International Business Machines Corporation

Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions Holdings Corporation

Radhakrishnan Sethuraman

Manuel Silveyra

Kumar Ravi

Dharmesh Bhakta

Michael A Paolini

Douglas Scott Rothert

Marc-Arthur Pierre-Louis

Francisco De La Cruz

Brian Keith Howe

Michael Wayne Brown

Yashodhara M Patnaik

Michael Wilfrid Brown

Daniel Fernando De Araujo

Riju Pahwa

Marc Arthur Pierre-Louis

A method, system, and article for dynamic management of two or more operating system images for at least two client machines operating in a computer system sub-network. Different physical areas of the sub-network support separate image of the operating system images. As the client machines may be individually subject to movement within the sub-network, an appropriate operating system image is dynamically selected and uploaded to one or more of the individual client machines based upon the physical location thereof.

Method and system for automated operating system image loading

Failover system for video surveillance. A video coverage area for each camera in the system is calculated by combining sensory information and optical specifications of each corresponding camera. The video coverage area information is embedded in a corresponding file of each camera and is used to autonomously re-orient operating cameras to cover a failed coverage area due to a non-operating camera.

Automatic failover video coverage of digital video sensing and recording devices

A profile management apparatus for controlling available media content includes an individual identifier module, a profile creation module, a profile selection module, and a media control module. The individual identifier module automatically identifies one or more individuals as currently within a perceiving range of an output device receiving input from a media player without user input. The profile creation module automatically creates a new profile without user input in response to determining that a profile associated with the one or more individuals does not exist. The profile selection module selects at least one profile associated with the one or more individuals. The media control module controls media that is available for selection on the media player based one or more of media usage information and content restriction rules of the at least one profile.

Automatic multi-user profile management for media content selection

A computer implemented method, data processing system, and computer program product for managing transactions on point-of-sale terminals comprising a peer-to-peer network in a retail data processing system. A purchase transaction for a customer is initiated on a point-of-sale terminal in the system. Responsive to receiving a first input from a user of the point-of-sale terminal, the purchase transaction is suspended to form a suspended purchase transaction. Information about the customer is added to the suspended purchase transaction. The suspended purchase transaction is stored as a file on the point-of-sale terminal. Responsive to receiving a second input from the user of the point-of-sale terminal, a locally-stored list of suspended purchase transactions on the point-of-sale terminal is searched using the information about the customer. Responsive to locating the suspended transaction matching the information about the customer, the suspended transaction is selected to restart the suspended purchase transaction on the point-of-sale terminal.

Method and system for pausing, migrating, and restarting retail point-of-sale transactions

A retail environment can include a plurality of client devices communicatively coupled with the server. A first client device of the plurality of client devices begins downloading a new boot image from the server via a first connection. The first client device monitors a transfer rate of the new boot image against a threshold. If the first client device determines that the transfer rate falls below the threshold, then the first client device broadcasts a request to other client devices of the plurality of client devices for the boot image. If a second client device of the plurality of client devices affirmatively responds to the request, then the first client device begins downloading a second portion of the boot image from the second client device via a second connection, and monitoring a cumulative transfer rate of the downloading over the first and the second connections.

Managing boot images in a retail store environment

Provided is a method for assigning a domain host configuration protocol (DHCP) server from a list of available DHCP servers based upon user selected criteria. When a network router receives a request for an IP address from a computer, or 'client,' connected to a network, the request is analyzed for information related to both the client and the available DHCP servers. The analysis may be based upon a number of factors such as the number of previous requests to a particular DHCP server and the proximity of the servers to the computer requesting the IP address. Once the router determines an appropriate DHCP server for a particular IP address request, the client request is forwarded to that DHCP server. The process is completely transparent to both the requesting client and to the selected DHCP server.

Dynamically configuring a router to find the best DHCP server

Controlling access to a facility includes sending a program and profile for facility services to a user's portable device. The services have telephones connected via a local area network ('LAN'), so a call originating on the LAN to such a telephone may be completed on the LAN without accessing a wide area telephone network ('WAN'). The program is executed on the user's portable device so that the device operates in a facility mode. In this mode, the device displays services from the profile, so that the user can select a service and easily place telephone calls to it solely over the LAN. Responsive to the user's service selection, in a normal operating sub-mode the user's portable device places a call via the WAN using a longer telephone number and in a local operating sub-mode the user's portable device places the call via the LAN using a shortcut number.

