Patent application number | Description | Published |
20080301144 | AUTOMATIC TRAVEL CONTENT CAPTURE TOOL FOR ADDRESS BOOK ENTRIES - Disclosed are a method of and system for capturing and updating travel directions in a user's local address book application. The method comprises the steps of determining a current location profile of the user, calculating a user trajectory using that profile and an intended destination, and adding the current location profile and the intended destination into a historical database. The user's local address book is checked for an entry for the address of said intended destination; and if that entry is not in the address book, the entry is created in the address book. That entry is then checked to determine if a direction/map field of the entry contains directions/map information. If the entry does not contain this information, then this information is mined from a network source and added to the address book. This direction/map information is then displayed. | 12-04-2008 |
20090182804 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR A TAGGING SERVICE - Disclosed is a service for displaying custom information. The service includes establishing a data connection to at least one data source, storing specific information via the data connection in the data source, and providing a data crawler to crawl said at least one data source using the stored information. The results are pushed from the data crawler to an end user for displaying a combination of the stored information and the at least one data source. | 07-16-2009 |
20100052872 | POWER METADATA TRANSFER OVER POWER LINES - The transfer and usage of a modulated carrier signal within a power signal on a power line communication system is described. The modulated signal comprises metadata which is transmitted at a different frequency than the transmitted power. The metadata, including such elements as energy costs, providers, renewable source status and originating location, may be used by consumers to make subsequent purchasing decisions. Additionally, the energy costs of any given computer node commonly distributed in a grid architecture may be collected by a workload dispatcher in order to make more accurate cost and energy source based dispatch decisions. The consumer may be able to communicate directly back to the power provider. The use of computer-readable medium and product containing instructions that are implemented on a computer is also covered. Finally, the invention may be deployed on behalf of the consumer by a third party service provider. | 03-04-2010 |
20100057529 | PROVIDER-REQUESTED RELOCATION OF COMPUTERIZED WORKLOADS - Power or energy providers are enabled to request and initiate the relocation of customer computational workloads to other energy providers or other locations during critical situations, such as weather crises, national emergencies, power distribution interruptions, or equipment upsets. Workloads may be pre-registered and automatically relocated by the provider based on conditions of agreements between the provider and the customer. Alternatively, provider-initiated requests may be broadcast to all customers or specified subscribed customers giving them the ability to redirect the workloads as desired. The workloads may be re-allocated based upon such factors as lower costs, time shifts or quality of service contract provisions. The re-allocation serves to minimize or eliminate the potential adverse impact on the customer while maintaining a level of service that is satisfactory to the customer. | 03-04-2010 |
20100057625 | NEGOTIATION OF POWER RATES BASED ON DYNAMIC WORKLOAD DISTRIBUTION - A consumer initiated automated and dynamic negotiation enables the consumer to obtain more beneficial rates and/or other terms between the consumer and one or more energy providers. The negotiation is based on anticipated computational processing requirements of the consumer, and the current energy costs being offered by each provider. Other elements such as the ability of the provider to timely supply the energy and the differential between the costs of traditional and green energy may also be factored in. The results of the negotiation can produce a shifting of all or part of the workload to another provider or an alternative geographical location to capitalize on lower power rates or conditions of delivery. The negotiation may be based on an auction between more than one competing energy supplier. | 03-04-2010 |
20100057641 | ANALYSIS OF ENERGY-RELATED FACTORS FOR SELECTING COMPUTATIONAL JOB LOCATIONS - The selection of an optimal data center location for running a computational workload is based on multiple energy criteria. The location is chosen based on multivariate and predictive analysis of total direct and indirect energy costs, and other user-defined factors. Among the direct and indirect costs are power costs and cooling costs as well as structural and other details of a given data center. Among the other factors to be considered that can have an impact on present and future costs are weather patterns, data and forecasts, availability of energy providers, and energy attributes. A forecaster factors these direct and indirect costs along with extrinsic information such as historical trends and predictive sources into a forecast which is then input to a decision engine along with user defined criteria and with anticipated compute tasks and requirements to select a final location or locations for handling the workload. | 03-04-2010 |
