Abstract: The concepts and technologies disclosed herein take advantage of the low latency in high-speed local area networks to retransmit more quickly than waiting for a computer to acknowledge a packet on a high latency network, such as the Internet, or waiting for a retransmit timeout. For instance, if a first computer operating in a local area network detects that a data packet has not yet been received by an outgoing network edge component within an expected time period, the first computer can infer that the data packet has not yet reached a second computer. In response, the first computer can retransmit the packet to the outgoing network edge component without the second computer being aware of the lost packet. Also, within a local area network, an incoming network edge component can preserve packets in a data buffer in case the first computer indicates it did not receive a packet.

Abstract: A computer-controlled system and method for separating and sorting plastic items is provided. The computer-controlled system first comprises a first component for separating, singulating and orientating the plastic items, a second component for identifying the composition of the plastic material, a third component for identifying the color of the plastic material, and a fourth component responsive to the first and second component for distributing the plastic material to a specific collection vessel. The method of the present invention comprises a first step of separating, singulating and orientating the plastic items. The second step of the method of the present invention is to determine the composition of the plastic item. The third step of the method of the present invention is to determine the color of each plastic item. The fourth step of the method of the present invention is to discharge each plastic item to an appropriate collection vessel based on the plastic item's color and composition.