation, launching an executable session management program at the second communication terminal to thereby establish a communication session during which data may be exchanged between the first and second communication terminals. The step of launching includes downloading the session management program into a memory of the second communication terminal if the session management program is not already stored in memory for execution by a processor of the second communication terminal. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072341 | ALLOCATING APPLICATION SERVERS IN A SERVICE DELIVERY PLATFORM - Application service allocation may be provided. An initial filter criteria comprising an application service may be identified as being associated with a machine. A host address for the application service may be resolved, and the application service may be invoked. A service profile comprising the at least one initial filter criteria may be transmitted to the machine. A plurality of data may be received from the machine and transmitted to the host address associated with the application service. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072342 | System and Method for Providing Debt Protection for Financial Overdraft Account - A system and method that provides an enhancement to an overdraft protection program at a financial institution. The debt protection of the program is funded by the financial institution rather than by a consumer/user of the financial account at the financial institution. Under the debt protection program, if the consumer dies, becomes disabled, or becomes involuntarily unemployed and such facts are established to a reasonable degree, the debt protection program will automatically repay the overdraft in full including cost and fees up to a predetermined maximum amount. The payment can occur in a single payment or over a period of time, for example monthly, until the predetermined maximum amount is reached. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072343 | REMOTE IMAGE CAPTURE WITH CENTRALIZED PROCESSING AND STORAGE - A system for remote data acquisition and centralized processing and storage provides comprehensive support for processing documents and electronic data associated with different applications including sales, business, banking and general consumer transactions. The system retrieves transaction data such as credit card receipts or checks in either electronic or paper form at one or more remote locations, encrypts the data, transmits the encrypted data to a central location, transforms the data to a usable form, performs identification verification using signature data and biometric data, generates informative reports from the data and transmits the informative reports to the remote location(s), providing high performance, security, reliability, fault tolerance and low cost. The network architecture facilitates secure communication between the remote location(s) and the central processing facility, a dynamic address assignment algorithm performs load balancing among the system's servers for faster performance and higher utilization, and a partitioning scheme improves the error correction process. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072344 | TECHNIQUES FOR TRANSACTION ADJUSTMENT - Techniques are provided for transaction adjustment. A payment device, having an offline balance, is presented to an offline terminal in connection with a putative transaction. If an irregularity with the putative transaction is detected, the offline balance is adjusted responsive to the detection. In one aspect of the invention, such adjustment can be carried out, via offline-terminal interaction, substantially without the use of a security module and cryptographic keys in the offline terminal. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072345 | Method and system for impulse savings - Impulse saves are made by a user of a first computing device. A first electronic message is received from the first computing device. The first electronic message comprises an amount of money not spent by a user of the computing device. A running total of the amount of money not spent is computed. A second electronic message to at least one other computing device is transmitted. The second electronic message comprises at least some of the running total. An electronic transfer of the amount the amount of the second electronic message is made from one account to another account. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072346 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SECURING AND AUTHENTICATING PURCHASE TRANSACTIONS - A system and method for securely authenticating a dual number payment card used in a purchase order is provided. A request to approve the purchase order is received from a cardholder that owns the dual number payment card, via a first path. The request includes a site address of a website, an order number and a second card number of the dual number payment card. A first card number of the dual number payment card, associated with the order number, is received from the website, via a second path. A matching pair of numbers that identifies a stored dual number payment card, is searched in a card details storage. If a first number of the matching pair matches the first card number and a second number of the matching pair matches the second card number; the purchase order is approved. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072347 | POLICY-BASED PAYMENT TRANSACTION ROUTING SERVICE FOR CREDIT CARD PAYMENT PROCESSING - The present document describes a method, processing device and computer readable media, for routing a credit card payment transaction over a communication network. The method comprises receiving an authorization request for the credit card payment transaction at a payment processor, the authorization request being generated at a merchant terminal of a merchant. The method also comprises: at the payment processor, determining an optimal transaction route for sending the authorization request over the communication network to one of multiple acquirer servers, each one of the multiple acquirer servers being associated to one of multiple acquiring financial institutions of the merchant, the determining being based on payment processing costs associated to routing the authorization request from the merchant terminal to each one of the multiple acquirer servers; the payment processor routing the authorization request to the one of the multiple acquirer servers implementing the optimal transaction route; the payment processor receiving, from the one of the multiple acquirer servers, an authorization response for the authorization request; the payment processor forwarding the authorization response to the merchant terminal; and the merchant terminal displaying the authorization response forwarded by the payment processor, to thereby notify a user of the authorization response. