Abstract: The disclosed customer support methods and systems allow customers to request and receive product-specific support from service providers. The embodiments facilitate support interactions between such customers and providers by allowing providers to provide on-demand and/or scheduled support services to customers via various communication channels, displaying product-specific communications and resources to customers, and/or allowing customers and providers to access past support interactions.

Abstract: An electrochemical direct heat to electricity converter includes a primary thermal energy source; a working fluid; an electrochemical cell comprising at least one membrane electrode assembly including a first porous electrode, a second porous electrode and at least one membrane, wherein the at least one membrane is sandwiched between the first and second porous electrodes and is a conductor of ions of the working fluid; an energy storage reservoir; and an external load. The electrochemical cell operates on heat to produce electricity. When thermal energy available from the primary thermal energy source is greater than necessary to meet demands of the external load, excess energy is stored in the energy storage reservoir, and when the thermal energy available from the primary thermal energy source is insufficient to meet the demands of the external load, at least a portion of the excess energy stored in the energy storage reservoir is used to supply power to the external load.

Abstract: A system and process for mixing and distributing building materials. This system and process can also include a way or a means for calibrating the mixing of these materials. This system and process can also include a system for tracking the materials that flow through the system, and for controlling the type of material used in the system.

Abstract: A fan is for improving air quality, such as in an indoor environment. The fan includes a motor and a rotatable hub coupled to the motor. At least one fan blade includes a first end portion coupled to the rotatable hub and a second end portion radially distant from the rotatable hub. At least one ion generator is carried by the second end portion of the at least one fan blade, such as by a winglet associated therewith. A stationary tube passes through the rotatable hub including a conduit for transmitting power. A rotary coupling is also provided for transmitting power from the conduit to the at least one ion generator.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, for handling applications in an ambient computing system. One of the methods includes determining, by a low-power processing component, that particular sensor signals have a particular property. In response, a machine learning engine performs an inference pass over a machine learning model using the sensor signals to generate a model output. If the model output of the machine learning engine matches an application-specific condition, one or more of the other processing components are activated to execute an particular application corresponding to the application-specific condition.

Abstract: An antenna housing is provided that is configured to be mounted to a pole. The antenna housing has spaced upper and lower ends. A sidewall extends between and around the spaced ends to define an interior of the housing. This interior may house and/or partially conceal one or more antennas. Inlet and outlet ducting extend through the sidewall of the housing to individually cool each antenna within the interior of the housing. The inlet and outlet duct may connect to a cooling duct that is in fluid communication with a heat rejection surface of the antenna. Accordingly, each antenna may be cooled using ambient air and the heated air may be exhausted outside of the housing.

Abstract: A drag reducing agent has a core comprising a polyolefin; and a temporary container encapsulating the core. The temporary container contains a container material, which includes an ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer, an ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer, a polyvinylpyrrolidone, an ethylene vinylpyrrolidone copolymer, a vinylpyrrolidone vinyl acetate copolymer, a polyvinyl acetate, a polyvinyl alcohol, a polyethylene oxide, a polyethylene glycol, polyvinylidene chloride, a polysaccharide or its derivative, or a combination comprising at least one of the foregoing. A largest dimension of the drag reducing agent is greater than about 1,000 microns.

Abstract: There is disclosed techniques for data reduction reporting in storage systems. For example in one embodiment, the techniques comprise update a counter denoting an amount of data reduction obtained when a data reduction feature associated with a data reduction requirement is enabled in the storage system when one or more allocation units in a storage system satisfy a data reduction requirement of the storage system. The techniques further comprise generating a snapshot of at least a portion of a file related to the said allocation units such that a first relationship exists when the snapshot is generated and a second relationship exists when the snapshot or the file is updated. The techniques also comprise determining a data reduction attributed to the data reduction feature based on an amount of data reduction denoted by the data reduction counter and an amount of sharing and/or unsharing of indirect blocks including mapping pointers in the relationship between the snapshot and the file.

Abstract: An embedded image sensor package including a transparent cover having a first side and an opposing second side. A first layer couples over the second side of the transparent cover and has an opening. An electrically conductive layer couples in or over the first layer and electrically couples with one or more electrical contacts exposed on an outer surface of the package. An image sensor chip having a first side with an image sensor and an opposing second side electrically couples with the electrically conductive layer at the first side of the image sensor chip. The image sensor chip couples over the first layer so the first side of the image sensor chip faces the second side of the transparent cover through the opening. The image sensor chip, first layer, and transparent cover at least partially define a cavity hermetically sealed using an underfill material. The package includes no wirebonds.

Abstract: Techniques to enhance the security of matrix codes. An aggregated matrix code may be scanned to obtain a certain level of access with respect to at least one feature of an application executed on a computer device. The aggregated matrix code may include a user-specific matrix code uniquely assignable to at least one user of a group of users and a base matrix code associated with the group of users.

