Patents Represented by Attorney, Agent or Law Firm Robert H. Frantz
  • Patent number: 7971069
    Abstract: A replicated networked storage domain of an original data partition and one or more replica data partitions in which each partition is stored on a storage device having a network address, is secured by associating with each partition a secret key; sharing the secret keys between the storage devices and a file manager; requesting access to a specific partition by a client; and accessing the specific partition by the client using a credential encrypted by the key associated with the specific partition and including a network address of a storage device which stores the partition.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 11, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 28, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Krishna Kishore Yellepeddy
  • Patent number: 7953703
    Abstract: Near clones for a set of targeted computing systems are provided by evaluating different configurations of the targeted computing systems including lists of installed hardware components and installed software components; determining a subset of components in common among the different configurations; determining an initial pseudo-clone configuration including the subset of components and excluding components which are not in common among the different target hardware configurations; for each of the targeted computing systems, producing a finish-out workflow of installation steps and components to be installed into an incompletely configured computer system according to the pseudo-clone configuration to produce an operational clone system; and outputting the pseudo-clone configuration and the workflow to a provisioning management system for subsequent realization of a pseudo-clone backup computing system and further subsequent realization of one or more operational clone systems.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 31, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Vijay Kumar Aggarwal, Craig Lawton, Christopher Andrew Peters, P. G. Ramachandran, Lorin Evan Ullmann, John Patrick Whitfield
  • Patent number: 7948357
    Abstract: A sensor panel for detecting a free-space gesture signature conducted with a gesturing instrument by providing a panel mounted on a controlled system with multiple gesturing sensors in a two-dimensional arrangement to detect movement of a gesturing instrument, and an array of infrared (“IR”) type sensors adapted to detect movement of gesturing instruments which are distinguishable by heat; determining a sensor sequence from a series of sensor detection events responsive to movement of a gesturing instrument within the sensor proximity; correlating the sensor sequence to a predetermined seguence in order to authenticate a user of the gesturing instrument: and responsive to authentication of the user, authorizing a physical security action, wherein the a gesturing sensors comprise a combination of two or more sensors selected from Radio Frequency Identification type sensors acoustic sensors, acoustic type sensors adapted to detect movement of acoustic-reflective gesturing instruments, and infrared type sensors.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2008
    Date of Patent: May 24, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: William Kress Bodin
  • Patent number: 7930267
    Abstract: Real-time chat and conference contact information manager which, responsive to storing of an identification data item into a contact record of a local contact list during an online communication session, extracts a search key value for a data item from the contact record, wherein the online communication session comprises a multiple-participant session selected from an online virtual collaboration session, an online meeting, and an online chat session; uses the extracted search key value to search a trusted administered contact list for a corresponding trusted value, wherein the contact list is designated as trusted and administered by the device with which the local contact list is associated as containing accurate and verified contact information; and modifies the local contact record to include the corresponding trusted value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventor: Jonathan Samn
  • Patent number: 7912817
    Abstract: Data is decayed over time by a type of data item by identifying constituent units of each data item; creating a shelf-life criterion for the constituent units by assigning dimensions to each data item and to each constituent unit; for each of the data items of the data item type, establishing relationship factors for each data item to other data items, between constituent units within data items, and between data items; periodically calculating or updating a decomposability index for each constituent unit as a function of the priority dimensions and the data life dimensions by moving the index towards a threshold for constituent units which are reproducible; and subsequently, decaying the data by deleting from storage constituent units which have decomposability indices exceeding a configured threshold, thereby reducing the amount of storage occupied by a remaining plurality of data items.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 14, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 22, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Oriana Jeannette Love, Borna Safabakhsh
  • Patent number: 7873954
    Abstract: Stack signature marking segments are inserted into re-entrant programming source code modules prior to compilation of the modules at each code module entry point and at each code module exit point, followed by producing one or more executable programs from the programming source code modules. Upon execution of instances of the executable programs, the inserted segments assign unique, non-duplicated module identifier values to the instances of the code modules, generate an instance count for each instantiation of executable code module in the stack signature for each object instance dynamically created during runtime of a re-entrant executable code module, and push onto a processing stack the module identifier values and the instance counts within stack frames allocated to each of the executable program instances.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 12, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2011
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Lorin Ullmann, Allen Chester Wynn
  • Patent number: 7856640
    Abstract: A web services endpoint emulator for testing and developing web server client program, which generates emulator service classes according to service descriptor files, the classes being contained in a web container accessible by a web server; receives by the web server a request from a client process via an emulator interface; parses the request and any associated parameters; retrieves endpoint service descriptor files according to the parsed request and parameters; executes by a web server a service response script while evaluating the retrieved endpoint service descriptor files to generate a response; and sends from the web server the generated response to the client process via the emulator interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 21, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Patrick Joseph Brooks, Rhonda L. Childress, Michael John Spisak