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072348 | AUTHORIZATION REFRESH SYSTEM AND METHOD - Limited use account identifiers or secondary account identifiers are enabled with refresh capability. The refreshable account identifiers are used in financial transactions and, specifically, in transaction situations where multiple and/or duplicate authorization requests occur for the same or related transactions. The limited use account identifiers may be used by intermediaries that coordinate the purchase of an item for a buyer. An authorization refresh may be performed by the account issuer and/or the intermediary if a settlement request is received for a transaction. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072349 | AUTHORIZATION REFRESH SYSTEM AND METHOD - Limited use account identifiers or secondary account identifiers are enabled with refresh capability. The refreshable account identifiers are used in financial transactions and, specifically, in transaction situations where multiple and/or duplicate authorization requests are submitted by a merchant for the same or related transactions. The limited use account identifiers may be used by intermediaries that coordinate the purchase of an item for a merchant/buyer. An authorization refresh may be performed by the account issuer and/or the intermediary if a settlement request is received for a transaction. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072350 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MOBILE PAYMENT TRANSACTIONS - A system processes a request by a customer to pay a transaction amount, using the customer's account, for a transaction between the customer and a merchant, to provide a payment to an account of the merchant. The transaction incorporates use of a mobile wireless device operated by the customer to provide identification information of the customer's account to an authentication server. A payment server coupled to the authentication server and the merchant passes merchant communications to the authentication server. The authentication server receives the transaction amount from the merchant and receives customer account information from the customer's wireless mobile device, and processes the transaction and account information and, if authenticated, routes the payment transaction to the payment server for payment to the merchant's account. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072351 | METHOD FOR GENERATING EMR WITHOUT ALTERING HIS IN AN ADDITIONAL FASHION - A method for generating electronic medical records (EMR) without altering hospital information system (HIS) in an additional fashion aims to meet requirements of accelerating integration of HIS and implementing EMR in hospitals that gradually adopt EMR. The method of the invention realizes the advantages of system integration and greater usability of electronic medical record system while avoiding the pitfalls thereof. The method provided by the invention captures a traditional medical record from an output of an existing HIS in an additional or information system integration fashion, and systematically arranges, stores and converts the traditional medical record without greatly altering the HIS. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072352 | Smart Super-Distribution of Rights-Protected Digital Content - Disclosed is a system and method for super-distribution of rights-protected digital content. A first terminal offers digital content to a second terminal, using a unique content identifier to identify the content in the request. The second terminal requests information regarding the content from a service provider platform. The content information request includes a terminal type identifier for the second terminal. The service provider platform obtains format capabilities information for the second terminal from a terminal capabilities database, and selects a format type for the content using the format capabilities information. The service provider platform obtains a content object in the selected format type from a content storage database. The service provider platform then delivers the content object in the selected format to the second terminal. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072353 | ENHANCED SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MULTIPATH CONTACTLESS TRANSACTIONS - A system for multipath contactless transaction processing, comprising a networked server comprising a processing unit, a billing entity based on a first networked computing device comprising a processing unit and a video screen, the video screen at least sometimes viewable by a purchaser interacting with the point-of-sale processing system. According to the system, during a transaction, a graphical indicia is displayed on the video screen in a form suitable for photographing or scanning by a payment entity mobile device; and wherein, said indicia is being replaced each time a predetermined time period has elapsed, these replacements occurring regularly until the transaction is completed. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072354 | END-TO-END SECURE PAYMENT PROCESSES - Systems and method for performing secure electronic payment transactions to allow merchants to perform payment processing such that the merchant payment system is not required to store data specific to a particular payment device. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072355 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING AND UPDATING SHIPPING INFORMATION - A system and method for providing and updating shipping information with respect to a supply order. A supply order with respect to a shipping package can be placed into a helpdesk unit via a client device. A tracking number with respect to the supply order can be entered into the client device in order to retrieve the current status of the supply order. The helpdesk unit can contact a shipping company via an application programming interface and provide an end customer with latest information regarding the current status of the supply order directly on a client device local user interface. Such information can be updated on a regular basis via an Internet connection back to the shipper's application programming interface. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072356 | DATA-PROCESSING SYSTEM AND METHOD - An elevator inspection system to provide real-time access to workflow processing information for the elevator inspection industry is described. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072357 | Method and system for predicting property values within discrete finite market elements - Methods, systems and computer-readable medium for enabling improved market value and sales price calculations are provided. In one case, a plurality of data sets are analyzed by a computer to derive a predictive equation. Each data set contains (a.) a sales price of a particular real property; and (b.) a plurality of quantitative parameters of qualities and conditions related to or descriptive of that particular real property. A human analyst then reviews the predictive equation and may modify the equation in light of the analyst's personal knowledge or research of a geographic area or neighborhood comprising the real properties of the data sets. The modified equation may only be applied to a geographic area associated with the human analyst. The invented method may be applied to forecasting and valuations in general, wherein a general valuation equation is computationally generated and an analyst modifies the equation. