Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for splitting a transaction among multiple participants. A system configured to practice the method first identifies a group of individuals associated with a shared transaction. Then the system identifies a primary individual from the group of individuals and a non-primary group of individuals from the group of individuals, wherein the primary individual is associated with a primary account that existed prior to the shared transaction, and wherein each individual of the non-primary group of individuals is associated with a respective non-primary account that existed prior to the shared transaction. The system establishes a policy for monitoring the primary account for completion of the shared transaction.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for creating an open loop prepaid gift account for a merchant without the merchant's consent. The system identifies a request from a customer to purchase the open loop prepaid gift account which can be used to make purchases at the merchant, presents a menu from which the customer can select the merchant, receives a selection of the merchant and, based on the selection, presents an option to load funds onto the open loop prepaid gift account. Upon receipt of payment, the system creates the open loop prepaid gift account and loads the open loop prepaid gift account with an amount of money, wherein information associated with the open loop prepaid gift account is encoded onto a physical card. The system also prints on the physical card a statement suggesting that the customer can use the physical card to make purchases at the merchant.

Abstract: An ultra-small thermal imaging core, or micro-core. The design of the micro-core may include substrates for mounting optics and electronic connectors that are thermally matched to the imaging Focal Plane Array (FPA). Test fixtures for test and adjustment that allow for operation and image acquisition of multiple cores may also be provided. Tooling may be included to position the optics to set the core focus, either by moving the lens and lens holder as one or by pushing and/or pulling the lens against a lens positioning element within the lens holder, while observing a scene. Test procedures and fixtures that allow for full temperature calibration of each individual core, as well as providing data useful for uniformity correction during operation may also be included as part of the test and manufacture of the core.

Abstract: The present invention provides an extrudable polymer composition comprising a base polymer and a bicomponent fiber comprising a low melt temperature component selected from the group consisting of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polylactic acid (PLA) and a high melt temperature component selected from the group consisting of PET, 100% PDLA, 100% PLLA or a 50/50 blend of 100% PDLA and 100% PLLA, and nylon wherein the base polymer has a melt temperature of about 20° C. to 40° C. lower than this high melt temperature component of the bicomponent fiber.

Abstract: Systems and methods may be provided that improve the application of Histogram Equalization (HE) transfer functions for converting image system source data to display compatible image frames. Histograms developed from source data may be measured and depending on their properties, the gain of the HE transfer function may be adaptively adjusted. In some embodiments the property measured is a histogram width.

Abstract: A system transfers money to a recipient's payment card account, without requiring an additional payment card or without acquiring a recipient's payment card or account information. A recipient registers a payment account with a service provider. A system receives an identification, generated from an entity such as a business or a person, of the recipient and information associated with an electronic notice to be transmitted to a device associated with the recipient. The system transmits the notice (advertisement or offer) to the device, the notice being associated with the recipient payment account and being transmitted prior to the recipient buying product or service associated with the notice using the recipient payment account. The notice can be associated with a network merchant category or network merchant ID for managing a gift credit identified in the notice.

Abstract: Disclosed herein are systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable storage media for processing gift transactions, related to enabling a recipient to choose a mode of redeeming the gift credit. A method can include receiving an identification, from a giver of a credit, of a recipient and a spending category associated with a notice, transmitting the notice to a device associated with the recipient, receiving a selection from the recipient regarding a payment mode to be used to redeem the credit from the giver by making a purchase according to the spending category, linking the payment mode to a policy associated with redeeming the credit, monitoring purchases using the payment mode of the recipient for a qualified purchase according to the spending category, receiving an indication that the qualified purchase was made using the payment mode and, based on the indication of the qualified purchase, applying the credit to the recipient.

Abstract: Technologies for unwrappable virtual egifts enabling recipients to redeem gift credits using payment accounts. In some examples, a system identifies a merchant associated with a giver, the giver being associated with a giver payment account and a recipient being associated with a recipient payment account. The system associates a policy with the gift credit and generates an image underlay identifying the gift credit and an image overlay hiding the image underlay and gift credit, the image overlay including a separable flap having a portion that appears unadhered to the image underlay, the separable flap being configured to trigger, in response to an input, an animated unwrapping effect that removes the image overlay to reveal the image underlay and gift credit. The system presents the image overlay and, in response to receiving the input, generates the animated unwrapping effect to remove the image overlay and reveal the image underlay.

Abstract: A thermography process for thermal imaging systems produced in quantity, including an imaging sensor and an ambient temperature sensor, that includes operations at three different places in the manufacture and actual use of the system. A temperature calibration may be performed on all units of a given design at a small number of controlled scene temperatures at one ambient temperature to produce a function that relates sensor signal to scene temperature. The function is determined for each individual unit and may be unique for each unit. Selected calibrated units may be subjected to a qualification test where they are exposed to larger number of controlled scene temperatures at a plurality of controlled ambient temperatures and the errors between the calibration derived function and the observed results and/or the actual scene temperatures at the various scene/ambient temperature combinations may be derived and put into a table that is loaded into all production units.

Abstract: An imaging system whose Field of View FOV experiences occasional motion in relation to viewed scenes may be configured to reduce Fixed Pattern Noise (FPN) of acquired image data. FPN may be reduced by developing a pixel by pixel FPN correction term through a series of steps including blurring the image, identifying pixels to exclude from some calculations, a motion detector and an FPN updater for frames under motion and an FPN decay element for frames that are still.

Abstract: Systems and methods may be provided that improve the application of Histogram Equalization (HE) transfer functions for converting image system source data to display compatible image frames. Histograms developed from source data may be measured and depending on their properties, the gain of the HE transfer function may be adaptively adjusted. In some embodiments the property measured is a histogram width.