Method, apparatus and computer program product for controlling access by a user's portable device to a facility directory

A customer automatically receiving an assignment on his wireless device without the need to visit a reservation desk is provided. When the customer initially makes a reservation with a vendor, a computer records the wireless device's identification. When the customer arrives at or near the vendor's location, the system creates an out-of-range condition for the wireless device by shielding a portion of a location that the customer will be passing through. In response, the wireless device re-scans the control channels in an attempt to establish better communications with a wireless communication tower. A transceiver positioned in the transition zone transmits a channel that is detected and locked-on by the wireless device. The wireless device transmits its identification to the transceiver, which in turn forwards it to the computer. The computer sends assignment information to the wireless device.

Transmitting an assignment through wireless transmission

A primary node and a secondary node each run the same J2EE compliant middleware stack comprising layers including a load balancer, a web server, a web application server, a message control server, a monitoring server, and a database control server. In the primary node, all layers are active. In the secondary node, part of the layers are active and part of the layers are in standby. A data replication partition shared between the primary node and the secondary node includes persistent resource data accessible to a selection of the layers of the primary node. A heartbeat controller monitors each node, including the middleware stack, and upon detection of a failure, controls transfer of the services provided by the primary node to the secondary node by transferring virtual IP addresses from the primary node to the secondary node, remounting the data replication partition for access by the secondary node, and activating the standby layers which require access to the data in the data replication partition.

Managing failover of J2EE compliant middleware in a high availability system

A system and method to uniquely identify identically configured branches in a distributed enterprise such that branch specific configuration information may be used to configure computing devices in the identified branch are provided. With the system and method, upon being deployed in a branch location, the computing device sends a communication to a centralized configuration server using an address provided in default initial configuration information. The communication is sent from the computing device to a branch router which adds its address to the communication. The branch router address is then used by the centralized configuration server to identify the branch and thus, configuration information for computing devices of the branch. The configuration information may then be provided to the computing device for configuration of the computing device for branch-specific operation.

System and method to uniquely identify identically configured branches in a distributed enterprise

A method and system whereby a customer automatically receives an assignment on his wireless device without the need to visit a reservation desk. When the customer initially makes a reservation with a vendor, a computer records the wireless device's identification. When the customer arrives at or near the vendor's location, the system creates an out-of-range condition for the wireless device by shielding a portion of a location that the customer will be passing through. In response, the wireless device re-scans the control channels in an attempt to establish better communications with a wireless communication tower. A transceiver positioned in the transition zone transmits a channel that is detected and locked-on by the wireless device. The wireless device transmits it identification to the transceiver, which in turn forwards it to the computer. The computer sends assignment information to the wireless device.

Method for transmitting an assignment through wireless transmission

Accessing information about a facility includes loading a program and profile for facility services in a memory associated with a user's wireless portable device. The services have telephones connected via a local area network ('LAN'), so that a call originating on the LAN to such a telephone may be completed on the LAN without accessing a wide area telephone network ('WAN'). The program is executed on the user's portable device so that the device operates in a facility mode. In this mode the device displays the services from the profile, so that the user can select among them and easily place telephone calls to them solely over the LAN. In one alternative, normal and local sub-modes of operation are enabled. In the normal sub-mode the portable device places calls for the selected service via the WAN and in the local sub-mode the calls are solely over the LAN.

Method, apparatus and computer program product for accessing a facility directory

A method, system, and program for managing failover of J2EE compliant middleware in a high availability system are provided. A primary node and a secondary node each run the same J2EE compliant middleware stack comprising layers including a load balancer, a web server, a web application server, a message control server, a monitoring server, and a database control server. In the primary node, all layers are active. In the secondary node, part of the layers are active and part of the layers are in standby. A data replication partition shared between the primary node and the secondary node includes persistent resource data accessible to a selection of the layers of the primary node. A heartbeat controller monitors each node, including the middleware stack, and upon detection of a failure, controls transfer of the services provided by the primary node to the secondary node by transferring virtual IP addresses from the primary node to the secondary node, remounting the data replication partition for access by the secondary node, and activating the standby layers which require access to the data in the data replication partition.

A method, system, and program for remote enterprise management of high availability systems are provided. Multiple high availability systems are networked in an enterprise and managed overall by a remote enterprise server. Within each high availability system, a cluster management controller monitors a status of a particular component of the high availability system and reacting to adjust the high availability system when the status indicates an error. In addition, with each high availability system, a monitoring controller detects when the cluster management controller reacts to the status of the particular component and detects a condition of a multiple components of the high availability system. The monitoring controller then reports the error and the condition of the components to the remote enterprise server. The remote enterprise server is enabled to manage each high availability system based on the reports received from each of the multiple high availability systems.

Growing community of inventors

Austin, TX, United States of America

Radhakrishnan Sethuraman