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072358 | CUSTOMER CARE REPLIES ON SOCIAL MEDIA - In one implementation, customer service is managed by a contact center. The contact center includes a contact center server and an agent device. The contact center server monitors external social media to identify a social media post by a customer. The social media post may be filtered by the customer names, product identities, and/or the nature of the post. The contact center server accesses a database storing a plurality of agent identities and searches the social media for a reply to the customer's social media post. Replies may be identified using subject line or a reply indicator. The contact center server stores the reply to the social media post. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072359 | Location Based Friend Finding - A method, data processing system, and computer program product for locating people. A mobile data processing system identifies a number of degrees of separation from a requestor for use in searching for the people. The mobile data processing system searches a network data processing system for data structures that contain information about associations between the people that are within the number of degrees of separation from the requestor to generate an initial group of people. The mobile network data processing system identifies a group of people from the initial group of people that are within a geographic location based on a location of the mobile data processing system and a portion of the group of people who are online. The mobile data processing system displays the portion of the group of people on a display device for the mobile data processing system. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072360 | SYSTEM, METHOD, AND COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR PROVIDING AN ASSOCIATION BETWEEN A FIRST PARTICIPANT AND A SECOND PARTICIPANT IN A SOCIAL NETWORK - A system, method, and computer program product are provided for associating a first participant and a second participant in a social network. In one embodiment, payment is received from a first participant. Additionally, an association between the first participant and a second participant in a social network is provided, in exchange for the payment. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072361 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR CAREER MANAGEMENT ASSESSMENT MATCHING - A method for system for career matching assessment matching. One or more electronic questionnaires that are designed to reflect models of working environments, problem solving, communication and inter-personal skills are presented via a communications network. Each candidate and/or employer fills in a separate questionnaire. The job seeker answers questions as if the job seeker was the employer and the employer answers questions as if the employer were the job seeker. The particular pattern of their answers provides a profile for both the job seeker and the employer. A matching process then assesses the amount of overlap between the profiles of different candidates and employers. Greater candidate-employer overlap yields superior job performance, higher levels of job satisfaction and longer retention. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072362 | AIR WAYBILL SECURITY CHECKS - Security checks may be implemented in computer systems or software to enforce security rules established by organizations and/or government entities. For example, the United States Transportation Security Administration and Canada Transport have recently established rules for air cargo transportation. When an air waybill is created, modified, and/or displayed a security check may be run on the air waybill. Rules for the air waybill may be selected according to a security code assigned to the air waybill. The security code may represent a country whose rules should be applied against the air waybill when performing the security check. If a security check is passed security information such as a security identifier may be displayed on the air waybill. If the security check fails a warning may be displayed to a user indicating which participant on the air waybill failed one of the security rules. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072363 | Method And System For Anticipatory Package Shipping - A method and system for anticipatory package shipping are disclosed. According to one embodiment, a method may include packaging one or more items as a package for eventual shipment to a delivery address, selecting a destination geographical area to which to ship the package, shipping the package to the destination geographical area without completely specifying the delivery address at time of shipment, and while the package is in transit, completely specifying the delivery address for the package. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072364 | TRANSPORTATION MANAGEMENT PROCESSES AND SYSTEMS - The present invention relates to transportation management processes and systems. One aspect of the invention is directed toward a method in a computer system for determining one or more routes for transporting items, including receiving multiple orders to transport items from an origination stop to a destination stop, generating one or more consolidations, and generating one or more shipments wherein each shipment includes a selected consolidation that meets at least one shipment parameter or an order. The method further includes generating one or more routes with an ordered sequence of stops wherein each route is associated with one or more shipments. The method still further includes selecting one or more routes based on one or more route parameters. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072365 | AIR WAYBILL FISCAL CONTROL AND AUTHORIZATION - Air waybills may be used by governments to aid in tax collection efforts. Conventionally, air waybills are printed on forms with pre-printed air waybill numbers and the number from the form entered into electronic storage. The air waybills may be used by some governments to assess taxes. New government rules allow the submission of electronic air waybills to government servers for tax enforcement. Electronic air waybills may be implemented by a computer system to increase the efficiency and productivity when accounting for shipments through a county. For example, air waybill numbers and fiscal identifier numbers may be assigned to an air waybill electronically. The air waybill is then transmitted to the government server for approval. Upon acceptance by the government of the air waybill the computer system may print the issued waybill. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072366 | METHOD, SYSTEM AND PROGRAM PRODUCT FOR INDEPENDENT SOFTWARE VENDOR (ISV) SOLUTION EVALUATION - A computer assisted method, system and related program product for evaluating and selecting an independent software vendor solution from a plurality of independent software vendor solutions is predicated upon a structured information capture framework and a scoring model based upon the structured information capture framework. The scoring model uses a multilevel weighted scoring algorithm that uses inputted parameter level data to calculate a plurality of subject level scores. The plurality of subject level scores is secondarily weighted to provide a plurality of dimension level scores. The plurality of dimension level scores is further primarily weighted to provide a final score for each of the plurality of independent software vendor solutions. