Abstract: Estimates of global total “liquid” hydrocarbon resources are dominated by structures known as oil sands or tar sands which represent approximately two-thirds of the total recoverable resources. This is despite that the Canadian Athabasca Oil Sands, which dominate these oil sand based recoverable oil reserves at 1.7 trillion barrels, are calculated at only a 10% recovery rate. However, irrespective of whether it is the 3.6 trillion barrels recoverable from the oil sands or the 1.75 trillion barrels from conventional oil reservoirs worldwide, it is evident that significant financial return and extension of the time oil as resource is available to the world arise from increasing the recoverable percentage of such resources. According to embodiments of the invention pressure differentials are exploited to advance production of wells, adjust the evolution of the depletion chambers formed laterally between laterally spaced wells to increase the oil recovery percentage, and provide recovery in deeper reservoirs.

Abstract: Estimates of global total “liquid” hydrocarbon resources are dominated by structures known as oil sands or tar sands which represent approximately two-thirds of the total recoverable resources. This is despite that the Canadian Athabasca Oil Sands, which dominate these oil sand based recoverable oil reserves at 1.7 trillion barrels, are calculated at only a 10% recovery rate. However, irrespective of whether it is the 3.6 trillion barrels recoverable from the oil sands or the 1.75 trillion barrels from conventional oil reservoirs worldwide, it is evident that significant financial return and extension of the time oil as resource is available to the world arise from increasing the recoverable percentage of such resources. According to embodiments of the invention pressure differentials are exploited to advance production of wells, adjust the evolution of the depletion chambers formed laterally between laterally spaced wells to increase the oil recovery percentage, and provide recovery in deeper reservoirs.

Abstract: Estimates of global total “liquid” hydrocarbon resources are dominated by structures known as oil sands or tar sands which represent approximately two-thirds of the total recoverable resources. This is despite that the Canadian Athabasca Oil Sands, which dominate these oil sand based recoverable oil reserves at 1.7 trillion barrels, are calculated at only a 10% recovery rate. However, irrespective of whether it is the 3.6 trillion barrels recoverable from the oil sands or the 1.75 trillion barrels from conventional oil reservoirs worldwide, it is evident that significant financial return and extension of the time oil as resource is available to the world arise from increasing the recoverable percentage of such resources. According to embodiments of the invention pressure differentials are exploited to advance production of wells, adjust the evolution of the depletion chambers formed laterally between laterally spaced wells to increase the oil recovery percentage, and provide recovery in deeper reservoirs.

Abstract: Estimates of global total “liquid” hydrocarbon resources are dominated by structures known as oil sands or tar sands which represent approximately two-thirds of the total recoverable resources. This is despite that the Canadian Athabasca Oil Sands, which dominate these oil sand based recoverable oil reserves at 1.7 trillion barrels, are calculated at only a 10% recovery rate. However, irrespective of whether it is the 3.6 trillion barrels recoverable from the oil sands or the 1.75 trillion barrels from conventional oil reservoirs worldwide, it is evident that significant financial return and extension of the time oil as resource is available to the world arise from increasing the recoverable percentage of such resources. According to embodiments of the invention pressure differentials are exploited to advance production of wells, adjust the evolution of the depletion chambers formed laterally between laterally spaced wells to increase the oil recovery percentage, and provide recovery in deeper reservoirs.

Abstract: Estimates of global total “liquid” hydrocarbon resources are dominated by structures known as oil sands or tar sands which represent approximately two-thirds of the total recoverable resources. This is despite that the Canadian Athabasca Oil Sands, which dominate these oil sand based recoverable oil reserves at 1.7 trillion barrels, are calculated at only a 10% recovery rate. However, irrespective of whether it is the 3.6 trillion barrels recoverable from the oil sands or the 1.75 trillion barrels from conventional oil reservoirs worldwide, it is evident that significant financial return and extension of the time oil as resource is available to the world arise from increasing the recoverable percentage of such resources. According to embodiments of the invention pressure differentials are exploited to advance production of wells, adjust the evolution of the depletion chambers formed laterally between laterally spaced wells to increase the oil recovery percentage, and provide recovery in deeper reservoirs.

Abstract: Estimates of global total “liquid” hydrocarbon resources are dominated by structures known as oil sands or tar sands which represent approximately two-thirds of the total recoverable resources. This is despite the Canadian Athabasca Oil Sands, which dominate these oil sand based reserves at 1.7 trillion barrels, are calculated at only 10% recovery rate. However, irrespective of whether it is the 3.6 trillion barrels recoverable from the oil sands or the 1.75 trillion barrels from conventional oil reservoirs worldwide, it is evident that significant financial return and extension of the time oil is available to the world arise from increasing the recoverable percentage of such resources. According to embodiments of the invention pressure differentials are exploited to advance production of wells, adjust the evolution of the depletion chambers formed laterally between laterally spaced wells to increase the oil recovery percentage, and provide recovery in deeper reservoirs.