Abstract: There is provided an optical system comprising a light conduit. The light conduit comprises a first light pipe, a second light pipe, and a first bridge to mechanically couple the first light pipe to the second light pipe. The first light pipe has a first inlet to receive a first input light signal and a first outlet to emit at least a portion of the first input light signal to form a first output light signal. Moreover, the second light pipe has a second inlet to receive a second input light signal and a second outlet to emit at least a portion of the second input light signal to form a second output light signal. Furthermore, the first bridge has a first end mechanically coupled to the first light pipe and a second end mechanically coupled to the second light pipe.

Abstract: Example data leakage detection apparatus disclosed herein include a fingerprinter to generate a first data fingerprint of a first data item accessed from a data source. Disclosed example data leakage detection apparatus also include a blockchain scanner to scan a blockchain to detect whether a first blockchain record includes a second data fingerprint that matches the first data fingerprint of the first data item. Disclosed example data leakage detection apparatus further include a blockchain writer to write a second blockchain record to the blockchain when the second data fingerprint matches the first data fingerprint, the second blockchain record to indicate the first data item is associated with a data leak of a protected data item represented by the second data fingerprint. In some examples, the second blockchain record is to include the first data fingerprint and a first timestamp.

Abstract: A wireless device sends a PDU session establishment request message to an access and mobility management function (AMF). The PDU session establishment request message requests establishment of a packet data unit (PDU) session for an always-on PDU session. The wireless device receives a first message from the AMF. The first message indicates at least one service associated with the always-on PDU session. The wireless device sends at least one packet of an at least one allowed service of the at least one service via the always-on PDU session.

Abstract: A method, computer program product, and computer system for requesting, by a computing device, information about whether a source and a destination belong to one of a same storage array and storage cluster. Information may be requested about whether the source and the destination support direct data transfer mechanisms between the source and the destination. A copy process may be offloaded from a host computing device to the source and the destination to copy data from the source to the destination when the source and the destination belong to one of a different storage array and storage cluster and when the source and the destination support the direct data transfer mechanisms, and the copy process may be executed on the host device to copy data from the source to the destination when one of the source and the destination does not support the direct data transfer mechanisms.

Abstract: In a general aspect, a discharge circuit for discharging a voltage from a USB connector pin can include a discharge load configured to discharge the voltage from the pin. The discharge circuit can also include a first control circuit configured to adjust a magnitude of the discharge load during discharging, such that power consumption is less than or equal to a discharge power limit, and a discharge time is less than or equal to a discharge time limit. The discharge circuit can further include a second control circuit configured to detect whether the voltage of the pin is changed based on a first reference voltage during discharging and adjust the magnitude of the discharge load in response to the change in the voltage of the pin, such that a slew rate of the voltage is less than or equal to a slew rate limit.

Abstract: Techniques for performing system management may include: defining groups, wherein each group includes one or more systems managed using a management application; selecting a scoping level, wherein the scoping level selected is one of multiple scoping levels including an all systems level, a group level, and an individual system level, wherein selecting the group level includes selecting a particular one of the multiple groups, and wherein selecting the individual system level includes selecting a particular one of the systems managed using the management application; and performing one or more operations in accordance with the scoping level. Information may be displayed in accordance with the selected scoping level. The multiple scoping levels may include multiple levels of groups. The scoping level may be selected using a menu of a graphical user interface of the management application. The systems may be data storage systems, such as data storage arrays.

Abstract: An identity of a user may be verified using a computer-implemented identification. User-specific sensor data arising through use of the portable computer by the user is collected from sensors of a portable computer. A user profile is prepared based on the user-specific user data. Current sensor data is read in, from the sensors, representative of current usage of the portable computer. The current sensor data is compared with the user profile. The identity of the user is confirmed responsive to the current sensor data corresponding to the user profile.

Abstract: A panel filter is provided. The panel filter can have extended life or higher dust holding capacity by one or more of the following provisions of (a) placing the dimpled pattern (compressed region) on the downstream side and outlet face of the media, (b) using the dimpled media in combination with adhesive spacers and embossments, (c) selection of a media that is depth loading rather than surface loading, (d) operating the pleater/embossing assembly in a manner so as to maintain integrity of the dimples and/or other features as described herein.

Abstract: Standard I/O library functions for accessing files stored on mass storage devices are modified to enable access to files stored in firmware volumes. An application can be compiled against the modified standard I/O library functions to generate a pre-boot application. When the pre-boot application is executed within a pre-boot execution environment, it can utilize standard I/O library functions to access files stored in a firmware volume. In response to receiving a request to open a file from a pre-boot application, the called I/O function searches a file cross-reference table to locate the filename for the file. If the filename is in the file cross-reference table, the GUID associated with the filename is retrieved from the file cross-reference table and used to obtain a file handle to the file. The file handle can then be returned to the pre-boot application and used to perform other types of operations on the file.

Abstract: Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for selecting people for a training set. The methods, systems, and apparatus include actions of: obtaining an image of a user, obtaining an initial training set that includes the image of the user as a positive example and images of a subset of a set of other people as negative examples, training an initial classifier with the images of the initial training set, determining false positive classifications by the initial classifier, selecting people in the set of other people based on the false positive classifications, obtaining an updated training set that includes an image of the user, images of the subset of the set of other people, and images of the people that are selected, and generating an updated classifier with the updated training set.