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072367 | DRY-RUN DESIGN TIME ENVIRONMENT - This disclosure provides various embodiments for performing a dry-run of a business process model in a design-time environment. A start event and end event of the business process model are identified, defining a path of a flow map including a sequence of a plurality of events, including the start event, the end event, and at least one other event sequenced between the start and ends. The events in the path are stepped-through to simulate each event. An error is identified corresponding to a particular event in the path and the step-through is paused upon identifying the error. A user is then prompted for an input to at least temporarily resolve the at least one error. The stepping-through of the plurality of events is then resumed in response to a resolution input from the user. The dry run ends in response to stepping-through to the end event. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072368 | PROCESSING FINANCIAL MARKET DATA STREAMS - Method and apparatus for interfacing middleware applications with a financial market snapshot feed. Financial market data are retrieved from the snapshot feed and the retrieved data are stored in transactions. Prior to transmitting the financial market data to the middleware, the transactions are processed in order to determine value/added information. For example, errors in the financial market data may be determined or additional financial data may be calculated. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072369 | System and Method for Generating Cross-Sectional Volatility Index - A computer implemented system and method for generating a cross-sectional volatility index includes identifying a population of assets having predetermined characteristics to form an index, and capturing market capitalization data for each of the assets in the index. Each asset in the index is weighted according to its market capitalization, and returns are captured for each asset over a predetermined period. The weightings and the returns for each asset are used to calculate the weighted return dispersion for the index over the predetermined period, to form an XSV Index, in which the XSV Index is a measure of discrepancy in volatility among the assets in the index during the period. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072370 | Financial instrument - In accordance with the principles of the present invention, a financial instrument and method is provided. At least two open-ended funds having settlement prices are identified. An index value is created relating to the settlement prices of the at least two open-ended funds. A weighting factor is assigned to the at least two open-ended funds. A components value is determined based on the settlement price and weighting factor. A fund manager futures index is derived based on the component values. A financial instrument is based on the fund manager index. In an additional embodiment, an exchange-traded fund is offered whose value substantially tracks the fund manager index value. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072371 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMBEDDING A DEFINED BENEFIT IN A DEFINED CONTRIBUTION PLAN - A system and method comprises a defined contribution module for periodically receiving contributions and for accumulating value over a period of time by investing at least one of the contributions, the accumulated value being capable of: (1) being withdrawn at any time and reinvested, and (2) being paid out after a predetermined period of time; and wherein select investment options comprises investment products and at least one designated defined benefit investment option module for: (1) receiving at least one investment payment from the defined contribution module, the investment payment comprising at least one of the contributions and/or the accumulated value, (2) for paying out a guaranteed minimum income payment for life, after the predetermined period of time, based on a retirement income formula, and (3) increasing the income payment for life for excess performance over the formula. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072372 | Methods, Systems and Computer Program Products for Providing Low Risk Portable Alpha Investment Instruments - Provided are methods of providing a portable alpha investment instrument. Some embodiments of such methods include allocating a first portion of a financial asset to a first asset class, allocating a second portion of the financial asset to a second asset class, establishing a swap transaction corresponding to the first portion of the financial asset, the swap transaction configured to define a minimum term corresponding to an asset status change, and transferring the first portion and the second portion of the financial asset responsive to the allocating. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072373 | System and Method of Margining Fixed Payoff Products - A system and method is disclosed for determining performance bonds for fixed payoff products, i.e. contracts which payoff a fixed amount based on the outcome of an underlying event regardless of the value thereof. The worst outcome of the overall portfolio, which may contain more multiple instruments, is calculated, allowing the portfolio to have both long and short positions on the same underlying event and offsets among instruments within the portfolio. A universe of outcomes is constructed including single events with single outcomes, and the probability thereof, and single events with multiple outcomes, each with a probability thereof. Each outcome has an associated price and probability. Low probability events will have low values, resulting in a lower margin requirement. The margin requirement is then the amount of the maximum loss that the portfolio can sustain for any possible outcome of the underlying event, adjusted for the probability thereof. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072374 | RECORDING AND TRANSCRIPTION SYSTEMS - Computer systems facilitating requesting recordings and/or transcriptions of proceedings including computer-implemented price estimation for recording transcription services. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072375 | METHOD, SYSTEM, APPARATUS, AND PROGRAM FOR INSTANTLY ESTIMATING THE NUMBER OF STITCHES FOR AN EMBROIDERED DESIGN - A method implemented on a computer having a processor and a memory coupled to the processor for determining an estimated number of stitches for an embroidered design. The method includes uploading a file containing a design comprised of at least one of art and text; flattening the design into a flat file; determining a number of pixels that are non-transparent in the flat file; determining a percentage of non-transparent pixels in a total pixel area available for decorating; estimating a measurement of an area to be decorated using the percentage of non-transparent pixels; and determining the estimated the number of stitches in the design using the measurement of the area to be decorated. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072376 | OPTIMIZING A PRINTER SYSTEM IN CONSIDERATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL LOAD - A print server selects a printer system to execute a print job received from a client, the printer system selected from among a plurality of printer systems connected to the network, the print server comprising a basic information acquiring section that acquires, at predetermining timing, unit price calculation basic information on printer systems in operation including at least information on environmental load information from at least one of the plurality of printer systems and external computers, a unit price calculating section that calculates a print unit price for each printer system based on the acquired unit price calculation basic information, a storage section that stores the calculated unit price in association with identification information for identifying the printer system and a sending section that sends the print unit prices and the identities of the printer systems associated with the calculated unit prices to the client. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072377 | Credit and debit card return service CRS - A consumer card return service would be created where a company entitled, Card Return Service, CRS, with the tangible service of retrieving left behind credit cards at restaurants, bars and night clubs and quickly getting these left behind cards back into the hands of the consumer. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072378 | Method for Brand Development and Creating, Evaluating and Selecting a Brand Name - A method of generating and evaluating a brand name including the steps of gathering client data, transforming the client data into a positioning brief having brand specific data, transforming the position brief data to generate a NAMESCAPE having brand name specific data, evaluating the NAMESCAPE data, transforming the positioning brief data and evaluated NAMESCAPE data into a brand name. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072379 | Evolution of a User Interface Based on Learned Idiosyncrasies and Collected Data of a User - A user interface evolves based on learned idiosyncrasies and collected data of a user. Learned idiosyncrasies and collected data of the user can be stored in a knowledge base. Information from the surrounding environment of the user can be obtained during learning of idiosyncrasies or collection of data. Thought-based statements can be generated based at least in part on the knowledge base and the information from the environment surrounding the user during learning of idiosyncrasies or collection of data. The thought-based statements serve to invoke or respond to subsequent actions of the user. The user interface can be presented so as to allow for interaction with the user based at least in part on the thought-based statements. Furthermore, personality nuances of the user interface can be developed that affect the interaction between the user and the user interface. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072380 | REGULAR EXPRESSION MATCHING USING TCAMS FOR NETWORK INTRUSION DETECTION - A method is provided for implementing regular expression matching using ternary content-addressable memory devices. The method includes: receiving a set of regular expressions (REs) that specify data elements to be extracted from data packets; constructing a deterministic finite automaton (DFA) from the set of regular expressions; building a state transition table for each node of the deterministic finite automaton; combining the state transition tables into a single lookup table; and instantiating the lookup table in a ternary content-addressable memory device. Additional techniques are provided to reduce the TCAM space and improve RE matching speed. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072381 | Method and Apparatus for Segmenting Context Information - An approach is provided for segmenting context information. A context segmenting platform determines context information associated with a device. The context segmenting platform determines context information associated with a device. The context segmenting platform then determines one or more context patterns based, at least in part, on the context information and determines one or more transition points between the one or more context patterns. Based, at least in part, on the one or more transition points, the context segmenting platform determines to segment the context information. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072382 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR MATCHING PEOPLE BASED ON PERCEIVED ACTIVITIES - Matching systems and methods for social networking systems can select matches for users based on observed activities. A matching system can include, for example, a preference unit, a monitoring unit, and a matching unit. Generally, the preference unit can receive and process matching preference information for a user; the monitoring unit can monitor the user's activities on or observable by the server; and the matching unit can select and recommend matches for the user based on the monitored activities. Thus, matches can be suggested to the user based on the user's observed activities, and not simply based on the user's potentially inaccurate self-description. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072383 | METHOD FOR THE SELECTION OF ATTRIBUTES FOR STATISTICAL LEARNING FOR OBJECT DETECTION AND RECOGNITION - The invention relates to an attribute selection method for making statistical learning of descriptors intended to enable automatic recognition and/or detection of an object from a set of images, method characterized by the following steps:
| 2012-03-22 |
20120072384 | TECHNIQUES FOR GENERATING A TRUSTWORTHINESS SCORE IN AN ONLINE ENVIRONMENT - Some embodiments of this disclosure relate to techniques for determining trustworthiness scores for entities in an online environment. Often, the techniques gather behavioral information regarding entities from a number of different online sources, and then process this information to generate the trustworthiness scores. In some embodiments, a portion of one entity's score can be scaled with regards to a corresponding portion of another entity's score. In still other embodiments, an entity can be provided with a trustworthiness score that has different category components. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072385 | TECHNIQUE FOR SOLVING OPTIMIZATION PROBLEM - A method for solving an optimization problem includes: causing a cylindrical algebraic decomposition (CAD) processing unit to carry out a projection processing for a first expression that appears in a quantifier elimination problem equivalent to the optimization problem including objective functions and to generate second expressions that are projection factors of the first expression; calculating plural sets of values of the objective functions by generating plural value sets of variables in the objective functions and substituting the generated plural value sets of the variables into the objective functions; extracting points including non-dominated solutions in a space mapped by the objective functions, from plural points corresponding to the plural sets of values; calculating, for each second expression, an evaluation value concerning a distance between a corresponding second expression and each of the extracted points; and identifying a second expression whose evaluation value is minimum. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072386 | Intelligent Plant Development Library Environment - An intelligent plant development library environment is presented. Contemplated environments comprise an EPC knowledge system capable of incorporating know-how of one or more construction firms in the form of assembly objects. Assembly objects represent construction components (e.g., bolts, cable trays, pipes, processing units, deliverables, etc.) that can be incorporated into a plant design. Assembly objects are stored in an assembly database and include available contexts considered relevant to the assembly objects. An inference engine is utilized to derive a specified context related to a plant design from one or more design tools. The inference engine applies rule sets to infer which assembly objects to instantiate as construction objects. The inference engine can further configure the design tools to incorporate the instantiated construction objects into a plant construction project model. Example rule sets include forward chaining rules, backward chaining rules, case-based reasoning rules, inductive reasoning rules, or abductive reasoning rules. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072387 | KNOWLEDGE BASE SYSTEM, LOGIC OPERATION METHOD, PROGRAM, AND RECORDING MEDIUM - A knowledge base system ( | 2012-03-22 |
20120072388 | DEVICE, METHOD, AND PROGRAM FOR SELECTING OS IMAGE - A computer-implemented method, selection program, device and article of manufacture for selecting images of one or more operating systems (OS) that are cached in a target data processing system. The method can be implemented in a provisioning system where the system includes a first pool having the images of a plurality of different OS and a second pool having a plurality of data processing systems. The method includes: calculating the probability that the respective OS images in the first pool will be used in the next provisioning; and determining a combination of one or more OS images as one or more OS images to be cached. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072389 | INFERENCING ENERGY USAGE FROM VOLTAGE DROOP - Methods and devices capable of measuring, analyzing, and monitoring electrical energy consumption of appliances and devices within a building are provided. Voltage sensors that are optionally connected to electrical socket outlets are employed within a building or section of a building to infer the identity of electricity-consuming devices and the amount of power the devices are consuming individually and collectively. Energy use inferencing devices according to embodiments of the invention provide ease of installation, simplicity, manageability, and ease-of-use that can engender deployment by electricity consumers, such as, home owners and businesses. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072390 | DETERMINING WHETHER A POINT IN A DATA STREAM IS AN OUTLIER USING HIERARCHICAL TREES - A technique that includes receiving a data stream that is indicative of a plurality of multi-dimensional points in a processor-based machine and for each dimension, organizing data indicative of values of the points in the dimension in an associated hierarchical tree. The technique includes using the processor-based machine to determine whether a given point of the plurality of points is an outlier based on a combination of the trees. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072391 | APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR AN AUTOMATIC INFORMATION INTEGRATION FLOW OPTIMIZER - An apparatus and method provides automatic information integration flow optimization. The apparatus may include an input/output port connecting the information integration flow optimizer to extract-transform-load tools. The information integration flow optimizer includes a parser unit to create a tool-agnostic input file containing rich semantics, a converter to transform the tool-agnostic input file into an input DAG, and a QoX-driven optimizer applying one or more heuristic algorithms to the input DAG to develop an optimum information integration flow design based on the rich semantics. The method may include receiving a tool-specific input file representing a physical information integration flow, parsing and converting the tool-specific input file into an input DAG containing tool-agnostic rich semantics, and applying heuristic algorithms to the input DAG to develop an optimum information integration flow design based on the rich semantics. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072392 | MANAGEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD - An electronic case file and document management system ( | 2012-03-22 |
20120072393 | SELECTIVE VIRTUAL MACHINE IMAGE REPLICATION SYSTEMS AND METHODS - Systems and methods for fault handling are presented. In one embodiment, a fault handling method includes: performing an information collection process, wherein the information collection process includes collecting information regarding guest operating system files of a virtual machine; performing a selective replication region identification process, wherein the selective replication region identification process includes identifying regions associated with a selective amount of the guest operating system files; and performing a replication process based upon result of the replication region identification process. In one embodiment, the selective replication region identification process includes identifying regions associated with files of interest. The selective replication region identification process can include identifying regions associated with temporary files. The information regarding files can include a list of regions used by the files after loopback mounting of a virtual disk file, a list of regions which have been modified on the virtual disk file and regions associated with metadata that has changed. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072394 | DETERMINING DATABASE RECORD CONTENT CHANGES - Database backup system identifies and extracts any changed database record using only two copies of the database from two different points in time. A first copy of the database is generated at a first time. Copies of log files including changes to the database since the first time are generated at a second time. The copy of the log files is applied to the database copy, and any changed blocks of the first copy of the database are identified. The changed blocks and a second copy of the database are used to identify changes to any record of the database between the first and second time. An archived database is generated and updated over time by archiving only data of any record that subsequently changes. Restoration of the database to a state corresponding to any point in time uses only the archived database and data of changed data records. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072395 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR VARIABLE BLOCK LOGGING WITH LOG-AHEAD BUFFERS - A system for logging database transactions comprises a memory (comprising a direct access storage device) operable to store a database, a database log, and a plurality of log buffers associated with the database log. Each log buffer is operable to store at least one log record associated with a database transaction. The system further comprises a processor operable to log a first record of a first database transaction using the database log and write the database log to the storage device. The processor is further operable to log a second record of a second database transaction in a first of the plurality of log buffers substantially concurrently to the database log being written to the storage device. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072396 | REMOTE OFFICE DUPLICATION - Remote office deduplication comprises calculating one or more fingerprints of one or more data blocks, sending the one or more fingerprints to one or more backup servers via a network interface, receiving from the one or more backup servers an indication of which one or more data blocks corresponding to the one or more fingerprints should be sent to the one or more backup servers, and if the indication indicates one or more data blocks to be sent to the one or more backup servers, sending the one or more data blocks to the one or more backup servers via the network interface. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072397 | METHOD FOR MANAGING INFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEM AND DATA MANAGEMENT COMPUTER SYSTEM - An ACL, a setting table, and backup data are used to create an inter-base data sharing file system at a base permitted to share data. This enables data to be shared by bases. In a process for restoring backup data, with reference to the ACL and the setting table, a data management computer system determines whether or not each restore destination base is permitted to share data, and executes a restore process only on restore destination bases permitted to share data. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072398 | Method and Apparatus for Creating a Self Booting Operating System Image Backup on an External USB Hard Disk Drive That is Capable of Performing a Complete Restore to an Internal System Disk - Backup applications that use externally connected hard disk drives for storing full image backups of a windows system disk or compressed image or file by file backups of a windows system disk. A system incrementally updates the images, including the system registry, and puts information on the external drive that makes it bootable. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072399 | NON-INTRUSIVE DATA LOGGING - Mediums, methods, and systems are provided for efficiently logging data. A model may include one or more logging points which process data, the data being stored in a log associated with the logging point. The logging point may request that a logging object store the data point. The logging object may include a reference to a vector for storing the data point. When two or more logging objects are associated with the same logged data points, the two or more logging objects may share the same vector. If an object logs a point which is not present in a shared vector, the object may update the object's reference so that the object references a different existing vector, or the object may create a new vector. The vectors may be compressed and/or made circular to achieve improved efficiency. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072400 | DIRECTORY OPLOCK - Current file systems may implement opportunistic locks on files that allow clients to locally cache file data, while promoting data consistency when multiple clients read/write the same file. Unfortunately, when a client locally caches directory content of a directory, the file system may lack a mechanism for notifying the client of changes to the directory that would render the cached directory content “stale”. Accordingly, one or more systems and/or techniques for managing a directory oplock are disclosed herein. A directory oplock may be generated based upon an oplock request comprising a first target key and a first parent key. Subsequent access requests for access to the directory or objects therein may be compared with the directory oplock to determine whether to break the directory oplock, and notify the client (e.g., directory oplock is broken if the client submitting the access request is different than the client owning the directory oplock). | 2012-03-22 |
20120072401 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TRANSFERRING DATA BETWEEN A HOST DEVICE AND AN EXTERNAL DEVICE - A method for transferring data between a host device and an external device is described. The external device has FAT32 file system. The method accepts parameters for an incoming data file from the host device. Further, the method allocates memory blocks for the incoming file data on the external device based on the parameters and indexes the allocated memory blocks on a memory index table to create a file footprint. The method reads the memory index table to identify the file footprint and receives the incoming file data from the host device. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072402 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MERGING DATA OR INFORMATION - A method for merging information of high semantic level representing complex situations including several objects originating from several sensors ci, said information possibly being heterogeneous, said method including acquiring the various items of information arising from said sensors in raw form and transforming them so as to cast them into the form of conceptual graphs, a conceptual graph representing several concepts and the relations which exist between them, and being composed of entity nodes and relation nodes, with E the set of concept nodes defined on a support S, G | 2012-03-22 |
20120072403 | METHODS FOR PROVIDING SECURE AND TRANSPARENT CACHED MONITORING DEVICE DATA - Generally, in accordance with various exemplary embodiments of the present invention, the present method comprises collecting data from monitoring devices, uploading the data from a monitoring device to a central database, pairing the data with secure transactional data to provide one or more secure transactional stamp(s), storing the data and the paired secure transactional stamp(s) in the central database, producing a report comprising the data and the paired transactional stamp, and providing the report to an authorized third party. Preferably, the transactional stamp comprising the name of personnel, time, and any changes made to the data collected from the monitoring device is generated and attached to the data.
