Abstract: A method for paying services includes steps or acts of: receiving a request for making a payment for a service; receiving a selection of the type of service to be paid and an account number; receiving identifying information from the consumer and the amount of the payment; and providing a payment voucher to be used as payment for the services.

Abstract: “Method and apparatus entraining interactive media players into a sustained experience of “Kinesthetic Spatial Sync,” defined as a perceived simultaneity and spatial superposition between a non-tactile, full body (“free-space”) input control process and immersive multisensory feedback. Asynchronous player input actions and (MIDI tempo) clock-synchronous media feedback events exhibit a seamless synesthesia1 or multisensory events fused into an integral event perception, this being between musical sound (hearing), visual responses (sight), and body kinesthetic (radial extension, angular position, height, speed, timing, and precision). This non-tactile interface process and multisensory feedback “look and feel” is embodied as an optimal ergonomic human interface for interactive music and as a six-degrees-of-freedom full-body-interactive immersive media controller.

Abstract: A voting machine is provided allowing an illiterate, sight impaired or blind individual to cast a vote in privacy and without assistance from another party. The voting machine includes a ballot box having a plurality of voting mechanisms for allowing the individual to cast a vote. One voting mechanism is provided for each election candidate/each side of an election issue. The voting machine also includes an audio player that plays an audio presentation that guides the individual through the voting process by identifying each voting mechanism. A tactile and visual map may also be provided. The map cooperates with the audio presentation to orient the individual for voting. A method is also disclosed.

Abstract: An improved flushing means is disclosed for use in water tanks such as are for flushing toilets. The flushing means has a water inlet with an improved two-stage valve using inlet line pressure for operating the two stages. A float is movably mounted on the inlet for controlling the valve with a lever operatively coupling the float to the first stage of the valve. A cooperating vertical hollow and floating overflow tube including an adjustable bowl filling siphon controls the tank discharge to the bowl. These improvements to the tank discharge to the bowl are also to be incorporated into the commonly used flapper-type flush valve.

Abstract: An improved flushing means is disclosed for use in water tanks such as are for flushing toilets. The flushing means has a water inlet with an improved two-stage valve using inlet line pressure for operating the two stages. A float is movably mounted on the inlet for controlling the valve with a lever operatively coupling the float to the first stage of the valve. A cooperating vertical hollow and floating overflow tube including an adjustable bowl filling siphon controls the tank discharge to the bowl. These improvements to the tank discharge to the bowl are also to be incorporated into the commonly used flapper-type flush valve.

Abstract: An improved stationary nut for a harp, for adjusting the position of a harp string relative to sharpening pins of an action plate, includes: an annular collar defining a central bore and, on its outer surface, a generally circumferential groove sized and adapted to be engaged by the harp string, and an elongated shaft sized and adapted to extend through the central bore for fastening the annular collar to the harp. The relative axes of the elongated shaft and the generally circumferential groove defined about the collar are different, and relative rotation between the collar and the shaft is effective to change the radial distance of a segment of the groove surface supporting the harp string from the axis of the shaft in a manner to change the position of the string relative to the sharpening pins, whereby the harp string may be centered on the action plate, between the sharpening pins, for improved playing tone. A harp employing the improved stationary nut is also described.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a sound diffusion plant with very low directivity. The plant, normally of the multiway type, is essentially characterized by the fact that each way comprises a pair of loudspeakers arranged one opposite the other, the diaphragms of which are enclosed in a space delimitated by screening elements made of high acoustic absorption material.The said plant enables the sound diffusion to be uniform in the surrounding space and makes it possible to limit greatly undesired effects, such as for example, sound "haloes" and identical sounds reproduced by different ways being out of phase.