Abstract: A box includes a base having a substantially rectangular perimeter. A pair of side walls and a pair of end walls extend upward from the perimeter of the base to form a box bottom having rounded corners and vertices. The box bottom includes a mouth at the top thereof. The mouth has a substantially rectangular perimeter. Reinforcing ridges are formed at the corners and vertices of the box bottom, and a lip formed at the perimeter of the mouth. A lid fits over the mouth of the box bottom. The lid includes a collar having a cuff that engages the lip to hold the lid in position over the mouth of the box bottom. At least one air hole is formed in the base and in the lid. A plurality of inwardly protruding panels is formed in the lid and in the base and walls of the box bottom.

Abstract: A system is described for providing performance feedback to a cashier at a POS terminal. The system includes a display for displaying information to a cashier operating the POS terminal. The display displays a performance goal screen at the start of a work session, indicating to the cashier a performance goal for the work session. The POS terminal measures the cashier's performance during the work session and, at the end of the work session, the display displays a performance report screen comparing the cashier's measured performance with the performance goal.

Abstract: A currency system (10) is described. The system (10) comprises a currency network (12) for handling and distributing currency, an information router (40) for receiving currency information from the currency network (12), a currency analyzer (48) for locating the position of all the currency in the network (12) and for determining how the currency should be located in the network (12) to fulfil a predetermined criterion, and a currency transfer reporter (44) for receiving currency transfer requests from the analyzer (48), for issuing currency transfer instructions to a cash mover (18), for receiving currency transfer confirmations from the cash mover (18), and for automatically reconciling currency transfer instructions with currency transfer confirmations. A method of managing a currency network is also described.

Abstract: A hardware circuit implemented on a DRAM foundry is provided for finding the longest prefix key match. The hardware circuit includes the use of prefix search engines to store prefix keys. Each prefix search engine may advantageously include an n-dimension memory for fast efficient access. Each prefix search engine is preassigned to store prefix keys having a specific length. Based on the preassignment and the n-dimensional memory, the hardware circuit matches the longest prefix key stored in the prefix search engines by comparing all prefix search engines in parallel.

Abstract: A bypass controller (30) controls ON/OFF of a three-way electromagnetic valve (62) according to a detection value of a cam chamber sensor (12a). When the cam chamber sensor (12a) detects a viscosity of lubricant exceeding a predetermined allowable value, the three-way electromagnetic valve (62) is controlled to turn ON so that the output side of an oil separator (13) communicates with a bypass route (61). The pressure in the cam chamber (12) is reduced to or below the atmospheric pressure by suction of a compressor (16) with a check valve (14) regulating the pressure in the cam chamber (12) to the atmospheric pressure or above in the bypassed state. When the detection value of the viscosity of the lubricant output by the cam chamber sensor (12a) has become the predetermined allowable value or below, the three-way electromagnetic valve (62) is controlled to turn OFF so that the output side of the oil separator (13) communicates with the check valve (14) and the bypass route (61) is cut off.

Abstract: A system which allows identification of a consumer as belonging to a designated category and makes special offers available to consumers who are members of the designated category is described. The system comprises a database of offers accessible through connection by consumer operated computers upon authentication of consumer registration, an offer presentation module for controlling access to the database of offers and a consumer registration module allowing registration of a consumer for access to the database of offers. The consumer registration module allows registration of a consumer upon submission of identifying information provided to the consumer by a party who has identified the consumer as belonging to a designated category and used to identify the consumer as belonging to the designated category.

Abstract: A cart is described that has a wheeled base and an upright frame extending upwardly from the base. A side frame extends upwardly from the base and abuts the upright frame. The upper face of the base, the front face of the upright frame and the inside face of the side frame together form an open cargo bay. A horizontal work surface projects outward from the rear face of the upright frame. A storage compartment is attached to the rear face of the upright frame below the work surface.

Abstract: A module (10) for validating deposited media items is described. The module comprises: illuminating means (24) for illuminating a deposited media item (20); directing means (34) for directing illuminations from the illuminating means (24) to an examination area (22); optical detecting means (26) for detecting emissions from the deposited media item (20) at the examination area (22), where the emissions are caused by the illuminations; and processing means (32) for processing the detected emissions. The processing means (32) is operable in either a first mode, in which the deposited media type is known, or in a second mode, in which the deposited media type is not known. The illuminating means (24) includes ultra-violet radiation, infra-red radiation, and discrete primary colors.

Abstract: A form-work support arrangement for building form-work for moulding a concrete construction panel on top of a previously poured concrete panel (58). Generally the upper panel to be moulded has the same horizontal dimensions as the previously poured panel (58), the arrangement including an anchor bracket (60) adapted to be removably attached (66) to the previously poured concrete panel (58), an edge form bracket (48) adapted to be removably attached (16) to the anchor bracket (60), the edge from bracket (48) adapted to removably support an edge form (18) having an outer face, the outer face defining an edge of the concrete panel to be poured and positioned so that the outer face is generally above the edge of the previously poured concrete panel (58).

