Sony Corporation

Aurel Bordewieck

Klaus Zimmermann

Thomas Kemp

Stefan Uhlich

Wilhelm Hagg

Fabien Cardinaux

Fritz Hohl

An apparatus for automatically pre-configuring a hardware portion of a device before the device is set into a full operation mode has a processor. The processor performs: obtaining a set of parameters for pre-configuring the hardware portion of the device, the set of parameters defining a status of the device; and providing the set of parameters to the device for automatically pre-configuring the hardware portion of the device.

Apparatus and method for automatically pre configuring a hardware portion of a device before the device is set into a full operation mode

A system for managing an account includes a tag element representing a value, a mobile device adapted to determine the value when being located in proximity of the tag element, and adapted to access a network, and a server adapted to communicate with the mobile device via the network and adapted to access to a database, the database being adapted to store the account, the account being related to the mobile device () and to the tag element; wherein the mobile device is further adapted to communicate the determined value to the server, and wherein the server is further adapted to add the communicated value to the account.

System for digital bonus point management

A method for determining product price information, includes capturing a data signal including image data, voice data, and/or keypad input data, the captured data signal including information related to a price of a product, to a point of retail of the product and to a type of the product; determining metadata including a geographic position of the capturing and a time of the capturing; determining a piece of product price information including the type of the product, the price of the product, and the point of retail by analyzing the captured data signal; determining credibility data of the piece of product price information; and including the piece of product price information, the metadata and the respective credibility data into a database.

Method for acquisition and distribution of product price information

A service scheduling system () is configured to retrieve schedule information from a time-management system () of a service provider, whereat the schedule information assigns service intervals offered by the service provider to a plurality of clients. The service scheduling system () comprises a detector () configured to detect an event indicating that a client cannot be served in a first service interval assigned to said client according to the schedule information. The service scheduling system () further comprises a transmitter configured to transmit, to a communication terminal (') of a further client, information specifying a second service interval which is at least partly overlapping the first service interval, and a receiver configured to receive, from the communication terminal (&#x2032;) of the further client, acknowledgment information indicating that the further client agrees to get served in the second service interval.

Service scheduling system

An electronic device has a display and a circuitry. The circuitry is configured to obtain location information of a specific item of multiple items located in an environment, wherein the location information of the specific item is obtained based on a correlation between location tracking information of electronic devices moving in the environment and item list data representing items of the multiple items being purchased by users of the electronic devices for which the location tracking information has been provided; and display an indication of the location of the specific item on the display.

Electronic device, apparatus and system

An electronic device comprising a processor which is configured to perform speech recognition on an audio signal, linguistically analyze the output of the speech recognition for named-entities, perform an Internet or database search for the recognized named-entities to obtain query results, and display, on a display of the electronic device, information obtained from the query results on a timeline.

Electronic device, computer-implemented method and computer program

An apparatus for automatically pre-configuring a hardware portion of a device before the device is set into a full operation mode has a processor. The processor performs:

Apparatus and method

An electronic device comprising circuitry configured to record sensor data that is obtained from data sources and to retrieve information from the recorded sensor data using concepts that are defined by a user.

Electronic device, system, method and computer program

A mobile device comprises a sensor and a processor. The sensor is configured to wirelessly receive an identification signal including an item identifier code, the identification signal being emitted by a low-rate transmission device associated with an item, wherein the sensor receives the identification signal from a direction of the item. The processor is configured to generate an output signal based on the item identifier code.

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Kirchheim unter Teck, Germany

Aurel Bordewieck