  • Patent number: 7852219
    Abstract: Container manifests are tracked using a radio frequency identification (RFID) contents reader affixed to a container in which a plurality of RFID-tagged items are disposed, the contents reader being configured to collect and store identification information from all of the tagged items; and using an active RFID tag emulator affixed to the container which responds to an external reader activation code by receiving the collected information from the affixed RFID contents reader, and by transmitting the identification information to the external reader.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 24, 2008
    Date of Patent: December 14, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Rhonda L. Childress, Bradley Childs, Joann Huffman, Stewart Jason Hyman, David Bruce Kumhyr, Stephen James Watt
  • Patent number: 7849130
    Abstract: An infrastructure for on-demand service delivery receiving a request for a service to be performed from a service consumer with an information payload; decomposing requested service into essential or primitive functions; dynamically composing a sequence of a plurality of service elements corresponding to the essential or primitive functions to accomplish the service by employing a function call and return decomposition and recomposition paradigm; creating a control header and information payload, the control header encapsulating the sequence; repeatedly dispatching the control header to each service element in the sequence until all service elements have processed the information payload; and returning the processed information payload to the service consumer.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2003
    Date of Patent: December 7, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Virgil A. Albaugh, Messaoud Benantar, Philip Yen-tang Chang, Hari Haranath Madduri
  • Patent number: 7844247
    Abstract: Parties are automatically notified mounting a controller and a peer-to-peer short-range wireless communicator on a vehicle; responsive to a vehicle urgency, pinging by the short-range communicator a long-range communication device within peer-to-peer range, the long-range device being capable of delivering a notification to a party via a wireless network which has a longer range than the peer-to-peer range, and being physically detached from the vehicle; receiving a message indicating that user authorization is required; sending a request for authorization; receiving temporary authorization to co-opt the long-range communications device to deliver the emergency notification message via the wireless network; and sending the emergency notification message from the short-range wireless communicator through the co-opted long- range communication device first over the peer-to-peer communications and second over the wireless network, to a hotline service.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2006
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Yen-Fu Chen, John Hans Handy-Bosma, Fabian F. Morgan, Keith Raymond Walker
  • Patent number: 7840588
    Abstract: A directory server handles requests for values of dynamic attributes by providing at least one declaration for an attribute to be handled as a real-time attribute associated with but external to a directory structure; receiving a directory access protocol request for access to an attribute value from the associated directory structure; detecting requested access to an attribute declared as a real-time external attribute; resolving a real-time value by obtaining an attribute value from a real-time source external to the directory structure; converting the obtained attribute value from a real-time attribute to a static attribute, wherein the real-time attribute is incompatible with the directory access protocol, and wherein the static attribute is compatible with the directory access protocol; and returning to a requester the converted real-time attribute directly in the directory access protocol, wherein storing and updating of the converted real-time attribute value in the directory structure is eliminated or
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 25, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 23, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Jason M. Bell, Mark Joseph Cavage, Kristin Marie Hazlewood, Gary Dale Williams
  • Patent number: 7827598
    Abstract: Access Control Lists control permitted actions on protected network computer system resources by providing an access control policy associated with the requested protected system resource containing a permission list of permitted identities and at least one action group tag with associated action indicators; reusing a finite quantity of action indicators among a plurality of action group tags to control a number of unique permissions less than or equal to the product of the quantity of allowable action indicators and a quantity of allowable action group tags; evaluating the permission list according to a specific permission definition associated with the action group tag, the permission definition providing a correlation between members of a set of action indicators; and granting authorization to perform actions on the requested protected system resource to the requesting user if the access control policy permission list includes an appropriate action indicator correlated to an action group tag.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 29, 2007
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Anthony Scott Moran, Brian James Turner, Peter Sean Calvert
  • Patent number: 7827318
    Abstract: An Internet user transfers directly to a domain within an e-community without returning to a home domain or reauthenticating by providing to a web browser by a home domain server a home identity cookie with an extensible data area and an enrollment token; performing enrollment through an e-community for a web-browser user by redirecting the home identity cookie via the web browser to each affiliated domain in the e-community until each has been visited once; responsive to each visit to each affiliated domain, sending an affiliated domain identity cookie to the web browser including an enrollment successful indicator; accumulating received enrollment success indicators in the extensible data area of the home identity cookie; and subsequently, vouching for an identity of the user at an affiliated domain through exchange of a vouch-for request and vouch-for response between the home domain server and an affiliated domain server.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 2, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Heather Maria Hinton, George Robert Blakley, III, Greg Clark
  • Patent number: 7821876