20100058350 | FRAMEWORK FOR DISTRIBUTION OF COMPUTER WORKLOADS BASED ON REAL-TIME ENERGY COSTS - Energy costs for conducting compute tasks at diverse data center sites are determined and are then used to route such tasks in a most efficient manner. A given compute task is first evaluated to predict potential energy consumption. The most favorable real-time energy costs for the task are determined at the various data center sites. The likely time period of the more favorable cost as well as the stability at the data center are additional factors. A workload dispatcher then forwards the selected compute task to the data center having the most favorable real-time energy costs. Among the criteria used to select the most favorable data center is a determination that the proposed center presently has the resources for the task. A stabilizer is utilized to balance the workload among the data centers. A computer implementation for performing the various steps of the cost determination and allocation is also described. | 03-04-2010 |
20100063643 | POLICY-BASED ENERGY MANAGEMENT - In general, the present invention discloses a policy-based decision system to manage energy consumption within a complex system, such as a municipality, business or home. These policies help to control energy usage, either for the purpose of conservation or to contend with a shortage situation. In general, policies may be set based on business requirements, including energy demand, energy supply, safety, Quality of Service (QoS) settings per object or groupings, convenience, risk analysis output or events. Among other things the approach described herein discloses the following: creation and management of policies; selection of optimal throttling plan to achieve energy conservation requirements; running of simulation scenarios based on different policies and/or reduction requirements; conducting of risk analysis for different scenarios; etc. | 03-11-2010 |
20100064155 | MANAGING DEPENDENCIES AMONG OBJECTS OF A SYSTEM FOR ENERGY CONSERVATION - Under the present solution, dependencies and relationships of objects are stored and are updatable by consumers and optionally manufacturers through a local UI or web interface. These dependencies and relationships are stored in a “collection profile” which describes the capabilities of objects. When a request to reduce energy is received the system can query the collection profile to determine the downstream effect of reducing energy to a single object. The collection profile will identify which other objects rely on that object and would also need to have energy reduced. Being able to identify these linkages and effects of changes across the system will be critical for good energy management. | 03-11-2010 |
20100161146 | VARIABLE ENERGY PRICING IN SHORTAGE CONDITIONS - This disclosure enables energy providers and users to establish variable pricing or maximum thresholds for individual components (aka appliances) or groups of components. The consumer (individual or business) defines a usage policy for each device or component which defines limits the consumer is willing to pay in a supply shortage. The usage policy also defines safety parameters as well as energy limiting capabilities of the appliance or component. Energy suppliers use this usage policy to determine which devices get managed or powered off in a shortage situation. With the detailed consumer supply and demand data available from this invention, energy providers may use economic analysis to better understand customer price sensitivity. This information will enable the provider to run simulations of different energy shortage scenarios. | 06-24-2010 |
20100169227 | ENERGY MANAGEMENT AND QUALITY OF SERVICE (QoS) - Under the present invention, users are provided with the capability to select how energy will be throttled in shortage conditions. For example, users can promise to throttle or cut energy to devices that they consider noncritical (e.g. television, toaster, stereo) in exchange for a promise that the energy company will continue to give them enough to run more essential devices (e.g. lights, well pump, etc.). As users agree to lower usage in response to a energy shortage, they are provided a higher QoS rating than users who do not offer to lower usage. As a shortage worsens, conserving users will be allocated energy before non-conserving users. Enforcement and fulfillment of obligations established in agreements may be automated to ensure compliance. | 07-01-2010 |
20120226635 | POWER METADATA TRANSFER OVER POWER LINES - The transfer and usage of a modulated carrier signal within a power signal on a power line communication system is described. The modulated signal comprises metadata which is transmitted at a different frequency than the transmitted power. The metadata, including such elements as energy costs, providers, renewable source status and originating location, may be used by consumers to make subsequent purchasing decisions. Additionally, the energy costs of any given computer node commonly distributed in a grid architecture may be collected by a workload dispatcher in order to make more accurate cost and energy source based dispatch decisions. The consumer may be able to communicate directly back to the power provider. The use of computer-readable medium and product containing instructions that are implemented on a computer is also covered. Finally, the invention may be deployed on behalf of the consumer by a third party service provider. | 09-06-2012 |
20140006094 | CONTEXT-DEPENDENT TRANSACTIONAL MANAGEMENT FOR SEPARATION OF DUTIES | 01-02-2014 |
20140006095 | CONTEXT-DEPENDENT TRANSACTIONAL MANAGEMENT FOR SEPARATION OF DUTIES | 01-02-2014 |