| 2012-03-22 |
20120072404 | DICTIONARY SERVICE - A user of an online service sends a request to write a review of a media content item, using a text limited device such as a gamepad of a videogame console. In response to the request, one or more dictionaries are requested using metadata associated with the request such as the title of the movie or a genre associated with the movie. The dictionaries are received and used to populate user interface elements with words and phrases. Each user interface element corresponds to a sentence component such as a verb, noun, etc. The user may use the gamepad to cycle through the words and phrases in each user interface element to generate a sentence. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072405 | SIMULATION-ASSISTED SEARCH - A visually-oriented search system guides a search with non-verbal inputs. Instead of specifying discrete attributes (words) as input to a search engine, a user may create a visual model of a desired end result and apply the model as a generalized input from which discrete attributes are extracted for submission to conventional search engines. The search may be enhanced with a simulation of the visually-created query, and the simulation may be transformed into a query suitable for distribution to one or more search engines. The query may be refined using domain-specific rules, vocabulary, expert systems, and the like. Search results may be browsed by a user, or employed to further refine subsequent searches. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072406 | SEARCH PROCESSING METHOD AND APPARATUS - By carrying out search by a search keyword inputted by a searcher, an initial search result is obtained. On the other hand, extended search keywords associated with the search keyword are extracted to count the number of pertinent keywords or appearance frequency in the initial search result. Then, when the number of pertinent documents or appearance frequency is equal to or less than a predetermined value (including 0), the extended search keyword is adopted, and by carrying out search by the search keyword and adopted extended search keyword, extended search results are obtained. Then, the initial search result and extended search results are shown to the searcher. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072407 | METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TRIGGERING WEB CRAWLING BASED ON REGISTRY DATA - A method of triggering crawling of a domain includes receiving information related to a domain from a registrar and processing the information related to the domain. The method also includes storing the processed information in a registry zone file and forming a list of registry data based on the processed information. The list of registry data comprises a subset of the registry zone file. The method further includes crawling one or more of the domains in the list of registry data. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072408 | METHOD AND SYSTEM OF PRIORITISING OPERATIONS - A method and system for prioritising operations on network objects are provided. The method includes gathering Web 2.0 available relationship data on the relationships between network entities, wherein network entities are network users and network objects. The relationship data for a network entity is analysed and a first relative score is determined based on the relationship data. For a network object, a second relative score is determined which is a dynamic score based on user interactions with the network object and formed using the first relative scores of network entities interacting with the object. The method then prioritizes an operation on a network object using the second relative score. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072409 | Method and system for identifying targeted data on a web page - A method and system is provided that in a fully automated manner crawls web sites and identifies specific types of web pages, then extracts targeted data from those web pages. One or more text nodes containing product-related information on a first web page are first identified, and the locations of those test nodes are described using one or more vectors. The vectors are then analyzed to identify one or more patterns and to generate a model from those patterns that discriminates between text nodes that contain product-related information and text nodes that do not contain product-related information on a second web page. The model can then be used to crawl web sites to identify and extract targeted data, or the model can be installed on a user's computer to identify and extract targeted information from web sites as the user is browsing. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072410 | Image Search by Interactive Sketching and Tagging - Sketch and tagging based image search may include receiving a sketch query input and identifying an object in a desired image. The object or objects of the sketch query may be tagged with a text, and searching performed based on the objects. Certain implementations include indexing patches of the images, where the patches represent the objects. Relevant images can be returned based on the index of the patches. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072411 | DATA REPRESENTATION FOR PUSH-BASED QUERIES - A query over one or more push-based data sources is transformed into a data representation of the query. The data representation can subsequently be analyzed, optimized, and remoted, among other things. For example, the data representation can be utilized to generate code for an out-of-process execution engine. Additionally, the data representation can be employed with respect to conversions to and from various types and representations of data. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072412 | EVALUATING EXECUTION PLAN CHANGES AFTER A WAKEUP THRESHOLD TIME - In an embodiment an execution plan for a query is created. A wakeup threshold is set proportional to an amount of time taken by the creation of the execution plan. In various embodiments, the wakeup threshold is increased by a percentage equal to one minus a percentage of free resources at a computer system, is increased inversely proportional to an amount of execution time of a previous execution of the execution plan, or is decreased proportional to a number of times the execution plan was executed. A portion of the execution plan is executed to produce a portion of rows in a result set until the wakeup threshold expires. After the wakeup threshold expires, changes to the execution plan are evaluated. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072413 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COMPARING DATABASE QUERY PLANS - A method and device may accept a first database query plan including a plurality of rows and a second database query plan including a plurality of rows, compare each row in the first database query plan with a corresponding row in the second database query plan, and based on each comparison, calculate a difference between the compared rows. Each difference may be recorded in an output file. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072414 | QUERY PROCESSING ALGORITHM FOR VERTICALLY PARTITIONED FEDERATED DATABASE SYSTEMS - Querying data stores in a federation of data stores. A first search filter is accessed. The first search filter is constructed with one or more nested logical AND, OR, or NOT operands. The first search filter is normalized to a normalized search filter that is logically equivalent to the first search filter. The normalized search filter includes 3 or 4 levels. All first level operands are logically ORed. All second level operands are logically ANDed. All third level operands are at least one of parameters or logical NOTs. Any fourth level operands are parameters. The normalized search filter is used to search a plurality of data stores in a federation of data stores for information by searching different data stores for at least two or more of the top level operands. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072415 | BUSINESS PROCESS VISUALIZATION - A business process visualization is described. In one embodiment, process may include searching for documents stored in memory. The search identifies first documents, wherein the first documents comprise data of respective transactions of a first business process sequence implemented by an enterprise application. A user interface (UI) is then generated that includes components corresponding to the first documents, respectively, and components that visually identify relationships between the first documents. | 2012-03-22 |
20120072416 | SOFTWARE TRAINING SYSTEM INTERACTING WITH ONLINE ENTITIES - A non-transitory processor-readable medium stores code representing instructions configured to cause a processor to send a first signal to cause a client device to display an instruction directing a user to perform a task associated with a user profile of an online entity. The code is configured to cause the processor to produce a query formatted according to an API associated with the online entity. The code is configured to cause the processor to send a second signal including the query to at least one of the client device or the online entity, and receive a third signal including a datum associated with the task. The code is configured to cause the processor to update a status of the indicated task based on the datum, and send a fourth signal to cause the client device to produce an indication associated with the status of the task. | 2012-03-22 |