    Abstract: Two or more wirelessly networked devices for control or data acquisition functions for real-time application are provided with a error corrected synchronization and data collection process. A single start device transmits a start message, followed by each stop device acknowledging that start message. If one or more stop devices fails to acknowledge the initial start message, one or more start messages are transmitted including an elapsed time since the initial start message. Each stop device receives the initial start message and any subsequent start messages, using the elapsed time in the start message to synchronize a local timer. Upon stop event detection, each stop device records its local timer value and subsequently transmits that value to a collection device or console.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 5, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2010
    Inventor: Frederick E. Frantz
  • Patent number: 7810132
    Abstract: Objects on application servers are distributed to one or more application servers; a user is allowed to declare in a list which objects residing on each application server are to be protected; the list is read by an interceptor; responsive to exportation of a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (“CORBA”) compliant Interoperable Object Reference (“IOR”) for a listed object, the interceptor associates one or more application server security flags with interfaces to the listed objects by tagging components of the IOR with one or more security flags; and one or more security operations are performed by an application server according to the security flags tagged to the IOR when a client accesses an application server-stored object, the security operations including an operation besides establishing secure communications between the client process and the server-stored object.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Peter Daniel Birk, Ching-Yun Chao, Hyen Vui Chung, Carlton Keith Mason, Ajaykumar Karkala Reddy, Vishwanath Venkataramappa
  • Patent number: 7809360
    Abstract: Real-time optimization of one or more events in an electronic agenda, an electronic itinerary, an electronic calendar, or an electronic route plan, by receiving an electronic personal plan for a first user having wireless connectivity service need indications during event(s) of the plan; receiving electronic reports from devices operated by users other than the first user indicating actual historical availability conditions of the required wireless connectivity at a location associated with the event of the plan; analyzing the electronic historical reports to find an alternate time, location, route, or combination of time, location, and route, for an event responsive to determining the needed wireless connectivity would not likely meet a service quality preference according to the historical availability; modifying the electronic personal plan to reflect the alternate finding to the first user; and transmitting a communique to said first user containing said alternate findings.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2006
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Kavita Agrawal, William K. Bodin, Gregory W. Rybczynski, Derral C. Thorson
  • Patent number: 7809525
    Abstract: A system or method which accesses or otherwise receives collected performance data for at least one server application, where the server application is capable of performing a plurality of transactions with client devices and the client devices are geographically dispersed from the server in known geographical locales, which automatically determines from the performance data which of the transactions are utilized by users of the client devices, which selects utilized transactions according to at least one pre-determined selection criteria, which automatically generates a transaction playback script for each of the selected transactions substituting test information in place of user-supplied or user-unique information in the transactions, which designates each script for execution from a geographical locale corresponding to the locale of the clients which execute the utilized transactions, which deploys the playback scripts to robotic agents geographically co-located with client devices according to the locale
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 5, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Bryan Christopher Chagoly, Byron Christian Gehman, Andrew Jason Lavery, Sandra Lee Tipton
  • Patent number: 7800701
    Abstract: A primary broadcast receiver is automatically tuned by a secondary broadcast receiver receiving a first broadcast signal corresponding to a source of an origin program by program transition detectors detecting monochrome interprogram dead frame or closed captioning for the hearing impaired text words according to user-specified tune conditions; by a tuner controller enabling the secondary broadcast receiver and a program transition detector to begin monitoring a first broadcast signal currently tuned by the primary broadcast receiver, while allowing tuning of the primary broadcast receiver by a user, and by automatically tuning the primary broadcast receiver to the first broadcast signal upon signal by the program transition detector that one or more of the user-specific tune conditions have been met.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 9, 2008
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Yen-Fu Chen, John Hans Handy-Bosma, Nancy T. Sun, Keith Raymond Walker
  • Patent number: 7801793
    Abstract: Delay-paced online proxy bidding by providing a counter bid delay value parameter for automatic proxy bidding on behalf of a user in an online auction; automatically checking by an application server a current bid level of the online auction having a plurality of bids from other participants separated in time to form a bidding pace; determining by an application server that any a proxy condition has been met; and placing by an application server computer a counter bid the auction responsive to the proxy conditions being met and a time following or upon the elapse of a counter bid delay from a time of placement of the current bid; wherein the automatic checking, determining and placing counter bids produce a delay paced online proxy bidding according to the counter bid delay value and wherein escalation of the pace of bidding within the auction system is avoided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 29, 2001
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Leland James Wiesehuegel, Rebecca Lynn Roberts, Keith Ky Trieu Ho, Ernest Bracamontez
  • Patent number: 7797678
    Abstract: A license package generator for use with a solution builder tool having behavioral model instances for system solution components, the instances being configured by behavioral and interface parameters by user inputs, the package generator accessing and obtaining a license code for each configured behavioral model instance for which a license is available in a data repository, creating or modifying an electronic license information package file to include list of license numbers associated with the license codes and notes selected regarding license serial number, a software package enabling code, a software package unlocking code, a granting source of a license, a component feature description, and an issue date of a license, and storing the electronic license package file stored in a computer memory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2005
    Date of Patent: September 14, 2010
    Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
    Inventors: Ingrid M. Moulckers, Amir Farrokh Sanjar, Cristi Nesbitt Ullmann