International Business Machines Corporation

Ecobee Inc.

Mahdad Majd

John Matthew Santosuosso

Eric L Barsness

Cary Lee Bates

Breno H Leitao

Thiago Cesar Rotta

Michael Brian Brutman

Rodrigo C Castro

Richard D Dettinger

Randy William Ruhlow

Brian Edward Olson

Paul Reuben Day

Managing an entryway for a building includes a computer system accessing identity data providing unique biometric identifications and associated names for respective people. Roles are stored and associated with people. Rules are stored and configured to define roles or people and define conditions and actions. A certain rule includes presence of a person at an entryway and a person in at a different location than the entryway as a condition. A named person is identified by the computer system comparing identity data to biometric data received for a person at the entryway. The computer system performs a defined action for the certain rule responsive to determining that the certain rule defines a role associated with the identified, named person at the entryway and responsive to detecting by a sensor in the building that a person is present in the building at a different location than the entryway.

Entry technology for building automation

A computer system accesses identity data providing unique biometric identifications and associated names for respective people. Roles are stored and associating ones of the roles are associated with ones of the people. Rules are stored, wherein each rule is configured to define one of the roles or people and define a condition and an action. The computer system receives from a device at an entryway, biometric data for a person. A named person is indicated for the received biometric data by the identity data accessed by the computer system. The computer system selects a rule corresponding to the identified person or to one of the defined roles for the identified person. The computer system performs the defined action for the selected rule when a current condition satisfies the defined condition for the selected rule.

A browser renders a page for display according to user habits. When a user interacts with a page associated with a network address, an entry is made in a file that associates the element on the page of the user interaction with the network address. When the page is visited again, the file is checked to see if any entry exists. If an entry exists and the stored user interaction is still relevant for that page, the page is rendered so that the location the user interacted with is provided at the top of the display, or the element is re-arranged, as in the case of a table, or both re-positioning and re-arranging occurs. Such page rendering reduces the need for the user to scroll through the page to view the desired information.

Dynamic web page arrangement

A system, method, and program product for recording presentable data accessed through interactive links displayed within an interactive television program are disclosed. In accordance with the present invention, an interactive television recording device receives an interactive television signal containing one or more interactive links associated with presentable data. In response to receipt of a record command, the interactive television recording device records the interactive television program, and the presentable data associated with the one or more interactive links are accessed and recorded into a designated storage medium. In a preferred embodiment, the interactive television signal and the one or more interactive links are stored on a first data storage medium, while the presentable data are separately stored on a second data storage medium. If a play command is received, the interactive television recording device plays the interactive television signal from the first data storage medium. If the user activates an interactive link, the interactive television recording device retrieves and plays the presentable data associated with the interactive link from the second data storage medium.

System, method, and program for recording presentable data accessed through interactive links displayed by an interactive television program

An apparatus and method monitor database queries and allow determining database relationships from the analysis of the database queries. The database relationships are inferred from the analysis of the database queries. The result sets of queries are analyzed to determine if any relationships between the columns specified in the queries may be inferred. In one embodiment, when a relationship between columns is discovered from analyzing query results, a system administrator is notified. In another embodiment, the relationship is stored so it may be retrieved and viewed at a later time by the system administrator.

Determining database relationships through query monitoring

Methods, systems, and computer program products for dynamically adjusting computer resources, as appropriate, in response to predictions of query runtimes as well as for rendering costs of the computer resources actually utilized, which costs are consistent with consumer demands.

Dynamic query optimization

An apparatus and method define the concept of a 'database breakpoint.' One or more conditions in the database are specified as a database breakpoint in a debug environment for debugging a computer program that accesses the database. When the database conditions exist, one or more debug functions may be performed with respect to the execution of the computer program. Examples of debug functions include halting execution of the computer program and halting operations to the database by other programs. With both the computer program and database halted, the user may then interrogate the database to determine its state, and may interrogate the program to determine its state. Database breakpoints greatly enhance the utility of a debugger by providing additional conditions for debugging a computer program that accesses a database.

Database breakpoint apparatus and method

A database system has a contention monitor which determines when the level of contention for accessing or inserting records in the database rises above a threshold, and inhibits non-critical access to the database to reduce the level of contention. In a preferred embodiment, the level of contention is determined by periodically measuring the time for an INSERT operation on the database, and comparing the time to a threshold derived from a baseline time measurement for the operation during a time of normal database activity. Thus the contention level is inferred from the time to do the operation, in this case the INSERT query. In one embodiment, the contention monitor notifies a system administrator to take action to reduce the contention. In another embodiment, the contention monitor informs the system to take action automatically according to predetermined selections by the system administrator.

Inhibiting non-critical access based on measured performance in a database system

A query access plan for executing a database query is dynamically selected from among multiple alternative query access plans based on the availability of computer resources allocated for running the query. Preferably, a first query access plan is generated based on resources then available, and if it is possible to provide additional resources, one or more alternative plans are generated based on the additional resources. If an alternative plan is significantly better than the original plan based on a comparison of query related parameters, the alternative is chosen for executing the query. Additional resources for running the query may be provided from logically partitioned and/or grid environments.

Dynamically selecting alternative query access plans

Embodiments of the present invention provide for a method, system and article of manufacture for operating vending machines. In general, a plurality of vending machines are nodes of a network. Each node is configured to send, receive and process signals carrying inventory, pricing, reservation and/or refund information. In particular, a first signal is sent to one or more nodes requesting inventory/price information from other nodes. Those nodes carrying the product may reply with a second signal. In this manner, the location of vending machines carrying one or more items specified by a customer may be determined. In another embodiment, vending machine items may be reserved from a remote location. In still another embodiment, vending machines may be configured to provide refunds under controlled conditions. A consumer may request a refund in cases where the consumer was improperly charged for goods are services that were not provided.

Determining the availability of purchasable items in a network environment

A load balancer detects a server failure, and sends a failure notification message to the remaining servers. In response, one or more of the remaining servers may autonomically adjust their configuration parameters, thereby allowing the remaining servers to better handle the increased load caused by the server failure. One or more of the servers may also include a performance measurement mechanism that measures performance before and after an autonomic adjustment of the configuration parameters to determine whether and how much the autonomic adjustments improved the system performance. In this manner server computer systems may autonomically compensate for the failure of another server computer system that was sharing the workload.

Autonomically adjusting configuration parameters for a server when a different server fails

A run-time monitor allows defining sets of run-time error criteria and corresponding diagnostic action to take when the run-time error criteria is satisfied. One way to define the run-time error criteria is to take a baseline measurement of run-time errors that occur during normal processing conditions. A run-time error criteria may then be defined that is based on the baseline measurement. In this manner, a rate of run-time errors that normally occur may be ignored, while a rate of run-time errors in excess of the run-time error criteria could automatically initiate diagnostic action. In this manner, the ability of a programmer to debug run-time errors is significantly enhanced.

Growing community of inventors

Rochester, MN, United States of America

Mahdad Majd