Abstract: Digital rights management to protect copyrighted materials is a common element of consumers accessing content for a variety of uses including business and recreational. Such techniques have been generally deployed on small items of multimedia content such as individual tracks of music. However, at present despite the penetration of portable electronic devices for texting, telephony, email, and music their use by consumers for video, film, and large multimedia content has been limited in part due to the issues of downloading and handling individual files of hundreds or thousands of MB. It would therefore be beneficial to provide a means to download large multimedia content files and render these upon a variety of portable electronic devices while allowing the downloaded multimedia content to be securely stored within a portable memory device allowing the user to render the content upon their own electronic devices or other electronic devices without re-distributing the content.

Abstract: A method is provided, including providing a hub for mounting a wheel to a frame; providing a first mounting pivotally connected at one end to a first position on the frame; providing a second mounting pivotally connected at one end to a second position on the frame; providing a first arm which is coupled at a first position to the top of the hub and pivotally connected at a second position to the other end of the first mounting; providing a second arm which is coupled at a first position to the bottom of the hub and pivotally connected at a second position to the other end of the second mounting; and providing a shock absorber coupled at one end to a third position on the second arm between the first and second positions on the second arm and at the other end to a third position on the frame.

Abstract: Suspension systems must tradeoff multiple purposes including contributing to the vehicle's road holding/handling and braking for good active safety and driving pleasure as well as keeping vehicle's user(s) comfortable and reasonably well isolated from road noise, bumps, and vibrations, etc. Over the past 100 years many suspension systems have evolved but have in common the disposition of the hock absorber between the wheel and the fulcrum point of the wheel mounting to the vehicle. It would be, however, be beneficial to provide a suspension exploiting a dual-shock system wherein the two shock absorbers are in opposite states so that even under absorption of the vertical shock from the road surface there was still applied additional force for road contact to be maintained. It can also be shown to be beneficial in single-shock systems to place the shock the opposite side of the fulcrum point of the suspension system, counter to previous prior art solutions.

Abstract: Domestic uses of hot water are cooking, cleaning, bathing, and space heating. However, boiling water burns and even below 88° C. burns from hot water, commonly referred to as scalding, occur quickly in a matter of seconds. Even at lower temperatures whilst the time for burns increases for older people and children serious scalds can still occur due to disabilities or slow reaction times. Accordingly, embodiments of the invention provide visual indications of the temperature of water within a faucet or provide an in-line thermal restrictor.

Abstract: Shopping, the examining and purchase of goods or services from retailers is considered a leisure activity and an economic one with some people considering it recreational and therapeutic and others a task of inconvenience and vexation. Except for the advent of the Internet the fundamentals of shopping have not changed for centuries. However, at the same time the Internet provides unprecedented access to information such as maps, inventory, and pricing to users with fixed and portable electronic devices. Embodiments of the invention allow users to define needs and preferences against which the software application and software system establish results which may be presented to the user in a variety of formats allowing users to plan shopping activities to meet their preferences which may include visiting minimum number of outlets, travelling minimum distance within shopping environment, lowest cost, and stock of outlets as well as comparing Internet and “bricks-and-mortar” retail outlets.

Abstract: Digital rights management to protect copyrighted materials is a common element of consumers accessing content for a variety of uses including business and recreational. Such techniques have been generally deployed on small items of multimedia content such as individual tracks of music. However, at present despite the penetration of portable electronic devices for texting, telephony, email, and music their use by consumers for video, film, and large multimedia content has been limited in part due to the issues of downloading and handling individual files of hundreds or thousands of MB. It would therefore be beneficial to provide a means to download large multimedia content files and render these upon a variety of portable electronic devices whilst allowing the downloaded multimedia content to be securely stored within a portable memory device allowing the user to render the content upon their own electronic devices or other electronic devices without re-distributing the content.

Abstract: A cleaning system is provided comprising a compliant pad and a consumable pad for use in conjunction with a variety of cleaning implements. The compliant pad may according to embodiments of the invention provide for both compliance to the contour of the surface being cleaned but also allows for the compliant pad to provide for controlled release of fragrance, solvents, cleaning agents etc within the matrix or matrices provided in its construction. Likewise the consumable pad may provide elements providing dust attraction/retention, abrasion, as well as controlled release of fragrance, solvents, cleaning agents etc within the materials provided in its construction. According to embodiments of the invention the compliant pad and/or consumable pad are water soluble to provide this release wherein the water is provided either from within one or both of the compliant pad and consumable pad or from the cleaning implement to which they are attached.

