Abstract: A method for executing partially trusted behaviors using an automated assistant. The method employs a guarded execution mode which provides for the safe execution of partially trusted behaviors. Further, incremental trust growth is provided for allowing more behaviors to be executed autonomously by the automated assistant. Trust growth is accomplished through the use of a trust library. The method also employs trust reuse which provides for the reuse of individual trust library entries across behaviors which are proven to be erroneous by the automated assistant.

Abstract: Utilizing a bridged line appearance feature in a switching system to allow additional individual PCS systems to be added as the number of wireless sets increases. For each wireless set, a bridged line appearance is administered in the switching system having a group of shared line appearance telephone links where the number of telephone links in each group is equal to the number of individual PCS systems. When the switching system receives a call for a particular wireless set, the switching system signals the incoming call on each telephone link that is part of the shared line appearance group for that particular wireless set. The PCS system on which the particular wireless set is presently registered responds to the incoming call signal by establishing a call between the particular wireless set and the incoming call.

Abstract: A clock recovery circuit is coupled to an elastic storage circuit such as a FIFO circuit. More specifically, a first input of the elastic storage circuit is electrically connected to an output of the clock recovery circuit. A second input for accepts a data signal representing an input data stream from a communications medium. A third input accepts a local clock signal. The resultant circuit may be used in receiver's for communications systems to help alleviate the problems of frequency mismatch and jitter.

Abstract: Pin fraud of battery reversal pulse metered sophisticated coin telephones is detected and prevented by the method and apparatus of the invention. By carefully monitoring within the switch office the loop current that is flowing in the 48 volt battery circuit, especially in the more positive terminal portion of the 48 volt battery circuit, loss of current to a fraud ground at a remote coin telephone can be detected. Once a fraud ground is detected, the call is terminated. The current detector of this method and apparatus can also be used to terminate a call for the normal on-hook break of the loop current. A convenient location in the switch office and an inexpensive component configuration make the addition of this pin fraud detection and prevention apparatus very cost effective.

Abstract: A single fiber communication system which uses a short pulse light source in conjunction with a short pulse detector. The short pulse source transmits a short pulse carrier signal that is passed down an optical fiber to a reflective modulator. The reflective modulator imparts a modulation to the carrier and reflects it back up the fiber where it is detected by the short pulse light detector. Through the use of short pulses the invention is able to overcome the problem of fiber reflection. The reflected modulated pulse is easily separated from the undesired reflections from the fiber, thereby eliminating noise in the detected signal and increasing the effectiveness of the single fiber system.

Abstract: Disclosed is an electronic device that can communicate with a plurality of testing devices that utilize a plurality of communication formats. To accommodate the plurality of testing devices, the electronic device can be configured to communicate with external test equipment using multiple communication path configurations and multiple message protocols. An exemplary method of the present invention is a method of configuring an electronic device for communicating with either of a first or second testing device. The first and second testing devices use, respectively, first and second physical communication path configurations and first and second message protocols. As an initial matter, the method of the present invention includes identifying a presently-used testing device, the presently-used testing device comprising one of the first and second testing devices.

Abstract: A communication system having communicating devices coupled to a closed loop bus substantially reduces interconnect distances and corresponding signal propagation delays between the devices. Particular devices possess switchable impedance elements that can be selectively actuated to produce an effective terminating impedance substantially at a midpoint position along the closed loop from the coupling point of a transmission device. In such an arrangement, the produced effective terminating impedance would cause the signal transmitted by the transmission device to propagate to a destination device substantially without signal degradation due to signal reflections.

Abstract: Applicants have discovered that the speed of fiber manufacture can be substantially increased by employing a two-step curing process in which the fiber is drawn, coated and exposed to ultraviolet light on-line at high line speeds to effect a partial cure of the coating. After further cooling, the partially cured coating is fully cured by an on-reel exposure to ultraviolet light. The on-reel exposure can take place on the draw tower take-up reel as it is filing with fiber or it can take place off-line after the take-up reel has been filled and removed from the line. The on-reel exposure advantageously takes place either during filling the take-up reel, or during emptying the reel, so that each layer of fiber on the reel is exposed equally to the ultraviolet light. This method of UV illumination improves the energy efficiency in the second exposure by at least a factor of 10 to as much as a factor of 1000. The fiber primary coating pullout strength and mechanical modulus are enhanced.

Abstract: A fidelity measuring apparatus (103). The fidelity measuring apparatus (103) measures the fidelity of a system (101). A preprocessor (109) receives an input signal. The preprocessor (109) also receives an output signal from the system (101). The preprocessor (109) extracts a feature set from the output signal. An artificial intelligence tool (111), trained in the relationship between fidelity and the feature set, generates an output that is a measure of the fidelity of the system (101). A fidelity measuring apparatus (103b) includes a preprocessor (138) and two or more artificial intelligence tools (111-N). The artificial intelligence tools (111-N) are independently trained by input signals from different sources. An averaging circuit (140) averages the output of each artificial intelligence tool (111-N). The fidelity measuring apparatus (103b) operates to produce accurate fidelity measurements independent of the input signal, the source of the input signal and the technology of the system.

