International Business Machines Corporation

Other

Robert Carl Barrett

Paul Philip Maglio

Thomas R Albrecht

James Howard Eaton

Edwin Joseph Selker

Andrew L Cohen

Mark A Sheldon

George Milton Underwood, Iv

Daniel Clark Kellem

Glen Alan Jaquette

Rabindranath Dutta

Erhard Theodor Schreck

Ronald Jason Barber

Robert Allen Hutchins

Thomas Alexander Bellwood

Matthew Francis Rutkowski

Robert Stephen Olyha, Jr

Michael J Howland

Steven Michael Pritko

Joseph D Rutledge

Christian Lita

Merle Douglas Sterling

Thomas Robert Albrecht

A user-centered push system monitors user activity to build a dynamic model representing probable user interests. The model is used to drive a search for information relevant to these interests. Such information, when located, is pushed to the user. In a specific embodiment, the information is scrolled across a ticker-tape display along the bottom of the user's monitor. Typically, headline and stock quote type information in abbreviated form is scrolled. By clicking on a ticker-displayed abbreviated item, the user initiates a display of a more complete version of the information. In one embodiment, the invention defines a method using a dynamic user model to locate and push information to a client for display. Alternatively a client reformats the information and archives it for later use. In another embodiment, changes in the dynamic model trigger the information pushing. Information is located and pushed from sources within and also external to a user environment, including from an intranet, from the Internet and from the World-Wide-Web.

Method and system for pushing information to a client an information processing system

A set of program elements (e.g., transcoders) are grouped together as an administrative unit. Instead of caching the individual outputs of each program element, preferably only the aggregate output of the set of program elements, taken as a whole, is cached. The inventive technique enables the effective re-use of intermediate content. In an illustrative client-server based implementation involving a transcoding service located at a server, the cached information may be shared across multiple server instances to obviate redundant processing. With the present invention, a caching mechanism in a complex software system may be extended in a user-configurable manner by setting up optimal intermediate caching points that are defined by groups of programs used in long computations.

Method for establishing optimal intermediate caching points by grouping program elements in a software system

A method and system provides a structured and accessible information repository for an entities personal information. An information server contains a personal information database and a set of information preferences associated with the personal information database. The personal information database contains personal information about an entity, such as name, phone number, address, etc. The information preferences define an entities preferences regarding the conditions of use under which the personal information will be released. When another computer or user of another computer, a requestor, requests personal information from the information server, the requestor then identifies the information it is requesting and provides the conditions under which the information is to be used. The received conditions of use are compared to the set of information preferences to determine if the received conditions of use are acceptable. If the received conditions of use are acceptable the information is retrieved and provided to the requestor. If the received conditions are unacceptable, the requestors request is denied. The requestor and freely addressable access interface may then negotiate the conditions of use until acceptable conditions are reached, or until it is determined that acceptable conditions cannot be obtained. Encryption and third party certification are used to provide security to the system. Records of the transactions are maintained to provide a &ldquo;paper trail&rdquo; in case the agreement is broken.

Digital persona for providing access to personal information

A method, apparatus, and article of manufacture for managing information through the use of physical objects. An Informative Thing that is a physical object stores a pointer thereon, and the pointer is used to retrieve information associated with the Informative Thing from a network-based system. The Informative Thing provides a user interface that gives the impression of storing information on the physical object, when, in reality, the system stores the information in the network. By hiding the details of information retrieval, information management is greatly simplified. By linking the physical and virtual worlds, users' highly-developed ability to work in the real world is leveraged.

Managing, accessing, and retrieving networked information using physical objects associated with the networked information

User-centered push methods and system

A track following servo system is disclosed for use with magnetic tape systems in which magnetic servo track patterns contain transitions recorded at more than on azimuthal orientation across the width of the servo track. The timing of a signal derived from reading at any point across the width of such a pattern varies continuously as the read head is moved across the servo track. The pattern is read by a servo read head whose width is small compared to the servo track pattern. The combination of a wide servo pattern and a narrow servo read head offers excellent position sensing linearity and dynamic range. In the preferred embodiment, the servo read head is also narrow with respect to the data tracks, which provides the additional advantages of superior immunity to position sensing errors caused by defects or temporal variations in the servo read head, defects in the servo pattern on the tape, wear of the head or tape, or debris collection on the head or tape. Position sensing with this system is achieved by deriving a ratio of two servo pattern intervals and therefore is insensitive to tape speed during reading. The servo patterns may include spacing intervals recognizable for error detection and correction purposes. Servo tracks are recorded using a patterned multiple gap servo write head whose magnetic gaps have geometries appropriate to generate the desired servo patterns. The patterned gaps of the servo write head are produced by photolithographically defined electroplating of permalloy on a ferrite ring head structure.