Abstract: Systems and methods for allocating display colors to thermal image intensity data acquired by thermal band photodetectors. Intensity data from the photodetectors corresponding to scene temperature is converted to a digital value within an analog to digital conversion (ADC) range. The full ADC range may be divided into two or more sub-ranges. In one sub-range, intensity values within that sub-range are assigned display colors from a first color table utilizing one or more Histogram Equalization (HE) techniques. In another sub-range, specific display values from a color table different from the first may be are assigned to specific intensity values. Lower temperatures may be assigned colors using HE and higher temperatures are assigned specific colors corresponding to specific temperatures. Such an arrangement is particularly applicable to thermal imaging use by firefighters because the arrangement allows them to determine temperature directly from displayed color for potentially dangerous temperatures.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for creating an open loop prepaid gift account. The system identifies a request to purchase an open loop prepaid gift account which can be used to make a purchase at a merchant, presents a menu from which a customer can select the merchant, and receives a selection. Based on the selection, the system presents an option to load funds onto the open loop prepaid gift account and, upon receipt of payment, creates the open loop prepaid gift account and loads the open loop prepaid gift account with money, wherein information associated with the open loop prepaid gift account is encoded onto a physical card, and wherein merchant information is printed on the physical card according to an authorization from the merchant, the merchant information including at least one of a legal name, a trade name, a logotype, and a marketing tagline of the merchant.

Abstract: An ultra-small thermal imaging core, or micro-core. The design of the micro-core may include substrates for mounting optics and electronic connectors that are thermally matched to the imaging Focal Plane Array (FPA). Test fixtures for test and adjustment that allow for operation and image acquisition of multiple cores may also be provided. Tooling may be included to position the optics to set the core focus, either by moving the lens and lens holder as one or by pushing and/or pulling the lens against a lens positioning element within the lens holder, while observing a scene. Test procedures and fixtures that allow for full temperature calibration of each individual core, as well as providing data useful for uniformity correction during operation may also be included as part of the test and manufacture of the core.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and computer-readable storage media for creating an open loop prepaid gift account. The system identifies a request to purchase an open loop prepaid gift account which can be used to make a purchase at a merchant, presents a menu from which a customer can select the merchant, and receives a selection. Based on the selection, the system presents an option to load funds onto the open loop prepaid gift account and, upon receipt of payment, creates the open loop prepaid gift account and loads the open loop prepaid gift account with money, wherein information associated with the open loop prepaid gift account is encoded onto a physical card, and wherein merchant information is printed on the physical card according to an authorization from the merchant, the merchant information including at least one of a legal name, a trade name, a logotype, and a marketing tagline of the merchant.

Abstract: A thermography process for thermal imaging systems produced in quantity, including an imaging sensor and an ambient temperature sensor, that includes operations at three different places in the manufacture and actual use of the system. A temperature calibration may be performed on all units of a given design at a small number of controlled scene temperatures at one ambient temperature to produce a function that relates sensor signal to scene temperature. The function is determined for each individual unit and may be unique for each unit. Selected calibrated units may be subjected to a qualification test where they are exposed to larger number of controlled scene temperatures at a plurality of controlled ambient temperatures and the errors between the calibration derived function and the observed results and/or the actual scene temperatures at the various scene/ambient temperature combinations may be derived and put into a table that is loaded into all production units.

Abstract: Systems and methods for prediction of state of charge (SOH), state of health (SOC) and other characteristics of batteries using acoustic signals, includes determining acoustic data at two or more states of charge and determining a reduced acoustic data set representative of the acoustic data at the two or more states of charge. The reduced acoustic data set includes time of flight (TOF) shift, total signal amplitude, or other data points related to the states of charge. Machine learning models use at least the reduced acoustic dataset in conjunction with non-acoustic data such as voltage and temperature for predicting the characteristics of any other independent battery.

Abstract: A thermography process for thermal imaging systems produced in quantity, including an imaging sensor and an ambient temperature sensor, that includes operations at three different places in the manufacture and actual use of the system. A temperature calibration may be performed on all units of a given design at a small number of controlled scene temperatures at one ambient temperature to produce a function that relates sensor signal to scene temperature. The function is determined for each individual unit and may be unique for each unit. Selected calibrated units may be subjected to a qualification test where they are exposed to larger number of controlled scene temperatures at a plurality of controlled ambient temperatures and the errors between the calibration derived function and the observed results and/or the actual scene temperatures at the various scene/ambient temperature combinations may be derived and put into a table that is loaded into all production units.

Abstract: Systems and methods for allocating display colors to thermal image intensity data acquired by thermal band photodetectors are described. The intensity data from the photodetectors, which corresponds to the scene temperature, is usually converted to a digital value falling within the range of the analog to digital conversion (ADC). The full ADC range may be divided into two or more sub-ranges. In at least one sub-range intensity values within that sub-range may be assigned display colors from a first color table utilizing one or more Histogram Equalization (HE) techniques. In at least one other sub-range, specific display values from a color table different from the first may be assigned to specific intensity values. In some embodiments, the HE assigned sub-range may be lower in intensity than the specific assigned sub-range.

Abstract: A system transfers money to a recipient's payment card account, without requiring an additional payment card or without acquiring a recipient's payment card or account information. A recipient registers a payment account with a service provider. A system receives an identification, generated from an entity such as a business or a person, of the recipient and information associated with an electronic notice to be transmitted to a device associated with the recipient. The system transmits the notice (advertisement or offer) to the device, the notice being associated with the recipient payment account and being transmitted prior to the recipient buying product or service associated with the notice using the recipient payment account. The notice can be associated with a network merchant category or network merchant ID for managing a gift credit identified in the notice.