Abstract: A method (200-520) and an apparatus (118) for presenting information to a call center agent in a context-sensitive manner involves monitoring (314, 504) activities--such as keyboard or pointer input from an agent and information being displayed to the agent--at an agent position (140, 150) of a call center, receiving (318, 508) a request for information--such as directory information or a list of wrapup codes--from the agent, in response analyzing (322, 324, 512) the request within the context of the monitored activities to determine a subset of the requested information--such as selected telephone numbers or a selected wrapup code--which is most relevant to the monitored activities, and then either presenting (404, 408)--displaying--only the subset to the agent in response to the request, or presenting (410, 514) the requested information in a manner that emphasizes the subset over the rest of the requested information--such as by highlighting the subset.

Abstract: The invention concerns a method for estimating characteristic information of data items in a data set, such as a database, based on parameters of a multifractal distribution. The invention facilitates efficient estimation of such characteristic information of data contained in a data set more accurately than known estimation methods and without requiring an exhaustive analysis of the data. The invention also concerns an efficient technique for generating the parameters for the multifractal distribution.

Abstract: A lithographic process for fabricating a device is disclosed. An area of radiation sensitive material is formed on a substrate. The radiation sensitive material contains a polymeric component The polymeric component is the copolymerization product of a maleimide monomer and at least two other monomers. Acid labile groups are pendant to one of the monomers with which the maleimide monomer is copolymerized. The acid labile groups are pendant to less than 50 mole percent of the monomers that make up the copolymer. The acid labile groups are not pendant to the maleimide monomer.The radiation sensitive material is patternwise exposed to radiation after it is formed on the substrate. The patternwise exposure transfers an image into the radiation sensitive material. The image is developed into a pattern in the radiation sensitive material. The pattern is then transferred into the substrate.

Abstract: The present applicants have discovered that one can fabricate a long-period grating wherein the grating peak wavelength .lambda..sub.p will be shifted in different directions when the grating is subject to temperature and tensile strain, respectively. Accordingly, a long-period grating can be designed and packaged such that a temperature-induced shift in .lambda..sub.p is compensated by a corresponding strain-induced shift arising from a single packaging material. Thus, by proper design of the grating and choice of the packaging material expansion coefficient, a temperature stable grating having temperature sensitivity of less than 4 nm per 100.degree. C. can comprise a grating fiber encased in or attached to a package comprising a single material such as glass, polymer or metal. Such designs permit the use of long-period grating devices without temperature control.

Abstract: A switching system (100) inserts H.320 multi-media protocol-terminating resources (156) into an existing call dynamically, only when the resources are needed, and also removes the resources from an ongoing call dynamically, when the resources are no longer needed, whereby the switching system can provide call features such as hold, conference, disconnect, drop, and transfer, to an H.320 multi-media call and can do so spontaneously, whenever desired during the call, without tying up the resources for the duration of the call even when they are not needed. To extend these capabilities to both single-channel and multi-channel multi-media ISDN BRI calls, the switching system associates a plurality of calls that constitute the individual channels of a multi-channel call and treats the associated calls identically and in unison for purposes of insertion and removal of resources and the providing of features.

Abstract: A clad optical fiber comprising a core of glass, optionally a glass cladding with a lower refractive index than the glass core and a polymeric cladding made of a material having a refractive index smaller than that of the core (and smaller than that of the glass cladding, if any). The polymeric cladding is made of a cured material of a viscosity increased di- or multi-functional (meth)acrylate and a photopolymerization initiator.

Abstract: A method and apparatus measures a deviation in alignment between two components of a product wherein each component is characterized by a respective pattern and wherein each pattern comprises respective elements. The centroid of each element in each respective pattern is indicated, and based on the centroid indications, the center of each respective pattern is indicated. The deviation in alignment between the two components is determined as a function of the indicated position of the centers of the respective patterns, and positioning of the components is controlled as a function of the indicated position of the centers of the respective patterns.

Abstract: A cordless telephone arranged for operation in a frequency hopping system includes an arrangement which achieves optimum utilization of multiple cordless telephone portable units by permitting these units to access a common base unit and also access each other. The portable units are configured for subsequent operation with the base unit and each other during a registration process by having the base unit select from a plurality of communication channels available in the frequency hopping system a different starting channel for each one of the portable units. The portable units are thereby advantageously selectably addressable by the base unit and by each other. Any one of the registered portable units, for example, is capable of selectively paging and communicating with any other one of the registered portable units over selected ones of the plurality of communication channels.

Abstract: Assigning one telephone link to each wireless set and connecting each of the assigned telephone links to all of a plurality of PCS systems. Each of the PCS systems has a plurality of base stations on which wireless sets can register. When an incoming call is received for a wireless set by a switching system terminating the telephone links, the switching system transmits a new call message on the telephone link assigned to the wireless set. The PCS system on which the wireless set is registered responds to the new call message by establishing a connection from the wireless set to the telephone link. The other PCS systems monitor the state of the call so that if the wireless set physically moves to a base station connected to a new PCS system, the new PCS system can continue the call without interruption or the switching system having to perform any additional operations. Also, the PCS systems can be relatively small.

Abstract: A scanning probe microscope equipped with a mechanism for exchanging a probe balance beam from the scan head, wherein the probe balance beam is of the type which is magnetically constrained on the scan head. A magnet having a magnetic field strength greater than that of the scan head magnet is utilized to overcome the attractive force exerted on the balance beam by the scan head magnet and transfer the balance beam from the scan head to a plate in a holding station on the sample table of the microscope. Completely automatic operation is achieved without operator handling of the balance beam.