Timing based servo system for magnetic tape systems

A system and method for promoting social interaction among computer users displaying similar historical activities on the World Wide Web, based not on a single document access or on a predefined grouping, but on the activities of the users. A history of a group of documents accessed, or a pattern of document access, or the frequency of terms in queries, are gathered and communicated to a place server module. When the histories of two or more computers match each other in accordance with match criteria, a communication group is established by the place server module and communicated to a chat server. The chat server then automatically establishes a chat room for members of the communication group. Each client computer displays a chat window including moving icons representing other members of the group.

Web places

The invention disclosed herein relates to cooperative computing environments and information retrieval and management methods and systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods and systems for capturing and generating useful information about a user's access and use of data on a computer system, such as in the form of documents stored on remote servers, and making such useful information available to others. Documents on the computer system are accessible through a plurality of different methods, such as by specifying an identifier or locator for the document, activating a hyperlink in another document which points to the document, or navigating to the document through navigational commands in an application program such as a browser. The method involves capturing information regarding each of the accessed documents in the set, the information including the method used to access the document, dividing the set of documents into subsets of documents based at least in part on the methods used to access the documents, labeling each subset of documents with a topic, and making the labels and documents accessed available to other users who wish to browse the same documents.

Method and system for converting expertise based on document usage

Method and system for summarizing topics of documents browsed by a user

Downstream buffer objects are slaved with the immediate upstream buffer object using a conventional &ldquo;write remaining&rdquo; method. The write remaining method can be invoked from each of a plurality of modules having access to the read and write pipes, and operates to slave not the data, but wrappers that point to the data and which therefore represent references to a single copy of the data stored as an upstream data buffer object, so that the actual data need exist in only one place after the write remaining method has been invoked, rather than requiring the data to be sequentially copied from one data buffer to the next. This method further has the benefit of allowing control to be returned to the module during the data transfer function, and of allowing additional data to be written to the outbound pipe.

Method of sharing buffers for the streaming of unchanged data

Dynamically transforming transfer parameters for a media object to allow efficient transmission of the object from a first system to a second system. The transformer may receive transfer feedback and is configured such that it dynamically modifies system constraints or object formatting to overcome system limitations which may slow the transfer. The invention may be integrated into an internet service provider's (ISP) system structure and used to dynamically determine the transfer parameters between the ISP and the end-user. After the ISP accesses a requested internet site and its web site server, a media object from the web site is transferred to the ISP. The ISP transfers the information to the end-user and, during the transfer, receives system feedback regarding bandwidth availability, performance, information latency, and other items of interest. Using this feedback, transfer parameters are automatically selected to increase efficiency of system resources for subsequent media transfers. Transfer parameters may alternatively be anchored by the ISP or the end-user to prevent dynamic modification.

Selective transformation of multimedia objects

A track following servo system is disclosed for use with magnetic tape systems in which magnetic servo track patterns contain transitions recorded at more than on azimuthal orientation across the width of the servo track. The timing of a signal derived from reading at any point across the servo track. The pattern is read by a servo read head whose width is small compared to the servo track pattern. The combination of a wide servo pattern and a narrow servo read head offers excellent position sensing linearity and dynamic range. In the preferred embodiment, the servo read head is also narrow with respect to the data tracks, which provides the additional advantages of superior immunity to position sensing errors caused by defects or temporal variations in the servo read head, defects in the servo pattern on the tape, wear of the head or tape, or debris collection on the head or tape. Position sensing with this system is achieved by deriving a ratio of two servo pattern intervals and therefore is insensitive to tape speed during reading. The servo patterns may include spacing intervals recognizable for error detection and correction purposes. Servo tracks are recorded using a patterned multiple gap servo write head whose magnetic gaps have geometries appropriate to generate the desired servo patterns. The patterned gaps of the servo write head are produced by photolithographically defined electroplating of permalloy on a ferrite ring head structure.

An image is optically scanned by projecting the image onto an optical sensor through an optical shutter. In an exemplary embodiment, the image is projected through the optical shutter while the shutter is made substantially opaque except for a selected substantially transparent group of contiguous pixels. Then, the contents of the document are scanned by advancing this group of pixels across the shutter in a predetermined pattern. The shutter, for example, may comprise an LCD screen. To scan a document, the document is first placed against the shutter. As a light source directs light through the document and the shutter, the shutter is made substantially opaque except for a selected substantially transparent group of contiguous pixels. Then, the contents of the document are scanned by advancing this group of pixels across the shutter in a predetermined pattern. The document may be placed against either side of the shutter--near the light source or near the optical sensor.

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Sunnyvale, CA, United States of America

Robert Carl Barrett