Abstract: Systems and techniques for identifying the presence of a jamming signal impairing the operation of an RFID reader. An RFID reader includes a signal strength detector that detects and measures the signal strength of signals within a prescribed frequency range typical of that used by RFID devices. If a signal within the frequency range and exceeding a predetermined maximum strength is detected, the reader identifies the presence of a jamming signal impairing the proper operation of the reader. The reader takes appropriate action upon identification of a jamming signal, for example issuing a local alert or alarm, or sending a message to a central security station, which may then take appropriate action in response to the message, such as alerting appropriate personnel, sounding alarms or securing exits.

Abstract: An array processor includes processing elements (00, 01, 02, 03, 10, 11, 12, 13, 20, 21, 22, 23, 30, 31, 32, 33) arranged in clusters (e.g., 44, 46, 48, 50) to form a rectangular array (40). Inter-cluster communication paths (88) are mutually exclusive. Due to the mutual exclusivity of the data paths, communications between the processing elements of each cluster may be combined in a single inter-cluster path, thus eliminating half the wiring required for the path. The length of the longest communication path is not directly determined by the overall dimension of the array, as in conventional torus arrays. Rather, the longest communications path is limited by the inter-cluster spacing. Transpose elements of an N×N torus may be combined in clusters and communicate with one another through intra-cluster communications paths. Transpose operation latency is eliminated in this approach. Each PE may have a single transmit port (35) and a single receive port (37).

Abstract: An optical media detector, for use in a media transport mechanism, the detector comprising a light source and an optical sensor, is described. The light source and sensor are optically coupled via two distinct optical paths which are formed in part by a pair of optical light guides, each of which is formed into part of a pinch roller adapted to contact or being close to contacting media being transported.

Abstract: A computing architecture and software techniques are described which modifies the basic sequential instruction fetching mechanism of a processor by separating a program's control flow from its functional execution flow. A compiled sequential HLL program's static control structures are analyzed and a separate program based on its own unique instructions is created that primarily generates addresses for the selection of functional execution instructions. The original program is now represented by an instruction fetch program and a set of function/logic execution instructions. This basic split allows multiple instruction addresses to be generated in parallel to access multiple instruction memories. These multiple instruction memories contain only the function/logic instructions of the program and no control structure operations such as branches or calls. All the original program's control instructions are split from the original program and used to create the instruction addressing program.

Abstract: Techniques and a set of heuristics are described to perform allocation of the special instruction memory where indirect very long instruction words (VLIW's) are stored for the ManArray family of multiprocessor digital signal processors (DSP). This approach substantially reduces the cost of pre-initializing the contents of VLIWs.

Abstract: Techniques for performing the processing of blocks of video in multiple stages. Each stage is executed for blocks of data in the frame that need to go through that stage, based on the coding type, before moving to the next stage. This order of execution allows blocks of data to be processed in a nonsequential order, unless the blocks need to go through the same processing stages. Multiple processing elements (PEs) operating in SIMD mode executing the same task and operating on different blocks of data may be utilized, avoiding idle times for the PEs. In another aspect, inverse scan and dequantization operations for blocks of data are merged in a single procedure operating on multiple PEs operating in SIMD mode. This procedure makes efficient use of the multiple PEs and speeds up processing by combining two operations, inverse scan (reordering) and dequantization, which load the execution units differently.

Abstract: A vote verification system and method which provides assurance to voters that their votes were processed. The system includes a computer including a reader, wherein the computer is for reading machine-readable information on a receipt containing both the machine-readable information and human-readable information as the voter presents the receipt to the reader, obtaining identifying information associated with a ballot of the voter, and providing the identifying information so that a voter may compare the identifying information to the human-readable information on the receipt.

Abstract: A bar code reader which includes an image display system to more effectively promote retailers and their products. The bar code reader includes a housing portion and an image display system in the housing portion. An example bar code reader includes a dual-aperture bar code reader with a first housing portion containing a substantially horizontal aperture through which first scanning light beams pass for scanning an item, and a second housing portion vertically extending from a checkout counter containing a substantially vertical aperture through which second scanning light beams pass for scanning the item. The second housing portion includes a surface visible to the customer and an image display system in the surface.

Abstract: An electronic price label (ESL) system for performing recurring ESL transactions which occur in a periodic fashion. In one aspect, an ESL manager records and schedules messages to the ESL. When a transaction request directed to an ESL is created or issued by a client application, multiple pieces of information may be provided by that client to the ESL manager, indicating what action is to be taken. To allow for the scheduling of recurring transactions, recurrence information for the transaction may also be specified by the client application. The recurrence information may include a start date and time, and a recurrence period. After the transaction has been processed, the ESL manager looks at the recurrence period and if the recurrence period is a non-zero value, the ESL manager adds the recurrence period to the start date and time to generate a new start date and time.

Abstract: General purpose flags (ACFs) are defined and encoded utilizing a hierarchical one-, two- or three-bit encoding. Each added bit provides a superset of the previous functionality. With condition combination, a sequential series of conditional branches based on complex conditions may be avoided and complex conditions can then be used for conditional execution. ACF generation and use can be specified by the programmer. By varying the number of flags affected, conditional operation parallelism can be widely varied, for example, from mono-processing to octal-processing in VLIW execution, and across an array of processing elements (PE)s. Multiple PEs can generate condition information at the same time with the programmer being able to specify a conditional execution in one processor based upon a condition generated in a different processor using the communications interface between the processing elements to transfer the conditions.