Abstract: In a method and system for managing access rights, a listing for each of a plurality of access rights is received, and a request for a desired access right from a user is received, wherein the request includes a desired time period and a desired resource. A matching access right of the plurality of access rights is determined. Upon determining that an access right is not available, the request is placed on a standby list and a standby notification is sent to the user, including a position on the standby list, wherein the matching access right is reserved for the user when the request is in a top position on the standby list.

Abstract: The inventive method and apparatus include sensory devices that invariantly represent stimuli in the presence of processes that cause systematic sensor state transformations. Such processes include: 1) alterations of the device's detector, 2) changes in the observational environment external to the sensory device and the stimuli, and 3) certain modifications of the presentation of the stimuli themselves. A specific embodiment of the present invention is an intelligent sensory device having a “front end” comprised of such a representation “engine”. The detectors of such a sensory device need not be recalibrated, and its pattern analysis module need not be retrained, in order to account for the presence of the above-mentioned transformative processes. Another embodiment of the present invention is a communications system that encodes messages as representations of signals.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for transceiving a signal. The method includes the steps of transmitting a superposed frequency component of the signal within each of a plurality of non-adjacent frequency bands, using analogue or digital filters within a receiver to suppress all signals outside the plurality of frequency bands and to pass a filtered signal within the plurality of non-adjacent frequency bands, determining a set of substantially non-uniformly spaced times at which the filtered signal within the plurality of non-adjacent frequency bands should be sampled and sampling the filtered signal at the determined times to provide sampled data. The method further includes the steps of Fourier transforming subsets of the sampled data, linearly combining the Fourier transformed subsets using a reconstruction matrix and extracting the signal from the linear combinations of the Fourier transformed subsets.

Abstract: The inventive method and apparatus include sensory devices that invariantly represent stimuli in the presence of processes that cause systematic sensor state transformations. Such processes include: 1) alterations of the device's detector, 2) changes in the observational environment external to the sensory device and the stimuli, and 3) certain modifications of the presentation of the stimuli themselves. A specific embodiment of the present invention is an intelligent sensory device having a “front end” comprised of such a representation “engine”. The detectors of such a sensory device need not be recalibrated, and its pattern analysis module need not be retrained, in order to account for the presence of the above-mentioned transformative processes. Another embodiment of the present invention is a communications system that encodes messages as representations of signals.

Abstract: A method for measuring perception of an observer comprises a) selecting a first, second, and third stimulus and presenting the stimuli to the observer; b) determining observer-defined fourth stimulus such that the observer perceives the fourth stimulus to be related to the third stimulus in the same way as the observer perceives the second stimulus to be related to the first stimulus; c) selecting a new first, second, and third stimulus, at least one of the new stimuli corresponding to a stimulus point that is different from the stimulus points corresponding to the previously selected stimulus; d) determining a new observer-defined fourth stimulus such that the observer perceives the new fourth stimulus to be related to the new third stimulus in the same way as the observer perceives the new second stimulus to be related to the new first stimulus; and e) performing steps (c) through (d) until a predetermined number of sets of four stimuli are determined.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for acquiring and reconstructing an image. The method includes the steps of obtaining prior knowledge of the image, possibly by coarse sampling of the image and using the obtained prior knowledge of the image to identify relative locations of structures having relatively high contrast edges. The method further includes the steps of prescribing a set of k-space locations based upon the relative locations of the structures in order to achieve comparable eigenvalues of a reconstruction matrix and sampling the k-space at the prescribed k-space locations to obtain k-space sample data. The k-space sample data are decomposed into background data and edge data. The background data are Fourier transformed to reconstruct a background image component. Similarly, subsets of the edge data are Fourier transformed and the reconstruction matrix is used to form a linear combination of these Fourier transformations in order to reconstruct an edge image component.

Abstract: A method is used for measuring perception of an observer using a stimulus output device for presenting stimuli to the observer, and a stimulus manipulation device permitting the observer to modify the presented stimuli by selecting related stimuli from a database of stimuli.

Abstract: A method for segmenting an image in which an arbitrarily shaped contour is deformed stochastically until it approximates the contour of a target object. The evolution of the contour is controlled by a simulated annealing process which causes the contour to settle into a global minimum of an image-derived "energy" function. The non-parametric energy function is derived from the statistical properties of previously-segmented training images. High computational complexity is avoided by using an efficient method of introducing a random local perturbation, and assuring the resulting shape changes are unbiased. This method for perturbing the contour allows for execution times several orders of magnitude shorter than in simple implementations.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for obtaining an image from an object by acquiring training signal measurements which represent images of a plurality of training objects having at least one predetermined feature in common with the object and derive, from the training signal measurements, a set of basis functions that provide a convergent series expansion of the images. The method and apparatus determine a signal measurement prescription for the object based on the basis functions. A signal measurement acquiring device is controlled to acquire signal measurements of the object as determined by the signal measurement prescription. A truncated basis function expansion of the image is generated from the acquired signal measurements. Estimates of additional signal measurements are carried out based on the truncated basis function expansion. The image is reconstructed using the obtained signal measurements and the estimated additional signal measurements.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for obtaining an image from an object acquire training signal measurements which represent images of a plurality of training objects having at least one predetermined feature in common with the object and derive, from the training signal measurements, a set of basis functions that provide a convergent series expansion of the images. The method and apparatus determine a signal measurement prescription for the object based on the basis functions. A signal measurement acquiring device is controlled to acquire signal measurements of the object as determined by the signal measurement prescription. A truncated basis function expansion of the image is generated from the acquired signal measurements. Estimates of additional signal measurements are carried out based on the truncated basis function expansion. The image is reconstructed using the obtained signal measurements and the estimated additional signal measurements.

Abstract: An MR imaging study precedes an MR spectroscopic study. Structural information from the imaging study is combined with MR spectra from the spectroscopic study to produce localized MR spectra.