Abstract: Over hundreds of years card games have been the source of amusement, argument, and financial gain/loss to players. Today casino, gaming machine and online gaming represent a multi-billion dollar industry. In online and live poker for example the initial stages where a larger number of players are involved can be time consuming and not present the “hook” to keep the individuals attention either to watch how the play progresses or engage in playing online. Accordingly it would be beneficial to provide a mechanism that accelerated the early stage of the game. Further, card games are played at multiple levels of experience. It would therefore be beneficial to provide a mechanism within a game of poker for players at multiple skill levels that added a degree of equalizing their skill/experience by incorporating elements that were independent of or reduced dependency upon their skill/experience or required.

Abstract: Existing BOP devices are complex electromechanical systems exploiting hydraulic activation of pipe rams and/or shear rams. With tens of thousands of oil wells in the 1,500 oil fields that account for 97% of global production of the over 40,000 oil fields identified to date and failure rates as high as 50% in disaster situations it is evident that a simpler, increased reliability approach would be beneficial to the oil and gas industries. It would be further beneficial if the BOP was automatic requiring no monitoring locally to the BOP or remotely from the rig or production facility.

Abstract: Estimates of global total “liquid” hydrocarbon resources are dominated by structures known as oil sands or tar sands which represent approximately two-thirds of the total recoverable resources. This is despite the Canadian Athabasca Oil Sands, which dominate these oil sand based reserves at 1.7 trillion barrels, are calculated at only 10% recovery rate. However, irrespective of whether it is the 3.6 trillion barrels recoverable from the oil sands or the 1.75 trillion barrels from conventional oil reservoirs worldwide, it is evident that significant financial return and extension of the time oil is available to the world arise from increasing the recoverable percentage of such resources. According to embodiments of the invention pressure differentials are exploited to advance production of wells, adjust the evolution of the depletion chambers formed laterally between laterally spaced wells to increase the oil recovery percentage, and provide recovery in deeper reservoirs.

Abstract: Existing BOP devices are complex electromechanical systems exploiting hydraulic activation of pipe rams and/or shear rams. With tens of thousands of oil wells in the 1,500 oil fields that account for 97% of global production of the over 40,000 oil fields identified to date and failure rates as high as 50% in disaster situations it is evident that a simpler, increased reliability approach would be beneficial to the oil and gas industries. It would be further beneficial if the BOP was automatic requiring no monitoring locally to the BOP or remotely from the rig or production facility.

Abstract: Betz's law establishes an efficiency limit of 0.59 for wind turbines. Increasing turbine output power requires making the blades larger thereby increasing the radius of the turbine, which increases power by that factor squared, or by increasing the velocity of the air which increases the power according to that factor cubed. It would be beneficial to provide a wind turbine that overcame some of the disadvantages of prior art horizontal and vertical turbines including but not limited to, installation infrastructure, operation in non-laminar flow environments, operation over a wider range of air velocities, operation in low air velocity that defines many regions of the world and continental United States, and capable of supporting installations over a wide range of instances from discrete residential/commercial installations to large wind farms as well as providing increased output power through increased air velocities generated within the turbines.

Abstract: Jet-powered water craft have become popular recreational pleasure craft for people worldwide as well as providing rapid response in a water environment for life savers, police, customs, etc. However, once the throttle has been cut there is no braking or steering mechanism for such craft. Equally such braking or steering is limited at low speeds. Accordingly it would be beneficial to provide means for braking and/or steering such jet-powered water craft under low speed operation and/or when the throttle is cut. According to embodiments of the invention such mechanisms are provided whilst providing for ease of use during operation as well as beaching/launching/storage.

Abstract: Suspension systems must tradeoff multiple purposes including contributing to the vehicle's road holding/handling and braking for good active safety and driving pleasure as well as keeping vehicle's user(s) comfortable and reasonably well isolated from road noise, bumps, and vibrations, etc. Over the past 100 years many suspension systems have evolved but have in common the disposition of the hock absorber between the wheel and the fulcrum point of the wheel mounting to the vehicle. It would be, however, be beneficial to provide a suspension exploiting a dual-shock system wherein the two shock absorbers are in opposite states so that even under absorption of the vertical shock from the road surface there was still applied additional force for road contact to be maintained. It can also be shown to be beneficial in single-shock systems to place the shock the opposite side of the fulcrum point of the suspension system, counter to previous prior art solutions.